Responsible Gear Try’s second season of characters kicked off Monday with the discharge of Bridget, the yo-yo-wielding, habit-wearing fighter who first joined the sequence with 2002’s Responsible Gear X2. Three extra characters are deliberate for Responsible Gear Try’s season 2 go, which is able to run by way of 2023.

For gamers seeking to get into Responsible Gear, developer Arc System Works describes Bridget as an “straightforward to choose up, normal type of character” with strong long-range assaults and… a teddy bear. Bridget is on the market as a part of the $24.99 season go, and individually for $6.99. The developer additionally launched a starter information video for Bridget, who wasn’t playable within the current Responsible Gear Xrd video games.

Bridget’s arrival in Responsible Gear Try is momentous not only for the launch of a second season of DLC, it additionally confirms that the character is a trans girl. Bridget’s lore and historical past are sophisticated, and in earlier entries within the Responsible Gear sequence, her sexuality and a scarcity of readability on her gender identification had been typically performed for dramatic impact or comedic functions. However in Try, Bridget comes out definitively as transgender, as seen on this cutscene that includes an interplay between Bridget, Ky Kiske, and relative newcomer Goldlewis Dickinson.

Earlier Responsible Gear video games recognized Bridget as male, and different characters referred to Bridget with each female and male pronouns. In keeping with her official backstory (which refers to her in gender-neutral phrases), Bridget had a twin brother, and in keeping with a neighborhood superstition, twins of the identical gender are a foul omen. Bridget’s rich mother and father thus raised her as a lady to guard her from hurt, however she later units off as a bounty hunter to each discover success — thus proving the superstition false — and “behav[e] like a person” battling the Responsible Gear roster.

Bridget spawned a legion of followers, notably cosplayers, who fell in love with the character over the previous 20 years, regardless of the occasional drained jokes surrounding her sexuality and gender identification. Those self same tropes made her return to the Responsible Gear franchise unsure, however it seems that Arc System Works is absolutely embracing her trans identification — now not as fodder for storytelling tropes, however as a part of an ever-diversifying roster for Responsible Gear Try.