History VideoGame / AssassinsCreedOdyssey

** LightningBruisers use battle axes as their primary weapon. Axes (along with war hammers and war clubs also available to the Eagle Bearer in the game) had long since fallen out of use as weapons of war by the time of the Peloponnesian War; with the exception of archers, javelin skirmishers, and slingers (the latter two of which aren't enemy types in the game), the spear was the primary weapon of all Greek infantry.

* StatuesqueStunner: Kassandra is easily 6 feet tall ... and far from the tallest woman in the game. And that's not even taking into account the female Isu, who stand in the area of 9 feet.

* SpotTheImpostor: Occurs during the penultimate mission of the Kythera main quests, where the Eagle Bearer has to discern [[spoiler:which of the twin sisters Diona and Eritha are the Cultist.]] You can try to guess which is which when you confront them, or [[spoiler:use Ikaros to identify them before approaching]]. For what it's worth, a certain phrase which repeatedly appears throughout the quest line (including the quest names) provides a helpful hint.

* FanDisillusionment: Two major sources: the choice of Kassandra as the canon Eagle Bearer (player data revealed two-thirds of players picked Alexios as their first playthrough) and Legacy of the First Blade's [[spoiler:forced romance with Natakas/Nema, which even triggered minor condemnation from GLAAD who had initially highly praised the game's choice-based romance system.]]

* FieldPromotion: Seems to happen all the time in conquest battles. Every time you kill an enemy captain, a random mook in the area gets promoted a few seconds later, presumably taking over as the closest ranking officer.

** The whole point of the "Whistle" button is to hide in a safe spot, wait for an enemy to walk by and lure them away from their buddies for a stealth kill. If you do it right, whole forts can be cleared out without any mook being the wiser. No matter how many are in the group, only one will come at a time. If you whistle a Daughter of Artemis, she will leave her wolf behind. Remain in the bush and you can remain hidden even as the mook screams and gurgles around. Even with the tough mooks, upgrade your skills right and you can even turn a Critical Assassination into a guaranteed kill.

* SuperPersistentPredator: Predatory animals will give chase over huge distances for the grievous offence of coming vaguely near them. The gods have mercy on you if a lynx pack catches you on foot while you're ill-prepared to fight them. They'll even follow you smack-dab into the middle of crowded, ''guarded'' settlements (and promptly get slaughtered by the soldiers there.))

** The Cult Guards are as close as something in this setting can get. "Recruited" from roofied Olympian athletes, then juiced up with a mysterious serum that pushes their physical attributes to their absolute limits, they're faster, stronger and more resilient than any other human opponent in the game. Even the most basic cult guard is roughly on par with Greek elite soldiers (with the added perk of being able to block ''anything'' with their oversized shields, including attacks enemies normally can't block), and the [[AmazonBrigade all-female Scions]] with their SheFu are {{Lightning Bruiser}}s that make even Greek army captains look like wimps in comparison.
** Deimos was kidnapped by the cult to become this. [[spoiler:They were brought up under a strict regiment of what Chrysis calls "strength" and the Eagle Bearer calls "torture", turning them into a brutal, unstoppable force to be reckoned with. Their Isu blood grants them superior strength, resilience, and power to other human beings, and they often end up cutting down even seasoned warriors in the battlefield with little effort.]]

* SwordAndSandal: The game is set in Ancient Greece amidst the political turmoil and chaos of the Peloponnesian War. Additionally, the Eagle Bearer and every armed participant in the conflict uses swords, spears and other weapons in addition to wearing sandals on their feet. The game certainly qualifies as an non-Roman example of this trope.
* SwordSparks: Every successful parry in melee combat produces a spectacular lightshow of these, regardless of the weapons involved (even barehanded).

* TemptingFate: "Surely, he can swim." said by the Eagle Bearer after Sparta's Olypmic Pankration champion, Testikles, accidentally falls off a dock and into the sea. [[spoiler:He ends up getting eaten by a shark.]]
* ThatManIsDead: The [[spoiler:sibling you don't choose for your avatar]] renames themselves as [[spoiler:Deimos]], and refuses to acknowledge their birth name.

