Genshin Impact language
The languages in Genshin Impact are split between voiceovers and the in-game text lines. For the voiceovers, or voice packs, you only have three options. There are Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and English, which the client of the game downloads by default if your system language is set to anything other than Japanese or Chinese. Currently, there is no information about the other languages coming to Genshin Impact.
For the in-game text lines, such as the subtitles or the in-game menu localization, the options are much wider. The developer of the game tried to cover the vast majority of the globe and make the game accessible to a lot of players. Genshin Impact has:
- Simplified Chinese
- Traditional Chinese
- English
- Japanese
- Korean
- Indonesian
- Thai
- Vietnamese
- German
- French
- Portuguese
- Spanish
- Russian
You can’t specify this during the game’s installation, so you’ll have to download the other language “packs” only after you install the game.
How do I switch languages?
The way to switch languages is pretty straightforward. Press the escape button on your keyboard if you’re playing on the PC or click on the Paimon icon on the top left corner. Then go to Settings.
From there, navigate yourself to the Language menu.
There you can choose the Game language, which stands for the in-game text, and Voice-Over Language, those are the voice language packs. Simply choose the one you like and the game will either apply it or download it first.
To delete the old packs, click the “Manage Voice-Over Files”, chose the one you want to delete, and press Uninstall.
Which voice pack to choose?
Even to this day in the community, there are hot debates about which voice pack to choose. Unfortunately, there’s no exact answer. Some characters sound better in one voice pack, some in the other, and sometimes you just want to hear the familiar language and stick with the default.
How much space do the language packs take?
Keep in mind that Genshin Impact receives big updates pretty often and the size of the language packs tends to get bigger. As of Genshin Impact version 2.8, English takes 7.99 GB, Chinese takes 6.93 GB, Japanese takes 8.72 GB, and Korean takes 6.78 GB. Korean takes the least amount of space, so if you’re short on the space on your device and don’t bother about which language to choose, go with the Korean one, since it takes around 1.2 GB of space less than the English one, and about 2 GB of space less than the Japanese one.
The game doesn’t allow you to remove all of them, though. At least one should be installed.
Can you remove the other language packs?
You can remove any voice pack as long as it’s not the last one you have downloaded. For example, if you downloaded the Japanese voice pack, you can remove the English language pack to free up space on your device. You can’t remove the text packs.
Which language is canon?
Presumably, the developer spends a lot of money on localization. The real localization companies are behind the translation, the game is not translated by the community. This means it is safe to assume that every language is canon since the people behind the translation do follow the guidelines provided by the developer.
However, if you’re after the original translation, the Chinese language is the option to choose. HoYoverse, the developer of Genshin Impact, is based in China, which means the Chinese language should be the canonical one in the first instance.