Identity V Collab Skin's Dog Breed Swap Sparks Massive Backlash — Official Fix Pleases Nobody

A single skin changing a dog's breed managed to tear an entire community apart — Identity V's collaboration fiasco is now a textbook case of 'damned if you do, damned if you don't.'

The origin of the drama is straightforward. Identity V released a collaboration skin that swapped the Postman's companion dog from its original breed to an entirely different, more 'aesthetically pleasing' breed. For casual observers, this might just look like a minor art tweak. But for veteran players who know the lore, it's as absurd as replacing the Beast in Beauty and the Beast with a handsome blonde pretty boy — a textbook NTR (cuckolding) move, as one commenter put it.

Why does swapping a dog breed cause such outrage? Because in the game's storyline, the dog is the Postman's only friend — their bond is forged through life-or-death situations. This established breed has remained consistent across ALL of the Postman's other skins, yet this one collaboration skin decided to change it unilaterally. As one player sharply noted: 'If this skin replaces the dog with a prettier one just for aesthetics, doesn't that make the Postman a total scumbag?' — abandoning a battle companion who nearly died for you to upgrade to a cuter dog? That's character assassination.

Facing overwhelming backlash, the official team quickly released a modified version that reverted the dog back to its original breed.

Alongside this, the team announced that the original 'prettier' version from the collaboration would be released as a separate in-game pet companion. It seemed like a clever play to have it both ways — preserving lore integrity while giving aesthetics-driven players their preferred design.

But the comment section proved this was the ultimate 'please nobody' move. One camp felt the reverted version, while lore-accurate, was objectively uglier — they paid for a skin expecting visual appeal, only to get a downgrade. The other camp questioned why, if the dog breed was sacred enough to revert, the devs didn't just swap the entire character during the collaboration in the first place? Others quipped: 'It's like coming home to find your partner turned into a completely different hot stranger' — same energy, different dog breed.

Some players tried to reason logically: skins are essentially 'what-if' storylines, so having a different dog breed in an alternate timeline makes sense. But this argument was immediately countered — 'At that rate, people would start gambling on what breed shows up in the next skin.' The sudden, unexplained deviation from established canon was the real problem.

Players also drew comparisons to other gacha games, noting that Onmyoji's Inugami (Dog God) has different dog breeds across its awakening skin, base skin, and other cosmetics. But Onmyoji established this diversity from the start — there was never a 'mid-stream breed swap' situation. The comparison only highlighted how jarring Identity V's handling was.

As it stands, the modified version is live, and the original dog is set to debut as a pet companion. But judging by community reactions, one comment best captures the aftermath: 'I genuinely don't know who this dog satisfied.' The devs tried to please everyone and ended up pleasing no one. GG.