The official account of Genshin Impact shared a new promotional piece of the Fatui Harbinger Columbina and named it “On a Little Walk…”. The tweet invited players to read about her bizarre experiences while taking a walk and a link was provided for further information. Commendations for the character were among the community reactions, but so were the claims for HoYoverse the developer to bring in new features long asked for by the players.
Honestly, the Genshin social media team release this super sweet chibi drawing of Columbina on her walk and the audience says “oh, Bina!!” but in no time the comments are in complete chaos again. It is really amazing how one cute picture can allow the entire community to express all their wishes and complaints. But, that’s Genshin Twitter for you, it is totally raw, unfiltered, and pure player sentiment.
First of all, it cannot be denied that the fans adore Columbina. They say she is “everything” and “so cuteee.” A player with the username “✨Miko✨(C6 Columbina main)” is already grabbing her as the main character which is pretty much a commitment since she is not even a playable character yet! That’s the power of the Fatui Harbingers for you, dude. They come, drop a hint of the story, keep their mystery and allure, and already the players are planning to buy Primogems for a future that may take years. Another user, FireflyErba2299, looked at the picture and immediately started connecting it with Nicole, another character, who when gets. The mind just creates these connections, it’s very funny.
But then you scroll down a bit and there it is – the top request hits you hard like a ton of bricks. User Leonidas Triple G comes in with a FULL CAPS LOCK energy asking for a skip button in Story Quests. And he has a horror story for that: a blackout on PS5 forced him to redo a TWO-HOUR quest. TWO HOURS. I’d also be angry about that. He refers to the ridiculousness of it being “probably the only game that doesn’t have it” after years of players asking is not a new complaint but every time it comes up it gets large agreement. It’s the single biggest quality-of-life feature the community asks HoYoverse for, and they just… haven’t done it. Why? Nobody gets it.
The answers are a lovely mess of other typical Genshin community activities. We have the primo-beggars littering their invitation codes all over the place like “GA7Z46Y79N” and “GBBH94UTHN.” Next to them, there are the character dreamers: “give me varesa give me varesa” being repeated a hundred times by ForgottenSunny and “Please rerun skirk” by Emmanuel Akpan. Moreover, there is even Angeltt with a random customer support complaint stating it’s been over a month with no real help, just links to online guides. It’s like an entire ecosystem in one comment section!
Some of the conversations, however, do go to the actual topic. User Gro3_ made an accurate statement: “It’s rare we get this much lore without a new banner. They’re cooking.” That’s actually a very good point! Most likely, heavy lore dumps are coordinated with a character’s release to boost sales. Giving Columbina’s story for free? That’s quite a thing. Maybe they are nurturing her for a huge future release. Or maybe they are just being good? No, they are definitely cooking something.
Then we have the… less good critique. Aymenalonso56 gets into a complete thread contesting the writing quality of a certain character’s story quests, calling situations “cringe and bad and boring.” Another user, Puweyxil_, plainly says: “Ok Hoyo. It’s time to stop milking Columbina.” The irony here is that once again, she is not even playable! How can you milk a character that you cannot sell? Through art and lore, apparently. And some players are just nostalgic like Divine_Alear who simply says: “Give me back the chibi art, please.”
It’s this crazy combination of pure joy, intense exasperation, silly pleas, and sincere conversations. One minute someone is admiring the chibi art and contemplating if they could make something similar, the next minute someone is discussing about the release dates of the soundtrack for “Stellar Moments Vol. 6.” The Genshin Impact community is never ever focused on just one issue. They are a multi-headed hydra of opinions, and every head is yelling about a different thing.
What is the whole situation telling us? It indicates that players are very, very engaged. They care so much that they get enthusiastic about a non-playable character like Columbina. But that engagement also means they feel the painful areas of the game, like the lack of a skip button, which is a common complaint on platforms like Xbox and others.
