Line #8 Creator/MiHoYo


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rsz_mihoyo_games.png]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:Pushing the limits of mobile gaming since 2011.]]
3	[[quoteright:739:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/images_0920.jpeg]]
4	[[caption-width-right:739:Current logo, as of 2024.]]
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6	'''[=miHoYo=] Co., Ltd.''' (Chinese: 米哈游, ''Mǐ Hā Yóu'') is a Chinese video game development studio founded in 2011 by Forrest Wei Liu and Cai Haoyu in UsefulNotes/{{Shanghai}}. Beginning as a small mobile game developer, [=miHoYo=]'s early titles allowed them to grow into one of the world's more notable mobile developers, who have become famous for pushing the boundaries of what is considered possible on "mobile" platforms and for heavy encouragement of cross-platform play.
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8	Internationally, the company's titles and operations are handled by its Singapore-based subsidiary '''Cognosphere Pte., Ltd.''', which does business as '''[=HoYoverse=]'''. [=miHoYo=] also owns an in-house music division called "[=HOYO-MiX=]" which composes the songs and [=BGMs=] used in their games, and a "[=miHoYoAnime=]" division which creates fully-animated 2D video clips.
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10	The name "[=miHoYo=]" is an amalgamation of the sounds in the given names of company founders, Cai '''H'''aoyu and Luo '''Y'''uhao, and the name of [[Music/HatsuneMiku Hatsune]] '''[[Music/HatsuneMiku Mi]]'''[[Music/HatsuneMiku ku]].
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14	!!Games developed or in development by [=miHoYo=]:
15	[[index]]
16	* ''Fly Me 2 The Moon'' (2011)[[note]] [=miHoYo's=]'s first game. At the time, [=miHoYo=] was little more than an indie dev team consisting of Forrest Liu, Cai Haoyu and a handful of their college friends from Shanghai Jiao Tong University[[/note]]
17	* ''VideoGame/ZombiegalKawaii'' (2012, a.k.a. ''Honkai Gakuen'')
18	* ''VideoGame/GunsGirlZ'' (2014, a.k.a. ''Honkai Gakuen 2'')
19	* ''VideoGame/HonkaiImpact3rd'' (2016)
20	* ''VisualNovel/TearsOfThemis'' (2020)
21	* ''VideoGame/GenshinImpact'' (2020)
22	** ''[[VideoGame/GenshinImpactGeniusInvokationTCG Genshin Impact: Genius Invokation TCG]]''
23	* ''VideoGame/HonkaiStarRail'' (2023)
24	* ''VideoGame/ZenlessZoneZero'' (TBD)
25	[[/index]]
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27	!!Other media produced or licensed by miHoYo:
28	[[index]]
29	* ''Cooking with Valkyries''
30	* ''WebComic/HonkaiImpact3rdSecondEruption''
31	* ''ELF Academy''
32	[[/index]]
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35	!!Tropes associated with miHoYo:
36	* AllThereInTheManual: The official Website/YouTube channels of their individual games may not only contain straightforward trailers, teasers and demos, but also supplemental behind-the-scenes information explaining how they came up with a given concept. For example in ''Genshin Impact'', a video [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfUSO0DlAwc explains the creative inspiration]] for the Liyue region, while in ''Honkai Impact 3rd'', a video [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nWX71GKzVE explains the appearance tropes, symbolisms and design motifs]] for the character Mobius. Some of these videos also provided further plot-relevant details. Being available on an online video platform also allowed them to provide official subtitle captions for other languages.
37	* AuthorAvatar: [[Characters/HonkaiImpact3rdOtherNPCAndHistorical "Dawei"]] from ''Honkai Impact 3rd'' and the [[Characters/GenshinImpactHilichurls "Unusual Hilichurl"]] from ''Genshin Impact''. [=miHoYo=]'s co-founder, Forrest Wei Liu, has author avatars/fictional characters with a face that's only made up of a pair of eyebrows and the hanzi for "Wei", and wears the standard [[SharpDressedMan 3-piece suit]].
