I Played Hu Tao's Story Quest
Table of Contents
A Genshin Impact play diary entry. Today, I played “Papilio Charontis Chapter: Act I,” the Story Quest for Hu Tao, the 77th Director of the Wangsheng Funeral Parlor.
What Prompted Me to Play It
Hu Tao was a character I’d been curious about for a while. People kept making weirdly surreal videos about her, and she seemed to get an awful lot of lewd fan art.
As far as I can recall, this was my first encounter with her. Apparently, she’s an absolute beast in combat. I laughed until my sides hurt.
Why is she dancing with Furina?
“Damn Hitler san, where do you get all of those six million customers?”
“Ssshh, don’t worry about it”
Bro, that’s NOT okay!!!
Anyway, while her popularity online definitely piqued my interest, I kept holding off on her Story Quest because I was worried that falling for her charm would make me want to pull on the gacha.
However, with my recent surge of enthusiasm for Genshin, I finally bit the bullet and decided to play it.
What the Story Quest Was Like
It was genuinely good! Quests in Genshin often feel hit-or-miss to me, but this one was definitely a hit.
The story was thoroughly engaging, making it easy to see why Hu Tao is so popular. While her tricky, unhinged antics stand out, underneath them lies a solid philosophy and a clear view of life and death befitting the Director of the Wangsheng Funeral Parlor. The voice acting was also fantastic, bringing her personality to life even more.
What impressed me most was how satisfying her dialogue delivery was. In Genshin, the pacing and timing of lines can sometimes feel a bit off (perhaps due to multilingual localization constraints), but with Hu Tao, I had zero complaints. Her delivery was rhythmic and a real joy to listen to.
The gameplay itself was just the usual errand-running fetch quest, so… meh, setting that aside, the story was truly delightful. Now I completely get why Hu Tao is so popular. She’s cute. Her thighs are hot.
Another thing that caught my interest was the bizarre nursery rhyme (?) Hu Tao sings on her character screen: “Big Brother Hilichurl fell ill…” (the Japanese version of her “Silly-churl, billy-churl” song).
It seemed to be the exact same nursery rhyme sung by the ghost girl I ran into during a random quest around Wangshu Inn, but what on earth was that all about?
Trying to Tie It into the Hero’s Journey
Now for some slightly deeper analysis. Story Quests essentially act as advertisements—showcasing a character’s appeal to entice players to pull on the gacha. With that in mind, I started thinking about how Hu Tao’s story is constructed.
As usual, I’ll be using the “Hero’s Journey”—the pattern that maps out common structures across myths and stories. From this perspective, Hu Tao appears to take on the role of a “Threshold Guardian” between life and death for the Traveler (the Hero), while simultaneously acting as a “Supernatural Aid” (mentor) guiding them into the unknown world.
She imparts knowledge about death to the Traveler—where souls go, and how the living and the dead should relate to one another. And in the end, she presents the trial of a Domain, and by having them overcome it, she leads the Traveler into “the world of the dead” (or a place bordering it).
What’s even more intriguing is that Hu Tao refers to this Domain as an “ordinary place” (in the Japanese version, heibon na chi). In the English localization, it is literally called an “ordinary place.” In the Hero’s Journey, the place where the story begins is called “The Ordinary World.”
Coincidence? I think NOT!
It seems evident that the scenario writer had the structure of the Hero’s Journey in mind. Perhaps by calling it an “ordinary place,” they were weaving in Hu Tao’s perspective on life and death—that death is by no means some extraordinary event, but rather an extension of everyday life.
In Genshin Story Quests, you sometimes get the feeling: “Wait, isn’t this more about the random NPC than the featured character?” The reason for this might be that they assign the character the role of a Mentor or Threshold Guardian within the Hero’s Journey framework, attempting to portray their personality through that function. While Mentors and Guardians are vital figures, they rarely get to be the protagonists of the story.
However, what makes Hu Tao’s Story Quest work so well is that she doesn’t just remain stuck in a single “archetype.” While fulfilling her duty as a Mentor and Threshold Guardian guiding the Traveler, her multifaceted personality is painted in rich detail—her sense of responsibility as the Director of the Wangsheng Funeral Parlor, her quirky sense of humor, her reverence for the deceased, and even glimpses of a quiet loneliness.
In short, her character really popped.
Because of that, players could experience it not as “some NPC’s story,” but as “Hu Tao’s own story,” leaving a lasting impression. She was unmistakably the true protagonist of this tale.
In Conclusion
All in all, Hu Tao’s Story Quest, Papilio Charontis Chapter: Act I - "Yet the Butterfly Flutters Away", was an experience that exceeded my expectations. She seems tricky and elusive on the surface, but at her core, she’s sincere and professional. Beneath banter that flits effortlessly across the boundary of life and death lies a grounded philosophy. I think Hu Tao’s character was wonderfully brought to life through the well-crafted story, staging, and fantastic voice acting.
Looking at it through the lens of the Hero’s Journey, I can’t help but feel that Genshin’s writers consciously draw upon these universal narrative frameworks when designing characters and plotting stories. When it clicks, a character transcends their mechanical role and resonates deeply with the player. Hu Tao is definitely a success story in that regard—even if I wish their batting average were a little higher overall.
It’s no wonder she’s so wildly popular when her character is drawn with such care. I hope to run into her again in future events. Besides, apparently she hits like a truck in battle.
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Notes on games, radio and technology, translated from the Japanese blog.