Current Events > The end of AC Valhalla outdid AC2 in the batshit crazy department

(+) Yeah! (+)

Well really it's not even the end end, but man I never thought they'd make me say "What the fuck?" like the end of AC2 did again and yet here we are.

So whatever the end end of this game is I don't think I'm ready >_>
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They going back to series roots?

It's been a while since I felt that moment with the series. AC2 was definitely memorable on that regard, so looking forward to what Valhalla can offer!
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Spoil it for me

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AC2's ending was so mind-crushingly cool and awesome. I can't believe how far that series fell with AC3 (well, the modern day stuff at least).

Which in some ways made the self-awareness of the modern day stuff in AC4 refreshing. It was basically one huge self-criticism on Ubisoft, but well done.

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Colorahdo posted...

Spoil it for me

Okay so (this is actually a lot longer than I thought it'd be lol, and I'm gonna gloss over some stuff assuming you've played Origins/Odyssey)

Layla relives the memories of Eivor because Layla/Shaun/Rebecca received a mysterious message that contained the coordinates to where Eivor was buried. They figured it was related to their quest to save the world (again), so they run with it. Eivor was alive in the late 9th century.

As you play through the game it's revealed that the reason Eivor keeps having visions of Odin is because she is legitimately the reincarnation of Odin. It's revealed through "dreams" that Odin and Freya and the other Aesir "escaped" Ragnarok (which was just the exact same event as the catastrophe that killed off the Isu we've known about the entire time) by uploading their consciousnesses to Yggdrasil - which was actually a supercomputer built deep in a mountain in Norway, with the ability to reincarnate the people stored in it in babies born across the world. It acts similar to what the series has already presented with the Sages and Aita. Yggdrasil also acts similar to an Animus, creating simulations for the people uploaded to it. The people born like this have a black mark on the right side of their neck.

As another part of the story, Sigurd (Eivor's "brother", the son of her adoptive father) is taken and tortured by a member of the Order of Ancients obsessed with the Isu (who she sees as the real gods) to "unlock" the god inside him. This culminates in her cutting off his right arm as part of the torture, which ends up working, as Sigurd realizes he is the reincarnation of Tyr (who had his arm bitten off by Fenrir) himself.

So Sigurd takes Eivor back to Norway to find Yggdrasil because he now realizes that it's now their "ultimate destiny" to use the machine to enter Valhalla. So they do find the machine and get uploaded. You play through a couple "days" in Valhalla and Eivor starts to realize that it's all fake and isn't what she wants at all (the straw that broke the camel's back being Sigurd having her father appear, who Eivor knows didn't deserve/wouldn't be in Valhalla based on how he died), so she tells Sigurd they need to leave. Sigurd agrees, but as they go to leave Odin's consciousness tries to prevent Eivor's from returning to her body, but you fight him a bit and Eivor ends up defying him.

Eivor awakens (after Sigurd has) and finds that Sigurd is being held with a knife to his throat by Basim (who is one of the Hidden Ones/Assassins from the Middle East you've been working with throughout the game). Basim starts going on about a bunch of shit (like how he should have realized Eivor was Odin), which makes it clear that he is in fact the reincarnation of Loki (which hilariously neither Eivor or Sigurd ever actually figure out themselves), and he wants revenge on Eivor/Odin for what he did to "his son" (Fenrir). It's pretty clear that Loki's consciousness has actually completely overtaken Basim's in Basim's body, and you fight him for a bit, before eventually overpowering him and Sigurd manages to reactivate Yggdrasil, which grabs Basim and reuploads him into the machine. Some small shit happens with Eivor and Sigurd after that that depends on other choices you've made.

So Layla awakes in the present day again with Shaun and Rebecca, and somehow they deduce that Yggdrasil is actually the machine that was activated when Desmond sacrificed himself at the end of AC3 in 2012 to save the world. The machine is now becoming "overclocked" (for lack of a better term) after running for 8 years, and threatening to kill all humanity (which is supposed to happen anyways, but that's part of the overarching plot).

