"Assassin's Creed: Unity" is the next game in the popular franchise, and Ubisoft has chosen to make a rather strange decision, but not too far away from reason. The company has chosen to do away with the idea of creating a lead female character, much to the dismay of some female gamers.
According to Ubisoft, the reason behind the omission of the female character in the game is because of the amount of work needed to create a female character from scratch. The company did not want to create a female character with male mechanics, and thus the idea was shelved.
Ubisoft did launch a female character in the Assassin's Creed game for the PlayStation Vita, but the character moved similarly to the male characters, and the company did not want to bring such a lackluster creating to the main series. Chances are, the next game should have a female character, but gamers shouldn't hold their breath.
"It's double the animations, it's double the voices, all that stuff and double the visual assets," creative director Alex Amancio told Polygon. "Especially because we have customizable assassins. It was really a lot of extra production work."
Interestingly enough, level designer Bruno St-André claims that creating a female character from scratch would require over 8,000 new animations. However, gamers doubt these claims after Assassin's Creed 3 animation director Jonathan Cooper said on Twitter that it would take just a mere 2 days to get the job done.
He later spoke with Polygon by expanding on what he meant.
"I think what you want to do is just replace a handful of animations. Key animations. We target all the male animations onto the female character and just give her her own unique walks, runs, anything that can give character."
He then said such a move would result in a loss of quality.
Looking at what Ubisoft, it is clear that the company focuses a lot on quality when it comes to 'Assassin's Creed: Unity' and other titles such as 'The Division' and 'The Crew.'
Let's hope Ubisoft finds a way to add female characters in future games. If not, folks should just cease from turning to the constant whining and moaning, for it is not a good look.
