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An Assassin's Creed set in feudal Japan would feel over-familiar, says AC3 director

Somebody here on GAF suggested a long time ago having an Assassins Creed game take place in wartime Nazi Germany. Now Ass Creed usually bores the crap out of me for some strange reason that's beyond me.

But I would play the SHIT out of a Nazi Germany themed Assassins Creed game, fo' sho.

The Saboteur is fun.
 
Look, I'm all in favor of criticizing Ubisoft for saying dumb shit - and lord knows they've said a lot of dumb shit recently , but this time, I find it difficult to disagree with them. Time periods such as the Crusades, the Italian Renaissance, the American Revolutionary War, and the French Revolution are not exactly visited frequently in games, Hell, I can't think of any other games taking place in eras.
 
Joke right? Pretty much all the AC have looked familiar to the others. One set in ancient China or feudal Japan would offer so much opportunity to shake it up and give fans what they want, something different and exciting in one of the most interesting points in history.

?

Holy Lands, Renaissance, Constantinople, The New Frontier, The Caribbean... Hardly looking familiar.


AC has always had a great setting and the guy is technically right, that there has been more games third person games set in feudal Japan (if you count the tenchus, onimushas, and so on) than these other settings.

There is some real cultural predujice going against arabian culture in games, unless portrayed as the evil fanatic terrorists (Call of Duty antagonist), while Japan is almost always seen as the grail. Japanese history is cool and I would love to see a feudal AC game, but your post sounds almost like you're dismissing the points in history of these past games like they are any less.
 

theWB27

Member
It was still nonsensical as fuck dude. And I'd like to read up on the material you're referencing, so that I'm on the same page when it comes to what lengths Ubisoft went through to ensure authenticity. And no, accurate depictions that amount to being frivolous aren't good for the industry. Connor's tribe felt like a plot device, plain and simple. There was no driving force or reason to care about the tribe besides their original home being ravaged when Connor was a child.

Its neat that the tribe was included in the game, but the execution for making player care and want to preserve the tribe was haphazard at best.



Ezio was a assassin and displayed more emotion than Connor. Ezio's successes and failures shaped who he was and his perspective. Connor has one goal throughout the whole game, and ends up being a errand boy for the revolution, which in turn ends up destroying his tribe even more if I remember correctly. His goal and arc don't make any sense, it wasn't a tragic turn of events, all of a sudden his tribe sided with the British.

Your approach to storytelling is weird, comparing characters to other characters from different stories isn't off the table discussion wise because of intent alone. If Ubisoft's intent was to make a boring character, that is really spotty intent, and I think they simply created a bland character.

Ezio also grew up as a ladies man in a vastly different era and place. You also followed Ezio to the end of his arc....if he'd stopped at his first game, would you have still thought the same of him? I highly doubt it. Shame they couldn't fit 3 games worth of Ezios growth into one for Connor right.

It isn't off the table....but you're comparing them and saying Ubi did it wrong while another did it right because you favored one approach over the other. How doesn't his arc make sense? He wanted revenge against the people who destroyed his village and he got it at the end. Did you really play the game? Or are you going off cliff notes from the interwebz?

You called question to the authenticity of the character though...not just your opinion of him.
 

gribbles

Banned
Heck, screw the Sengoku Jidai, set it in the Boshin War instead.

That way, it's modern enough that it doesn't feel "over-familiar", but it still retains the exoticism of Japan.

It would be the perfect setting as well, since the Boshin War coincides with the Meiji Resotration, which was very much Japan's national revolution, which would fit in with the whole "revolution" theme they've been going with the past few games.
 
I agree with him. Feudal Japan isn't all that rare in videogames.

In terms of Asian settings I always hoped that they would do 16th-17th century China...but now they're wasting that on a side-scroller.
 

Crossing Eden

Hello, my name is Yves Guillemot, Vivendi S.A.'s Employee of the Month!
The problem is that none of those features came together to form a cohesive whole.

