In July, a film was released and immediately took the world by storm: 'Odyssey,' directed by Christopher Nolan and starring Matt Damon. Based on an epic from around 1200 B.C.—a staggering 3k years ago—the film recouped its massive production budget in record time and continues to be a huge box-office success at this very moment.

And, having seen 'Odyssey' in the theater, it was a work that truly deserved its success. Even though I watched it in a standard theater rather than IMAX, I felt an overwhelming sense of awe that went beyond mere entertainment in one person's story. It was not a success without merit.

Eight years ago, we saw the name 'Odyssey' elsewhere, too. It is one of the top-class titles in the Assassin's Creed Series in terms of pure fun: 'Assassin's Creed Odyssey.'

Strictly speaking, the distance between 'Assassin's Creed Odyssey' and the original 'Odyssey' is quite vast. In terms of historical background, the Trojan War—the setting of the original epic—is a distant past from around 1194 B.C., while the Peloponnesian War, the setting of 'Assassin's Creed Odyssey,' took place around 430 B.C., a gap of over 700 years. That is roughly the difference between the present day and the transition from the Goryeo to the Joseon dynasty.

Nevertheless, both media share the proper noun 'Odyssey.' And there is a reason for that.

The protagonist of 'Assassin's Creed Odyssey' is Kassandra (or Alexios, but Kassandra is generally considered the canon choice). Born in Sparta and raised on the island of Kephallonia, this young mercenary meets a client named 'Elpenor' while working near the island and sets foot into the wider Greek world after accepting a mission to assassinate the 'Wolf' of Sparta.

An interesting detail here is that Kephallonia, the stage for the early game, is right next to 'Ithaca,' the home Odysseus spent so long searching for in the 'Odyssey.' In the game, Ithaca is depicted as being close enough to reach by swimming, and the island features important locations inspired by the original epic, including Odysseus' palace, Eumaeus' pig farm, and Melanthius' goat farm.

The catalyst for setting foot on Ithaca is also a Request from 'Elpenor,' who asks Kassandra to recover a valuable item stolen by bandits as a test of her abilities before the main 'Wolf' assassination Mission. That valuable item is none other than the 'shroud' being woven by Odysseus' wife, 'Penelope.'

As those who have seen the film 'Odyssey' know, Penelope (played by Anne Hathaway) is seen weaving a shroud throughout the runtime. In the film, the owner of the shroud is not explicitly stated, making it appear as if she is weaving it for the 'deceased' Odysseus, but in the original epic, it is the shroud for her father-in-law, 'Laertes'—this is the 'Shroud of Penelope.

In any case, upon setting foot on the island of Ithaca, Kassandra encounters Odessa, a woman captured by the bandits who have seized Odysseus' palace. Believing herself to be a descendant of Odysseus—even naming herself accordingly—Odessa dreams of embarking on great adventures like his, but Kassandra eventually persuades her to return home. This quest is titled 'A Small Odyssey.'

In Kassandra's time, the story of the 'Odyssey' has already become a distant legend of the past. Odysseus' palace is in ruins, Penelope's shroud has become an ancient relic, and a woman who believes herself to be his descendant has come to Ithaca, wishing to become a hero of the distant past.

And so, where the story of Odysseus ends, Kassandra's long journey begins.

The key point here is that this simple Quest of finding the shroud and persuading Odessa is, in fact, a kind of prologue that completely encapsulates the themes of both 'Assassin's Creed Odyssey' and the original 'Odyssey.'

The story of Assassin's Creed Odyssey follows Kassandra, who lost her family in childhood, as she embarks on a journey for revenge, only to clear up misunderstandings and find her family again. Meanwhile, the 'Odyssey' depicts the struggle of the Trojan War hero Odysseus to return to the arms of his family after 10 years of adventure and wandering.

Odessa thinks of the Odyssey as an adventure, but in the end, it was merely a process of returning to family. What is important in the narratives of both the 'Odyssey' and 'Assassin's Creed Odyssey' is not the adventure itself. It is whether there is a place you want to return to at the end of the journey, and who is waiting for you there. Well... aside from that, Odessa can end up traveling with Kassandra depending on your choices. I suppose we can consider that a bit of 'game logic.'

After accepting the assassination of the Wolf, Kassandra defeats the one-eyed bandit leader 'Cyclops,' who was wreaking havoc in the southern part of Kephallonia, and rescues the captured captain 'Barnabas,' receiving his ship, the 'Adrestia,' as a reward. While a bit less prestigious than the man-eating giant 'Polyphemus,' the son of Poseidon, she did, in any case, defeat a Cyclops.

However, the subsequent journey takes a form quite different from the original 'Odyssey.'

