Assassin’s Creed Odyssey Creative Director, Jonathan Dumont, has apologised for straightwashing found within the game’s latest piece of DLC.
To the dismay of fans, Odyssey‘s Legacy of the First Blade Part 2 DLC forced players into a heterosexual relationship that produces a child, regardless of the choices made in terms of an avatar’s sexual orientation. After a rather lacklustre initial response, Dumont has properly apologised for the lack of player choice.
“Reading through player responses of our new DLC for Legacy of the First Blade, Shadow Heritage, we want to extend an apology to players disappointed by a relationship your character partakes in,” he wrote in a statement provided to Stevivor. “The intention of this story was to explain how your character’s bloodline has a lasting impact on the Assassins, but looking through your responses it is clear that we missed the mark.”
Despite the apology, Dumont defended the choice to force the heterosexual relationship.
“Alexios/Kassandra realizing their own mortality and the sacrifice Leonidas and Myrrine made before them to keep their legacy alive, felt the desire and duty to preserve their important lineage,” Dumont continued. “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. As you continue the adventure in next episode Bloodline, please know that you will not have to engage in a lasting romantic relationship if you do not desire to.”
Dumont said that the DLC won’t be altered to take player choice into account, but asserted that lessons had been learned and mistakes like this wouldn’t happen again.
“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. 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.”
What do you make of Dumont’s apology?
Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey is available now on Windows PC, Xbox One and PS4.
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