Recent leaks of Assassin’s Creed Ragnarok indicate that the player’s sex selection will not matter, which is a huge change for the series.
In the past, Assassin’s Creed described important parts of world history from many unique aspects. From Kassandra of Assassin’s Creed Odyssey to Ezio of Assassin’s Creed 2, we’ve seen many different unique characters in the series from their perspective and their role in historical events. It looks like the sequel will give players pure choices in the type of character they want to play.
One thing to be clear about is that choosing to play male or female characters in Assassin’s Creed isn’t something new. Still, it often means that the two characters will be completely different and interact with A or B’s scenario. Assuming the leaked information for Assassin’s Creed Ragnarok is true, the next game will probably make the sex selection completely unrelated to the plot. While this can create challenges in effective storytelling, this can be a huge change for the series.
Aggressive storytelling of Assassin’s Creed
Perhaps the most significant benefit of this change is that it will balance the entire player’s experience. With Assassin’s Creed Syndicate, the whole gameplay is based on the split between the protagonists Evie and Jacob, basically a symbol for different play styles rather than their characteristics. This issue has improved with Assassin’s Creed Odyssey’s Alexios and Kassandra, but even then, there was a clear difference in performance and change between both actors. Not only that, but Odyssey also integrates the remaining character into the story as an enemy, and the difference in the character’s actions can change the impact of every scene.
AC Ragnarok is expected to introduce Jora’s main character, who will choose the gender and customize it. If this is true, it will provide an opportunity for a real balance in storytelling style because it forces the game’s writing and design to be inherently adaptive. Ragnarok will likely take the core themes of versatility introduced in Odyssey and emphasize a generic narrative structure that embraces it all. Adaptive writing will be challenging, but it will go a long way in creating a fair experience regardless of its choice.
Eliminating the question of who will be better Assassin
Assassin’s Creed Odyssey is still a great game in its own right, but there’s always a question of who in Alexios and Kassandra is the “better choice”. The way the protagonist/villain plays the designed role in Odyssey’s plot makes it feel like players will have to choose who is the hero and who is the villain. Since this was a sudden twist that occurred relatively early in the story, the player was not aware of the plot-twist when choosing a gaming character.
The problem with it is that they still put the characters regardless of their characteristics in a defined space, even if they made it less influential than Assassin’s Creed Syndicate. Once the player knows this fact and the fact that the game will contextualize the character’s choice in the game’s story, this will create another layer of impact on the importance of choice. Select the original character in Odyssey. It would be an easy thing if the player could figure out who would make more sense to the world, but it would be quite annoying when players had to consider who would be appropriate to act as antagonists.
What Jora could do better
Jora’s design will probably avoid all sorts of specific roles or gender issues if the AC: Ragnarok information is accurate. Not only would it include the fact that Assassin’s Creed Ragnarok has a more liberal sex selection, but it also avoids the stereotypes of two typical stereotypes: Viking warriors have traditionally been a dedicated culture. For men and heroic tales from any first world history refer to the male protagonist.
Because Assassin’s Creed Ragnarok is supposed to be based on the Vikings and Norse mythology, Ragnarok may overlook many prejudices about gender roles in the Middle Ages. Many medieval studies have determined that Viking society has the least male culture compared to other medieval civilizations. And because Ubisoft and Assassin’s Creed have received criticism for their lack of variety, Ragnarok will have a chance to continue a growing trend of inclusion in its games. This is why Jora’s sex selection will be a unique option. Not both characters will appear in the game together.
Ragnarok will place players in a Viking culture, where the importance of gender has little or no difference in people’s lives. It is logical to have a gender preference in the context of a role-playing game in the Viking era that, depending on the protagonist’s appearance, will not be much different from the story told.
Assassin Creed Ragnarok is said to be developing in 2020.
