The beginning of the new year has brought the end of Assassin's Creed Valhalla's Yule Festival, the first of multiple in-game events that Ubisoft intends to implement in a series of seasonal updates. While the Yule Festival brought cheerful decorations and fresh content to the game, it also had some issues that should be addressed to make future events even better.
Assassin's Creed Valhalla has a fairly substantial plan in place for post-season content. Ubisoft has announced a total of four free seasonal updates, the first of which brought the Yule Festival to players' settlements. While specifics have not been announced for future updates, Ubisoft has stated more festivals are planned. The studio also has plans for two paid DLC expansions, the first of which will take players to Ireland, the second to Paris. Ubisoft has also confirmed that Assassin's Creed Valhalla will eventually get Discovery Tour, a popular mode that turns off combat and adds educational material to the game.
The Yule Festival was a welcome addition to Assassin's Creed Valhalla that allowed players to interact with settlement villagers, earn cosmetics, and take part in various games. Nonetheless, the Yule Festival did have some faults. Here are some ways the festivals can be improved in the future.
Valhalla Events Should Have Fewer Bugs
The biggest problem that should be addressed is simply to make sure that the festivals themselves run more smoothly. The Yule Festival had some fairly significant problems, including quest markers that were wildly inaccurate and a bug for some players which caused Eivor to be given the drunken condition anytime they loaded the game. Whatever form festivals take in the future, they need to have fewer bugs, or at least be patched some time during the event.
Add More Valhalla Side Quests Over Time
Aside from the mini-games, the Yule Festival only came with two side quests. They were simple, but gave players the chance to interact with the NPCs in their village. After those side quests were done, however, there was nothing left to do in the event but play the same repetitive mini-games. The Yule Festival would have benefitted from a few more side quests that could have been rolled out over the course of the few weeks the festival was live, both to provide more ways to earn festival tokens and give players more reason to enjoy the festival for more than a few hours. An event-long story arc quest also could have solved this problem.
Don't Tie Festival Events to Settlement Buildings
Both side quests in the Yule Festival could only be activated if players had built specific buildings in their settlement. If players hadn't constructed them yet, they likely had to go off and find a new place to raid for supplies, something that can be difficult depending on the player's level. New players who received Assassin's Creed Valhalla for the holidays therefore had an extra hoop to jump through to access the event. Festival content should be available to all players who have a settlement, not hidden behind an arbitrary building.
Valhalla Should Require Less Mini-Game Grinding
The Yule Festival offered plenty of new cosmetic items, but collecting them all required some lengthy grinding of the three mini-games. Aside from the healthy payouts of 150 tokens from the side quests, mini-games offered between 10-70 tokens, with higher payouts requiring certain scores. Although players had multiple weeks to earn the tokens, it did mean playing these games several, if not dozens of times in order to collect enough currency. The games of Assassin's Creed Valhalla's Yule Festival are fun initially, but not the 20th time.
Assassin's Creed Valhalla is out now for Google Stadia, PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S platforms.