Assassin’s Creed Odyssey creative director Jonathan Dumont has issued an apology following a controversial DLC release.
As reported by Kotaku, the DLC presented a mandatory in-game relationship seeming to render any romantic decisions the player made (whether to pursue relationships with men or women regardless of playing as Alexios or Kassandra) moot.
Titled “Shadow Heritage,” (spoilers ahead) the DLC had players enter into a scripted relationship with a man if playing as Kassandra (or woman if playing as Alexios) in order to have a child.
Ubisoft’s rationale behind this decision was to have the unavoidable relationship be a twist as part of a “set story” and hype up the next chapter of DLC.
Dumont released a statement yesterday in an attempt to offer more clarity behind the decision and what the Odyssey team was going for.
“Our goal was to let players choose between a utilitarian view of ensuring your bloodline lived on or forming a romantic relationship,” he explained.
“We attempted to distinguish between the two but could have done this more carefully as we were walking a narrow line between role-play choices and story, and the clarity and motivation for this decision was poorly executed.”
According to Dumont, players will not have to engage in a lasting romantic relationship if they don’t want to as they continue their adventure in the next DLC.
“We have read your responses online and taken them to heart. This has been a learning experience for us. 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,” he continued.
“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.”
Ubisoft went on to confirm that the content of Shadow Heritage will not be changed, but the next chapter of DLC will “make the character development and choice much more clear to players, and that is where they will be able to decide how they want to handle their relationship now that they have ensured that their bloodline will continue.”