Aveline De Grandpré

It’s a shame so few people played as Aveline de Grandpré when Assassin’s Creed III: Liberation launched on the Vita in 2012, because she’s an anomaly for the series even 12 years later. She was the first female protagonist in the series, and unlike future characters, she wasn’t a choice you could simply swap out, or sharing the spotlight with anyone else. Liberation follows her in the 1700s as the daughter of a freed slave who becomes inducted into the Assassin Brotherhood due to her attempts to free and protect slaves. The game makes great use of its period setting, and Aveline’s unique place in it, having her navigate different situations covertly by donning “personas” to blend in with different elements of New Orleans society.

Thankfully, more people have gotten a chance to play her story in the years since its release on Sony’s handheld, as Liberation has been remastered and ported to every system under the sun. Still, there’s something damning about her resurgence, as it calls attention to the fact that Assassin’s Creed has been hesitant to give a character like her sole presence in the spotlight since. — Kenneth Shepard