Back in September 2022, Ubisoft held a showcase that revealed details about the future of their flagship series, Assassin’s Creed. Some of those included the reveals and first looks at future titles, one of which is a project under the codename Red.
Assassin’s Creed Red is expected to be released sometime this year, but details are still scarce as of the time of writing. However, we do know a few things about this upcoming entry.
While most of the details seem promising, I can’t help but feel skeptical about Assassin’s Creed Red.
FEUDAL JAPAN
Fans of Assassin’s Creed are always pitching ideas for the time and place in history they would like to see the series explore. Considering the earliest form of the Brotherhood was founded in Egypt in 47 BCE, and the Assassins are still around in modern times, it’s safe to say that very few settings are off limits. Out of all of the possibilities, though, there is one setting in particular that always finds its way into these conversations, and that’s Feudal Japan.
Even though Sucker Punch seemingly lived up to their name and beat Ubisoft to it by delivering us Ghost of Tsushima back in 2020, the desire for an Assassin’s Creed game set in Japan never went away. However, Assassin’s Creed Red will finally take the series to the highly demanded setting of feudal Japan.
ANOTHER RPG
Despite the series kind of going back to its roots with Mirage, it is confirmed that Red will be another RPG-style Assassin’s Creed. Ubisoft Quebec is leading the project and shares the same creative director as Assassin’s Creed Odyssey and Immortals: Phenyx Rising, Jonathan Dumont.
With the same studio working on it, Red is probably going to be very similar to Odyssey in terms of its RPG mechanics. However, Red will still maintain more of a focus on stealth gameplay. So, Red could potentially be some kind of hybrid of old-school Assassin’s Creed and what we’ve gotten recently with the RPG trilogy.
CHARACTERS
According to leaks from Insider Gaming, Assassin’s Creed Red will feature two playable protagonists, a female shenobi and a male samurai. Little is known about the shenobi, but it is suspected that the playable samurai could be based on the real-life historical figure Yasuke, an African man who served as a samurai under Oda Nobunaga.
Assassin’s Creed games have always included historical figures. But if these rumors are true, then this will be the first time in the history of the franchise that one will be playable. Let alone one of the game’s protagonists.
CONCLUSION
After being disappointed by the past few games, I’ve been finding it a bit difficult to get super excited for this next one. While I find some of the details above interesting, it seems as though the series is going in a direction that lacks a lot of what I go to Assassin’s Creed for.
When I look at the newer games for what they are, I see fun, solid experiences. But when you really examine these games through the lens of an old-school Assassin’s Creed fan, they don’t have much to offer. There isn’t a doubt in my mind that Assassin’s Creed Red will please fans with a cool shenobi fantasy, but I’m concerned that it won’t do anything for me.
I hope that my mind will begin to change as more information pours in and we get our first look at gameplay. But until then, the unfortunate reality is that what we know right now about Assassin’s Creed Red has me worried.
This could go either way for me. I’ve been playing the games for 12 years, but lost interest after Origins and the switch to the RPG style. It was just too big and the settings weren’t that interesting (even the Greek one, and I love Ancient Greece!) they better have this taking place during a chaotic part of Japan’s history, or it might founder.