With Red Dead Redemption 2 finally hitting PC earlier this week, eager modders have been having a field day messing with the game’s inner workings and uncovering all the obscured oddities within Rockstar’s latest open-world romp. As is often the case for games making the jump to PC, this has turned up some seriously interesting hidden secrets from within the title's files, including a missing person that’s been absent from the world of Red Redemption 2 for 15 years.
For those who have played the open-world cowboy sequel, they’ll no doubt know about the mysterious disappearance of Princess Isabeau Katharina Zinsmeister, a member of the royal family of Luxembourg who vanished 15 years prior to the game while on a trip to America. The player discovers numerous hints towards her fate during the events of the main game, however, she’s never found despite the mystery surrounding her disappearance being a recurring talking point in the open world.
A comment from Reddit user Danimoz proves, however, that the princess was somewhere within the game all along. Going into Lenny’s Simple Trainer mod and inputting "CS_PrincessIsabeau" into the “models" line of in the Ist.ini file of the mod lets you switch out Arthur for the Princess herself, finally delivering some answers to one of Red Dead Redemption 2’s most cryptic mysteries. While it's not immediately clear seen as the character model in question portrays a much older Isabeau than in her missing posters, the signature birthmark she bears lines up perfectly with her original description, confirming that this is indeed the Princess.
SPOILERS IKZ is in the game files, Using mods to play as her. This is what she looks like. from reddeadredemption
Seen as the character was evidently modeled for the game, it does beg the question of whether Rockstar intended to use her in a cut side-mission or perhaps did through an easter egg that fans still haven’t discovered. Rockstar has, of course, left deeply ingrained secrets in its projects before, including some paranormal mysteries in Grand Theft Auto 5 surrounding the cryptic Mount Chiliad. Whether Princess Isabeau Katharina Zinsmesiter’s actually in the base game is still to be unearthed, but this new discovery will no doubt spur on theorists more than ever.
This is yet another entry in a long line of Red Dead Redemption 2 discoveries now the modding community have their hands on it. From playing as sheep to soaring over the map as an eagle, the game has already been mined for some crazy secrets, so here’s hoping there’s plenty more to come.
Red Dead Redemption 2 is now available for PC, PS4, and Xbox One, with a Google Stadia version in development.