* TrueCompanions: The Eagle Bearer forms one with Barnabas, Herodotus, Sokrates, Hippokrates, Aristophanes, and Alkibiades. Not only do the others become some of the player character's biggest supporters and friends, they also work to help discredit Kleon in the eyes of Athens after he takes over following [[spoiler:Perikles' death]].

** The ultimate Hunter ability, Ghost Arrows of Artemis, lets arrows slip clean through shields, other enemies and even walls. It doesn't matter how many obstacles are between you and your target - if you've tagged it and thus can see it, you can hit it, even if it means shooting through several meters worth of fortress walls. The legendary Athenian War Hero Armor set gives all arrows a weaker version of this ability that can "merely" pierce shields as its unique SetBonus.

** During the original quest that Hippocrates sends the player on to retrieve his notes from a nearby fort, he will warn the Eagle Bearer to be fast, as the man he's trying to heal is on borrowed time. If you disregard this and decide to follow the Priest quest chain instead and/or wait with the military doctor until he finishes with his own patient (rather than threatening or paying him off) Hippocrates' patient ''does'' actually die and he will scold the player lightly for not priorititizing the man's life.

* TheUnreveal: In the modern day stuff, Layla tries asking the Assassins who were present at the conclusion of ''Uprising'' just how they got out of an exploding lab and away from Otso Berg without dying. They refuse to answer because they're still getting over the events in question.

** Freeing captives from bandit strongholds is normally a nice thing to do, unless you deliberately use them as a distraction because any surviving bandits they come across ''will'' attack them on sight, which usually results in the entire bandit garrison leaving their valuables undefended for your looting pleasure at the cost of the lives of the poor shmucks you just "freed".

* WakeUpCallBoss: The Cyclops can be this, especially on Nightmare difficulty. If you intend to assassinate him stealthily, you're in for a nasty surprise, because as soon as you get in range, a cutscene triggers where the Eagle Bearer confronts him openly. Not only is he a massive brute who hits like a truck, with a ton of health compared to what you've been fighting so far, he has two mooks with him, one of whom will double team you with the Cyclops in melee while the other pelts you with arrows from afar. On top of ''that,'' the fight takes place in a bandit stronghold, and if you haven't cleared it out ahead of time, you'll aggro every single one of them, so you're very quickly fighting a battle royale against a dozen enemies at once. If you haven't mastered the fighting mechanics and invested in some decent Warrior skills, you're in for a world of hurt.

-->'''Eagle Bearer:''' Surely this is the after effects of the mushrooms. I remember the chicken coop. I remember the farmer's field. I do not remember building a Trojan horse.

** The Kingfisher is a monstrous bastard, but his backstory's rough. [[spoiler:When he was a kid, he and his brother got separated in a storm, and he nearly drowned. By the time he recovered and got home, he found his father had died of grief, and his brother had become a slave]].
** Deimos. While they've become a rather terrifying, volatile {{Tykebomb}}, they've had an ''intensely'' terrible upbringing. [[spoiler:They were thrown off a cliff as an infant and brought up under the "care" of a dangerously insane cultist, who fed them propaganda about their family hating them, and twisted their worldview so they'd view themselves as a god. There aren't many specific details about their upbringing, but Chrysis describes it as "giving them pain" and their older sibling calls it "torture". In the final confrontation, they describe a time from their childhood where they watched a friend get torn apart by a lion.]] They don't seem to have any real friends or support, and even their delusions of being worshipped are only that; ''delusion''. The cult merely fears and uses them, seeing them as little more than a disposable weapon. The worst part? They're so indoctrinated they don't even realize how miserable they are anymore.

** '''Chrysis.''' [[spoiler:Tortures Deimos from infacy to indoctrinate them, and she'll set a temple with a baby in it on fire to cover her escape when you track her down.]]

