The 2nd of April is the Time For Birthdays!

It’s my birthday today, and I just want to celebrate it by telling you all about some neat things that are also on this day. The 2nd of April is World Autism Awareness Day, the anniversary of the United States of America’s Coinage Act’s passage, and the day that the sun was first photographed in 1845. It’s also the day of several videogame characters’ birthdays, so let’s go over a few of them!

First off, there are a couple of historical figures born on this day who have since appeared in a variety of games. Most notably, there’s the famed King of the Franks, Charlemagne, whose year of birth is under contention. However, the 2nd of April is pretty consistently given and understood to be the day and month, so we’re in the clear. Among games, he is both a playable leader in several Civilization titles (including the most recent Sid Meier's Civilization VII) and both the central antagonist of Fate/EXTELLA LINK and one of your allies as two separate people because Fate is weird and fun like that.

Charlemagne, "from" Fate/EXTELLA LINK and with lots of weapons

Another long-dead famous person born today was the Danish fairy tale author, Hans Christian Andersen! The man was born in Odense, Denmark’s third-largest city, in 1805. Most games with a link to Andersen are those based around his works, like any title featuring a little mermaid, for instance. Disney, as an example, has tapped that particular well very frequently. For the man himself, I know him best from — again — the Fate series, with him first appearing in the Japan-exclusive Fate/Extra CCC for the PlayStation Portable and then the mobile gacha game, Fate/Grand Order, though he’s made appearances in other gacha games as well. Outside of gaming, his birthday has also become International Children’s Book Day in his honour, a sweet sentiment.

But enough about real people. Did you know that a lot of fighting game characters tend to have definite birth dates? At least two of them were on the 2nd as well! First, for all you Soulcalibur fans out there, is Chai Xianghua, the current wielder of the titular Soul Calibur as of SOULCALIBUR VI. She’s cheerful, fun, and has been around since 1998’s Soulcalibur, which is technically not the first game in the series. Sure, she’s not my main, but Xianghua is a very fun character with cool swords and a fantastic, flowing fashion sense, so I’m proud to share a birthday with her.

Xianghua, surrounded by water, as is every April-born woman's right

However, the other fighter I share a birthday with is, in fact, my main. Makoto Nanaya, hailing from the BlazBlue series, is a squirrel Demi-Human with a huge bushy tail and the rank of Second Lieutenant in the Novus Orbis Librarium’s Intelligence Division! She’s bright, cheerful, sunny, and can punch people really super hard. Makoto also supplements her incredible strength with a pair of tonfa, which is a very fun pick. Overall, I’ve come to see Makoto as a sort of role model and have tried to keep up plenty of cheer in my own life. When I streamed my second playthrough of her debut title, 2012’s BlazBlue: Continuum Shift Extend, I mostly stuck to using her and trying my best to land every tail bounce attack I could. For one last note, she’s heavily implied to be bisexual, so that’s neat!

Makoto, checking out her local museum

For my last entry today, I want to share a silly story. When I was a teenager, I picked up 2013’s Fire Emblem Awakening because I’d been such a fan of Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones. I made my version of tactician Robin and gave her my birthday, because why not. In Awakening, there’s a neat mechanic where, if the real-life day of the year matches a given character’s birthday, they get a little bonus. As such, it was nice to set myself up to give Robin a neat boost as an actual birthday present to me.

Shortly into the game, our party came across Tharja, a cute and/or creepy dark mage from Plegia who turned to our side in the fighting. Tharja, as it happens, was obsessed with Robin! I was a little scared at first, but over time, she grew on me, and I came to like her. Sadly, there wasn’t an option for her and Robin to get together because lesbians weren’t welcome in Fire Emblem yet.

Whatever the case, when my and Robin’s birthday rolled around, I was surprised to find that Tharja also shared our birthday. Clearly, I thought, this was a very cute decision on developer Intelligent Systems’ part: give the spooky magic lady obsessed with the player character the same birthday as her! I mean, it makes sense. This way, Tharja and Robin really do have an odd connection, both being born on the same day, so her obsession makes even more sense now.

I didn’t realise Tharja’s birthday really was the 2nd of April until I started my second playthrough and gave this new Robin the 1st of January for a birthday. Then, when Tharja joined the group, I was all ready to see her have a New Year’s Day birthday, but… no! Still the 2nd of April. I guess that means that Tharja and I really did have a weird connection after all.

Are there any game characters that share your birthday? Do you have any mildly embarrassing stories where you think the developer did a cute thing and gave someone a variable birthday just to mess with you only to find that your birthdays actually lined up for real? Can anyone validate this weird occurrence?