Assassin’s Creed Valhalla is the highly anticipated 12th major installment in the Assassin’s Creed franchise. Naturally, fans are keen to see how the game evolves from its predecessors and adds to the tried and tested assassination mechanics. One area that has been in question is the option of picking male or female characters in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla and this has led to conjecture about how players could switch. A video has now surfaced which shows exactly how players will be able to seamlessly change the sex of their character.
The Assassin’s Creed games have typically focused on male protagonists since the inception of the franchise in 2007. This began to change in recent years, despite reported pushback from Ubisoft executives and many enjoyed playing as Kassandra in the last installment of the franchise. Despite many reacting positively to the option to pick the sex of their character before beginning the unfolding story, it appears that players will be able to change their character at will in the upcoming Assassin’s Creed Valhalla.
The Twitter account AccessTheAnimus frequently posts news and content about the Assassin Creed games and they have now shared a video that illustrates how players can change from a male to a female Eivor. The process was previously described by Narrative Director Darby McDevitt who claimed that even with these sex changes that the story would remain canonical to Assassin’s Creed Vahalla’s story. How the ability to change sex at will impacts the story is a mystery, but it is clear that it is easily done in the menu of the game.
Despite the DNA Stream Selection looking like a simple menu alteration, it does raise questions about how immersion in the Viking based world will work. Some players are worried that if that changing their character frequently will damage how they experience their journey, however, there is the counter-argument that other games allow players to change their appearance at will without it being an issue. The clip does clarify the process of changing from male to female but it does raise more questions about the enigmatic Eivor.
It is clear that with this change the franchise will have to adjust its ability maps and it will be interesting to see how the title manages these alterations. There seem to be plenty of exciting elements in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla and if it manages to pull them off, it may be one of the most popular games of the year.
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla releases November 17 for PC, PS4, Stadia, and Xbox One. PS5 and Xbox Series X versions to follow.