Take, for example, the whole Homestead crap. All it involved was boring, menial chores, running around doing errands and building up a small town for..... why exactly? How exactly does that fit in with being an Assassin? If I wanted to play that sort of crap, I'd play simcity.
The new movement system and controls combined with the new combat system worked fine. Certainly worked a shit ton better than the Ezio trilogy. And the ship combat also was a great addition that was particularly well received, it's there because it's part of the time period. And the whole point of the homestead missions was to provide a different side to Connor and a positive part of the game to clash with the narrative that gets more and more depressing overtime, as the game's narrative gets more depressing the homestead missions get more positive while also providing more characterization and a cast of characters for the player to care about. I'd argue that paying for businesses and building an entire empire has little to do with being an assassin, but that was a large part of the side content in AC2. Assassins in this series don't just do parkour and assassinate people.
 
what happened to that egyptian game they were making..could of swore i saw a ingame shot?

AC5.jpg


what was the game above?
 
So was AC3, it was the start of a new cycle and the gameplay revamps were very experimental, including revamped parkour, a completely new engine when at first we were just gonna get this, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOYPhHbM5Sg, and a ton of things had never been done before in the series, like straight up ship combat, a drastically different setting, new AI systems, etc.

new cycle doesn't mean that couldn't at least take more things from the previous 4 games before it that worked.
I mean new cycle is a good escuse , but you're not supposed to clear everything , there was a good fondation in place in brotherhood that they just ignored.

The only thing that worked was the ship combat , really
 

RedSwirl

Junior Member
Yeah Japan itself is a very common setting for video games, but how many open-world sandbox samurai/ninja games can you think of? I'd love to see a game where you can just run around as one of those things and interact with various characters of the time period. I just wouldn't want Ubisoft to make that game.

You still gotta admire their willingness to go for lesser-known time periods. The crusades and the 18th century in general are pretty damn rare settings for video games, especially console games.
 

GrayFoxPL

Member
"You could always do it, but the point I was trying to make was that in the broad strokes and scale of history, that's a theme that's been well-mined in videogames," Hutchinson began. "So, Assassin's Creed is one of those games that can take [lesser-known] time periods or corners of the world and make them cool, fun, new and refreshing.

"Feudal Japan would work as an Assassin's game, for sure, but I feel like it would start to look like 'oh, have I played this?' You know what I mean - 'oh, I've been a ninja before, I've been a samurai before'."

ibfRNYSoCziiLm.gif



Joke right? Pretty much all the AC have looked familiar to the others. One set in ancient China or feudal Japan would offer so much opportunity to shake it up and give fans what they want, something different and exciting in one of the most interesting points in history.

ibsdnDxFsZeaOV.gif
 
Ezio also grew up as a ladies man in a vastly different era and place. You also followed Ezio to the end of his arc....if he'd stopped at his first game, would you have still thought the same of him? I highly doubt it. Shame they couldn't fit 3 games worth of Ezios growth into one for Connor right.
I would have been satisfied.
Ezio story in AC2 has a start , a middle , and a conclusion ( that end on a cliffanger but still a conclusion ) AC2 ends on a high note , something AC3 again failed to achive
 

gribbles

Banned
I'd argue that paying for businesses and building an entire empire has little to do with being an assassin, but that was a large part of the side content in AC2.

But at least in AC2, those side missions were cohesive with the storyline. Liberating businesses in AC2 and ACB meant you were liberating the city from Borgia/Templar rule. So it was consistent with the overall story.

What relevance did the homestead have in relation to the story of AC3? Literally nothing. There was no payoff. There was literally no purpose to building up your little town apart from the devs trying to artifically pad out the gameplay to lengthen time spent playing.
 

Sakura

Member
Look, I'm all in favor of criticizing Ubisoft for saying dumb shit - and lord knows they've said a lot of dumb shit recently , but this time, I find it difficult to disagree with them. Time periods such as the Crusades, the Italian Renaissance, the American Revolutionary War, and the French Revolution are not exactly visited frequently in games, Hell, I can't think of any other games taking place in eras.

That's hardly fair.
You are comparing specific events to like, a generic time period setting. Feudal Japan is a period of hundreds and hundreds of years. The American Revolution is one specific event. Whether the game is set in the year 1100 or 1800 you would play the game and say 'Feudal Japan been there done that'.
If you're going to say the ARW or the French Revolution are not exactly visited frequently in games, then I could also say the Meiji restoration, or the Russo-Japanese war, or the first Sino Japanese war, etc etc are rarely visited in games too.
 

