Kotaku Game DiaryThe final thoughts from a Kotaku employee on a game we are playing.Lurking in the fields and forests of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla are immensely powerful beasts. The kind of animals people tell stories about. Dangerous, murderous monsters that only a strong, brave, and perhaps foolish warrior could … Oh wait, never mind. It got stuck in the ground like an idiot.
Since finishing the main story of Valhalla and writing the review, I spent my time in the game running around and completing side quests and collecting hidden items. Basically I just cross things off a big checklist, but it’s a nice checklist and I have a good time with it. Recently I decided to remove the legendary animals from the map. My target last night was a big bear, The Beast of the Hills. According to a guide, it’s a bit tricky to find, as the bear only appears in its underground hideout during the day. It also states that you need to find some blood and follow it back to the den.
Or you can do what I did. I just quickly traveled near the spot, ran to it, and in the middle of a fight with some random enemies, I found the bear stuck in the ground performing a strange dance move.
I’m not sure what happened. At that point, I didn’t even realize I was watching the legendary Beast of the Hills. I assumed it was just some random bear walking around, getting stuck, and now going to be killed in an unworthy way. It wasn’t until I started attacking that I realized that this was indeed the bear of legend. Many questions came to mind. How did it get here? Why was it dancing? And should I even kill the poor creature while it was shaking what its mama bear gave it?
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Normally, legendary animals are dangerous enemies that can easily kill the unprepared or even hardened warriors who make a few mistakes. So being able to avoid an easy kill would be a nice way to save some time and effort.
But was it Turn rightIt didn’t feel right. I decided to hit it with my ax a few times to see if I could free it, at which point we could have quite a fight. A few ginger chops later, he broke free from his odd placement in the ground and stood on all fours like a normal, unnaturally gigantic bear should. I waited for his attack, but none came. A few moments passed. I hit it again thinking maybe it needed some encouragement to go green after being stuck in spacetime for who knows how long. But even a generous helping of thumping failed to move the magnificent beast to violence. So I slaughtered it where it was.
I felt bad but also worried that if I didn’t 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 painstakingly going through every other checklist in this obscenely long game, I would be left with one lonely Legendary animal in the world, making it impossible to officially 100% Valhalla(Something I’ll never technically do because the fishing in this game is worthless, but focus on the principle here.)
Strangely enough, the killing yielded nothing: no reward or “mission accomplished” pop-up. Oh oh! Did I just break the game? Was this karmic justice? I decided to go to the bear’s den, as it was still marked on the map. Maybe the bear would respawn, angry about his first death. But instead, once I got into the underground area, the game gave me the kill, some rewards, and knocked it off the map.
A sad death for such a noble being. I suppose it died like it was alive dancing in the hills. I don’t regret what I did, but I feel a little bad. Sometimes I wonder … am I the real monster? The real legendary beast? Anyway, something to chew while I’m gonna kill the rest of these hairy bastards.