This piece contains spoilers for Assassin’s Creed Odyssey.
The main quest of Assassin’s Creed Odyssey isn’t really about fighting an evil cult. It’s not even about settling the fate of the Greek world, though, hey, if you’re passing through why not sort that out yeah? Odyssey is a tale of family. Its title evokes the tale of Odysseus trying to return home, and so too is Kassandra. (Oh please, like I played as Alexios.) She’s not headed for her literal home really, but rather to her family. Throughout the course of this journey you’ll confront your step brother, your father, your actual brother, your mother and uh, your real dad. It’s a whole thing. For me though, this isn’t the family Kassandra cared about.
The game itself seems to want to push players towards an attempt to repair broken bonds. Forgive your father (he threw you off a cliff as child) and your brother (he’s the prodigy of a war-mongering cult) and maybe make peace with your step brother (a blind Spartan nationalist hell bent on killing you at nearly every opportunity). Manage all that and keep your mother safe to be rewarded with a saccharine sweet happy ending where you sit down for dinner.
I did not get this ending.
Because that lot? They weren’t my family. Kassandra’s family to me were the surrogate family she’d assembled while adrift in Ancient Greece. The troublesome Markos who took her in when she needed it. Little Phoibe who was all too eager to help and was like a sister to Kassandra. Barnabas, Kassandra’s dearest friend and god-fearing sailor who never hesitated to help her and stand by her across all of Greece. In the end it’s not the nice little villa in Sparta that feels like home but the Adestria, the ship that’s carried you around Greece. A big part of the game is collecting officers for your ship, and that felt like an extension of the idea, Kassandra building a new family for herself.
See, your blood relatives can only be embraced if you forgive all their considerable crimes. Their love is deeply conditional. But this unconventional family? This lot are there for Kassandra no matter the weather, without hesitation. As someone who’s been distanced from their own family, whose friends have become their one and only support network, this is the aspect that earned Odyssey a place in my heart.