38	* BigAnimeEyes: [=miHoYo=] has specialized in anime-themed games with the distinctive big anime eyes, since their humble origins in ''Fly Me 2 The Moon'' to the recent worldwide success game ''VideoGame/GenshinImpact''. The only subversion is the OtomeGame ''Tears of Themis'', which followed smaller (but still anime) eyes as the Seinen and Josei genres.
39	* BorrowingFromTheSisterSeries: The bow weapon class in ''Honkai Impact 3rd'' is essentially a direct copy from how they're used in [=miHoYo=]'s more popular ''Genshin Impact'', it was even introduced alongside a [[GuestFighter guest character]] from the latter. Also, while the game did already include open worlds in a separate mode, ever since ''Genshin''[='s=] success, ''Honkai'' has begun to feature open worlds more prominently as part of its main story and certain events with a much higher focus on exploration and platforming.
40	* BribingYourWayToVictory: Their games have microtransactions, allowing the players to top-up and exchange real money for in-game items and premium currencies. When it became clear that their library mostly consists of GachaGames, it also meant those who spend more money have more chances of pulling from the gacha.
41	* CamelCase: Their name, [=miHoYo=], is stylized in this manner (in which the first letter is written in lowercase). This extends to some of their related divisions such as [=miHoYoAnime=], and their rebranded name, [=HoYoverse=].
42	* CharacterInTheLogo: The logo of their [=miHoYoAnime=] division contains a side portrait of Kiana Kaslana on its left.
43	* CreatorThumbprint:
44	** The four-pointed star appears in nearly all of the works they are involved in; it's a recurring shape in the ''Honkai'' series, a part of the character/object design or an {{Exotic Eye Design\|s}} of some characters across their games (e.g. Herrscher of the End, [[Characters/HonkaiImpact3rdKianaKaslana Herrscher of the Void]], [[Characters/GenshinImpactKnightsOfFavonius Kaeya]], and all pupils of the characters in ''VisualNovel/TearsOfThemis''). In ''Genshin Impact'', it's also the shape of the gacha currency, Primogems.
45	** [[AnimalMotifs Cat motifs]]. As seen from their [=miHoYo=] company logo, the first "o" is stylized with cat ears and the second "o" has a tail. Some of their in-game characters also have cat motifs on their designs, or are {{Cat Girl}}s or CatFolk.
46	** The [[CosmicMotifs moon is a recurring motif]] in some of their works, to varying degrees of relevance. As a celestial body in itself or simply as a word, it gets used '''a lot''' by miHoYo, creating a complete list for each of the games would be too long.
47	*** Their first game, ''Fly Me 2 The Moon'', is [[TitledAfterTheSong titled after]] and conceptualized [[InspirationForTheWork out of inspiration]] from the song "Fly Me To The Moon", which became iconic to anime fans as the ending song of ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion''. That puzzle game was simply about a "magical girl flying onto the moon".
48	*** Near the finale of ''[=Guns GirlZ=]'''s Retrospective saga, Raiden Mei has tried to [[spoiler:seal the Herrscher of the End's power]] on the moon.
49	*** The story of ''Honkai Impact 3rd'' references the fact that the moon itself had Honkai energy, and [[Characters/HonkaiImpact3rdKianaKaslana Kiana Kaslana]]'s moon motifs are abundant (even having crescent moon accessories) to the point where her associations with the Roman goddess of the moon, Diana, became obvious. In the backstories, Kevin Kaslana has also [[spoiler:fought the Herrscher of the End]] on the moon, and in the finale of "The Moon's Origin and Finality", [[spoiler: Kiana stays in the moon to fulfill her destiny as the Herrscher of Finality]].
50	*** In ''Genshin Impact'', Aria, Sonnet and Canon are the three historical "moon sisters"; the two opening nations, '''Mond'''stadt and Li'''yue''', have their names based on the word "moon" of German and Chinese respectively; besides, one of the game's microtransaction elements is named "Blessing of the Welkin Moon".
