Assassin's Creed: Odyssey - m/m and f/f romances confirmed

So I'm finally getting around to finishing the Atlantis DLC.

I've already finished Torment of Hades.


I just started Judgement of Atlantis, so I don't have much to say about that yet.

I really need to go back to this game. But I have so many to finish before The Last of Us 2 comes out...

Also, about those ACO screenshots

Still playing... Had a tiny bit of time, so I did Socrates' trial and a bit of Messenia. Still think Alexios is pretty af

Lykaon is so dreamy. Still one of my favorite video game boyfriend's, even if he only has a couple of minutes of content.

Yeah, but while most of the cult is about chaos, Kleon specifically was meant to conquer all of Greece and unite it under one rule. Which is exactly what the Roman Empire will do. So why is one an agent of chaos and the other of order? Previously bringing war and undermining democracy were something the templars did. Now it's the assassins, because the way the cult did it brought more chaos? The point that assassins can be bad is not really new, they really drove the point with Jack the Ripper. But since they haven't mentioned "the cult is like the pre-assassins," we haven't really seen assassins be the bad guys. So "too much of one thing" is not really shown, since the templars are always the shady corrupted organisation.

11 years into a franchise is a bit late to introduce the idea that maybe the guys that have the control are bad, no matter the faction.

Hmm some early 'leaks' for new AC game. grain of salt etc.




Sailing returns is less combat intensive and more focused on exploration and travel including being able to navigate tight rivers and wetlands



- Parkour is upgraded with tree climbing and new animations



- The hidden blade is back and is far more customizable in terms of cosmetics. Can be upgraded to kill in one stab



- Stealth is upgraded by having physical stealth skills such as hiding in mud, snow, crouching in bushes, hiding in bales of hay, etc.- Players can now also hide in crowds of civilians if their outfit/ armor is appropriate otherwise it can attract attention.



- Players now have a reputation system based on quests completed for people in cities, the town officials, clothing worn, crimes committed, etc. Some quests and story missions can only be completed after reaching a certain reputation with kingdoms.



- Conquest battles return to help capture some settlements from templars and players can approach them in a variety of ways.



- Players can also find battles between warring kingdoms occurring dynamically throughout the world.



- Multiple settlements throughout the world can be captured and controlled for trade and currency gains



- Players can organize large scale raids of forts and cities with nearby viking camps, wait for their own raids, or go in by themselves.



- The assassins are believed to have a connection to Odin and dub their raven drone as odin sight



.- Difficulty returns but focuses more on parry times, player health, and enemy reaction times rather than enemy health



- Levelling is overhauled to allow players to improve skillsets to gain experience, like in Skyrim. As a result, level locking regions and content is gone.



- Some skills are unlocked by reaching a high enough skillset level, some must be bought with skill points, and others are unlocked through game/ story progression.



- The map is massive. Like all of northern europe. My source mentioned big cities being York, London, Paris, and kiev. Every kingdom was meant to be really unique.

So... Are we taking bets on the "return to 'old school' style" "Ragnanok" where the protagonist is fixed to sidestep all the controversy from Odyssey?

I mean, on the one hand, I'd say that the fact that base game Odyssey wasn't the issue might be a mark in favor of keeping the Odyssey "RPG-esque" style, plus the way that the narrative arc involving the Precursors is playing out seems to at least be trying to play with the concept of Layla's actions in the Animus and now with the Staff are actively influencing and altering history, which encourages the variable protagonists and romance options.

On the other... There is an unpleasant tendency from companies in general to take away the wrong lesson from their mistakes and the resulting backlash, so it is all too easy to believe that "First Blade got players pissed off because of the romance, so no romance in the next game!" is their takeaway, rather than "we lied to the players and they rightly called us out, we don't do that again."

I'm not sure about the romances, but Odyssey sold more copies than Ubi predicted and outperformed any other game in the series. You never know with Ubi Montreal (and not Quebec) doing the next one, but they will probably ignore any complains and try to emulate Odyssey as closely as possible. Let's hope that includes same-sex content.