Genshin Impact 5.1: Kachina and Kinich are silent in the English dub

Ongoing VA strike leads to missing voice lines

HoYoverse

Update 5.1 for Genshin Impact is now available on PC, PS4, PS5, iOS, and Android, continuing the fiery story arc set in Natlan. However, two of the community’s favorite characters introduced in the previous version of the game will remain silent throughout the new story, despite having a role to play: The English voice lines for Kachina and Kinich (as well as his companion, Ajaw) are missing.

This is not a bug, as the patch notes for the update confirms. “Due to recording arrangements, some content in Version 5.1 does not have English voice-overs. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience caused,” the change log states.

This is the first instance of Genshin Impact’s live version – and the main story arc at that – being affected by the ongoing SAG-AFTRA voice actors strike. Fans already felt the effect of the strike while watching the Genshin Impact 5.1 livestream, which didn’t have the usual contingent of VAs hosting it, instead being led by two members of HoYoverse’s localization team.

Marketing for Honkai: Star Rail has been affected by the strike as well with recent trailers missing their English dubs, though the game itself has been fine so far. Of HoYoverse’s three big titles, only Zenless Zone Zero has remained unaffected up to this point.

This can be explained by the fact that all three games have their English voice work managed by different external studios – HoYoverse itself does not control this part of the production.

Most of Genshin Impact’s voice-overs are handled by Formosa, which was in the news last year due to holding back the payments for Paimon’s VA and is one of the primary targets of the strike. VAs are currently fighting for better protections against having their work used to train AI without their consent.

If you want to enjoy the current Archon Quest to its fullest, it’s advisable to hold off and play it at a later date, when the missing voice lines have been patched in. Unfortunately, that means you will miss out on the time-limited rewards for playing through the story in the current update.