** Kephallonia, the island the player starts the game on, is described unfavorably by the protagonist (Barnabas, who is only visiting, agrees with the assessment; considering you find him held captive by the Cyclops on that visit). It's a poor island, filled to the brim with bandits, and under the iron fist of an EvilDebtCollector leading a band of goons. One of the two poor villages had to be burned down to stop the spread of a plague. [[spoiler:And depending on your actions, said plague ends up wiping out nearly the entire island, leaving only small pockets of survivors as the plague ravages the island unchecked.]] The place is so backward that neither Athens nor Sparta is interested in running the place.

* YouAllLookFamiliar: As is standard for games of this scale, there's a pool of NPC facial sculpts/body-types/hairstyles which are mixed and matched among npcs--even fairly story-relevant ones, like the player's Athenian allies and most LoveInterest options. Only Kassandra, Alexios, Myrrine, and a few very key figures will have a fully unique face not used by any other [=NPCs=]. The various hairstyles and clothing options do help conceal this fairly well, however.

* ArcVillain: The Huntsman for Chapter 1, and the Tempest for chapter 2.
* ArtisticLicenseHistory: [[spoiler:The montage of Elpidios' life shows the Great Pyramids and the Art/{{Great Sphinx of Giza}} under construction despite the fact that both structures were built thousands of years before the Peloponnesian War]].

* BaitAndSwitchComment: Near the start of Chapter 2, after discovering the existence of the Tempest, The Eagle Bearer and Natakas/Neema want to help the people who were in danger because of Tempest and are trying to convince Darius, who was still planning on leaving, to avoid the order catching up to them. Eventually he states that there's nothing they can do to help the people... without first weakening the Tempest's hold on the region.
* BattleInTheRain: The fight with the Tempest, first against her fleet, then on the beach she washes up on. Curiously, the later does nothing to stop her setting her sword on fire.

** In order to finish the Tempest storyline, you ''have'' to kill her, with no option of sparing her. Even if you just punch her into oblivion, the game won't recognise the fight over until you stab her.

* ContinuityNod: The Order repeat the same mantra as the ones Bayek encountered in ''Origins'' ("the Order is eternal."). Late in the game, the Eagle Bearer can find a note mentioning their origins in Ancient Egypt.

** A bad-tempered old lady asks the Eagle Bearer to kill some mercenaries simply because they were loitering near her favourite drinking spot, and ruining the view.

** In Elyisum, Persephone orders the Eagle Bearer to [[spoiler:kill their own grandfather Leonidas, ostensibly sending him from heaven to hell, because she's threatened by him joining Adonis' rebellion. She sweetens the deal by offering to bring back either Phiobe or Brasidas in exchange.]] When confronted, he'll reveal he knows they're there to kill him. If the Eagle Bearer still hesitates, he'll suggest they bring down a bigger threat of Persephone in his place to placate her. [[spoiler:Said bigger threat is a human hero Hermes recently had them recruit as Persephone's bodyguard--who, unbeknownst to them, is actually working as a spy for the rebellion.]] He has also been nothing but kind to the Eagle Bearer, as he knew Pythagoras, and considers them family. It's up to the player to decide which one to take to Persephone, but either way ''someone'' is going to die and regardless [[spoiler:Persephone convientently comes up with a reason as to why she won't fulfill her offer to bring back Phiobe/Brasidas, even if you followed her orders to a T.]]

* SlidingScaleOfGameplayAndStoryIntegration: The game reframes a lot of the base-game's major mechanics to fit within the story of the DLC. The "war" and "ship reqruitment" mechanics are reframed as bolstering and recruiting for Adonis' rebellion during the Elysium chapter, whereas the "Mercenary" mechanics are reframed as a way to track The Fallen for the Underworld chapter.

** Markos, the protagonists' caretaker and boss, is fond of this. Him sending you out to collect the money he owes you from a different merchant isn't him giving you more work, it's your money "waiting for you" in that town!

