A question about character models.

[Pauper_Prince]

So, while I am sure there will be people attributing this question to malice, I still want to ask it. Anyone else curious as to why we haven't seen the masculine version of Phyre despite being told that we would have the option to choose our gender by the devs (I assume they meant Sex)?
I know we got a brief glance in one of the YouTube videos, but beyond that no promotional material I have seen shows us a male Phyre. Even when I went to the website the clan reveals only show us the version of Phyre that we got in the initial reveal. I know a lot of people want character customization, and it sounds like we will get light options for that.
So, I guess I am wondering if anyone has any idea why it is we don't get to see more outfit options, maybe hairstyles, and the other character model.

[Bumbo]

Game's being marketed for a year. It's in post-alpha. Not everything is ready yet. Female Phyre was chosen as the marketing default.

[Pauper_Prince]

Originally posted by Bumbo:

Game's being marketed for a year. It's in post-alpha. Not everything is ready yet. Female Phyre was chosen as the marketing default.

Fair enough, perhaps I am making an unfair comparison here to Cyberpunk 2077. Where we got concept art and promotional material of both models of the MC.

[Bumbo]

I don't think it's unfair. Bloodlines 2 needed a strong showing and it's kind of fumbling the bag but at least they're managing expectations.

[Insomniac Jack]

Phyre is the predetermined gender neutral protagonist. You get the choice to identify as either male/female/other, but the voice and character model will remain the same.

[Pauper_Prince]

Originally posted by Insomniac Jack:

Phyre is the predetermined gender neutral protagonist. You get the choice to identify as either male/female/other, but the voice and character model will remain the same.

I will admit, given how I do not like the character model or the voice, I hope that is not the case.

[Bumbo]

Originally posted by Insomniac Jack:

Phyre is the predetermined gender neutral protagonist. You get the choice to identify as either male/female/other, but the voice and character model will remain the same.

They showed off male Phyre concept art. Who said that the only thing we can change is the gender identity?

[Bumbo]

Originally posted by W.R. Winter:

Originally posted by Insomniac Jack:

Phyre is the predetermined gender neutral protagonist. You get the choice to identify as either male/female/other, but the voice and character model will remain the same.

afaik they haven't confirmed this but it's what I've assumed to be the case

Originally posted by Bumbo:

They showed off male Phyre concept art. Who said that the only thing we can change is the gender identity?

the devs display their pronouns when they show up on stream, that's who

The male Phyre clearly has a different look to the female Phyre.

[Bumbo]

No it isn't. They have already flat-out said you get to choose your Clan, Outfits, and Gender. Nobody has ever said "There is only one Phyre, you're only picking pronouns." You are going off this because devs have their pronouns displayed? That's stupid. The re-announcement shows off a Male Phyre in control anyway.

[Insomniac Jack]

Originally posted by Bumbo:

No it isn't. They have already flat-out said you get to choose your Clan, Outfits, and Gender. Nobody has ever said "There is only one Phyre, you're only picking pronouns." You are going off this because devs have their pronouns displayed? That's stupid. The re-announcement shows off a Male Phyre in control anyway.

I wouldn't be so sure about that, the trailers feature an androgynous person's hands and figure. Although you are free to identify Phyre as he/him during your playthrough, if you wish.

[Bumbo]

Originally posted by W.R. Winter:

Originally posted by Bumbo:

No it isn't. They have already flat-out said you get to choose your Clan, Outfits, and Gender. Nobody has ever said "There is only one Phyre, you're only picking pronouns." You are going off this because devs have their pronouns displayed? That's stupid. The re-announcement shows off a Male Phyre in control anyway.

expecting changes in appearance to accompany gender selection is so last year. but if you can link that "re-announcement" that shows male Phyre outside of concept art be my guest. do you mean the initial TCR announcement?

Name one AAA RPG where you can't customize your character's face and body but only let's you pick your pronouns.

