Why Far Cry 6 Player Character Dani Rojas Has a Face, a First for Far Cry

Like its predecessors, Far Cry 6 — releasing October 7 worldwide — is played from a first-person perspective. All you see are the character, Dani Rojas', arms and legs. But in a change of pace, Far Cry 6 is set to be the first Far Cry game to show the player character's face. Dani Rojas is played by Sean Rey (as a man) and Nisa Gunduz (as a woman). What's behind this change? Well, Far Cry 6 developers Ubisoft Toronto wanted the local guerrilla Dani to voice their opinions, and have gamers connect with and feel for Dani as the character goes on a journey.

“Anytime you're telling a story about guerrillas or revolution, you need to embody that character as a vehicle,” Far Cry 6 narrative director Navid Khavari told reporters last week. “And so having a silent protagonist wasn't really going to happen for us, to tell the story effectively. And I think from the beginning it was, ‘How do we tell an epic narrative that is also character driven?' I think watching Dani, experiencing Dani's journey progress, and their interactions with other factions and rebel groups, you get to see and feel Dani's opinions, their thoughts on what's happening. So it was incredibly important.”

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Far Cry 6 narrative producer Nicola Jones added: “This is one of my favourite differentiations for Far Cry 6 from previous titles, because as some fans might remember, this is not the first time you have a speaking player character. We saw that in Far Cry 4 with Ajay Ghale. But I think one of the biggest differences for this game is that you don't just see through Dani's eyes in the cinematics, you actually see Dani in the scenes. The cinematics team and the narrative team were super courageous and brave in their decision to do this to have these two different approaches.

“Because the difference that makes when you suddenly see Dani in the scene with the characters, you feel the emotion that they're trying to convey, that Nisa and Sean worked so hard on. If Dani's in pain, you see it, and you feel it too. And it's such a turning point, to not only hear your player character speaking, but to see the emotion that they're going through the whole journey. It really helps you connect to Danny and see that this is a character with a real story to tell.”

Whether you opt to play Dani as a man or woman, there won't be any differences to their journey though. Jones said: “We wanted to make sure that the only difference was the performance between Nisa and Sean. The dialogue is the same. The entire character arc, every conversation Dani has with our key characters, is exactly the same. It was really important. You should choose the hero that you want to go on this journey with, but you shouldn't have to compromise on the story that you get as a result.”

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At least Far Cry 6's protagonist is a born-and-bred local person, unlike those in the past. Khavari believes that makes it a “much more personal fight” for Dani as they “fight back for the freedom of their country.”

“Dani is really someone who has been an underdog their entire life,” Khavari added. “Dani was an orphan, and then a military dropout. They just didn't quite fit in and the entire time you, Dani sees themselves as a number. They've been a number their entire life. That is easily forgotten, and the course of that story, their journey is really to realise that they have a purpose. They have a special goal that they need to achieve that is going to save an entire country.”

Far Cry 6 is out October 7 on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X, Stadia, and Amazon Luna.