So the game director said that 1) they still don't know how NG+ will work for Valhalla (which IMO this should have been considered pre-development as NG+ is a standard feature these days), and 2) that it would probably be one of the last things added to the game. Yet, considering that they plan to add another year of content, so this would mean NG+ won't be available for another year!!

This makes me think that the game director doesn't understand WHY people use NG+. He talked about how to make it 'offer' something to players... but if he understood why people use NG+, it isn't for new features, it isn't for new things it is solely to replay the QUESTS with the gear, currency, and items we spent HUNDREDS of hours in the game to acquire. We DO NOT want to have to endure that grind again, we just want to play from the beginning with our cool stuff, PERIOD. I don't need MORE things or DIFFERENT things, that isn't my incentive for NG+, my incentive is to play from the beginning without the grind attached. GRIND doesn't make me want to play, it makes me NOT want to play!!

I feel that delaying NG+, more and more people are going to LEAVE Valhalla behind and never return! Considering all the bugs that still plague this game, and considering the negative reviews and thoughts on this game currently, it would behoove UBI to add NG+ sooner rather than later, to try and KEEP players playing until new content. Because as of now, once I finish this game, I may well NOT return... not until NG+ is added at least. With NG+, at least I'd have all my stuff... so it would at least make the bugs and other negatives of this game a bit more tolerable.

"This update means that RUNES will only affect the weapon they are socketed in, allowing players to create more targeted loadouts.  

• For example, you could fill your left-hand weapon with Attack runes and your right-hand weapon with Stun runes so that both weapons have very different effects. 
• Some stats will stay global (example: Assassination damages, Fire damages, etc.).  
• No changes have been made to Runes slotted on armor; they will still impact your character as a whole."

So this is coming as part of the patch today, does anyone else see this as a HUGE nerf that they are trying to pass off as a "benefit'?!? I mean, previously we would gain the benefit of whatever weapon rune we had to our entire character stat- now- it will apply to the individual weapon ONLY. So have crit chance on a weapon, now it will not benefit your other weapons too? I don't know of anyone who would want to create 'targeted' loadouts when previously they would apply to both. So I only want my left-hand weapon to stun, but not my right as well? Makes absolutely no sense to me. When I apply a stat, I want it applied to my entire character- and until they make it simpler to switch loadouts (like they did in Odyssey where we had access to five different armor builds), this will be pointless and a huge nerf to the MAJORITY of players.

They also said, "Some stats will stay global..." but perhaps they can share an extended list of WHICH stay global- does crit chance, crit damage?!?

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.

Sadly, this just shows that Ubisoft Montreal studio is a waste of space. They should have figured out how to implement this in the initial development, but instead they were so focused on 'making their own' game and not wanting to follow in the footsteps of the highly successful Odyssey made by Ubisoft Quebec. This shows poor planning and poor direction, but of course at this point they really DO NOT CARE. The game has already made its money, they kept leading people on about NG+ that it was still possible, when they really knew over a year ago they didn't plan to add it. Most of the devs moved on to work on other games, so there was never going to be anyone around to actually code this into the game. All they did was LIE in order to soak in more money from people fully expecting NG+ since the other two recent AC games had it. If it wasn't for Ubisoft Quebec making Project: Red, I would never consider another AC title again. But I will say, anything coming out of Montreal after this, I'm not touching!!

It's sad when people keep saying how CDPR offered refunds... when in fact they knew full well that they wouldn't be the ones offering refunds, it would be up to the retailers, and they knew exactly what their retailers refund policy is, for digital retailers, NO REFUNDS. The only thing they did was a publicity stunt, hoping that some people would fall for it- and they did. Smoke and mirrors was all it was intended to be. Yet, what they weren't expecting was for Sony to get tired of the constant requests for refunds 'because CDPR said so' and decided to offer refunds but only after they pulled the game entirely. Initially Sony was declining requests for refunds, so no, it wasn't an 'agreement' between CDPR and Sony.

@b00msie I love the fact that Odyssey has so much replayability, especially with NG+... love replaying all the stories and side quests. One of my favorite activities is raiding forts... there are so many forts, but the largest ones are the funnest; you can play them in so many different ways.

As for Valhalla, I stopped playing back in early December because of all the bugs. I didn't want to progress the story and get stuck like so many had done. While I didn't hit any major snags up to the point I played, I did have one mission where it never ended, never received the cut scene. I had to reload a save and replay it, and it thankfully the cutscene triggered the second time.

