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One trend that Ubisoft has seemingly chosen to retain from Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, is the idea of a male and female version of the main character Eivor. Naturally, this has caused fans to speculate which version of the Assassin’s Creed Valhalla hero will be considered the canon version. Surprisingly, fans became confused when it was revealed that they won’t be locked into a certain gender and can switch at will. While there are still more questions than answers at this point, another major piece to this puzzle has been revealed.
In a new video posted by Ubisoft detailing open world elements and customization, one screen in particular has managed to captivate the larger Assassin’s Creed Valhalla community. After the 3 minute mark in the trailer, players can see a gender selection screen, featuring options to select the female version of Eivor as well as the male version. However, the game also features a third option that has left most people even more confused.
For those who don’t want to pick, they can select the option to let the Animus decide for them. In terms of the lore, the Animus is the device that lets players revisit these historical locations through genetic memories and DNA. Interestingly enough, this option is listed as the default choice, meaning that the game will change the gender of Eivor based on which memory stream is stronger at that moment. It’s not clear at what this exactly means in terms of gameplay or if players can influence how strong a memory stream is.
Players turned to Narrative Director Darby McDevitt for answers, who confirmed that this third choice is the canon option for Assassin’s Creed Valhalla. However, McDevitt steered clear of explaining this too much as part of it goes into spoiler territory. He went on to reveal that this was intended from the beginning stages of development and is a major component to the game’s overall story. Even still, for those who would rather pick a dedicated gender won’t be missing out on any content though there is apparently a bit of narrative logic that won’t be communicated for not selecting the Animus option.
The answers have not satisfied some, however. McDevitt attempted to clarify things further by saying that Eivor is a specific character with a certain history and background unlike some heroes such as Commander Shepard which can be completely customized by the player.
Clearly, there’s more going on here than Ubisoft is willing to share. Some have attempted to explain this by looking back at Odyssey’s gender choice being due to degraded and imprecise DNA. In this case, perhaps the DNA or genetic memories being viewed are largely incomplete. However, if players aren’t interested in this system, they can not only select a default version at the start or manually switch genders at any time from the Animus menu.
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla releases November 10, 2020, for the PC, PS4, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X with a PS5 release on November 12.
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