[Bumbo]

Originally posted by Insomniac Jack:

Originally posted by Bumbo:

No it isn't. They have already flat-out said you get to choose your Clan, Outfits, and Gender. Nobody has ever said "There is only one Phyre, you're only picking pronouns." You are going off this because devs have their pronouns displayed? That's stupid. The re-announcement shows off a Male Phyre in control anyway.

I wouldn't be so sure about that, the trailers feature an androgynous person's hands and figure. Although you are free to identify Phyre as he/him during your playthrough, if you wish.

The Narrative RPG video literally says "in-engine render of Phyre as Female."

[Bumbo]

Originally posted by W.R. Winter:

Originally posted by Bumbo:

Name one AAA RPG where you can't customize your character's face and body but only let's you pick your pronouns.

buddy I don't know where you've been but VTMB2 isn't shaping up to be much of an RPG. and Paradox isn't AAA either so you're doubly confused.

It's an Action-RPG. You can say it's a bad looking RPG.

Also Tencent-owned Sumo Digital is cofunding this game and are labeling it as AAA. Tencent is rich enough to pour money to get their 1100 employees to pump out an AAA ARPG.

So you've got nothing except "Bloodlines 2 devs have pronouns" and "I've only ever seen an in-game look at female Phyre" even though they've said Phyre can be Male or Female and they'll look different.

[Clever Name]

I would bet that we'll get a male Phyre.

Judging by the concept art (where the female Phyre's in-game render matches the art closely), he's going to be fairly 'gender-normative.'

Thankfully.

[CapJackRackham]

Originally posted by Bumbo:

No it isn't. They have already flat-out said you get to choose your Clan, Outfits, and Gender. Nobody has ever said "There is only one Phyre, you're only picking pronouns." You are going off this because devs have their pronouns displayed? That's stupid. The re-announcement shows off a Male Phyre in control anyway.

Simply put, we don't know exactly how this will work.

Here's an example...based on the plus patch version of bloodlines 1 (But not exactly the same).


You enter your character screen...

You select the outfit to wear (Let's say there is 8 outfits, 4 male and 4 female, 1 male and 1 female based on each clan so 2 Brujha, 2 Tremere etc)

You select what clan your character would like to be.

Then you start the game.

Now based on that scenario, you could choose Brujha as the clan you want Phyre to be a part of but you could choose the outfit of a Tremere.

When you play the game, the combat and vampire abilities is based on your clan of choice. The potential of different dialogue options is based on the outfit you wear.

What have we been told specifically in the Narrative and RPG interview?

"This isn't a blank slate of a character it's worth saying, obviously you can customise with your choice of clan, there'll be a choice of outfits, a choice of gender and as the gameplay goes through its up to you elements of her background are up to you to choose."

"How will player be able to customise their Narrative experience with Phyre as the protagonist?
You have clan choices that affect as an example the powers that you have, although again the story gives us a bit more opportunity to play around with that, it's a bit more flexible because of the presence of thin blood"

So based on what they said in the interview, Phyre is gender neutral. We do not know how the mechanics will work but my example scenario above is just as possible as having Phyre be gender binding.

I'm not going to go into the debate that is going on regarding the use of pronouns of the Devs in the Recap interview. If players are thinking the pronouns on display is likely to translate into the game in some way? There's nothing to support that. But in order to keep costs down yet tell a story, having a non binary character means you can play a male or female without detriment to the story.

If they were making a binary character, you'd have different names to represent clans and different names between male and female. Given how little customisation has gone into this game Vs the original, it's little wonder we have 1 character only.

[Insomniac Jack]

Originally posted by Bumbo:

Originally posted by Insomniac Jack:

I wouldn't be so sure about that, the trailers feature an androgynous person's hands and figure. Although you are free to identify Phyre as he/him during your playthrough, if you wish.

The Narrative RPG video literally says "in-engine render of Phyre as Female."

That's because it's still in Alpha, you have to wait for the Beta-blockers to kick in.