As for people talking about ESO: Blackwood. I've pre-ordered it... played ESO for many years in fact. However, I find I get very bored after awhile when I go back and play it now. It's just so repetitive, no matter what you're doing... you feel like, "didn't I just do this same thing a few quests ago?" The problem is it is so filled with fetch quests, you're endlessly running here and there to collect x, y, or z... then return to finish the quest. While initially I liked the fact that I could keep playing the same game for years, after going back to playing after being gone a couple years, and you suddenly realize that you have SO MANY quests ahead of you, so so many fetch quests. I don't mind repetition, hence why I love Odyssey (and I'm a huge Spartan history fanboy)... but in ESO, the repetition is just... grrrrrrrrrrr. Hopefully when they add 'companions' it'll make it a lot more interesting.

@TheNorfolkian Sadly, I think you are right. Ubi Montreal shot themselves in the foot in their eagerness to 'make it their own' by moving away from Odyssey's EPIC game features. By going the route they did with Mastery Points, they pretty much negated a reason for NG+ right from the start. Then to have the director say, "We aren't sure how to implement NG+ in the game" shows an massive failure by the game developer. WHO doesn't plan from the very beginning how to implement basic game features?!? It shows a completely lack of planning IMO. I believe they wanted to distance themselves from UBI Quebec so badly that they didn't even consider how their decisions would impact later added features. I'm just glad UBI Quebec is making Project Red and not Montreal!

Additional QoL improvements...

Add the ability to 'equip set' instead of having to manually equip each piece of an armor set, as well as giving us gear 'loadouts' so we can save our favorite full set of armor and weapons to be available with a quick select like there was in Odyssey.

@thoughttwenty I have also not seen much for problems on PS4, but I typically wait six months or longer before playing a game just to give them time to deal with bugs/glitches and add more Quality of Life features. Valhalla was the exception simply because... VIKINGS!!

@imaginaryruins Plus, they should base gender upon historical context as well. Kassandra NEVER would have done what she did in Odyssey during that time period... and for hundreds of years after. Women just weren't accepted as 'equal' back then, and while female Spartans had 'some' warrior training- their role was mostly to keep the state running. Athens would never have asked for, nor accepted, a woman's help. So for them to make Kassandra the 'canon' role for that game was historically wrong, let alone the fact they made so many of those mighty mercenaries were women.

Same thing with Valhalla... there is no evidence of any significant (significant as in "named") female warriors let alone female viking kings or jarls. With everything that Eivor is accomplishing in the game, surely them being female would have been a significant historical notation. Yet, the only significant historical vikings we know of, are all male.

Sadly, this just shows that Ubisoft Montreal studio is a waste of space. They should have figured out how to implement this in the initial development, but instead they were so focused on 'making their own' game and not wanting to follow in the footsteps of the highly successful Odyssey made by Ubisoft Quebec. This shows poor planning and poor direction, but of course at this point they really DO NOT CARE. The game has already made its money, they kept leading people on about NG+ that it was still possible, when they really knew over a year ago they didn't plan to add it. Most of the devs moved on to work on other games, so there was never going to be anyone around to actually code this into the game. All they did was LIE in order to soak in more money from people fully expecting NG+ since the other two recent AC games had it. If it wasn't for Ubisoft Quebec making Project: Red, I would never consider another AC title again. But I will say, anything coming out of Montreal after this, I'm not touching!!

@TheNorfolkian Sadly, I think you are right. Ubi Montreal shot themselves in the foot in their eagerness to 'make it their own' by moving away from Odyssey's EPIC game features. By going the route they did with Mastery Points, they pretty much negated a reason for NG+ right from the start. Then to have the director say, "We aren't sure how to implement NG+ in the game" shows an massive failure by the game developer. WHO doesn't plan from the very beginning how to implement basic game features?!? It shows a completely lack of planning IMO. I believe they wanted to distance themselves from UBI Quebec so badly that they didn't even consider how their decisions would impact later added features. I'm just glad UBI Quebec is making Project Red and not Montreal!