Dark_castle

Junior Member
Yakuza Ishin, Samurai Warriors 1-4 (plus the many side games), Tenchu, Yakuza Kenzan, Yuusei no Shishi, Way of the Samurai 1-4, Nobunaga's Ambition 1-14 (not including spin-offs), Ooedo Blacksmith, the multitude of visual novels and dating sims, Sengoku Basara 1-4 (not including spin-offs), the Onimusha series, Kengo and Kengo Zero, the Sengoku Hime series, Ikusa Gami, Blood Will Tell, The Story of the Hero Yoshitsune, Samurai Shodown series, Ookuki, the Takeda series, etc,etc,etc.

Good job listing bunch of obscure titles that plays nothing like AssCreed games or is open world ninja action game.
 

Damerman

Member
Yakuza Ishin, Samurai Warriors 1-4 (plus the many side games), Tenchu, Yakuza Kenzan, Yuusei no Shishi, Way of the Samurai 1-4, Nobunaga's Ambition 1-14 (not including spin-offs), Ooedo Blacksmith, the multitude of visual novels and dating sims, Sengoku Basara 1-4 (not including spin-offs), the Onimusha series, Kengo and Kengo Zero, the Sengoku Hime series, Ikusa Gami, Blood Will Tell, The Story of the Hero Yoshitsune, Samurai Shodown series, Ookuki, the Takeda series, etc,etc,etc.

did any of those games make it out of japan? also most of those are Hack n slash/ Meso games... non of those games do justice to the Ninja. An AC game would. the reason that this Ubisoft director gave is utter horseshit and is begging the question. who gives a fuck if the setting as been done before... no game like AC set in japan has been done before.
 

MormaPope

Banned
No it was not, he was trying to save his land, any person who paid attention in history classes would've went into the game knowing about the dramatic irony and futile nature of Connor's quest to save his tribe from being uprooted from their homes. There's nothing nonsensical about it. And there's nothing frivolous about Connor's ethnicity or depiction. And like I said, there are plenty of opportunities in the game to visit the tribe and have conversations with your best friend and clan leader. And here's some sources for what Ubi did to ensure that they had an accurate protagonist.
http://techland.time.com/2012/09/05...voided-stereotypes-and-made-a-real-character/
http://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelvenables/2012/11/25/the-consultants-behind-ratonhnhaketon/
http://kotaku.com/5966088/assassins-creed-iii-used-to-have-scalping

When I said nonsensical, I'm referencing the typical Assassins Creed twist on history, such as Connor's interaction with all the important Revolution dudes. Not about a American Indian trying to preserve land. And I'm saying the inclusion of the tribe was frivolous due to there being no agency given to the player to help them. Don't know why you're trying to twist my words.

My argument is depiction doesn't matter when the content itself doesn't fuel anything significantly. Ubisoft paid attention, or rather, gave a shit when it came to the depiction of that specific tribe and their language. But that doesn't mean Connor being boring as a character, and having really middling dialog, can be written off.
 

Crossing Eden

Hello, my name is Yves Guillemot, Vivendi S.A.'s Employee of the Month!
new cycle doesn't mean that couldn't at least take more things from the previous 4 games before it that worked.
I mean new cycle is a good escuse , but you're not supposed to clear everything , there was a good fondation in place in brotherhood that they just ignored.
The only thing that worked was the ship combat , really
It took the idea of AC and tried to enhance it with a new engine, new controls, and a ton of ambition, and it did, the parkour was objectively better despite not being in a location as interesting as the previous games, the combat was more challenging and had more options despite Connor being OP, there were more stealth options, etc. There are some systems that don't work, like the crafting system for newer weapons, which didn't fit in at all with the rest of the game, but other than that it's not like AC3 isn't a coherent game. A lot more things were given context too, like the assassin recruits having a story instead of faceless assassins like in revelations.
 

theWB27

Member
I would have been satisfied.
Ezio story in AC2 has a start , a middle , and a conclusion ( that end on a cliffanger but still a conclusion ) AC2 ends on a high note , something AC3 again failed to achive

Yea, but it's still odd to compare Ezio's growth to Connor's. I liked Ezio's trilogy though.
 

