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This has been an ongoing issue within certain side-quests and main quests, especially within story beats in Snotinghamscire and Essexe (although, note, they occur within Mercia and Wessex as well, just not as frequently). It seems that the addressing of gender has been fixed immensely in all DLCs, since I haven't had issue having Eivor misgendered as the opposite choice. But it would be wonderful to have the base game resolved of this issue as well, especially for those of us considering a replay of the story or looking toward a (hopeful) NG+. It can be immersion breaking for myself as well as many others when trying to enjoy our personal play through of the game as the male option, then we are suddenly referred to as a woman.
Additionally, there is a game-breaking moment at the endgame around the campfire of the modern day location in Vinland: spoilerFor a player who chose the male option, spent over 100 in-game hours with this character/immersing into his story, it is game-breaking to suddenly see the female character appear. That character is essentially a stranger to the player, thus has no emotional weight or narrative significance to our play through. It would be the same in the reverse, if a player who chose the female Eivor, suddenly sees the male Eivor appear in a cutscene. This could easily be fixed, by simply scripting the male or female character model's face to be revealed, depending on the player's choice of gender. Yet, it seems the game has shoe-horned everybody in this moment into the "Let the Animus" decide option, which destroys player-choice. I must question, why advertise as a "Role-playing experience" and give the player an option to choose, only to then (seemingly) make one of the choices insignificant and essentially remind them that their choice is "the wrong one" in essence. This was not an issue in past titles, and it is a shame to see this continue within such a great title such as Valhalla so long after its release. I hope we can see this finally resolved upon "Valhalla" reaching its endgame status/built.
This should be a priority for AC: Valhalla to patch moving forward, as it is a well-known bug by Ubisoft for over a year, notoriously discussed amongst much of the fanbase, and game breaking for all. We were advertised that gender was a choice in this game, and I would hope the game itself would support that option and not try to force one, or the other, at any point in our playthroughs.
To recap:
Bug 1: Male Eivor is continuously referred to as a She/Her. This needs to be addressed and patched.
Bug 2: Female Eivor appears spoiler in a cutscene at the end of the game. This needs to be changed to the player's gender of choice, as seeing the opposite gender after 100+ hours playtime, is not just jarring...but is absolutely immersion-breaking and makes the player feel bad for "not picking the right choice" per se. There should not be a "right choice" in a game that has continuously advertised itself as an RPG and preached player-choice, plain and simple. We would not play through an Elder Scrolls title or Elden Ring, then expect to be told at the very end that our character choice was wrong. That destroys both the player's feeling of choice, and their investment into the story.
Thank you for your time and commitment to resolving all our reported issues over the years, and shaping Valhalla into a game that all players can enjoy. Here's hoping we can also resolve this big bug before the final patch of the game is set in stone.
