Genshin Impact got yet another giant update on Tuesday night with the debut of the water-inspired region of Fontaine. Although this patch will allow players to explore underwater worlds, characters won’t be rocking any cute beach outfits. Developer Hoyoverse introduced a new way to censor the asses of its character and now even conservatively clothed men have their butts covered up.
In the 4.0 update, players will be able to dive beneath the surface and explore the ocean surrounding Fontaine. The swimming itself feels great, and it’s almost like players get to fly through the surrounding coral reefs and underwater caverns. The moment you dive beneath the surface, characters butts’ will be blurred by a small circular shape that looks like bubbles. The small graphical effect likely serves one purpose: to obscure the view of your character’s butt. You can view it below.
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This TikTok contains a larger compilation of other characters, if you want to see other examples.
Overall, the bubble isn’t a huge deal. I could barely notice it as I move from place to place and it goes away if you move the camera around to the front. However, it just feels like the effect just seems… half-assed? The censor gets added to lots of other characters, not just the women wearing skirts or skimpier outfits. Even someone like Bennett, who is pictured in the main image, gets one and he wears cargo shorts and a fanny pack. Or there’s Zhongli, who wears pants and also has flowing sashes that cover his back, and he gets the bubble as well.
Polygon reached out to Hoyoverse to ask questions about the bubble diaper and will update the article as we hear back.
While it’s unclear why characters with full suits and cargo shorts still need the bubble, the addition makes sense for a few reasons. Genshin Impact is a global commercial success and taking a more conservative approach with character design can make the game accessible to more regions. In winter of 2022, the developers released several alternate, more conservative, outfits of characters in the game. Additionally, fans have critiqued the game for the boob jiggle physics of characters like Lisa. This could just be a safer approach, since swimming underwater opens up new angles.
As for the men, well, there has never been that much to see so it’s not like that little bubble is hiding much. Many of them, like Zhongli or Ayato have their butts covered up by their outfits. Kaveh was hailed as having a great butt, but I would kindly disagree and just think his Vision was doing a lot for his butt in that scene. And then there’s Kaeya, who I personally love, but has spaghetti legs.
R.I.P. to all the flat asses of Teyvat. May you forever be covered by a tiny little bubble filter.