Assassin's Creed: Odyssey was a major step forward for Ubisoft. It is now best-known as the Assassin's Creed title that fully embraced the RPG conventions and even took bigger risks than Origins. One of these risks was splitting the playable characters into two, Alexios and Kassandra. Both have the same storyline but they do have some subtle differences.
These differences, along with details about them, have made them by far two of the most interesting characters or protagonists ever in Assassin's Creed games. Assassin's Creed: Valhalla is going to have to introduce some demi-Norse God or something in order to surpass how awesome Alexios or Kassandra is; these obscure details in-game should prove just how good they are as main characters.
10 Either Of Them Is 2,400+ Years Old
Assassin's Creed: Odyssey's story began around 431 BC during the Peloponnesian War period in Greece. However, depending on the players' choices at the beginning and end of the game, either Alexios or Kassandra get to live until 2018 CE thanks to the Staff of Hermes that Pythagoras imparts to his children.
The staff essentially makes the holder immortal but apparently, they have to keep holding it or they turn to dust once they've outlived their normal cycle. Regardless, this puts either Alexios or Kassandra's age at around 2,400+, giving them the wisdom of the ages from humanity's classical era up to the information age.
9 Kassandra Is The Canon Choice
Right off the bat, Odyssey already bombards the players with a hard RPG choice: character creation or in this case, selection. Picking Alexios or Kassandra is a huge decision in the game because there are big plans for whoever wasn't chosen by the players. Still, the community and the official consensus are Kassandra is the canon main character.
That's because Kassandra was picked by the writers of the official novel and the story of the game. So players can easily base their decision off of that official judgment from the creative heads behind Odyssey. Storywise, it also fits quite nicely that Kassandra is the canon character for reasons that will be discussed later on.
8 Same Scar Locations
Regardless of whether the players picked Alexios or Kassandra, one puzzling thing that stood out and was likely unnoticed by many was that they both have the same scar locations. The most prominent scar they have is situated in the right shoulder and it appears to be multiple wide slashes on the right arm.
Both Alexios and Kassandra also have one wide slash scar on their left shoulder, virtually in the same place. This does imply that both of them took the same path and underwent the same lethal life challenges if the players get to pick them. Last but not least, they also have a scar on their upper lip, much like the protagonists in previous Assassin's Creed games. It like has something to do about sharing the same bloodline.
7 Different Reactions To Threats
Despite their journey being the same, Alexios and Kassandra still have different outlooks on life and some nuances when it comes to handling situations emotionally. It might be hard to notice and it might also just be due to different motion capture actors but Alexios and Kassandra have their own mannerisms.
When threatening Cyclops, for example, Alexios is more aggressive while Kassandra appears more composed. Even at the start of the game when the thugs threatened either character, Kassandra's face is less annoyed while Alexios' lights up with a split-second rage.
6 Alexios And Kassandra Treat Markos Differently
In addition to Alexios or Kassandra having a different demeanor despite the same dialogue, their relationship with Markos also appears to have some slight dissimilarity. Markos is the father figure for either character but it would seem that Alexios is the one who's more eager to break free from his grasp.
This is shown most noticeably during their farewell hug with Markos. Alexios is visibly more bothered with the hug and looks like he doesn't want to mourn leaving the small island and his guardian. Meanwhile, Kassandra is more polite in her approach and appears to better understand how Markos feels about their leaving.
5 Kassandra's Voice Acting Is Less Awkward
This is something that most players will only get to observe when they played through the game twice and with both characters. Kassandra is the more sympathetic of the two main characters both in tone and in facial expressions. That's why scenes where emotional weight is expected are arguably better with Kassandra.
She delivers her lines more dramatically and her manner of speaking sounds more sophisticated compared to Alexios' gruff meathead voice. That's why her cutscenes can be more pleasant to watch and have less awkwardness in them, especially during family reunion moments or when someone dear dies.
4 Alexios Is A More Convincing Deimos
Of course, Alexios' voice actor still has his strengths. He does make a mean misthios and easily paints Alexios as a tough, agitated, and sometimes more arrogant character not just in speech but also in the facade. For that matter, Alexios as Deimos just hits differently.
Whereas Kassandra's Deimos looks more lost than intimidating, Alexios' Deimos can easily pass off as a psychopath who's well beyond redemption. It could be that the deeper voice and the growls, as well as more hostile outbursts, make him more villainous. That, and the five o'clock shadow and darker eye circles complete the Deimos look.
3 Most Players Still Chose Alexios
Even though Kassandra is the canon choice and the more pleasing character in cutscenes, the majority of the players in Odyssey still chose Alexios. Ubisoft actually revealed the statistics back in late 2018 and the result was that 2/3 of the player-based picked Alexios over Kassandra.
Lots of factors are involved in these results one of which is that Assassin's Creed is an action game and thus has a generally-male audience. Then there's the fact that most Assassin's Creed protagonists have been male. Other reasons include historical accuracy.
2 Subtle Differences In Their Movement
Having the same scars, same background, and the same dialogue didn't prevent Alexios and Kassandra from displaying biological gender signatures. While Kassandra's shoulders are broad for the average woman, she still walks with grace and more arm-swaying compared to Alexios.
Meanwhile, Alexios has that typical dude-bro swagger where he pre-empts his every step with his shoulders swings. In short and obviously, Alexios' movement is more masculine and Kassandra's more feminine, especially when walking. It goes to show the attention to detail that Ubisoft put into the motion-capture for either character.
1 They Both Have Gender-Specific Armor
Speaking of gender-specific variations for both the Odyssey characters, Ubisoft included a special armor for Alexios or Kassandra. That would be the Trojan War-themed armor where Alexios gets the Achilles armor set while Kassandra has access to the Amazon armor set.
Alexios' special armor is virtually inspired by Brad Pitt's Achilles' armor from the film Troy while Kassandra's is a spitting image of Wonder Woman's attire. Both cannot wear either's costume as well which can pose a problem when starting a New Game+ with a different character. Sadly, that also means players can't have Alexios cross-dressing as Wonder Woman.
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