In Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey, players are able to romance any romanceable NPC regardless of selected gender at the beginning of the game. These romance scenes are completely alike, except for the gender of the player character. Fans and critics have praised the series for its decision to include sexual fluidity, mirroring the norms of the time the game takes place in. Others have critiqued it, saying certain representations are harmful stereotypes and that queer relationships should not always be portrayed as the same as non-queer relationships or that the gay options skew towards WLW (women loving women) relationships.

Additionally, controversy over the game’s second episode of the Legacy of the First Blade DLC, Shadow Heritage, added to the ire towards the game’s representation of same-sex relationships. In this second episode, regardless of previous actions with NPCs in-game, players found their characters forced into a heterosexual relationship where they had a child. Following the outrage over this, Ubisoft and the game’s creative director made several apologies and patched the DLC content to make the relationship able to be non-romantic and purely for bloodline continuation. Fans and critics have also critiqued this patch, saying it doesn’t fix the underlying problem. Despite this, GLAAD nominated Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey as part of its first ever gaming category of its annual awards for outstanding LGBTQ representation in media, saying that “progress can sometimes be messy“.

LGBTQ references in this game series:

Assassin’s Creed (2007): Abu’l Nuqoud

Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood (2010): Leonardo da Vinci and Salaì

Assassin’s Creed III (2012): Harlan Cunningham and Arend Schut Cunningham

Assassin’s Creed: Unity (2014): Marquis de Sade, Chevalier d’Éon

Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate (2015): Jacob Frye, Maxwell Roth, Ned Wynert, Lewis

Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey (2018): Romance Options and Controversy

See QRM’s entry for this game.

Citations:

1. Alexandra, H. (2019, January 15). Assassin’s Creed Odyssey’s Latest DLC Has A Romantic Ending You Can’t Change. Retrieved from https://kotaku.com/assassins-creed-odysseys-latest-dlc-has-a-romantic-endi-1831784459
2. Arif, S. (2019, January 18). Ubisoft Apologizes to Players for Assassin’s Creed Odyssey DLC Controversy. Retrieved from https://www.ign.com/articles/2019/01/18/ubisoft-apologizes-to-players-for-assassins-creed-odyssey-dlc-controversy
3. Chabb. (2018, October 7). r/assassinscreed – The male romance options are incredibly lackluster…. Retrieved April 28, 2020, from https://www.reddit.com/r/assassinscreed/comments/9m9fco/the_male_romance_options_are_incredibly_lackluster/
4. Dale, L. K. (2019, February 28). Assassin’s Creed Odyssey’s Patched DLC Doesn’t Really Fix That Romance Problem. Retrieved from https://www.kotaku.co.uk/2019/02/28/unsurprisingly-ac-odysseys-patched-dlc-doesnt-really-fix-that-romance-problem
5. Durkee, B. (2019, January 25). GLAAD celebrates the first nominees for Outstanding Video Game in the GLAAD Media Awards. Retrieved from https://www.glaad.org/blog/glaad-celebrates-first-nominees-outstanding-video-game-glaad-media-awards
6. Durkee, B. (2019, January 25). An odyssey of progress: The nomination of ‘Assassin’s Creed’ for a GLAAD Media Award. Retrieved from https://www.glaad.org/blog/why-we-nominated-assassins-creed-odyssey-outstanding-video-game
7. Morgan, J. D. (2019, August 31). Assassin’s Creed Odyssey Got Ancient Greek Sexuality Right. Retrieved from https://gamerant.com/assassins-creed-odyssey-sexuality-romance-options/
8. Queenie. (2018, November 16). Assassin’s Creed Odyssey: Queer, but not really. Retrieved from https://queerqueenlywriting.wordpress.com/2018/11/16/assassins-creed-odyssey-queer-but-not-really/
9. Totilo, S. (2019, January 25). LGBTQ Group Nominates Assassin’s Creed Odyssey For An Award, With A Caveat. Retrieved from https://kotaku.com/lgbtq-group-nominates-assassin-s-creed-odyssey-for-an-a-1832068292
10. Various. (n.d.). Assassin’s Creed Series. Queerly Represent Me. Retrieved from https://queerlyrepresent.me/title/assassins-creed-series