Layla travels to Norway (with the Staff for protection because the machine is giving off a lot of heat+radiation) to attempt to "slow" the machine down (not turn it off, because that would also result in everyone dying). She gets to the machine, and it ends up grabbing her and uploading her into it. In the machine, she runs into Loki/Basim, who reveals he was the one who sent the message to find Eivor's body, and he presents Layla with the button she needs to press to slow the machine down. She does press it, and Loki and the Nornir (who were in the background) disappear. Then a humanoid figure made of light named "The Reader" (who is clearly some form of Desmond, it's voiced by Nolan North!) appears, who reveals that he is using the machine to constantly run and rerun calculations for how to save the world again (but permanently), but can't figure it out. Layla suggests he's running the calculations from the wrong spot, and says she needs to stay and help him. The Reader tells Layla it'll take a long time, and she can't stay, because the radiation will kill her body in too short a period of time. She objects, because the Staff should be protecting her, but then she realizes that when the machine grabbed her she dropped it. She realizes that this is her destiny/purpose, and decides to stay to help figure out the solution, so she sacrifices herself a la Desmond (meaning we're going to be moving on to a new protagonist again).

BUT then it cuts back to reality...and the machine has released the body of Loki/Basim, who is alive (despite being like 1200 years old). He ends up grabbing the Staff, which restores him to the health/appearance he was at 1200 years ago. He talks to Aletheia (whose consciousness is in the staff), and refers to her as "my love", and says he's going to reunite his family. So basically it's revealed that Aletheia is Angrboda (Loki's mistress and mother of Fenrir, Jormungandr, and Hel), and basically the whole goal of the last 3 games (from her and Loki's perspective) was to get Layla the Staff from Kassandra, and to get Layla to Norway to get Loki the Staff. Obviously this sets them up as the new "big bad" going forward but it's not clear exactly what they want. Also the button actually did what Layla wanted (slowing down Yggdrasil), but also released Loki.

Loki (presenting as Basim, who is now the playable character!) then feeds Shaun/Rebecca some bullshit and they give him a rundown of what's happened with the Hidden Ones/Order of Ancients as time has passed, and he asks to meet William Miles. They leave to go get him, and then Loki uses the Animus to relive the remainder of Eivor's memories with the goal of taking advantage of the bleeding effect (I *think* to get Odin's memories? He wouldn't need anything else).

But on that note I don't understand why Shaun/Rebecca wouldn't realize that Basim is Loki? Because it sure comes across as them having no idea.

I haven't beaten beaten the game yet so we'll see.

>______> Have fun reading that.
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^what the fucking fuck did I just read

I only played through 1, 2, B, R, and 3 though. I have BF, Unity, Syndicate, and Odyssey but haven't played any of them yet

That shit sounds insane. I loved that about 2's ending though.

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That was a fun read but I stopped caring after 3 so I recognized almost nothing in that post lol. I liked the ending to 2 which is why I bothered looking at this topic.

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Bio1590 posted...

Okay so (this is actually a lot longer than I thought it'd be lol, and I'm gonna gloss over some stuff assuming you've played Origins/Odyssey)

Layla relives the memories of Eivor because Layla/Shaun/Rebecca received a mysterious message that contained the coordinates to where Eivor was buried. They figured it was related to their quest to save the world (again), so they run with it. Eivor was alive in the late 9th century.

As you play through the game it's revealed that the reason Eivor keeps having visions of Odin is because she is legitimately the reincarnation of Odin. It's revealed through "dreams" that Odin and Freya and the other Aesir "escaped" Ragnarok (which was just the exact same event as the catastrophe that killed off the Isu we've known about the entire time) by uploading their consciousnesses to Yggdrasil - which was actually a supercomputer built deep in a mountain in Norway, with the ability to reincarnate the people stored in it in babies born across the world. It acts similar to what the series has already presented with the Sages and Aita. Yggdrasil also acts similar to an Animus, creating simulations for the people uploaded to it. The people born like this have a black mark on the right side of their neck.

