Hoyoverse fans are nothing if not dedicated. Ever since Genshin Impact launched during COVID, its pitch of “Breath of the Wild: the MMO” fostered one of the most long-lasting gacha communities I’ve seen in this space. Honkai Star Rail repeated that spike in interest three years later with a planet-hopping turn-based RPG, inspired by Galaxy Express 999 with enough content to rival an ATLUS game. I finally jumped on the hype train when Zenless Zone Zero introduced parry-based combat into a retro-analog urban sci-fi setting. You might even know someone who joined before the pandemic wave back when Honkai Impact 3rd stretched the limits of what a mobile game could handle. All four of these have formed their own fanbase, but one event has kept them united: HoYoFair.

Formed initially as a fan art contest, it has since become a sponsored film festival where creators are selected and given funds to produce various animated music videos. The best are given prizes as well, but the true highlight is seeing them air together LIVE on their channel. The results are doujin works with production values that rival the company’s own viral animations and music videos. Some of these are proudly showcased in official concerts for Genshin Impact and Honkai Star Rail. But for their fifth anniversary, HoYoFair decided it was time for those fan works to take center stage. While including official tracks from HOYO-MiX and San-Z, “Once Upon HoYoFair” offers fanservice from the fans themselves. But how well were fans served in the end? Well, that depended on which game you were a fan of.

Genshin Impact opened the night with very much a party vibe, taking liberties with the canon whenever possible. Some, like “time&time,” are as simple as seeing them have a blast in our world, while three others involve them splintering into pop groups. Arlecchino leads a boy band as the sole woman (Musication), Furina turns Lumine and Venti into idols (Haruka), and Yelan formed a part-time K-pop group with Ei, Yae, and Eula (OH MY MY). Others go much further with their concepts. Venti switching from Bard to Acrobat (Circus Addiction), Ayato leading a crew of secret agents (Nightfall Ops), and Siegwinne crashing Escoffier’s cooking show (The Heavens full-course) sound like what-if scenarios that happened to stumble onto a budget. The most memorable example was “The Diagnosis,” in which Kaveh’s jealousy over Alhaitham is explored through a Hamilton-esque therapy session by the Forest Watchers. It really stood out for its playfulness compared to the somber official songs with Arlecchino, Furina, and the Travelers (Emberfire, La vaguelette, The Road Not Taken).

In comparison, Honkai Star Rail‘s fan works seemed to value connection to the main story more (particularly Amphoreous). Whether the Chrysos Heirs are in urban wear (PULXE Breakers) or reliving their adventure through the style of retro JRPGs (Trash King Quest), climactic songs like “Proi Proi” don’t feel out of place in a setlist where they’re already facing titans anyway. Mem living out her magical girl era in “Memimemi myunmyun,” only to officially leave on a bittersweet note with “Ripples of Past Reverie,” feels natural when Phainon is recounting his tragedy in “Reikou” in between. “FOCUS” was like Herta and Ruan Mei’s Promo for the Space Station, so ending on the most recent EP “Side Quest King” with Silver Wolf makes sense.

This isn’t to say they didn’t have fun with the material, though. “Glorious” was a compilation of last year’s Pirate-themed Tide and Seek event, where Commodore Fei Xiao meets Mermaid Robin, Sea Witch Tingyun, and Pirate Aventurine. “Dr. Ratio’s Metaphysics of Bathing” takes the concept of your best thoughts coming in the shower to its absolute extreme, as Space-Socrates prances around in nothing but a bathrobe. My favorite of this bunch was “TRASH CAN SONG,” where everyone in Penacony feels like they got dumped for a dumpster by the trash panda awoken inside of you. Even with just these songs, their chaotic energy served just enough variety to keep it from becoming the Amphoreous show. There’s just one problem: despite equal billing on the poster, these two IPs hoarded more than half the songs.

Yes, two of the games in this line-up had only three songs each, while the others had eleven. Zenless Zone Zero got “Tiny Giant” (Zhao’s Official EP) and the two viral issey fan-songs “Arareya Kon Kon” with Miyabi and “MoeChakkaFire” with Ellen Joe. Now I personally like all of these: Tiny Giant gives off a catchy “what if Bugs Bunny did k-pop?” vibe, Arareya Kon Kon was animated by Juhachi Bancha (tuki.‘s Guilty), and MoeChakkaFire was so popular even her JP seiyuu (Shion Wakayama) released a cover of it on HoYoFair’s channel. But if there was only room for one official song, Angels of Delusion felt like a fresher pick, and Burnice still has the most staying power. It also didn’t help that one fan had to fill both spots for the fan songs.

That’s a blessing, though, compared to what their oldest title had to deal with. Honkai Impact 3rd had no fan-songs whatsoever: Regression, Rubia, and Da Capo are all official songs starring Kiana. At least Ellen got her own song; Mei seems to be there only for marketing reasons. They tried announcing each game like a new record placed on a turntable, but was there even a need to switch disks for these two? They feel like bonus tracks to what came before anyway. Why not just paste a ZZZ and HI3 sticker onto the Genshin and HSR vinyl?

I only harp on this because of how rewarding it must’ve been for fans of the HSR and Genshin. When an encore performance of “The Song of You and Me” played a montage of the night’s greatest hits, I couldn’t help feeling that it must’ve been super easy picking out the shots for ZZZ and HI3. It really encompassed the whole night: impressive, but uneven. I’m glad that HoYoFair as an event continues to exist, and I’m still happy to see it move to a LIVE stage. 「Once Upon HoYoFair 」 rewards Hoyoverse fans’ passion by showcasing that their works belong in the same space as their own songs, even if certain properties get more time to shine.