It is quite appropriate to consider the Jin Dynasty as an independent civilization. Because the Jin Dynasty was not as special as the Yuan Dynasty and the Qing Dynasty in history. It was a different cultural regime that emerged as a secondary civilization against the main Chinese regime. AOE4 focuses on nation-based states. Although China officially promotes the Jin Dynasty as part of its historical culture for practical political needs, the Chinese historical passion and folk traditions actually show hostility and aversion towards this nation and regime. Moreover, in other parts of the world, people generally believe that “Chinese have been fighting against the Tatars for thousands of years, while the Yuan Dynasty and the Qing Dynasty were directly ruled by the Tatars.” The Jin Dynasty merely allowed the world to understand a specific branch of the Tatars. Therefore, objectively speaking, there is nothing wrong with it, and it does not violate any taboos. It also gets rid of the reputation of always selling variant civilizations. As the theme of this issue, one of the most famous historical stories in Chinese history - Yue Fei’s resistance against the Jin Dynasty - is correct. The Jin Dynasty was developed independently rather than directly adopting the models of China or Mongolia.
However, there is a major problem. The theme of this issue is the legend of Yue Fei. This is clearly a topic suitable and even catering to the Chinese market. We do indeed like Yue Fei. But only the Jin Dynasty can be played in PvP mode. This makes Chinese players very dissatisfied. There is a situation where the main character of the campaign cannot be used in other modes, but you can use the villain of the campaign. This is like calling the legend of Joan of Arc only playable in the UK where burning Joan of Arc is the rule for PvP. And the Jin Dynasty is not like the UK. Now, there are no people of the Jin Dynasty ethnicity who would play AOE4. This makes Chinese players’ excitement and sense of respect they initially felt towards the Yue Fei legend suddenly turn into annoyance and aversion. If both the Jin Dynasty and the variant Chinese Yue Fei legends can be played in PvP mode, in China, it would definitely sell well and even attract many new players. Even if the variant of Yue Fei is only slightly changed like Joan of Arc, with some units and special units from the campaign. Then Chinese players would be willing to play as Yue Fei. While other region players would normally play both civilizations. There is still some time before the new DLC is released. We hope the AOE4 studio will seriously consider this matter. The dissatisfaction of Chinese players without Yue Fei in PvP mode is the voice of the majority of Chinese players.
