The Ending of the Latest Assassin’s Creed Odyssey DLC Episode Caused an Uproar
*Author’s note: Spoilers for the ending of the second episode of Assassin’s Creed Odyssey’s Legacy of the First Blade DLC below*
A Tuesday Reddit post about the ending of Assassin’s Creed Odyssey’s second Legacy of the First Blade episode heavily criticized the forced romance between the post author’s lesbian version of the game’s optional female protagonist, Kassandra, and a male character.
Apparently, the end of the second episode railroads Kassandra into have a baby with this male character, regardless of the player’s choices. Also, this male character is changed to be a female one if the player chose the optional male protagonist, Alexios.
The post’s author and many other gamers have argued that this scripted story beat is homophobic and contradicts past comments made by Assassin’s Creed Odyssey’s creative director, Jonathan Dumont, about romances in the game being optional.
On Wednesday, Dumont apologized for the DLC’s forced relationship with a message on Ubisoft’s official forums.
“Reading through player responses of our new DLC for Legacy of the First Blade, Shadow Heritage, we want to extend an apology to players disappointed by a relationship your character partakes in,” his message read. “The intention of this story was to explain how your character’s bloodline has a lasting impact on the Assassins, but looking through your responses it is clear that we missed the mark.”
Dumont also said that the goal behind this story beat was “to let players choose between a utilitarian view of ensuring your bloodline lived on or forming a romantic relationship.” He added that players won’t have to continue with the relationship in the DLC’s next episode.
“We have read your responses online and taken them to heart. This has been a learning experience for us,” Dumont said. “Understanding how attached you feel to your Kassandra and your Alexios is humbling and knowing we let you down is not something we take lightly. We’ll work to do better and make sure the element of player choice in Assassin’s Creed Odyssey carries through our DLC content so you can stay true to the character you have embodied throughout.”
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