#assassinscreedapalooza

[wonderwafles]

This game RULES btw. I think it deserves a lot more positivity than people have been giving it

#assassinscreedapalooza #ac valhalla #the story is so interesting

[wonderwafles]

The Beowulf mission was nice but I think the main attraction was Wulfhilda (who, I think is supposed to be Wulfhilda of Barking??), a nun tasked by the church to investigate the unexplained and supernatural, which is frankly a premise on its own that could launch a great TV show

#assassinscreedapalooza

[wonderwafles]

Basim reliving Eivor’s past in the Animus is so strange and fun and creepy. How would Eivor feel if she knew that the Assassin she fought at Yggdrasil is like... watching her every move, from far in the future? 

#assassinscreedapalooza

[wonderwafles]

One thing I do enjoy about the Isu reincarnation thing is that being an Isu reincarnation doesn't seem to really get you anything. Fulke, and Sigurd for most of the game, are obsessed with the idea that this connection to the Precursors makes you superhuman, better, stronger, more knowledgeable than the rabble. Which also lays the groundwork of the OoA/proto-Templar worldview. When in actuality all that being a past Isu gets you is the Order of Ancients up your ass to experiment on you + a little guy in your head yelling at you to commit war crimes

#plus — in the case of basim — ancient grudges over people that died an eon ago #that you just can't let go until they subsume you #assassinscreedapalooza

[wonderwafles]

Bayek's Hidden One outfit, him walking by the storyteller talking about him, dropping a Drachma, and saying "sounds like quite a man..." Sir are you aware that you are my everything

#i decided to get the hidden ones dlc c: #assassinscreedapalooza

[wonderwafles]

Judgment of Atlantis was so fun. I enjoyed it more than I did Elysium or Hades, although I liked those well enough. The ending felt not great to me; after all the time I spent trying to help the humans in the city, including shutting down the experimentation labs and apprehending Juno and Aita, the fact that it all concludes with Poseidon destroying the city (and the Isu residents, apparently, being okay with this?), without anything I did affecting the outcome, was a bit of a let down.

I know, I know, it's Atlantis, it was always going to end at the bottom of the sea! But I genuinely did like most of this DLC and being Dikastes, so I wish Ubisoft had... linked the first and the last parts together more satisfyingly, I guess?

The conclusion that because Atlantis is a flawed society it must be destroyed is uhhhh not the outcome I would choose, anyway. Am I supposed to see the sense in what Poseidon decided at the end? Because I don't!

#i did really love being that deep in the isu era though <3 #assassinscreedapalooza

[wonderwafles]

I got Assassin's Creed Origins and Valhalla the other night on a fairly generous sale! (I already have Odyssey but still haven't finished it.) Playing them has reminded me of how I used to be really, really into AC back in the day. I still have the old GameInformer about Revelations somewhere that I used to obsess over. I want to get back into it.

I want to finish these new ones up before Mirage comes out next year, and I kind of want to semi-liveblog about it too! For tagging purposes I'll put it under #assassinscreedapalooza. So, you know. Be advised.

#i dont liveblog very frequently so don't worry #it won't be like ten posts an hour #more like one or two a day if i remember to #but come talk to me about assassin's creed if you want! #me talking #assassinscreedapalooza

[wonderwafles]

Okayyy I am backtracking what I said about the Valhalla arcs, as I get further along I'm starting to see the sense in them. I like that characters *do* come back and have their stories continued in different areas. It's an open world, but with a structured and partitioned way of progressing through the story. Which I like a lot actually

#assassinscreedapalooza #still greatly enjoying the story

[wonderwafles]

Okay, so. I spared Nikoloas in Megaris when the game gave me the option, but then the game makes references later on to his death and disappearance. I am mystified by this, as unlike certain other games I have played Odyssey seems well-equipped to handle me making decisions that affect the narrative and world, without obliquely pretending like it never happened in order to maintain narrative cohesion.

I meet Stentor much later in the game who accuses me of killing his father. Kassandra does not deny this for some reason. I assume that Odyssey has well and truly decided that my decision in Megaris doesn't matter.

