Genshin Impact's Chiori Story Quest Caught Allegedly Shading Rivals for Cutting Corners & Splurging on Marketing — But Is It Actually Roasting Its Own Developer?

Genshin Impact just dropped another spicy drama bomb. The latest story quest for Chiori — a fashion designer character — apparently contains what players interpret as a thinly-veiled roast of rival game companies for cutting corners on their products while splurging insane budgets on marketing. Screenshots hit NGA and the gacha community lost it.

Here's what happened: In Chiori's story quest, she brings the Traveler (the protagonist) to visit a rival artisan's workshop. What they find is... damning — shoddy craftsmanship everywhere, yet the rival's marketing game is absolutely top-tier. The original poster dropped three in-game screenshots as receipts:

The OP declared outright: "Chiori is literally a self-insert for the devs now — shading competitors for making trash products and dumping everything into hype." One commenter spelled it out even more bluntly: "Basically Chiori and the protagonist visit a rival's workshop and discover they're cutting corners while going all-in on marketing. That's the whole plot." Sounds like a clear shot at a competitor, right?

But the comments section wasn't buying the simple narrative. One of the top replies immediately called out a specific suspect: "Compared to [game] xxxx2xx, yeah, that tracks." Yet way more players flipped the script entirely — "Isn't this about miHoYo's own Honkai Impact 3rd Part 2?" "This is OBVIOUSLY about their own Honkai: Star Rail" — essentially arguing the devs accidentally roasted themselves.

One particularly savage commenter wrote: "They're so familiar with cutting corners and astroturfing — I'm SURE it's not because miHoYo does it themselves, right?" Others pointed out that the livestream had similar suspicious dialogue: "Wasn't there a line in the preview stream about 'are you guys sent by someone?' too?"

To be fair, some players pushed back on the whole premise. One questioned: "Where exactly does it say this is about a real rival? They're not even using puns or wordplay anymore — just straight-up conviction without evidence." Another clarified that within the game's lore, the "rival" is Chiori's in-universe competitor — no real-world company mapping required.

Someone nailed the irony of the whole situation with: "Shanghai game devs vs Shanghai game devs — why the friendly fire?" And another summed up the absurdity perfectly: "They're roasting themselves at this point. What a joke."

As of now, the debate has shifted from "who are they throwing shade at?" to "did the devs just accidentally self-own?" Whether Chiori's quest is a calculated jab at the competition or a spectacular case of projecting, one thing's for sure: Genshin players wield reading comprehension skills that would make English lit professors weep with pride.