@cless711 I absolutely prefer dialogue choices, even if they don't actually impact anything. It's part of 'living in the world' and not just being an avatar with seemingly no choice... I'm not a drone, I'm a person, and I want my in-game character to feel like an extension of that... even if it's scripted; at least you have a sense of choice. I'm currently playing Gotham Knights and in many ways I feel so disconnected... they make it sound like an 'action RPG' but there really is NO "RPG" to it because there is no choices to be made other than 'which character to play'. Otherwise, dialogue is completely scripted an you cannot interact with any of the other heroes you're living with in the Belfry- unless it's an automatic scripted conversation. To me, that's not an RPG, and RPG means we control, we decide... but linear stories don't offer that. IMO it's just not fun and pointless, I might as well watch a movie as follow a constructed path in a game. Probably why I'm very selective about the games I play and tend to gravitate more towards MMORPGs. However, I loved AC Odyssey but Valhalla fell flat for me... I'm glad Ubi Quebec is making Project Red and hope they design it similar to Odyssey. I'm not buying AC Mirage at all, I have no desire to play the 'original' type of AC game.

Someone above noted 'wasting time maxing out Charisma'... which IMO was some of the best part of the game... FLYTING. Loved it. So IMO it wasn't 'wasting time' it was "playing the game".

@Kormac67 Honestly, I thought the whole "Asgard" aspect was a complete waste of time. At least in Odyssey, when it came to the Atlantis DLC, we at least got to play our character AS our character... we weren't somehow transformed into another person, being called a different name, and then have most of the game turn out to be a 'fantasy' game instead of a 'historical' game, which is why I bought it in the first place.

@ecocrash You know, you could have used your raven to find the locations... they jump up in the sky to show all the expansion locations around the settlement.

Like many here, I started out playing male Eivor... did a couple playthroughs... then tried female Eivor. At first I hated her, but over time she began to grow on me. For whatever reason, it just feels like the voice actor couldn't get a good resonance with the character in the beginning, but got better over time. I know the whole opening Norway part of the story, her voice kept going softer when the situation should have called for a more menacing voice, and then going menacing when it should have been a bit softer. However, after a bit further along the story, she seems to bring it together a lot better. IMO male Eivor should have been canon, because even though the vikings had females who fought, predominantly they would have been led by men. There has never been any actual 'proof' of a female viking leader (although they have found burial sites that a female was buried like a king) so it could have been covered up by the church, as so many things have been over time. Just like I felt Odyssey should have been a male canon, the Greeks would have never accepted a female in any sort of leadership roll, let alone ask one for help... but Kassandra was such a much better voiced character overall.

To be honest, I refuse to play the whole 'Asgard' storyline in Valhalla. If you hated the Atlantis aspect of Odyssey, it's 100x worse in Valhalla! I picked up Valhalla due to the historical 'viking era' not to be thrown into a mythical 'Asgard'- which has nothing to do with history. I played through the Atlantis DLC in Odyssey and hated it, until I got to the final one that actually took place in Atlantis and thought that one was a lot of fun- the first two parts of the trilogy were a slog.

Needless to say I don't do the whole Valka questline, I did the first part a long time ago, and never went back. I don't want to fight frost giants, I want to battle Saxons!

As for 'not knowing the story'... just watch a Youtube video, it'll explain what you missed... worked for me. The game is what you make it, and you can simply enjoy what you're interested in and skip the rest.

Regarding gender... originally I picked the male Eivor and did a couple playthroughs with him... then I tried female Eivor, and at first hated her... but now she's actually my favorite. Same thing happened with Odyssey, I went based on what "I" felt was more historically accurate but later tried Kassandra and now cannot stand to play Alexios due to how good Kassanda actually is.

What I'd like to see... I'd like to see Odyssey replicated in feudal Japan!! Montreal ruined the trilogy with the fiasco that was Valhalla IMO... Odyssey was the best and a game I played for hundreds of hours. I'd like to see the same expansive game (and thankfully it's being made by Quebec who developed Odyssey) brought to RED.

@AnimusLover I'm glad you love to spend your time exploring to find things, I prefer to spend my time KNOWING where to go and going there. I don't enjoy wandering around aimlessly hoping to come across something. This is why I really enjoyed Odyssey and Valhalla... because I didn't have to wander around, I could go where I needed to go. So this just goes to show that just because YOU enjoy one way of playing the game, doesn't mean everyone else wants to play the same way.

Just yesterday I was in combat with several enemies, and Eivor decides to do this LONG finishing move and I couldn't get out of it to 'stomp' another fallen enemy! IMO, you should always be able to cancel out of any finisher animations, especially with other 'timed' mechanics in the game.