Assassin's Creed Origins actor heard a line while filming House of the Dragon that he liked so much he snuck it into his Metroidvania-style adventure game

Key art for Tales of Kenzera: Zau showing protagonist Zau looking into the distance, with a colorful orange and purple backdrop.
(Image credit: Surgent Studios)

The actor behind Assassin's Creed Origins protagonist Bayek, Abubakar Salim, has revealed that he snuck a line from the Game of Thrones prequel show House of the Dragon into his Metroidvania game, Tales of Kenzera: Zau, but he's not telling us what it is. 

Tales of Kenzera: Zau was released in April, but in a new Twitter post, the game's creative director reveals that he was writing and developing it at the same time that he was filming House of the Dragon. He appears in the second season of the show as Alyn of Hull, and clearly, his time working on the series inspired his Metroidvania. 

"I have a confession to make. While I was filming House of the Dragon, I was writing and developing [Tales of Kenzera: Zau]," Salim begins. "There was a line from episode six that I 'borrowed' and put in the game because I thought it was so good. OK. I've come clean. Good luck finding it."

Assuming Salim is referring to the sixth episode of House of the Dragon season two, which just aired on Sunday, it's the most recent one. Don't worry, you'll get no spoilers here if you're not caught up yet, and perhaps that's why Salim isn't giving away what the line in question is. As it stands, that's for the dedicated fans of both Metroidvania games and House of the Dragon to figure out – the hunt is on, folks. It's very cool that Tales of Kenzera: Zau has been hiding a reference for all this time without us even knowing, though – it certainly makes you wonder if there's any more secrets tucked away in there. 

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Catherine Lewis
News Writer

I'm one of GamesRadar+'s news writers, who works alongside the rest of the news team to deliver cool gaming stories that we love. After spending more hours than I can count filling The University of Sheffield's student newspaper with Pokemon and indie game content, and picking up a degree in Journalism Studies, I started my career at GAMINGbible where I worked as a journalist for over a year and a half. I then became TechRadar Gaming's news writer, where I sourced stories and wrote about all sorts of intriguing topics. In my spare time, you're sure to find me on my Nintendo Switch or PS5 playing through story-driven RPGs like Xenoblade Chronicles and Persona 5 Royal, nuzlocking old Pokemon games, or going for a Victory Royale in Fortnite.