Odysseus experiences all sorts of adventures on his journey home. In addition to the aforementioned Polyphemus, he encounters the Laestrygonians and loses most of his crew, stays with Circe for a time, and is severely tested by Scylla and the Sirens. After losing all his men, he even spends seven years with Calypso.

However, 'Kassandra's' journey is quite different from that of Odysseus. Passing through the battlefield of Megaris, she learns that the 'Wolf' is her father, 'Nikolaos,' and after discovering he is not her biological father, she travels through Delphi, Athens, Naxos, Sparta, Arcadia, and Boeotia, gathering her family members one by one. If the Odyssey is a story about returning to a family that already exists but has been left behind for too long, 'Assassin's Creed Odyssey' is a story about gathering a family that has already been torn apart.

However, the two works share a commonality: 'sailing across numerous islands to experience new adventures and travels.'

In the Odyssey, Odysseus is truly on a constant voyage. Starting with the looting at Ismarus, meeting the Lotus-Eaters, defeating Polyphemus, and reaching the island of Aeolus, the god of winds, to find a way home—only to fail due to his crew's curiosity and drift into the territory of the Laestrygonians—he truly experienced every kind of adventure by ship.

And this flow is the same for 'Kassandra.' From the moment she obtains the Adrestia, 'sailing' opens up to the player, and the subsequent Quest flow takes on a non-linear structure. While you cannot go anywhere you want because the difficulty of the Fields is determined by level, you sail the seas of the Greek world, meeting countless people and building relationships with them. Some approach you with friendliness, while others are hostile.

In the film 'Odyssey,' the expression 'Law of Zeus' appears frequently. This custom, also called 'Xenia,' was not a codified law but a common norm that permeated the Greek world. In the film, it is depicted as being observed because a guest could be a 'god in disguise.

There was a certain order to this 'Xenia.'

Furthermore, the entire narrative of the 'Odyssey' is essentially a story about this concept of 'xenia.' The Phaeacians welcome Odysseus with hospitality, and in return, he shares his adventures and identity, eventually being provided with a ship to return to Ithaca. Conversely, Polyphemus and Penelope's suitors violate the laws of xenia. Polyphemus devours the soldiers of Odysseus, whom he should have treated as guests, and the suitors similarly betray their duties to guests. By the end of the epic, Odysseus returns home disguised as a beggar; Eumaeus the swineherd treats him with the hospitality required by xenia, while the suitors respond by insulting him.

In the story of 'Assassin's Creed Odyssey,' Kassandra is also a perfect stranger. She has no reason to return to 'Kephallonia' after the early game, and she explores countless new islands and regions. Although the game does not implement Xenia as a system, it constantly makes Kassandra a 'being in need of Xenia' and places the player in 'that era and space where Xenia was important.' This is the background that allows the story of Kassandra, an outsider wandering through various regions, to exist.

In the world of the 'Odyssey,' the boundary between humans and gods is much blurrier than it is today. Athena, as Odysseus' most powerful helper, changes her appearance to aid his homecoming, and Poseidon, enraged at Odysseus for blinding his son Polyphemus, shakes the seas. Hermes appears directly to Odysseus, who is held by Circe, to teach him how to resist her magic.

Therefore, to Odysseus, myth is not myth. Gods actually intervene in human life, monsters actually live somewhere across the sea, and humans sometimes inherit the bloodline of gods. What we call Greek mythology today is a part of reality for Odysseus.

A good example of how ancient Greeks viewed this world is Hesiod. Hesiod, who is estimated to have been active around the same time as Homer, divided human history into five ages in 'Works and Days': Gold, Silver, Bronze, Heroic, and Iron. He placed the heroes who fought at Troy and Thebes in the 'Age of Heroes' that preceded his own.

Odysseus belongs to the very last generation of those heroes. The Trojan War is over, and countless heroes like Achilles and Ajax are already dead. The 'Odyssey' is the story of the surviving Odysseus returning to Ithaca. In that sense, the 'Odyssey' is set at the moment when the Age of Heroes is coming to an end.

Hesiod called the next age, the present in which he lived, the 'Age of Iron.' The era of great humans who were close to the gods had already ended, and what remained for humanity was a world full of labor, pain, and conflict. And Kassandra of 'Assassin's Creed Odyssey' is a person from much later than Hesiod.

Therefore, the Greek world Kassandra lives in is similar to the Odyssey, yet quite different. People still worship Zeus, Poseidon, and Athena, and the Oracle of Delphi has a great influence on the important policies of city-states, not just individuals. Faith exists, but 'myth' has become a thing of the past.

At this point, the 'Assassin's Creed worldview' intervenes. The game reinterprets what humanity long thought were gods and miracles as the technology of the precursor civilization, the 'Isu,' and monsters like the Minotaur or Medusa are depicted not as supernatural beings, but as remnants of that precursor civilization.

