I know the post-content creator stated that he basically, 'didn't know how to add NG+ to Valhalla and make it meaningful'. Well, AC Odyssey did it without a problem. Perhaps he doesn't understand exactly WHY players play NG+. It's to avoid all the grind and start out immediately with all your hard-earned gear and simply replay the story without all the excessive grind. That's what I liked about AC Odyssey NG+... no more hunting down the gear and I could enjoy the game more that way.

However, Valhalla does have a major problem that Odyssey didn't have... Odyssey added MASTER LEVEL point system, so each time you played NG+ you always had places to add skill points. In Valhalla currently, you'll eventually reach a point where you don't have anything to add points to. However, coming to the end, this is a great time for Valhalla to add a new 'master level' points system to the game as well.

I think it's really strange that a game director would state they don't know HOW to add NG+ when it should have already been part of the plan from day one and figured in the planning process. I've replayed Odyssey many times with NG+, continuing to rack up skill points, and making Kassandra more and more the demigod that she is. 🙂

For me, I'd guess the period may be the christianisation of Lithuania in 1387. I think the rivalry between Templar (which would have gone secret from France events in 1312) and Teutonic would be fine to explore, and Lithuanian pagan mythology would be also cool to discover.

I'd love something about Spanish Renaissance or reconquista though, but there is no mythology there.

What is your guess ? What is your wished period ?

I know they were a bit contentious on ye olde internet, but I wanted to offer some after-the-fact river raid praise. Odd, slightly off-kilter praise, sure… but praise nonetheless.
 
So, here it goes: playing the river raids reminded me of a “vertical slice” demonstration; a chunk of a game shown to investors / shareholders / potential funders to whet their appetite and get them to sink some cash. From what I’ve heard, they’re an absurd amount of work and utterly impractical; to show off a “vertical slice,” you’re going to have to have basically completed the lion’s share of game development in the first place. Combat, movement, enemy AI, texture-work, so on and so forth. You’re not showing off “a portion of the game.” You’re showing off the game with some frills still pending.
 
That’s what this felt like, and it showed me that the core components of Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla are pretty rock solid. The combat is fun, stealth is fairly amusing (no longer the path of least resistance, but you’re a Viking. Makes sense you’re not skulking about as much), the climbing / parkour mechanic works well, character animations are smooth (during gameplay), raiding with a crew of miscreants is a blast, the longship handles great, the open world maps were beautifully rendered & designed, the soundtrack is impeccable, and I could keep rambling.  
 
Point is, river raids reminded me that this game franchise still has a solid foundation and got me to start playing AC: Valhalla again after quitting two months ago. A lot of the little details and “frills” of this game had burned me out. I couldn’t look past things like:

The river raids never crashed on me once. They ran perfectly fine with none of the lurking bugbears above in sight. I enjoyed them enough to actually decide that I want to finish beating the game… which, to be frank, I wasn’t planning on doing beforehand. This was going to be the first Assassin’s Creed I didn’t finish, and I was perfectly fine with that. As a fan, you were totally losing me.

So yeah, thanks for the river raids. Nice to get a reminder of what’s underneath the proverbial hood, and I had a genuinely good four hours doing it. I doubt fans like me were the intended audience for it, but if so... it worked.