If you're a Genshin Impact player and have been hanging out on Genshintwt or Reddit lately, you've definitely seen the discourse regarding the Aloy crossover collab - lore fans have been sharing mixed reactions following the announcement that Horizon Zero Dawn's protagonist will join the open world JRPG by miHoYo.

Why part of the Genshin Impact fanbase is worried about the Aloy crossover

Long story short, several players believe Aloy doesn't belong in Genshin Impact. And that her inclusion will be at the expense of established lore and logical world-building. This is a particularly amusing situation considering the story of Horizon deals with Aloy being an outcast.

Officially, miHoYo explained she's from another world. This is a bit of a stretch, but in a sense it doesn't make Aloy that different from the Traveler and their sibling. It does fit the game's lore as characters such as Alice have been confirmed to be able to travel between worlds as well. You can just assume this version of Aloy is from a world adjacent to Teyvat.

Gacha games and crossover collab events explained

In the first place, it's important to understand games with gacha elements to earn new characters are often riddled with collabs. Just as miHoYo itself explained at GDC, characters are the core of these games' monetization.

Gacha games regularly organize collab events with classics from Berserk to Yu Yu Hakusho. The main goal is to bring in new players, fans of the collab's series. Usually, a big game nearing its first year anniversary like Genshin Impact would've already had dozens of collabs with popular series. If anything, miHoYo is an anomaly. The only big collab that it did lately was Evangelion and Asuka in Honkai Impact 3rd.

Japanese players, who are much more used to Sociage (Social Games, how gacha games are commonly named there) are used to these collabs. Besides the initial shock of the Aloy announcement in itself, I haven't seen anyone being worried about the "lore" or anything among the Japanese Genshin players I follow.

  • LEAKS - New vision design possibly used by Aloy

Why you shouldn't worry about Genshin Impact lore being negatively affected by Aloy

Personally speaking, I believe Aloy's addition in Genshin Impact is not a problem. If anything, this collab should be handled in a much better way than in the majority of other gacha games. Where more often than not, there is no real explanation behind a crossover. And it's just an excuse for the characters to momentarily interact with each other for some fanservice fun.

I believe the best aspects of Genshin Impact are its exploration and story elements. I'm convinced the scenario team will do a great job at integrating Aloy in Genshin. Meanwhile, the action gameplay of Genshin is ultimately pretty limited, tied with your Artifacts and their substats. Games like Nihon Falcom's Ys series propose a different, but more pleasant mix of an engaging story and incredible action JRPG gameplay. So in my opinion, the scenario of a collab is definitely one thing I don't expect the Genshin team to drop the ball on.

Aloy is a 5 star Bow, Cryo character, and will be available for free for PS4 and PS5 players on Version 2.1 on September 1. Moreover, you can use cross save to get her then if you usually play on PC or mobile. Aloy will later be available for players on all platforms starting Version 2.2. You can always hit me up on Twitter @A_iyane07 to share your opinion about the collab.