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Save a horse, ride a Chocobo in new ‘Assassin’s Creed Origins’ update

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Assassin's Creed Origins
Image used with permission by copyright holder
Earlier this year, Final Fantasy XV was injected with a surprising dose of Assassin’s Creed Origins with the launch of the “Assassin’s Festival,” a limited time event that altered the town of Lestalium and gave FFXV protagonist Noctis the assassin garb and the moves to go along with it. Now it appears the Ubisoft/Square Enix crossover will be repaid with Chocobos zipping into Assassin’s Creed Origins this month.

Chocobo
Image used with permission by copyright holder

The teaser image of the Final Fantasy creature’s feather tail appeared in Ubisoft’s post outlining changes coming to Origins in December. The not-so-subtle tease came alongside the description, “A new surprise quest!” Judging by the saddle, it would appear that, as in Final Fantasy, the Bayek will be able to ride Chocobos in this new quest. Considering it was described as a quest, there may be more Final Fantasy content involved than just Chocobos.

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The Chocobo sighting was the most tantalizing bit of content in the post, but if swapping your horse for an adorable Chocobo doesn’t intrigue you, there’s more to look forward to.

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Another new quest dubbed “Here Comes a New Challenger” will usher in Horde mode for the first time in the series. Bayek will take on waves of enemies in the Cyrene Arena. Ubisoft recommended for users to be at least level 32 before entering the arena.

To further the challenge, a new difficulty level will be added to Origins as well. Nightmare difficulty will make enemies “more resilient to damages and more dangerous.”

Perhaps the most significant gameplay tweak coming into the fold will be the ability to scale enemies. While it will be optional, turning scaling on will ensure that you will always have equally matched enemies. Part of the issue with Origins‘ level system was that circling back to earlier portions of the game no longer provided challenging combat opportunities.

Additionally, the last of the three challenging gods, the goddess Sekhmet, will prove to be the most difficult battle yet. If you didn’t have a chance to beat the two previous Trials of the Gods opponents, Anubis and Sobek, you will still have the opportunity to fight the trio.

All of those exciting updates will be free, but two new items packs will be available for purchase throughout December as well. On December 12, the Gladiator Items pack launches, featuring three special weapons, including Hercules’ sword, armor, and a new shield.  And on December 26, the Wacky Items pack includes four weapons and a mount. Expect these weapons to be a bit bizarre, although they weren’t described in detail.

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Steven Petite
Steven Petite
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Steven is a writer from Northeast Ohio currently based in Louisiana. He writes about video games and books, and consumes…
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