** Both Greek factions eventually deploy Strategoi and Marksmen, the undisputed masters of melee and ranged combat, respectively. The Strategoi in particular easily turn into a BossInMookClothing when they spawn as elites due to [[MasterOfAll combining the best traits of all other melee units]], with heavy armor, tons of health, a shield, a spear or heavy polearm, powerful abilities and the agility to follow you everywhere. And woe betide you when they spawn as Polemarchs[[note]]fort commanders or field generals during conquest battles[[/note]], which they will once you reach a high level. Marksmen? They shoot no mere [[AnnoyingArrows Annoying]] [[AvertedTrope Arrows]], and will use special ability shots on you as well.

** One randomly generated quest has a sailor request the Eagle Bearer's help sinking ships, because they lied to get a job about how many ships they've sunk, the grand total of which is one. And it was their own. While they were ''on'' it.
** Near-everything the Eagle Bearer does in the "One Really, Really Bad Day" quest-line ends in death and misery. Clear out some pirates? Those weren't pirates. Try to help a blacksmith? He gets crushed by his own tools. Rescue a horse? Its breeder rides it off a cliff. Try to get a man who'll rally the local villagers? He insists you set him ''on fire'' (and if you don't, picks a fight with you).

* DiscOneNuke: While extremely difficult, it's entirely possible to [[DeathByAThousandCuts whittle down the health]] of a mercenary ''way'' above your level. While the loot they drop is tied to their level and thus unusable for quite a while, any legendary effects the weapon has will be added to your inventory, and can be added to any weapon at any blacksmith. For example, some mercenaries carry legendary gear that always deals fire/poison damage - with patience, time and luck, you can take them down, grab their weapon, and copy the elemental effect to your current one.

* ShoutOut: The War Sword is modeled after the Spider Sword in ''Prince of Persia: Warrior Within'':

** Mercenaries and other characaters, like Odessa and [[spoiler:Deimos]], with unique weapons/armor who can be assigned as Lieutenants on the Adrestia will continue using their weapon/armor despite the fact that the Eagle Bearer pilfered them for themselves.

** Gelon, a pirate captain who the Eagle Bearer meets in Phokis. Only she's lost her ship and crew to a mix of sharks and bandits. The Eagle Bearer can offer her a place on the ''Adrestia'', though.

* OneSteveLimit: Can get a little confusing, with Darius (the Tainted One), Darius (long-dead king of Persia) and Darius, Crown Prince of Persia.

* ShoutOut: ''Prince of Persia'''s Dagger of Time and King's Sword appear as the "Edge of Time" and "The Sword of Kings" legendary weapons (with the latter being one of, if not ''the'', best sword for a warrior build).

* SecretTestOfCharacter: Darius puts the Eagle Bearer through one of these, when sending them against the Recruiter.

* TakeAThirdOption: When the Huntsman tries to sic the relatives of people the Eagle Bearer's killed on them, the player can try to talk their way out, or threaten to attack. There is another option: [[spoiler:let the timer run out. The Eagle Bearer neither justifies or defends themselves, or threatens the innocent people, much to the Huntsman's surprise.]]

* UngratefulBastard: Inverted. A side-quest has a man write a note to the Eagle Bearer complaining about their saving his life—he can barely afford to reward the Eagle Bearer! A later side-quest has him then complain about them saving his brother's farm as well—how dare they continue to help him! And then there's a ''third'' quest, after which he declares that he owes the Eagle Bearer something most precious of all: ''a favor''. Of course, by that point, there's nothing he can possibly do to help the Eagle Bearer. So you'll have to settle for either recruiting him for your ship, or one more priceless treasure.

* WouldHurtAChild: A Persian commander the Eagle Bearer runs into in episode 3 likes using them for slave labor, and it's implied that if he kills the Eagle Bearer, he's going to mutilate the kids afterwards.

* AdaptedOut: Queen Gorgo, the wife of King Leonidas, is nowhere to be seen in the game. Additionally, her only son Pleistarchus is completely absent. Additionally, several important city-states of the period, such as Sikyon, are completely absent due to map size constraints.

