Assassin’s Creed Valhalla has been out for a few months now, giving players more than enough time to uncover each of the game’s available romance options for its protagonist, Eivor. During Assassin’s Creed Valhalla‘s development, Ubisoft promised that romances for the new game would be different from those in Assassin’s Creed Odyssey; specifically, that they would be more in-depth, with options for long-term committed relationships as well as brief flings.
In some ways, Valhalla follows through on that promise with its romances; in other ways, Valhalla is a little more similar to Odyssey than the game’s developer previously made it out to be. Now, it’s time to take a look at the different romance options in both Odyssey and Valhalla, and see just how much of a change the romances for Valhalla really were in comparison with its predecessor.
As the first true full-blown RPG in the history of Assassin’s Creed, Odyssey was the first game to implement optional romances for the game’s protagonist. Kassandra/Alexios could find romanceable characters all across the Greek world, and in some cases, romance the same character more than once. While the romance options for Odyssey were most definitely diverse, numerous, and all available to both genders, the main complaint against Odyssey‘s romance was its brevity. There was really no way to establish a long-term relationship with any one character, even those with options for more than one romantic “encounter.”
At the same time, Odyssey did manage to incorporate some emotional depth to a couple of its romances; the Mykonos/Delos quest line with Kyra and Thaletas or the Battle of One Hundred Hands with Roxana are good examples.. On the island of Mykonos, players could join a group of Spartan rebels and attempt to free the islands from the rule of Athens, and particularly from a cruel ruler named Podarkes. Over the course of the story arc, Kassandra/Alexios could bond with both the rebel leader Kyra and the Spartan polemarch Thaletas, and ultimately start a romance with one of them after completing enough quests. Unfortunately, there was really no happy ending for Kassandra/Alexios in either scenario – no matter what, both Kyra and Thaletas stayed on Mykonos with each other and more or less ended the romance with the player character, leaving no possibility of following up with either character in the future.
With Roxana, Kassandra/Alexios could form a bond with the warrior, training with her and eventually entering the Battle of One Hundred Hands together. This romance had a happier ending, for what it’s worth; it’s possible to persuade Roxana to come away with the player character at the end rather than fighting one another to the death, and Roxana becomes a lieutenant on the Adrestia. Still, that’s more or less the end of the romance, because it’s impossible to actually talk with Roxana afterwards, with the exception of another encounter on the island of Thasos.
All this to sat, even romances in Odyssey that end with the characters on good terms are little more than flings, and end too abruptly to really be satisfying for those who prefer long-term engagements. While romantic flings are a viable type of encounter, when every romance option is the same sort of fling, it becomes tiring and repetitive.
As aforementioned, Ubi promised that Valhalla would feature both shorter and long-term relationships for Eivor to pursue. And, to an extent, it does. With characters like Randvi, Tarben, and Petra, all of whom live in the settlement of Ravensthorpe, it’s possible for Eivor to establish a relationship that continues throughout the game (unless the player decides to break it off). Still, in comparison to other games with romances – for example, many of BioWare’s games – the romances in Valhalla are quite short.
When it comes to Tarben and Petra, the settlement’s baker and hunter respectively, Eivor’s romance with both is quite formulaic. Eivor must complete a couple of quests exploring Tarben and Petra’s background, and then they’ll be invited on a sort of date by either character. After that, Eivor will have the option to enter into an official relationship with the Assassin’s Creed character, but once that’s done, there’s really not much else to do. Essentially, once the romance is established, there aren’t many more unique dialogs with either character; thus, even though the romance is technically a long-term one, the romance itself remains quite short, as they do in Odyssey.
Even with Randvi, who is arguably designed to be the “main” romance option for Eivor in the game, there are really only a couple of quests pertaining to their romance. Randvi’s main advantage is that, as a key character in the game, she still has more consistent interaction with Eivor than most other characters even without the romance. So, when romance it factored in, it can feel like Eivor actually does have a long, continually building relationship with her. But she’s the exception, not the rule; all in all, romance in Valhalla isn’t so different from Odyssey.
So, what does all that mean for romance in Assassin’s Creed? Well, for some players ,short and sweet is all that’s necessary. But, while romances in Valhalla had some longer-term options for Eivor compared to those in Odyssey, they were actually quite similar in terms of actual playable length. So, if Ubisoft intends to continue with optional romances for its player characters in future games, some evolution may be necessary; instead of only one more in-depth romance option (Randvi) and several other more basic ones, the next game could include several romance options that all have a greater amount of depth to them.
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla did make some changes, and it’s a step in the right direction. However, if Ubisoft wants to include more long-term relationships for its characters in the future, it should actually commit to designing long-term relationships in greater detail.
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla is available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
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