I’m Still Surprised at How Few Outfits Genshin Impact Has

It’s Lantern Rite season yet again in Genshin Impact, bringing with it yet another batch of outfits to collect and buy. Considering we got three outfits for this year’s Lantern Rite, are we even going to get any outfits for the summer? Like it or hate it, Genshin Impact has been a juggernaut game for HoYoVerse, raking in close to $60 million since its launch in 2020 from banner revenues alone. But in comparison to other gacha games, and even non-live-service games, it seems woefully bereft of ways to dress up your beloved characters.

The Lantern Rite 2024 event introduced three new outfits—Ganyu’s, Shenhe’s, and Xingqiu’s. While Xingqiu’s outfit is free from completing mini-games during the Version 4.4 flagship event, you have to pay real world money to obtain Ganyu and Shenhe’s. Personally, I like these skins. Since I still bring Ganyu and Shenhe around me for a lot of content, I thought it was worth shelling out the money to make them look nice. In my opinion, Ganyu’s hair in her default look was odd from the back so her Lantern Rite outfit was a major upgrade. The same goes for Shenhe’s new look, which has a very cool aesthetic in my opinion. These are really pretty outfits, just like most of the previous ones HoYoVerse released for Genshin Impact. I’m sure that lots of people bought them. So now the question is: why not more?

This is something that I’ve asked myself every time they announce a new skin. I know I’m not the only one either. Twitter (X) is, to put it lightly, a cesspool on the best of days, especially when it comes to discourse. While I generally don’t enjoy looking at a lot of the more irrational criticisms that people level towards Genshin Impact, I do have to admit that I agree with the confusion when it comes to character outfits. “Why doesn’t HoYoVerse like money?” is a common question I see people throw about, and I’m inclined to ask the same myself.

Since the game came out in September 2020, HoYoVerse has only released a total of thirteen skins. This number jumps to seventeen if you include the government-mandated outfits for Jean, Amber, Mona, and Rosaria. That still seems like a fairly low number, especially for a gacha game like Genshin Impact where the characters’ charm is as much a selling point as their place in the meta. Now, I’ve never been a game dev so I don’t feel comfortable saying what’s easy and difficult to code or design. But one would think that it wouldn’t take up too much time or resources to introduce a skin every patch or so. Barring some exceptions, the outfits don’t change anything in voice lines, animations, or effects. So are they really that difficult to make?

I’ve purchased quite a few of the outfits in the game and most of the time when I see someone posting a video or screenshot on social media, they’ve dressed up their character as well. The problem is that all of that is just anecdotal evidence. While we have an idea of how popular each character is based on the revenue their banner generates, it’s a lot harder with character outfits. It’s not as if HoYoVerse has published how much money it earned just from outfits, after all. Perhaps the return is simply not worth the time and effort that its designers and modelers need to put into a skin. Or perhaps the infrequent release schedule is a strategy, making them seem more valuable so you covet them when they appear in the shop.

Outfits are useful for other reasons too, especially when it comes to the older character models. Just compare Itto’s physique to Wriothesley’s. Or take a look at Albedo and Diluc, and then compare their models to Alhaitham or Navia’s. Even if these characters’ default designs are great, their 3D models drastically differ from their key visual or splash art. It was a little disappointing when Diluc got a new outfit but his face still looks quite bizarre compared to other characters. Another disappointment is in the lack of variety in skins. I don’t mind necessarily mind only getting outfits for summer and Lantern Rite. But how come more than half of the outfits default to the same black-and-blue color scheme? They’re not even colors that one normally associates with Lunar New Year! But I digress.

“Genshin Impact needs more outfits!” is hardly the most pressing issue in the game. I’m pretty sure that if the game started putting out ten outfits per patch, people would be frothing at the mouths and demanding that HoYoVerse put its efforts towards something more substantial. But it’s certainly been a question that I ask myself every time new drip appears for the characters. At the very least, let’s get some more (varied) seasonal outfits or collaboration outfits with other HoYoVerse games! The possibilities are endless and I’m sure if it’s an outfit for a fan favorite character like Kaveh or Raiden Shogun, people will just eat it all up.

Genshin Impact is readily available on the PS4, PS5, Windows PC, and mobile devices.