As another part of the story, Sigurd (Eivor's "brother", the son of her adoptive father) is taken and tortured by a member of the Order of Ancients obsessed with the Isu (who she sees as the real gods) to "unlock" the god inside him. This culminates in her cutting off his right arm as part of the torture, which ends up working, as Sigurd realizes he is the reincarnation of Tyr (who had his arm bitten off by Fenrir) himself.

So Sigurd takes Eivor back to Norway to find Yggdrasil because he now realizes that it's now their "ultimate destiny" to use the machine to enter Valhalla. So they do find the machine and get uploaded. You play through a couple "days" in Valhalla and Eivor starts to realize that it's all fake and isn't what she wants at all (the straw that broke the camel's back being Sigurd having her father appear, who Eivor knows didn't deserve/wouldn't be in Valhalla based on how he died), so she tells Sigurd they need to leave. Sigurd agrees, but as they go to leave Odin's consciousness tries to prevent Eivor's from returning to her body, but you fight him a bit and Eivor ends up defying him.

Eivor awakens (after Sigurd has) and finds that Sigurd is being held with a knife to his throat by Basim (who is one of the Hidden Ones/Assassins from the Middle East you've been working with throughout the game). Basim starts going on about a bunch of shit (like how he should have realized Eivor was Odin), which makes it clear that he is in fact the reincarnation of Loki (which hilariously neither Eivor or Sigurd ever actually figure out themselves), and he wants revenge on Eivor/Odin for what he did to "his son" (Fenrir). It's pretty clear that Loki's consciousness has actually completely overtaken Basim's in Basim's body, and you fight him for a bit, before eventually overpowering him and Sigurd manages to reactivate Yggdrasil, which grabs Basim and reuploads him into the machine. Some small shit happens with Eivor and Sigurd after that that depends on other choices you've made.

So Layla awakes in the present day again with Shaun and Rebecca, and somehow they deduce that Yggdrasil is actually the machine that was activated when Desmond sacrificed himself at the end of AC3 in 2012 to save the world. The machine is now becoming "overclocked" (for lack of a better term) after running for 8 years, and threatening to kill all humanity (which is supposed to happen anyways, but that's part of the overarching plot).

Layla travels to Norway (with the Staff for protection because the machine is giving off a lot of heat+radiation) to attempt to "slow" the machine down (not turn it off, because that would also result in everyone dying). She gets to the machine, and it ends up grabbing her and uploading her into it. In the machine, she runs into Loki/Basim, who reveals he was the one who sent the message to find Eivor's body, and he presents Layla with the button she needs to press to slow the machine down. She does press it, and Loki and the Nornir (who were in the background) disappear. Then a humanoid figure made of light named "The Reader" (who is clearly some form of Desmond, it's voiced by Nolan North!) appears, who reveals that he is using the machine to constantly run and rerun calculations for how to save the world again (but permanently), but can't figure it out. Layla suggests he's running the calculations from the wrong spot, and says she needs to stay and help him. The Reader tells Layla it'll take a long time, and she can't stay, because the radiation will kill her body in too short a period of time. She objects, because the Staff should be protecting her, but then she realizes that when the machine grabbed her she dropped it. She realizes that this is her destiny/purpose, and decides to stay to help figure out the solution, so she sacrifices herself a la Desmond (meaning we're going to be moving on to a new protagonist again).