*** One Lost Tales of Greece episode punishes you for this; upon completing a quest-line about a village that actively worships the Eagle Bearer as a god because of 3 priestesses taking advantage of them, if the player attempts to claim godhood the village rejects them, throwing them out of town, whereas humbly assrting that they are just human earn's the town's respect.

** The Transmog system turns obtaining weapons and armors into a CollectionSidequest, allowing you to use one item's appearance over an another without changing its stats.

* AndNowForSomeoneCompletelyDifferent: [[spoiler:The Heir of Memory quest momentarily has the player play as Deimos.]]

** As a loot-based game, the player has to switch their appearance constantly... until you start using the transmog system, which allows you to reskin any item into an another item of the same class giving the player more control over their character's looks without sacrificing stat bonuses.
** Mercenaries way above the player's level will ignore the Eagle Bearer even if you have a bounty or they see you commit crimes. This means that running into a bounty hunter 30 levels above you doesn't immediately end in a CurbStompBattle. However, they will still retaliate if attacked.
** If you start a new game (even if it isn't NG+), you don't need to uncover the map again; the areas you've visited stay uncovered. You also don't need to climb every viewpoint, as they are automatically synchronized when you get near them.

** Battlefields are simply chaotic melees of small groups or one-on-one fighting. No attempt is made at showing the famous phalanx formation or other infantry tactics of any kind.

** If you accuse the Cultist Spartan King without sufficient proof, you and your mother are banished from Sparta, you are marked for death and you're physically dragged outside the borders of the city. At which point you can just pay to erase the bounty (you have plenty of money), the Cultist is marked on the map and you can stroll right back into the city and kill him. And then you can stroll right up to the surviving king and tell him what you just did. This was, however, patched out eventually. In later updates, your bounty will remain until the King is dead and you cannot pay it off no matter how much money you have.

* ReallyGetsAround: The protagonists have the option of being this, alongside a woman named Ausexia bragging about it, during her sidequest "Age is Just a Number." You also have [[AnythingThatMoves Alkibiades]].

* ShipperOnDeck: Parodied by Persephone's LoonyFan{{s}}. One of the more common talking points of the group is musing whether Persephone's "soulmate" is [[IgnoredEnamouredUnderling Hermes]] or [[RejectionAffection Adonis]]. Hilariously, her own ''husband'' is not at all considered an option.

** The practice of pederasty, common among Greeks of the time, goes obviously unmentioned. It was especially prevalent in Sparta and enforced with older general and officers allowed to claim as catamites younger officers and this was seen as a manly rite of passage. Athens likewise celebrated this wholly, and Sokrates was even claimed by Xenophon to be a kind of pimp for young tricks.

** Choosing not to follow Brasidas' advice in Korinth has a dominio effect which results in one of the clues for the Sage of the Pelopannisian League becoming this.

** If the Eagle Bearer [[spoiler:got exiled from Sparta for failing to identify which Spartan King is a cultist]], [[spoiler:Pausanias]] just had to [[EvilGloating gloat]] he is the one to them. Plot then immediatly correct itself to the Eagle Bearer killing him, become a champaion for the Spartan army and immediately sailing for the next idiot ball event, which...
** After [[spoiler:Kleon crushed the Spartan army, reveals himself as a cult member and captured the Eagle Bearer]], he tried to kill the Eagle Bearer by leaving them alone with two unarmed guards in a private jail cell...except by then the Eagle Bearer is already a [[spoiler:[[BullyingADragon famous Olympic champion]] in [[UsefulNotes/MixedMartialArts pankration]]]], with the cult having watched the game no less. Naturally, the Eagle Bearer breaks out of jail in 5 minutes and contiune their revenage against the cult.

** EVERYTHING to do with the Delos Islands quest chain. To wit; Podarkes is like any other leader and can be killed almost immediately. [[spoiler:Killing him in this way cuts off almost all of the related sidequests AND will pretty much lock you into the worst ending for the quest chain.]] Likewise, many of the quests have unexpected outcomes or consequences that won't come back to haunt you until much later in the quest chain - and some can't be predicted at all! For instance, [[spoiler:who would have guessed that rescuing that random rebel extremist on the western island and letting him live would lead to him randomly murdering Thaletas during the celebration party...but ONLY if you opted to make a farewell speech?]] To be fair, Sokrates himself comments on that last one, regarding how the smallest actions can have unpredictable outcomes.

