Kotaku Games DiaryThe latest thoughts from a Kotaku staff about a game we’re playing.Peek into the lands and forests of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla are extremely powerful animals. The kind of animals that people tell stories about. Dangerous, murderous monsters that only a tough, brave and maybe foolish warrior could … Oh wait, it doesn ‘t matter. It got stuck in the ground like an idiot.
Since the main story of Valhalla and when I wrote the review, I spent my time in the game and chased around and almost completed and collected hidden equipment. Effectively, I just cross things off from a big checklist, but it’s a nice checklist and I do it well. Recently I decided to start taking out the legendary animals on the map. My target last night was a big bear, The Beast of the Hills. According to a guide, it’s a little tricky to find, since the bear only appears in its underground hiding place during the day. It also mentions that you need to find blood and be able to locate it to the camp.
Or you can do what I did. I just traveled quickly near the place, ran there and in the middle of a fight with some random enemies, caught the bear trapped in the ground and performed a strange dance move.
I’m not sure what happened. At the moment, I did not even realize that I was watching the legendary Beast of the Hills. I assumed it was just a random bear that wandered around, got stuck and would now be killed in an unworthy way. Only after I start attacking it do I realize that it is indeed the legend. There were a lot of questions popping into my head. How did it come up here? Why did it dance? And should I kill the poor creature while it shakes what its mother bear gives it?
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Normally, legendary animals are dangerous enemies that can easily kill the unprepared, or even hardened warriors, who make some mistakes. So it’s a great way to save time and effort on dealing with an easy murder.
But was it? right? It did not feel right. I decided to hit it with my ax a few times to see if I could free it, and then we would be able to fight properly. A pair of ginger sticks later detached it from its strange place in the ground and stood on all fours like a normal, unnatural giant bear. I waited for the attack, but no one came. A few moments passed. I hit it again and thought it was aggro necessary to have aggro after I got stuck in space time for who knows how long. But even a generous portion of gang failed to move the amazing beast to violence. So I slaughtered it where it stood.
I felt bad, but was also worried that if I did not kill it, it would get stuck somewhere else and I would never be able to find it again. You know how bears are. Then, after laboriously completing every other checklist in this obscene game, I would be left with one single legendary beast in the world, making it impossible to be officially 100% Valhalla. (Something I technically will never do the fishing in this game is struggling, but focus here on the principle.)
Oddly enough, killing it yielded nothing: no reward or ‘task completed “ pop-up. Uh Oh! Did I just break the game? Was this karmic justice? I decided to go into the bear’s camp because it was still marked on the map. Maybe the bear will react, angry at his first death. But instead, when I entered the underground area, the game gave me death, some rewards, and crossed it off the map.
A sad death for such a noble being. I assume it died as it lived and danced in the hills. I’m not sorry about what I did, but I feel a little bad. Sometimes I wonder … am I the real monster? The true legendary beast? Anyway something to chew on while I kill the rest of these hairy hybrids.
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