After Apology, Assassin's Creed Odyssey Changes Controversial DLC

Assassin's Creed Odyssey has changed the name of a PlayStation 4 Trophy and Xbox One Achievement and adjusted dialogue. This followed a controversy over a plot point in its Shadow Heritage downloadable content. Spoilers follow.

The Shadow Heritage DLC ends with your player character, Alexios or Kassandra, having a child with the daughter or son of a Persian assassin. That plot point suggested they had entered a heterosexual relationship, whereas most of the game allows you to play Alexios or Kassandra as LGBTQ. The studio subsequently apologized for forcing your character into a straight relationship, and later outlined upcoming changes.

The first of these changes is to the Achievement and Trophy name. Completing the chapter had been called "Growing Up," which fans who had played as LGBTQ complained was dismissive. The new Trophy and Achievement is called "Blood of Leonidas." The patch notes for the 1.1.4 update also say it "adjusted a cutscene and tweaked some dialogue in Shadow Heritage." This notably doesn't change the outcome--you still have a child that ties Alexios or Kassandra into the assassin bloodline--but it recontextualizes the plot development.

"Our goal was to let players choose between a utilitarian view of ensuring your bloodline lived on or forming a romantic relationship," creative director Jonathan Dumont said in the apology. "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."

The patch also introduces a New Game Plus mode, makes accessibility changes, and increases the level cap to 99, among various other balance tweaks and bug fixes.