Assassin’s Creed Unity Introduces “Elise”

Ubisoft announces a major female character for the upcoming Assassin’s Creed Unity game.

With the newest trailer giving us a brief glimpse at a woman who barely missed the guillotine, everyone has been wondering if Ubisoft gave in to the demands of it’s consumers. In June, the company came under fire after announcing that there would be no female playable character in the game with Ubisoft echnical director James Therien saying,

[blockquote]“It was on our feature list until not too long ago, but it’s a question of focus and production. So we wanted to make sure we had the best experience for the character. A female character means that you have to redo a lot of animation, a lot of costumes [inaudible]. It would have doubled the work on those things. And I mean it’s something the team really wanted, but we had to make a decision… It’s unfortunate, but it’s a reality of game development.”[/blockquote]

Now it seems that the company has either gone back on their original word due to the backlash they received — or are just really bad at hiding surprises. They are introducing Elise into the game, who seems like she was a part of the main storyline of the game the entire time.

In a press release issued earlier today, the company states;

[blockquote]”Elise is determined to secure her place in the Templar dynasty amidst the chaos of the French Revolution. Her quest leads her to cross paths with Arno and establish an unlikely bond with him.”[/blockquote]

She’s described as ‘a character central to Assassin’s Creed Unity’s story’ and ‘an independent young noblewoman’. If that’s not enough to have people begin to believe that this was Ubisoft‘s plan the whole time, a book based on her character is already in the works by Assassin’s Creed novelist Oliver Bowden. Still not enough? You are now able to pre-order “Elise: The Fiery Templar” figure, pictured below. It would seem with this much evidence that the character of Elise was always in the books and that her involvement in the game was being kept under strict secret — though they did still go about the whole thing the wrong way.

Will Ubisoft win back the trust of it’s fans with Elise? Leave your thoughts in the comments below!