Damerman

Member
How about basing it in Korea. There's some sweet fan art that someone did with that idea. I don't think anybody really cares if it feels familiar just because it's "ninja-like".

[IG]http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Ul2WPTH-3eI/UKMEz7x5rxI/AAAAAAAABPs/bhOe-GM_VLU/s1600/slanted.jpg[/IMG]
[IG]http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-KpOie8HXsFQ/UM-oC5nR1NI/AAAAAAAABSs/ESL3Wf71fTQ/s1600/2+%25282%2529.jpg[/IMG]
[IG]http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Yya-UtNaYDQ/UH4Z3TrQbrI/AAAAAAAABJ8/ieCyk8gt-1E/s1600/characters.jpg[/IMG]
[IG]http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-gVu1p8wdpic/UKQfaQwlTAI/AAAAAAAABQI/Ub2lcLMWY5I/s1600/Untitled-1.jpg[/IMG]
[IG]http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-BtDbl_Lh5hg/UGS97SoL48I/AAAAAAAABBc/-LJmOayj-x4/s1600/Assassin%27s+Creed.jpg[/IMG]
[IG]http://1.bp.blogspot.com/--qRHYNRcgqc/UHeplzrSwdI/AAAAAAAABIQ/NrzmbSR0kGM/s1600/finals.jpg[/IMG]

http://artofjasonkang.blogspot.com/2012/11/assassins-creed-land-of-morning-calm.html
this is amazing!
 
He directed Assassins Creed 3: CHAAAAAAAARLES LEEEEEEEEEE Edition. I won't take his word much seriously.

Also I don't see much videogames set in the Qing Dynasty but okay I'll go along with his opinion that the Qing Dynasty as a setting is worn out and overused.
 

Crossing Eden

Hello, my name is Yves Guillemot, Vivendi S.A.'s Employee of the Month!
But at least in AC2, those side missions were cohesive with the storyline. Liberating businesses in AC2 and ACB meant you were liberating the city from Borgia/Templar rule. So it was consistent with the overall story.

What relevance did the homestead have in relation to the story of AC3? Literally nothing. There was no payoff. There was literally no purpose to building up your little town apart from the devs trying to artifically pad out the gameplay to lengthen time spent playing.
Nice cherry picking, I explained in the post that you quoted why there were homestead missions in the game and what they provide for the narrative.
 

Chairman Yang

if he talks about books, you better damn well listen
did any of those games make it out of japan? also most of those are Hack n slash/ Meso games... non of those games do justice to the Ninja. An AC game would. the reason that this Ubisoft director gave is utter horseshit and is begging the question. who gives a fuck if the setting as been done before... no game like AC set in japan has been done before.

I give a fuck if the setting has been done before. I literally play AC for the settings; I'd rather Ubisoft put its resources towards stuff that is non-existent in the AAA space rather than feudal Japan.

And yes, some of the games listed were action-adventures in open worlds. Some made it to the US.
 

Chairman Yang

if he talks about books, you better damn well listen
He directed Assassins Creed 3: CHAAAAAAAARLES LEEEEEEEEEE Edition. I won't take his word much seriously.

Also I don't see much videogames set in the Qing Dynasty but okay I'll go along with his opinion that the Qing Dynasty as a setting is worn out and overused.
Where did he say that?
 

18-Volt

Member
He's right though. If anybody needs a ninja assassin so badly, just ask From Software. They'll gladly make another mediocre Tenchu game.
 

AwShucks

Member
The director of the most boring Assassin's creed game saying this is hilarious to me.

Seriously. AC3 ruined the series for me because it was such a bad follow up to the Ezio trilogy. Didn't play Black Flag and not planning on buying the two this year at launch. Maybe some day I will play them, but the side scrolling ninja esque game that is coming with one of the season passes is more interesting to me than Unity or Rogue.
 

