Player character

[MaChao]

Was the player character established in one of the earlier Reigns games (This is my first due to being a big Three Kingdoms fan)?
Because if not, i find it a bit strange to have no choice over how i'm being addressed in a game / story that's seemingly played from "my" perspective.
Doubly so since the storepage goes out of its way to use gender neutral language (at least in German)

[IssyBee]

I guess the best way to summarise it is the player character is an avatar, through which you play. At the very very beginning (in 2024) the player character is you. When you go back to ancient china, you are whatever avatar you are, and then subsequent characters after death are related to you or are your child etc which is randomised to give you different events and perspectives.

When you start the new life, the first couple of cards should give you contextual clues on who you are; if you think there is a mistake in the localisation (for example one card refers to you as a man and another refers to you as a woman in the same life) please let us know and we can look into it.

In previous Reigns games, you are different characters; for example you are a cursed king in Reigns; a queen in Reigns Her Majesty and any of the named characters in Game of Thrones which you can unlock and pick from.

[MaChao]

Originally posted by IssyBee:

When you start the new life, the first couple of cards should give you contextual clues on who you are; if you think there is a mistake in the localisation (for example one card refers to you as a man and another refers to you as a woman in the same life) please let us know and we can look into it.

That's the thing, within ancient china, you are given clues what character you are playing.
Outside though, i was exclusively refered to as a woman and i don't think there was ever an option to change that.
I assumed i'll be playing an avatar, but the way the game apparently knew who it was talking to made me think that it might be an earlier established character and i'm just missing out on story jumping into this game ^^
Like earlier Assassins Creed's Desmond for example

I'm playing the German localisation btw.

[IssyBee]

Ah interesting that helps a lot contextually! Outside of the ancient China setting, you are "the player" and not an earlier established character.
Is there an example you can give where you are referred to as a woman outside of the ancient china setting as this shouldn't be the case?

[MaChao]

Originally posted by IssyBee:

Ah interesting that helps a lot contextually! Outside of the ancient China setting, you are "the player" and not an earlier established character.
Is there an example you can give where you are referred to as a woman outside of the ancient china setting as this shouldn't be the case?

It basically begins as soon as the first interaction.
Here's an example screenshort: https://imgur.com/a/8kkEu9p

Not sure how close localisations are, but the first sentence translates to:
"That's exactly what it's about, my dear"

The issue is "my dear". German is an inherently gendered language.
The way it is written here, "meine Liebe" is inherently female.
The male version would be "mein Lieber".

So without the option to select how you want to be adressed, this made it seem like the game is talking to a pre-defined character :D

[IssyBee]

Ah, that makes sense! I'll pass this on to the team as this is certainly not intentional.

Thank you for letting us know, it's truly helpful 🙏 And apologies that it's caused confusion

[MaChao]

Originally posted by IssyBee:

Ah, that makes sense! I'll pass this on to the team as this is certainly not intentional.

Thank you for letting us know, it's truly helpful 🙏 And apologies that it's caused confusion

No problem, you're most welcome :)
And it was less confusion and more curiosity if i missed anything from jumping right into this game :D All good ^^

[MaChao]

Since i deleted my save to get the text from the opening, i also encountered an even more direct example: https://imgur.com/a/1nRc5mO

The game addresses you as "Herscherin" the female version of the word Ruler.
"Herscher" would be the male equivalent in this case.

This particular character is part of the tutorial and thus feels like it adresses the player character directly and not the role you took in the ancient china simulation.