Assassin's Creed Valhalla is the first game in the franchise to tell its story in more of a loop, where you're returning to your settlement after every mission in order to pick the next one. As a result, its story is divided into individual two- to three-hour chunks. Valhalla isn't one long adventure like the previous games, it's individual stories that ultimately add up to one final conclusion.

　　"This inspiration came from the Viking sagas themselves--the sagas of the Icelanders," Assassin's Creed Valhalla narrative director Darby McDevitt told me. "The sagas are not told like the typical hero's journey that you get in most Western literature--a three-act structure, a rise and fall, the call to action, and then the refusal of the call. The sagas are actually more episodic moments in a character's history. And you follow them through a long period of their life. It typically follows them from birth to death, but it's not about having a single driving plot. They feel more like life. How life really is, which is just a series of character building incidences that orbit some themes."

　　You need a javascript enabled browser to watch videos.

　　Click To Unmute

　　Firearms Expert’s FAVORITE Weapons Of 2023

　　State Of Gaming Handhelds In 2023How Lies of P Cracked the Souls GenreLike a Dragon: Infinite Wealth - Official Ichiban Kasuga Character Spotlight TrailerLike a Dragon: Infinite Wealth - Official Chitose Fujinomiya Character Spotlight TrailerLike a Dragon: Infinite Wealth - Official Kazuma Kiryu Character Spotlight TrailerLike a Dragon: Infinite Wealth - Official Saeko Mukoda Character Spotlight TrailerLike a Dragon: Infinite Wealth - Official Eric Tomizawa Character Spotlight TrailerLike a Dragon: Infinite Wealth - Official Tianyou Zhao Character Spotlight TrailerLike a Dragon: Infinite Wealth - Official Seonhee Character Spotlight TrailerLike a Dragon: Infinite Wealth - Official Koichi Adachi Character Spotlight TrailerLike a Dragon: Infinite Wealth - Official Yu Nanba Character Spotlight Trailer

　　Share

　　LinkEmbed

　　Size:640 × 360480 × 270

　　Start at: End at: Autoplay Loop

　　Want us to remember this setting for all your devices?

　　Sign up or Sign in now!

　　Please use a html5 video capable browser to watch videos.

　　This video has an invalid file format.

　　00:00:00

　　HTML5

　　Auto HD High Low

　　Report a problem

　　Sorry, but you can't access this content!

Please enter your date of birth to view this video

　　By clicking 'enter', you agree to GameSpot's

　　Terms of Use and Privacy Policy

　　enter

　　Now Playing: Assassin's Creed Valhalla Is Going Full RPG

　　I've actually seen this first-hand. I played through one of Valhalla's more combat-focused sagas back in July, and then a completely different one in a recent six-hour hands-on. Neither one made reference to the other. They were each self-contained stories that had their own beginning, middle, and end. The only commonality is protagonist Eivor, and I did notice that how I played the character (in regards to dialogue options) in that first saga informed my decisions in the second. So my Eivor was evolving, but the two different sagas could have easily been played in any order and it wouldn't have drastically altered my understanding of either one.

　　"[Valhalla] has a thin through line--there's definitely an emotional through line," McDevitt said. "But what we're more interested in is saying, 'Here's a little two-hour experience and here's another little two-hour experience,' and they're all self-contained. And then they're going to stack on top of each other so that the themes that we're slowly building have more resonance, more and more. And I think actually, for a player of video games, having these two- or three-hour bite sized chunks is actually cool because you're not going to be 40 hours into this game thinking, 'Hey, I want the story to wrap up. It's been a long time.'"

　　GameSpot Newsletters

　　Get the latest gaming news, reviews, and deals sent to your inbox, FREE!

　　Sign Up

　　Sign Up

　　By signing up to receive newsletters, you agree to our Terms of Use and acknowledge the data practices in our Privacy Policy. You may unsubscribe at any time.

　　Thanks for signing up

　　McDevitt added that he hopes that by dividing Valhalla's story into these self-contained segments, it makes it easier to finish the whole game. As Assassin's Creed fans will tell you, the most recent games have been getting fairly long--the last game, 2018's Odyssey, clocked in at 50 hours (and that's just the campaign; that's not even counting the extremely lengthy six follow-up DLC expansions). With Valhalla, the idea seems to be the hope that players will find dozens of two-hour stories to be easier to ultimately finish than one giant story.

　　"Like I said, we're playing a longer game here--there is an undercurrent," McDevitt added. "But we're hoping that these more bite-sized things carry you forward in a unique way."

　　Assassin's Creed News & Announcements

　　Assassin's Creed Valhalla Reminds Me Of Playing Black Flag Assassin's Creed Valhalla: Eivor's Mysterious Identity, Interwoven Story, And Hidden Ones Connection Assassin's Creed Valhalla Has Four Different Editions You Can Pre-Order Soon + Show More Assassin's Creed News & Announcements Links (1) Assassin’s Creed Valhalla Release Date Officially Revealed