During the Ubisoft Forward live stream earlier this week, Ubisoft confirmed that players would be able to change the genders of protagonist Eivor (from male to female and vice versa) at will and at any time in the game.

The same goes for romance in the game, as Eivor’s gender will not limit or change any of the available romance options that will be present in the final game. This means that players can romance anyone and everyone possible regardless of what gender they choose.

Speaking with IGN, Ubisoft’s Youssef Maguid confirmed that “there are multiple people you can romance in the game, and you can romance all of them as either gender.” This won’t exactly be new, as Assassin’s Creed Odyssey already featured the mechanic of romance options not being restricted by the player’s gender back in 2018.

Male Eivor (left), Female Eivor (right).

However, the main difference between the two games is that Alexios and Kassandra in Odyssey are two different characters, while both male and female Eivor are essentially the same character albeit in different genders.

To explain this new gender-switching mechanic, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla narrative director Darby McDevitt attributed it an upgraded Animus. He said:

“To explain why would spoil a long-running secret, but I will say that the whole reason for why you can switch [Eivor’s gender] back and forth fully embraces the often-overlooked science fiction nature of our series.”

Assassin’s Creed Valhalla is slated to release for the PS4 and Xbox One, as well as PC via the Epic Games Store, Uplay, and Stadia on 17 November 2020. It’s also coming to PS5 and Xbox Series X, but a release date was not announced.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrwKP2iTPb8&w=560&h=315]