But wait! In that very same quest, I not only meet Nikoloas again, but tell him to reconnect with Stentor, whom he has let think he's dead for some ungodly reason. I feel pretty good that my decision finally matters.

And yet! After the Battle for Boetia Stentor challenges me to a fight to the death for "killing" his father. At no point does Kassandra tell him she didn't do that, OR that she literally just met Nikoloas the night before and told him to go find Stentor. It comes to the brink of blows because of this. Then, Nikoloas finds them and breaks it up, but Stentor and Kassandra don't exchange any words at all, presumably because it's hard to know what to say to the person who let you think she killed your dad for absolutely no reason whatsoever. What a storyline, thank you Odyssey

#assassinscreedapalooza

[wonderwafles]

Say what you will about the dialogue wheel in Odyssey (I have my own qualms) but I DO appreciate that it gives me the opportunity to debate with lovely, annoying Greek philosphers

#assassinscreedapalooza #i love you sokrates

[wonderwafles]

I forgot how much I like the opening menu for Odyssey, the one with (what I assume to be) Alexios and Poseidon with the background of the menu music! It’s neat and gets my Isu-fan brain roaring

The game tells me the last time I played was in August 2020, and I was level 20 then. Like with Origins I don’t remember enough of the story, so I’m starting over... should be fun!

#assassinscreedapalooza #i AM a bit confused as to the leap in layla's story without the dlc #i will probably have to get those some day

[wonderwafles]

I've finished Origins... sort of! I've become aware that I do not have any of the dlc, so while Bayek and Aya's story ends in a fairly satisfying (if HEART-BREAKINGLY SAD) way, Layla has been left after only just encountering Desmond's dad... I think. Unless there's a continuation of that story I haven't been able to access in the base game. (I know there are other locations that follow Bayek's story, but the end of the base campaign is still pretty good as a "for now" ending.)

I do know some of the connective tissue between Origins and Odyssey, like Layla being recruited into the Assassins, so I'm not too worried about that. We'll see how confused I get when I start Odyssey again for the first time in four-ish years...

Okay, now my main point: I LOVED Origins. My heart broke for Bayek and Aya, sorry, Amunet, and it was a surprisingly welcome, um, surprise to see the good old Assassin's Bureaus around again once you finish the main game. I was pleased to see how many of the fledgling Assassins in the new Order were characters you'd interacted with before and grown attached to. I wouldn't call Origins an ensemble cast per se, but it was very believable how the story brought all those characters to that point.

My only qualms came later in the story, mostly after Cleopatra became Queen, and it's mostly about how we don't really get to know what Bayek was thinking and feeling about the Order being formed. It felt like we went from a very character-driven story about Bayek and Aya to a somewhat less so one once it came time to found the Order. We know what Aya was feeling (and that writing was very good), but what about Bayek? Did the man who started out on this path to avenge his son regret being absorbed utterly into the life of a killer for the Greater Good(tm)? Might he have preferred to go home with Aya and start their lives over again? I'm okay with Bayek's becoming an Assassin being something of a tragedy, I think that's fascinating, but I wish we had gotten more on that.

Other than that though I loved this game. Well worth the ten bucks to re-buy it :P Bring on Odyssey!

#assassinscreedapalooza #i have a lot of areas left to explore in that game #and i do intend to go back and explore them! #but for the purposes of the playthrough i am moving on for now

[wonderwafles]

The Fate of Atlantis absolutely rules so far!!

#the scene where layla relives deimos killing phidias?? ooooouuughhh #the melancholy of kassandra realizing she's doomed to outlive the world she knows #contrasted with layla exploring ancient decrepit versions of the ancient greek ruins?? #omg #assassinscreedapalooza

[wonderwafles]

I sneak into Sokrates' house without killing the guards or even alerting any of them, just so I can show him that I've been thinking philosophically about what he said about killing people, only to get upset when the game pretends like I killed them anyway. I'm so whipped

#SORRY. i am going to be annoying about this #assassinscreedapalooza

[wonderwafles]

This is kind of weird to say but I love Sokrates' face in Odyssey. It's very warm and clever at the same time

#sorry about this but i might have a fictional character crush #assassinscreedapalooza

[wonderwafles]

PHOIBE!!

#NOOOOOO #assassinscreedapalooza