There are times in people’s lives where they take a moment to think “How did I get here? Why am I doing this?” and this is my moment right now. I really have no idea why I’m reviewing a 7 page promo for an Assassin’s Creed game, especially since it’ll take less time to read the entire manga than it will to read this review, but here I am.

“Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla X Vinland Saga” reveals it’s entire premise in the title, it’s a promotional one-shot from Vinland Saga’s very own Makoto Yukimura to promote the release of the next entry in the Assassin’s Creed ever growing franchise. It consists of only seven pages as we follow Thorfinn being hit in the head once by Assassin’s Creed main character, Eivor.

Normally I’d share a couple of pages and panels of the manga here, but since it’s such a short story, I could find myself just sharing the entire thing. Instead I’ll only post this one, the page reveal of Eivor. I decided to post this one because if you’ve seen this single page you have no other reason to read this one-shot. The plot is minimal, and the pay-off is too.
Now, I understand it’s hard to argue that this is a waste of time, as you can read it all in about 30~40 seconds. It may also seem futile to write a negative review of what is essentially an advert for a Ubisoft game. But I still feel like there’s things this ad fails.

Firstly, I admittedly know very little about Assassin’s Creed, but it’s not like I actually learned anything about it, the entire one-shot doesn’t tell us one thing about the game or the character (since even the name I only know because I googled it), other than the fact that he looks very cool when drawn by Makoto. Here’s the thing though, everything looks cool when drawn by Makoto, his art style is amazing, it was during Planetes and at the start of Vinland Saga, and it only got better since then.
He doesn’t slack off here either, all the pages are drawn with attention to detail and panelling, it’s a quality that isn’t rivaled by many and I’ll give him kudos that even for something like this he clearly gives is all.

But even with only seven pages I feel like more could have been done. The bulk of the pages is Thorfinn running after “someone”, culminating in him being hit by an arm. In the end we get the “iconic” page of Eivor, lurking in the distance as Thorfinn gets scolded by Askeladd.
I understand that this being first and foremost an ad for Assassin’s Creed, it’s better to show Eivor as strong over Thorfinn, but even then, wouldn’t have been way cooler to see Thorfinn and Eivor lock eyes? Maybe both acknowledging each other as strong individuals? A clash of fists or swords before Eivor overpowers Thorfinn? Nothing that I’m suggesting requires a big plot or a full length chapter. Seven pages would still do, I’m also not asking for ALL of this, just one or two things would make this way more exciting. If the idea is to have Eivor and Thorfinn meet, then make them meet for real, God damn it!

It’s just that, with the one-shot as is, I really don’t see why not going for a simpler approach and just do a poster of Eivor by Makoto. Maybe have it colored, I feel like that would make people more excited for the game. Kinda like how Baki’s mangaka drew a Rambo poster instead of having Rambo’s hand hit Baki for a second on a one-shot.

But bah, ultimately this is nothing but an ad, there’s no much point in arguing about it or being angry at it and I know that. I find the result disappointing because I think even with such a short story there was an opening to do something more. But if you’re curious or you want to up your manga stats, this takes less than a minute to read (I read it all about three times while writing this review) so there isn’t really much reason not to, plus, the art is great.
If you’re not curious or you really, really value your seconds (if you’re the later case, you made a wrong choice by opening this review, mate), you’re not really missing anything.