r/roadtoempress

I finished the game this weekend and spent some time looking into the cast members' backgrounds and previous projects. Surprisingly, several of them are much more popular and experienced than I initially expected. Besides Li Tai and Li Zhi, a few of the other cast members were already at least as popular as them before joining RTE.

Zi Yu, who played Bianji, is probably the most surprising actor to me. I had never heard of him before, and I initially thought Bianji was his first acting role—which is actually somewhat true. It turns out that he is probably the most popular actor in the entire game. His Douyin account has more than 100 million likes and almost 4 million followers, which is absolutely insane. Since he is also an idol and singer, he has appeared on several TV shows. Unfortunately, he has never attended any stage shows or fan meetings with the other cast members, and he rarely posts anything related to the game on his social media.

The same goes for Lin Xiao, who played Princess Gao Yang. She has mainly played minor or supporting roles in several C-dramas, but she has appeared on around 20 TV shows since 2020. Regardless of her acting roles, she already had a huge fan base before joining RTE.

Huang Yi, who played our Empress, was also much more popular than I originally thought. Based on her IMDb page, I initially believed she had only played a few minor roles in a couple of C-dramas before joining RTE, but I was completely wrong. Besides RTE, she has appeared in 16 full-length C-drama TV series. And yes, these are all official long-form TV series, not short dramas. On top of that, she has three other TV series coming out this year, as well as a couple more projects scheduled for 2027. She has a much more extensive acting background than I ever realized.

Since I rarely watch C-dramas, I had never really heard of her name. However, I asked a couple of my friends about her popularity, and they all said she has become quite famous in China, especially over the past three years. Her Douyin account has around 1 million followers and 20 million likes, which also gives us a good indication of her popularity. Interestingly, her Instagram presence seems much smaller compared with some of the other main cast members. This may be because she doesn't promote herself much outside of China, even though her English is very impressive.

Qi Xia Xia, who played Consort Wei, is basically the new queen of short dramas. She has appeared in around 10–15 short dramas, many of which have a large number of episodes. Her Douyin account has more than 40 million likes, which is extremely impressive. The same can be said for Hu Wen, who played Ji Huai Zhong. He has appeared in numerous short dramas and has also played major roles in other FMV games, such as Vanity Fair and Patriot Memoirs.

Shen Wei, who played Xi Xin, also has a very extensive acting background. She has appeared in around 40 TV series and movies, and her face is apparently very familiar to Chinese audiences. Anyone who regularly watches C-dramas has probably seen her at least once. Her Douyin account has around 25 million likes and 1.1 million followers, putting her on a similar level to Huang Yi in terms of popularity.

As for the older actors, such as Lan Chen, who played the Li Shi Emperor, and Liu Min, who played Consort Yang, they are genuinely experienced actors who have appeared in numerous Chinese dramas and movies.

Can someone tell me please? Almost every other YouTuber/gamer choose Lizhi instead of litai because they don’t like Litai’s scheming character.

I liked how Ludwig chose Litai’s route in the first part of the game. But it seems like he has chosen Lizhi’s route in the second part of the game?

I have not watched the second part of the game yet at all but I have read on Ludwig’s latest road to empress stream that people were dissapointed Ludwig had chosen Lizhi’s route.

Is that true? Can someone who watched Ludwig’s road to empress stream tell me please?

Does he go through Litai’s route first and then switch to Lizhi?

Also it seems like due to backlash Litai’s route has changed and been undermined a lot? Is that true?

Thank you.

Feel free to spoil.

I'm curious regarding the financial status for this game. I'm definitely sure it is the most expensive FMV game ever made and has the highest sale volumes ever recorded. However, can someone who is working on the game industry estimate the actual values includinf the production costs and profit/revenue? Thank you.

What illness did li zhi have? Could he have had tuberculosis?

We see him coughing and blood drips out or his mouth at one point.

I read on Wikipedia the real li zhi had headaches and seizures and it was thought to be stroke or hypertension.

If I remember the game said sickness ran in his family.

Do you think wu was secretly poisoning him?