Arknights x KFC Collaboration Reportedly Rerunning on JP & EN Servers — Are Players About to Relive the Notorious Kimchi Beef Burger Nightmare?

Just how terrible does a collaboration meal have to be before gamers say no? The Arknights × KFC collaboration is reportedly set to rerun on the Japanese and EN servers — and the PTSD from China server players' experience with the infamous kimchi beef burger may soon go global.

The original poster shared screenshots from the past collab and asked whether KFC has done similar tie-ins overseas, sparking a full-blown war story session about the edible horrors of gaming fast-food partnerships.

The comments quickly turned into a collective therapy session. One player flatly stated "this collab food was f***ing disgusting," while another reminisced: "I had someone else eat the collab meals for me back then, but now I really wish I had Exusiai's skin" — apparently regretting the missed cosmetic, not the missed meal.

The biggest villain of the story? The kimchi beef burger. One commenter gloated that "EN server players won't have to eat that godforsaken kimchi burger and hot-pot water — talk about preferential treatment." Another posed the ultimate question: "I wonder which is more lethal — the kimchi burger or the Morbol burger" (a reference to a similarly cursed FFXIV collaboration item). Though not everyone hated it — one brave soul declared "I actually really liked the kimchi burger," arguably the loneliest food take on the internet.

The other crime against taste buds was the croissant paired with KFC's iced Americano. One survivor wrote: "The kimchi burger was tolerable at least — it's just a different flavor — but the croissant with KFC's iced Americano? That's genuinely unforgivable." Another added: "The kimchi burger literally made me gag, and I couldn't even attempt the croissant coffee." Turns out KFC's coffee was the real final boss all along.

The discussion also veered into other gaming fast-food collabs. Someone noted that KFC Japan had recently partnered with FFXIV, but the consensus was that Japanese otaku culture leans more toward McDonald's — "because there are barely any KFCs here," one commenter explained, adding that FGO had a McDonald's collab just last month.

For Chinese server players, the real burning question is whether redemption codes will work across regions. One player pleaded, "Please make the codes universal — Exusiai's animated skin is too expensive to buy outright." After all, choking down one KFC meal was still cheaper than whaling. Comment 12 delivered a sardonic zinger: calling it the "Arknights Japan Server Premium Roast Chicken," and one commenter even unearthed the legendary Genshin Impact × KFC slogan "Meeting in another world, savoring the deliciousness together" — a battle cry that still haunts Chinese gamers to this day.

The collaboration hasn't been officially confirmed yet, but the community vibe is crystal clear: no matter how terrible the food, as long as the skin is desirable enough, someone will always be willing to suffer through a fast-food gauntlet. Whether overseas players will face the same "kimchi burger hell" depends on how well Arknights' publisher and local KFC branches coordinate — a thought that should terrify EN server players everywhere.