Earlier this month, I got to play the upcoming Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag remake. It’s really good, and I’m excited to play more of it. But I also got to chat with the leads behind this big project, and I wanted to ask them about how the franchise now includes big RPG entries as well as more focused action-adventure romps. Is the plan to keep making RPG sequels? Action-adventure only sequels? Or can both types of Assassin’s Creed games exist moving forward?
I mentioned to game director Richard Knight and creative director Paul Fu that I’d noted how they’d publicly declared that Black Flag Resynced isn’t an RPG. It made me wonder if Ubisoft is trying to downplay the franchise’s more recent installments, like Odyssey and Shadows, which are big, skill-tree-filled role-playing games with loot and special abilities. These entries have started to divide the fanbase. Is Ubisoft going to keep making these kinds of bigger RPGs, or is Resynced a tease at a return to action-adventure titles?
“Personally, I think there’s room for both,” said Fu. “I love RPGs, but I also love action and adventure games for their focus. And old school Assassin’s Creed [games] are a lot about their focus back then. Linear gameplay sequences, tightly scripted events, and a very story-driven protagonist. So it’s very different, and I think there’s space for both.”
When I asked Knight if there’s room for both types of AC game, he said, “Absolutely.”
“That’s kind of the thing that I love about Assassin’s Creed. We always have multiple teams working on different games. Some of them haven’t been announced, right? But it gives you all these different, cool historical moments.”
Black Flag Resynced, like the original game, isn’t an RPG, okay?
Both Knight and Fu seem very happy about the RPG entries and seem confident that the franchise can support those kinds of games. So why, then, are they so publicly declaring that Black Flag Resynced, which the devs called the next major game in the franchise, isn’t an RPG?
“It was very important for us to reassure players that we want the spirit of the original game,” said Knight.
“When we look back at the original Black Flag, Edward is a character that’s constantly moving forward, and you see this in the gameplay and the storyline. He’s constantly making mistakes, but he’s constantly driving forward to the next thing, whether it’s to make money for his family or to beat the Templars or to become a better pirate or whatever. So it’s that game style of constantly shoving forward; it makes it more of an action game, right? I want to reassure players. There are other great Assassin’s Creed games. But we’re sticking true to Black Flag.”
I asked if Ubisoft ever thought about making Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced an RPG early on in development, but according to Fu, that was never the plan.
“No. When we saw the leak saying that we were an RPG, we basically were giggling,” said Fu.
At that point, everyone in the room started laughing. I pushed one more time, just to be sure, and asked if this had always been a linear, single-player action-adventure game. “Absolutely, yes,” said Fu as he laughed a bit more.