To ancient Greeks, the oracle was a very sacred act, but in the game, it is depicted as being subject to political intervention and manipulation by human groups. Excluding the existence of the 'Isu,' the background of the game—the late 5th century B.C. Greece where the 'Peloponnesian War' is taking place—is an era where human reason is at work. The figures Kassandra meets are also those who left their names in 'history' rather than myth, such as Socrates, Pericles, and Hippocrates.

Thus, Ubisoft set the background in the 'Age of Humans,' a future far beyond the age of myth, while deconstructing past myths and placing 'Kassandra' in a somewhat special position. She is treated as a 'hero of myth' who deals with Isu civilization and fights unrealistic monsters, while also being a 'historical figure' who talks to Socrates and plays a part in the Peloponnesian War.

This is why we can understand why Ubisoft kept the subtitle of this work as 'Odyssey.' According to Hesiod's classification, Kassandra is a person walking through the 'Age of Iron,' but she experiences things similar to those in the 'Age of Heroes.' Because the original 'Odyssey' was filled with divine intervention and mythical elements, they were able to attach the name 'Odyssey' based on the uniqueness of the character 'Kassandra' and the worldview, even while setting the story in an era where myth had become legend and joke.

The reasons why 'Assassin's Creed Odyssey' uses the name 'Odyssey' are, as explained above, quite diverse. The starting point of the narrative is similar, as is the fact that she roams all of Greece, and the fact that they portrayed a protagonist worthy of the Age of Heroes by leveraging the uniqueness of the worldview and character, even in an era where myth has already disappeared, can also be reasons.

However, the biggest reason this game bears the subtitle 'Odyssey' is probably because both works contain stories about 'Nostos (νόστος),' or 'homecoming.'

In countless media, 'Odyssey' has been used as a synonym for grand adventure. 'Super Mario Odyssey' is one such example, as is 'One Piece Odyssey.' Stanley Kubrick's '2001: A Space Odyssey' is a different case (it has something much more complex), but in any case, the narrative thread is very different from the original. These works contain their own narratives, but they actually differ significantly from the story of the original 'Odyssey.' This is because they focused on the meaning of 'an adventure across numerous worlds' among the meanings the 'Odyssey' possesses.

On the other hand, 'Assassin's Creed Odyssey' contains the core most similar to the original among these many 'XX Odysseys,' which is the aforementioned 'homecoming.' The difference is that Odysseus is a hero returning home, while Kassandra is a hero who finds and builds a home.

As those who have played 'Assassin's Creed Odyssey' know, Kassandra's family history is complicated, to say the least. Kassandra, a silver-spoon daughter of a Spartan general, could not accept the oracle that she had to sacrifice her brother Alexios, and this event caused her family to fall apart. To make matters worse, her father turned out to be a stepfather, there was another son (Stentor) in the family, her biological father turned out to be 'Pythagoras' (the Pythagoras of the theorem middle schoolers learn), and her brother, who she thought was dead, returned as a hero of the enemy—a family history as messy as any soap opera. Moreover, Kassandra's journey did not even start with the intention of finding her family.

However, in the process of her journey, Kassandra constantly realizes new things. She learns that the 'Wolf' she was supposed to assassinate is her father Nikolaos, that her brother 'Alexios,' whom she thought was dead, is alive under the name 'Deimos,' that her hidden mother 'Myrrine' has become the leader of Naxos, and that she herself is of a special bloodline capable of handling the Spartan royal family and Isu civilization.

And through that process, Kassandra resets the goal of her journey. The player's choices are added to this process. You can go through the process of gathering the family that was shattered on Mount Taygetos in childhood, or you can walk a lonely path after eliminating your stepfather and brother.

If you aim for the 'good ending' that many will choose—'reunion of the family'—Kassandra travels all over Greece to try to bind these scattered family members together. And the game ends with a scene where all the gathered family members eat at one table.

This 'table' is like Kassandra's 'home' in the work 'Assassin's Creed Odyssey.' It is different from her days as the eldest daughter of a general's house in Sparta, and different from her past as a freewheeling mercenary on Kephallonia living day to day. The family that suffered ruin on Mount Taygetos does not look the same as it did then. The number of people sitting at the table varies depending on Kassandra's (the player's) actions, and in extreme cases, Kassandra sits at the table alone with no one else.

In any case, through countless journeys, Kassandra returns to 'her home.' Although the thread is different from the 'Odyssey,' where the hero experiences adventures to return to an existing family and restores order by returning to a homeland on the verge of collapse, the beginning and the end are the same. The process of being separated from family and meeting them again.

The journey of Odysseus, who wanted to return home, and Kassandra, who rebuilds a lost home, are clearly different, but their conclusion is the same. That is why 'Assassin's Creed Odyssey' is a work that is worthy of the name 'Odyssey'.