BUT then it cuts back to reality...and the machine has released the body of Loki/Basim, who is alive (despite being like 1200 years old). He ends up grabbing the Staff, which restores him to the health/appearance he was at 1200 years ago. He talks to Aletheia (whose consciousness is in the staff), and refers to her as "my love", and says he's going to reunite his family. So basically it's revealed that Aletheia is Angrboda (Loki's mistress and mother of Fenrir, Jormungandr, and Hel), and basically the whole goal of the last 3 games (from her and Loki's perspective) was to get Layla the Staff from Kassandra, and to get Layla to Norway to get Loki the Staff. Obviously this sets them up as the new "big bad" going forward but it's not clear exactly what they want. Also the button actually did what Layla wanted (slowing down Yggdrasil), but also released Loki.

Loki (presenting as Basim, who is now the playable character!) then feeds Shaun/Rebecca some bullshit and they give him a rundown of what's happened with the Hidden Ones/Order of Ancients as time has passed, and he asks to meet William Miles. They leave to go get him, and then Loki uses the Animus to relive the remainder of Eivor's memories with the goal of taking advantage of the bleeding effect (I *think* to get Odin's memories? He wouldn't need anything else).

But on that note I don't understand why Shaun/Rebecca wouldn't realize that Basim is Loki? Because it sure comes across as them having no idea.

I haven't beaten beaten the game yet so we'll see.

>______> Have fun reading that.

So I too beat the game and you did a 1000% better job than I ever could explaining that whole section. That being said I understood most of what the game was trying to do except for:

Basim being Loki I did not get at all. I think its because I should have played through the Asgard side quest. I honestly thought Alfred was the reincarnation of Loki as they looked similar?

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ergot

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Captain_Qwark posted...

Did the series ever go back to being an assassin game or is it still generic third person melee combat?

I mean they've all had generic third-person melee combat >_____>

But no Eivor still isn't "technically" a Hidden One/Assassin.

Jiggy101011 posted...

So I too beat the game and you did a 1000% better job than I ever could explaining that whole section. That being said I understood most of what the game was trying to do except for:

Basim being Loki I did not get at all. I think its because I should have played through the Asgard side quest. I honestly thought Alfred was the reincarnation of Loki as they looked similar?

Yes you should have, because the longer you get to look and listen to Loki you can tell it's the same character model/VA as Basim. Plus it makes sense from the sense that a) Loki had to find a different way to "preserve" himself because Odin locked him out of the other method and b) Loki was a Jotun, not an Aesir/Vanir, so it makes sense that he would not reincarnate as a Norse or a Dane.
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Captain_Qwark posted...

Did the series ever go back to being an assassin game or is it still generic third person melee combat?

If you mean to say the game focus, no. Origins has been the standard. If you have a beefy PC check out unity these days though. It's since been patched quite a bit and is incredibly underrated. It also looks better than the three new ones imo. Uses the most refined of the old combat/stealth engine.

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That's pretty weird, but it at least seems like they are trying to steer it somewhat back to where the story was from the first four games, so that's good at least. Hopefully it will bode well for the next game, although they should have done that years ago

So like does that have any implications on a modern story or what?

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Jabodie posted...

So like does that have any implications on a modern story or what?

Well there will be a new main character and there's a new threat in the modern-day.

Outside of that, not sure. If a certain person's consciousness really is floating around in the machine then...
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Batshit crazy in a good way?

For reference, I liked the batshit crazy meta parts of the previous games, with the exception of the way they handled the ending of 3

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I don't even remember how 2 ended other than beating up the pope. Brotherhood was the one that ended with killing Lucy right? Though that turned out to be an absolute nothing twist dictated by real world events.


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Blightzkrieg posted...

I don't even remember how 2 ended other than beating up the pope. Brotherhood was the one that ended with killing Lucy right? Though that turned out to be an absolute nothing twist dictated by real world events.

IIRC the batshit crazy part of 2 was that whole thing with the precursors, finding clues hidden in the Animus that when put together showed "Adam and Eve" escaping the "Garden of Eden" which was actually a precursor city. That and after beating the pope one of the precursors speaks directly to the player dictating what's about to happen, while Ezio is confused.
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