In the past, Assassin's Creed has depicted pivotal parts in world history from a variety of unique perspectives. From Assassin's Creed Odyssey's Kassandra to Assassin's Creed 2's Ezio, the ever-changing RPG series has seen several different unique characters observe and play their fictional part in historic events. Now, it seems the next entry will be giving players pure choice in what type of character they wish to play.
Obviously, the choice of playing male or female in Assassin's Creed is not a new concept, but it's typically meant two completely different characters that interact with one another in scenario A or B. Assuming the leaks for Assassin's Creed Ragnarok are true, the next game intends to make the choice of gender completely independent of the story. While this likely can produce challenges in effective storytelling, here's why this could overall be a great change for the series.
True Narrative Flexibility in Assassin's Creed
Perhaps the biggest benefit for this change would be that it balances the experience for players across the board. With Assassin's Creed Syndicate, the entire gameplay dynamic was built on being divided between dual protagonists Evie and Jacob, who basically symbolized different playstyles more than their own distinct personalities. This issue was improved with Assassin's Creed Odyssey's Alexios and Kassandra, but even then there was a clear difference in performance and inflection between both actors. Not only that, but Odyssey also integrated the opposite character in to the story as an adversary anyway, and that difference in character performance can change the impact of every scene.
AC Ragnarok is said to introduce a protagonist named Jora, a singular playable character who players will be able to choose their gender as well as customize their appearance. Should this be true, it provides an opportunity for true balance in narrative design because it forces the game's writing and design to be inherently adaptable. Ragnarok could potentially take the core concepts of flexibility introduced in Odyssey and emphasize an all-encompassing narrative design. Adaptive writing is more challenging to be fair, but it goes a long way in making a fair experience regardless of player choice.
Eliminate the Issue of Who's the Better Assassin
Assassin's Creed Odyssey is still a fantastic game in its own right, but there's always been the question of whether Alexios or Kassandra is "the better choice," so to speak. The way the protagonist/antagonist dynamic was designed in Odyssey's plot made it feel like players were choosing who would be the hero and villain. Since it's a plot-twist that happens relatively early in the story, this fact is not made abundantly clear when players are given the ability to choose which character they will play the game as.
The problem with that is it still pidgeon-holes the characters into a predefined space, despite doing so in a less successful capacity in comparison to Assassin's Creed Syndicate. Once players know this fact, while it does contextualize the character choice itself into the game's narrative, this adds another layer of impact on the initial character choice in Odyssey. It's one thing if a player can envision who's perspective would make the most sense in the world, but it's another when considering who would be a better representation of a villain.
What Jora Can Do Better
Jora's design will likely avoid any kind of gender-specific roles or issues entirely, assuming the AC: Ragnarok leaks are not mostly inaccurate. Not only is it better for inclusivity for Assassin's Creed Ragnarok to have an equivocal gender choice, but it avoids a double-whammy of stereotypes: Viking warriors were traditionally a male-only culture, and that hero stories from any early world history time period only involved men.
Since Assassin's Creed Ragnarok is reportedly going to be based on Vikings and Norse mythology, Ragnarok will likely ignore the many preconceived notions of gender roles found in the Middle Ages. Plenty of research on the Middle Ages has determined that Viking society had the least male-dominated culture compared to other Middle Age civilizations. And since Ubisoft and Assassin's Creed have received flak for lack of diversity, Ragnarok has a chance to continue an upward trend in inclusivity in games. This is exactly why Jora's gender choice is a one-and-done deal, not two characters who will both appear in-game.
Ragnarok will place players within a Viking culture where the importance of gender made little to no difference in the life people led. It makes sense for there to be a gender choice when, in the context of the setting, an RPG in the Viking era would not drastically differ in the story it tells depending on the protagonist's appearance.
Assassin's Creed Ragnarok is reportedly in development for 2020.