51	*** The title logo of ''Honkai Star Rail'' has a crescent moon on its background.
52	** A recurring plot device throughout [=miHoYo=]'s games is characters with {{Split Personalit\|y}}ies, almost always with a supernatural explanation. In ''Honkai Impact 3rd'', this is a characteristic of Herrschers in general, overlapping with SuperpoweredEvilSide. ''Genshin Impact'' features six characters with some sort of split personality, [[LiteralSplitPersonality literal]] or otherwise [[note]]Fischl, Layla, [[spoiler:the Raiden Shogun, Nahida, Il Dottore, and Focalors]][[/note]], but never with the same excuse.
53	* EliteFour: [=miHoYo=] is also considered as one of the [[https://www.shine.cn/news/in-focus/2101173334/ "Big Four"]] in Shanghai's gaming industry, alongside Paper Games (known for ''VideoGame/LoveNikkiDressUpQueen''), Lilith Games (known for ''VideoGame/AFKArena'') and Hypergryph (known for ''VideoGame/{{Arknights}}'').
54	* {{Mascot}}:
55	** [[Characters/HonkaiImpact3rdKianaKaslana Kiana Kaslana]] retroactively serves as this for miHoYo ever since their first game, ''Fly Me 2 The Moon''. She appears in most of their early games, particularly the ''Honkai'' series, by having a ReusedCharacterDesign based from the protagonist of said first game. Her portrait also makes her the CharacterInTheLogo of their [=miHoYoAnime=] division.
56	** On 2020, the official Chinese forums for the miHoYo games had a female character mascot named "Miyouji", while the rabbit mascot is named "Mimo".
57	* ReferenceOverdosed: They love to insert [[ShoutOut pop culture references]] to other works of entertainment, but mostly on anime and video games. Since [=miHoYo=]'s library is mostly made up of live-service games, the list of shout-outs naturally expand as the game ages.
58	* ReusedCharacterDesign: The design of the "magical girl" protagonist in ''Fly Me 2 The Moon'' would later be reused for their ''Honkai'' games as Kiana. Similarly, various characters appear in different forms and sometimes under different names throughout various games.
59	* SeriesMascot:
60	** They tend to create specific mascots to promote their specific game [=IPs=] or franchises, such as [[VideoGame/HonkaiImpact3rd Ai-chan]], [[VideoGame/GenshinImpact Paimon]], [[VisualNovel/TearsOfThemis DAVIS]], [[VideoGame/HonkaiStarRail Pom-Pom]], and the [[VideoGame/ZenlessZoneZero Bangboos]].
61	** An InUniverse mascot may overlap with these as well, such as the [[https://houkai3rd.fandom.com/wiki/Homu HOMU]], a recurring mascot from the world of the ''Honkai'' series. It's also [[MythologyGag referenced]] in ''Genshin'' as the yellow rabbit doll thrown by the Unusual Hilichurl.
62	* StoryToGameplayRatio: Generally heavier toward the "Story" ratio from ''Honkai Impact 3rd'' onwards.
63	* TitledAfterTheSong: Back when miHoYo was still a nascent group consisting of few members, [[https://youtu.be/hMcIv6IO98A?t=238 they titled their first game]] ''Fly Me 2 The Moon'' primarily because "Fly Me To The Moon" is the iconic ending song of ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'', an anime which they are fans of.
64	* VirtualCelebrity: The Virtual Youtuber/Virtual Actress [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=koMwi7F3y8o YoYo Lumi]] is a project of miHoYo. She was created using [[https://www.gamasutra.com/view/pressreleases/375351/Genshin_Impacts_Developer_miHoYo_Introducing_Its_Virtual_Actress_Lumi_and_the_N0va_Desktop_App_to_the_World.php Unreal Engine and motion caption technology]], and she also has a [[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mihoyo.desktopportal N0va Desktop]] app.

Context Creator / MiHoYo