As promised, Ubisoft has begun making changes to a recent expansion to Assassin’s Creed Odyssey that upset many players and led to an apology from the developers.
The first of those changes appears to be in the process of rolling out, as PS4 players can now see a new name for the trophy that they earn when the chapter concludes.
It’s impossible to talk about the trophy change without spoiling the game’s downloadable content, so reader beware.
AC Odyssey’s downloadable expansions are being released in chapters, and when the first expansion’s second chapter, Shadow Heritage, was released in January, it delivered a surprise ending: the player’s character becomes a parent. If they player is going through the game as Alexios, then they have a son with Neema, the daughter of the Persian assassin Darius.
If they are playing as Kassandra, Neema isn’t in the game and instead Darius has a son named Natakas with whom the protagonist has a kid. Originally, that surprise baby ending triggered a trophy called “Growing Up.”
That is no longer the trophy’s official name. Some time in the past several days, Ubisoft changed it. Players who earn the trophy now (as we did when we tested it this weekend), will still get an alert that they’ve earned “Growing Up,” but clicking into the PS4’s trophy interface reveals a different name for the achievement. It’s now called “Blood of Leonidas.”
The name change may seem minor to some, but it is likely to be impactful to others who saw the unfolding of Shadow Heritage’s parental plotline as a betrayal of the developers’ promise to not force any type of romance or sexuality on player characters.
It may also avoid serving as a painful reminder, as some players said it did, that there are people who consider homosexuality or even the choice not to have children as some sort of youthful phase that a person grows past.
The game’s creative director, Jonathan Dumont, told Kotaku last month that the “growing up” phrase was not intended to deliver a hurtful or dismissive message. “It was definitively not written with that intention,” he said in a statement. “This was an oversight in the review process and we very regrettably missed it.”
He added that the developers “share the frustration of players who find this offensive.”
We were unable to check if “Growing Up” has yet been changed on Xbox One and PC, but it presumably will as the game’s patches are released.
The game’s next big patch, 1.14, is rolling out for consoles and PC at some point over the next 24 hours. The hyped changes include the addition of New Game Plus and 22 more fast-travel points, but there will also be some changes made to the content of Shadow Heritage.
It’s likely those changes will be minor, as Ubisoft has repeatedly emphasised that the actual ending—having the kid—won’t change. The patch notes read: “Adjusted a cutscene and tweaked some dialogue in Shadow Heritage.”
Prior to launch, the game’s developers had stressed the idea that players will have choices about who to romance and who to avoid in Odyssey. Regardless of whether people played as a man or woman, the game gave them the same cast of men and women to flirt and sleep with.
That liberty won the game support from those who hoped to roleplay their characters as gay or bisexual and even led to a nomination from LGBT advocacy group GLAAD.
The required relationship in Shadow Heritage left some players feeling misled. At best, players can stop short of having their character actively pursue romance with Natakas or Neema, but even those who play it with the most ice-cold dialogue choices will still find their character exchanging longing or flirtatious glances with the other person and getting tearful over the prospect of never seeing them again.
Regardless of the player’s choices, Shadow Heritage ends with the protagonist and either Natakas or Neema in a house of their own, happily talking as their swaddled baby squeals. They’ve achieved a certain view of domestic bliss.
Ubisoft’s defence had initially been to encourage players to wait for the DLC’s next chapter for narrative clarification about why Kassandra or Alexios would choose the relationship and to have a child. Later, Dumont admitted to fans that the scenes had indeed been handled badly.
On the Assassin’s Creed forums he wrote: “Our goal was to let players choose between a utilitarian view of ensuring your bloodline lived on or forming a romantic relationship. 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.”
We’ll be checking out Shadow Heritage’s other changes as they are implemented in the game and will see how the game concludes this controversial story branch when the third and final part of the Legacy of the Hidden Blade episode releases next week.
Comments
20 responses to “Ubisoft Renames Controversial Assassin’s Creed Odyssey Trophy”
as much as i freakin loved this game, im not paying $60 for a few hours extra of game play. I paid $60 for the entire game!!!
That’s the season pass, not the DLC.
… Which still seems overpriced, for $37. And the Ubisoft ANZ store uses M/D/Y, just to be their usual malicious selves.
sorry, thats correct.
Yeah, still WAY too much.
20 bucks is a sweet spot. It could honestly be 10 to 15 bucks when you compare it to the price of a full game
Well… yes and no. Included in the price of the Season Pass was a copy of Ass Creed 3 remastered. I can’t remember how much they’ve said that’s going to be sold separately for.
Think of the children!
2019; when the phrase ‘growing up’ is triggering…
Yeah… I don’t even get why that’s a thing. Like, HOW? How is that an offence thing? Who said it? Was it a 4Chan troll? Was it legit? Kotaku needs to do some real Jorno work and find out why the hell something that would ACTUALLY happen to be an offence thing. Like, the hell…
Example; You’ve been playing as Kassandra and you’ve been romancing (read: boiking, ’cause you never go back to them) every single female you can flirt with.. Then along comes the achievement “growing up” implying that being gay is just a phase and you’ll grow out of it.
THAT was the complaint. Well, one of them.
I just hated the dude you ended up with. No personality to speak of. I was never one of the vocal few that complained but I would have been happier if they’d had you end up with his dad.
Then along comes the achievement “growing up” implying that being gay is just a phase and you’ll grow out of it.
I guess this is what it boils down to. “Implying”. When I read the phrase “grown UP” I think of “maturing” or of “getting older” and so on. I personally don’t think it means “growing OUT” of something. Putting it another way, it literally it means “TO grown UP” not “TO grow OUT of something”.
Hey totally respect others having a different view. Maker be praised & peace out. Flack suit ON!
Honestly I just assumed it meant finally moving on from just being a mercenary. as a child you were taught to fight. you grew with nothing more than a responsibilty to yourself. then you found your family and now you made one yourself. you matured and decided there were things other than getting payed to kill people that were worth your time.
Yeah, see, I get that point. But at the same time, you could say it relates to just having a family, and people are making a big deal out of nothing. This is just more PC/VS BS as far as I can see.
The phase thing.. Yeah I actually had a family GP say that to my family about 20 years ago, so it does happen
well it is 2019 and some gamers still cant think outside their little sphere of presumed knowledge, and understand that things are sometimes a little bit more complicated than
This has to have been one of the biggest nontroversies
Eh, I can think of stuff more worthy of taking offense to…
Oh well, never underestimate the power of a disgruntled person with too much time on their hands.
There is no worth at all in being offended by the phrase ‘Growing Up’. None. Anyone who has been who is truly a snowflake of the highest order.
yet you are the one seemingly getting offended by this event, that people have a different opinion to you, so not sure you should be throwing around terms like snowflake.
offended? More like pointing out the striped…
No reasonable person would be offended by something so basic as ‘Growing Up’, and why they may have a different opinion, in this case, their opinion is worthless. Just because someone has an opinion does not mean that their opinion should be validated, especially when it comes to virtu signalling BS.
Or has actually been told being gay is a phase and they will grow out of it by say a family GP to their family
Can’t really have genetic memories from your ancestors without them having kids though, but lets just ignore the premise of the franchise to appease the sjw….