Genshin Impact composer Yu-Peng Chen leaves HOYO-MiX

In pursuit of his own creative goals

It’s a sad day for anyone who likes the soundtrack of HoYoverse games like Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail: Composer Yu-Peng Chen has announced his departure from HOYO-MiX, the music studio of the company. He joined HOYO-MiX as a fulltime employee in 2021 after working on HoYoverse’s games as a freelancer for a good while.

HoYoverse’s titles are renowned for their fantastic orchestral soundtracks and Yu-Peng Chen’s way of using leitmotifs like you’d hear in a movie soundtrack composed by John Williams has won him much acclaim among fans. Another characteristic of his music is the use of traditional Chinese language and regional instruments to really give a piece some local flavor. Not to mention the wild mix of music genres found in some of his compositions.

Yu-Peng Chen is responsible for Raiden Shoguns boss theme, among many other pieces / HoYoverse

“According to the plans for my personal creative endeavors, after careful consideration for some time and several discussions with the company, I have chosen to leave miHoYo and the HOYO-MiX team to continue pursuing my music dreams,” the composer announced on a Chinese social media page according to a translation by Reddit user super_grey.

He praises the development of the composition team at HOYO-MiX and mentions that he really likes the soundtrack created for the newest region to become playable in Genshin Impact, Fontaine. This indicates that Yu-Peng Chen himself didn’t actually do most of the work on this particular body of music. He continued: “I earnestly request everyone's understanding and respect for my decision, and in the future, I will continue to explore the path of music. I plan to release a new album of purely instrumental music next year, and specific plans will be announced in the future. I hope you will continue to support my creations.”

This doesn’t necessarily mean that we won’t hear his work in HoYoverse’s games in the future: Soundtrack for coming regions may have already been written by him and it may always come to pass that he’ll return to work on the company’s titles as a freelancer.

The remaining team at HOYO-MiX certainly has big shoes to fill, but if the Fontaine soundtrack is anything to go by, the group still packs enough talent to create some highly memorable music.