Assassin's Creed Odyssey is set to bring the Ubisoft property further into the roleplaying genre than it's ever been before, and the introduction of dialogue choices was a big step in that direction. Players are now able to select responses in order to learn more about the world, react to events in their own fashion, and ultimately pick their own path forward throughout the game. While many games have overarching choice trees that ultimately lead back to the same ending, the same can't be said for Assassin's Creed Odyssey.

Speaking with Assassin's Creed Odyssey Creative Director Jonathan Dumont, we inquired on how much of an impact dialogue choices will have for Alexios or Kassandra throughout the main storyline. While Odyssey won't throw any skill-checks or hidden sequences into its dialogue system so that players don't end up missing out on content, Dumont did confirm that some large-scale choices will have an impact on which ending players will get:

We don’t want for players to miss out on any big storylines, but you’ll get bits and pieces that could be different, or little endings that are different as well. The choices that you make along the main path have bigger changes that will shape your endings as well, and relationships with characters and all of that stuff.

The fact that there are multiple endings should come as no surprise given that the main protagonist is a mercenary. Players can bounce around in their allegiance throughout the game, though evidently, some high-stakes decisions will impact the storyline on a larger scale. These dialogue branches will make it possible for players to take completely different paths to complete the same quest, and will occasionally open up new romantic encounter opportunities as well.

Jonathan also confirmed that Ubisoft will give gamers the opportunity to lie to characters in these dialogue branches, though when Alexios or Kassandra attempt to deceive others there's a big risk-versus-reward factor attached to it:

Also, we have the option to lie in the game, so if you lie from having doing something you can get caught in a lie. It gives you different rewards. You can try to play with it.

Whatever impact dialogue choices ultimately make in the end, there will be plenty of time to make them: Ubisoft says that Odyssey will take much longer to complete than Origins, a game which was around 30 hours to start with. While player choices will play an important role on what ending will reveal itself before the credits roll, the selection of Alexios or Kassandra will not. Ubisoft confirmed that the same quest options are available to either character, who each have very similar storylines. What will make them unique, says Dumont as he drives the point home, is the player's own choices.

Assassin's Creed Odyssey will release on October 5, 2018 for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.