* HateSink: The nameless [[TheSyndicate Dagger]] MookLieutenant you encounter at the end of the quest ''Dagger to the Heart''. He's a sadistic SmugSnake ''par excellence'', who forces the Eagle Bearer to make a SadisticChoice between the lives of two innocent people [[EvilHasABadSenseOfHumor for the sake of a terrible joke]]. He's also ''really damn annoying'', given that he spends most of his time on screen [[EvilLaugh cackling his head off]] like the nutjob he presumably is. Luckily, you are able to beat seven kinds of crap out of him regardless of what happens, and you can also [[TakeAThirdOption attack him and his goons from range]], triggering the battle early and bypassing your interaction with him altogether. `

** On a series-wide scale, the RPG choice mechanics that allow you to choose dialogue, determine [[spoiler:which family members live or die]], and even whether you play as Kassandra or Alexios simply do not work in the world of ''Assassin's Creed.'' While the Animus does give its user freedom in how they relive someone's genetic memories, there is a limit to how much freedom the user has and they ultimately must follow a linear path; straying too far from how a memory happened causes desynchronization. Either the memory happened and the Animus can relive it or it didn't, there's no in-between. Someone lived or died at a specific time, and a set of memories can only be relived through the DNA of one person, not applied to two separate people. The game attempts to justify this by explaining that the two sets of DNA (belonging to Kassandra and Alexios) uploaded into the Animus is heavily decayed and information from Herodotus's texts are used to fill the gaps.
** Mercenaries and other characaters, like Odessa and [[spoiler:Deimos]], with unique weapons/armor who can be assigned as Lieutentents on the Adrestia will continue using their weapon/armor despite the fact that the Eagle Bearer pilfered them for themselves.

** Once you complete the game, you'll [[spoiler:get your surviving family members as Lieutenants on the Adrestia, meaning they can assist in boarding crippled ships. While Deimos will have no problems considering his backstory, its very strange seeing Myrrine, Nikolaos and Stentor board Spartan vessels to kill the crew, especially given that MyCountryRightOrWrong is a significant part of their characters]].

* HateSink: The nameless [[TheSyndicate Dagger]] MookLieutenant you encounter at the end of the quest ''Dagger to the Heart''. He's a sadistic SmugSnake ''par excellence'', who forces the Eagle Bearer to make a SadisticChoice between the lives of two innocent people [[EvilHasABadSenseOfHumor for the sake of a terrible joke]]. He's also ''really damn annoying'', given that he spends most of his time on screen [[EvilLaugh cackling his head off]] like the nutjob he presumably is.

* HealThyself: The Second Wind ability from the Warrior tree restores 25%, 33% or 50% of health, depending on its level, at the cost of one adrenaline segment. The third tier also removes any poison or fire effects on the Eagle Bearer on top of the healing. It's generally considered ''the'' must-have ability in the game and should be taken the moment it becomes available.

* RareCandy: Ancient Tablets are required for most ship upgrades, but they're also the only resource you can't just pick up in the wild everywhere, or get from disassembling equipment. They're found in ancient ruins all over the Greek world instead, a measly four pieces at a time, and since most of them are locked behind a BeefGate of some sort, you won't be able to fully upgrade the ''Adrestia'' until well into the late game no matter how much leather, wood or iron you've stockpiled. They can also very rarely be bought from blacksmiths in limited quantities.
* ReallyGetsAround: The protagonists have the option of being this, alongside a woman named Ausexia bragging about it, during her sidequest "Age is Just a Number." You also have Alkibiades.

** While the Ancient Greeks ''did'' have dogs as companions and used them for hunting and herding, the ones seen in-game are modeled after modern breeds like Rottweilers and Labrador Retrievers, rather than the breeds they would have had at the time.