In its recent titles, the Assassin's Creed franchise has been giving players an increased level of control over the protagonists of its games. However, while players may be able to customize their characters at first glance, those choices are often ignored by the games' stories and NPCs. Stepping away from the series' tradition of having a set protagonist may have been a refreshing change, but in reality, Ubisoft has been wasting players' time with the illusion of choice.
Warning: The following article contains spoilers for Assassin's Creed Odyssey and Assassin's Creed Valhalla.
Starting with Assassin's Creed Odyssey, players have been able to make a choice regarding the gender of their playable character. In AC Odyssey, the two options were siblings, with the one not chosen as the protagonist taking the role of the game's villain. This formula was changed in Assassin's Creed Valhalla, which features a single protagonist who can be male or female. Presenting players with this kind of choice was a departure for the Assassin's Creed franchise, but these choices in AC Valhalla and Odyssey weren't actually important: Not only does the story within each game remain unchanged, but Ubisoft has chosen a canon version of each game's protagonist regardless. In fact, the lack of meaning in this choice is actually reflected in the games themselves.
Assassin's Creed Valhalla Makes Player Choice Feel Meaningless
No matter which protagonist the player chooses for both of these games, their choice has little to no impact. In Assassin's Creed Odyssey, NPCs simply refer to the protagonist in gender-neutral , but more substantial problems begin to arise in Assassin's Creed Valhalla. Throughout the game, players can run into NPCs in certain areas or quests that will misgender them, even if they are using Eivor's canon gender. Notes can also be found referring to Eivor as "Eivor Varinsdottir", regardless of their gender. These may be artifacts of players' ability to change their gender at will, including an option that claims to change it automatically at certain points, though this is actually tied to Eivor and Odin's relationship in Valhalla's story.
While the Assassin's Creed games themselves oscillate between not knowing and not caring what the protagonist's gender is, there is certainly no question that the franchise considers the female options in both Assassin's Creed Odyssey and Assassin's Creed Valhalla to be canon. Kassandra and the female Eivor have both been codified in media outside their games, such as novelizations and comics. Since the choice of gender was left in the hands of players, though, fans looking to pick up these media may find themselves with a protagonist they aren't nearly as connected to as the one they played alongside of. Players can even see Eivor and Kassandra meet in AC Valhalla, but if they played Odyssey as Alexios, they might have no idea who Kassandra even is.
Between the lack of in-game regard for the gender of Assassin's Creed's protagonists and the explicit canonicity of Kassandra and the female version of Eivor, even having the option of choosing the non-canon versions feels like a waste of time. Games with customizable characters don't always acknowledge the protagonist's gender so that in and of itself isn't inexcusable, but the mere presence of a "right" and "wrong" answer can make the choice seem hollow. Even if future Assassin's Creed games allow players to customize their character's appearance, they may as well leave the choice of gender behind.