Crossing Eden

Hello, my name is Yves Guillemot, Vivendi S.A.'s Employee of the Month!
When I said nonsensical, I'm referencing the typical Assassins Creed twist on history, such as Connor's interaction with all the important Revolution dudes. Not about a American Indian trying to preserve land. And I'm saying the inclusion of the tribe was frivolous due to there being no agency given to the player to help them. Don't know why you're trying to twist my words.
My argument is depiction doesn't matter when the content itself doesn't fuel anything significantly. Ubisoft paid attention, or rather, gave a shit when it came to the depiction of that specific tribe and their language. But that doesn't mean Connor being boring as a character, and having really middling dialog, can be written off.
Connor's interaction with historical figures is no more nonsensical than Ezio being best friends with Leonardo Da Vinci. His depiction was a lot more realistic in how he was treated compared, he wasn't buddy buddy with everyone nor was he very well respected outside of his homestead community. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-TpyGtS_lQ And you should really stop portraying your opinion as fact when you say that Connor is a boring character.
 

MormaPope

Banned
Ezio also grew up as a ladies man in a vastly different era and place. You also followed Ezio to the end of his arc....if he'd stopped at his first game, would you have still thought the same of him? I highly doubt it. Shame they couldn't fit 3 games worth of Ezios growth into one for Connor right.

It isn't off the table....but you're comparing them and saying Ubi did it wrong while another did it right because you favored one approach over the other. How doesn't his arc make sense? He wanted revenge against the people who destroyed his village and he got it at the end. Did you really play the game? Or are you going off cliff notes from the interwebz?

You called question to the authenticity of the character though...not just your opinion of him.

I've only played AC2 and about a third of Brotherhood when it comes to Ezio's arc, and that's how I feel. "He wanted revenge against the people who destroyed his village and he got it at the end" In the process his tribe sided with the British due to incentives, and what does Connor do? He murders some of his tribe. Yeah, his drive to save his tribe REALLY came through. I'm questioning whether or not you remember how odd the pacing was when it came to the missions and storytelling.

This is the same game where alien people try to warn or dissuade humanity from some sort of doomsday bullshit.
 

Crossing Eden

Hello, my name is Yves Guillemot, Vivendi S.A.'s Employee of the Month!
no game like AC set in japan has been done before.
And quite frankly no game like AC has been set in the settings that they've been choosing. ._. I like surprises, i'm sure an AC set in an asian setting would be great, however, I like being surprised and not knowing where they're gonna go next, Caribbean AC blind sided me and I didn't think it would work, yet it did.
 

Dark_castle

Junior Member
I give a fuck if the setting has been done before. I literally play AC for the settings; I'd rather Ubisoft put its resources towards stuff that is non-existent in the AAA space rather than feudal Japan.

And yes, some of the games listed were action-adventures in open worlds. Some made it to the US.

Exactly which games are you referring to? The AAA ninja action adventure open world game that made it to US.
 

MormaPope

Banned
Connor's interaction with historical figures is no more nonsensical than Ezio being best friends with Leonardo Da Vinci. His depiction was a lot more realistic in how he was treated compared, he wasn't buddy buddy with everyone nor was he very well respected outside of his homestead community. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-TpyGtS_lQ And you should really stop portraying your opinion as fact when you say that Connor is a boring character.

Well, duh. I'm not arguing the other Assassin Creed games are more realistic, I'd say they are all similar when it comes to goofy history. And you should really stop saying people are portraying opinions as facts. This is NeoGaf, on the gaming side, 90%+ of things said are opinons from the get go.
 

Crossing Eden

Hello, my name is Yves Guillemot, Vivendi S.A.'s Employee of the Month!
I've only played AC2 and about a third of Brotherhood when it comes to Ezio's arc, and that's how I feel. "He wanted revenge against the people who destroyed his village and he got it at the end" In the process his tribe sided with the British due to incentives, and what does Connor do? He murders some of his tribe. Yeah, his drive to save his tribe REALLY came through. I'm questioning whether or not you remember how odd the pacing was when it came to the missions and storytelling
Stop spreading misinformation, literally the only person that Connor killed is
his best friend in self defense
because he had no other choice and would've been killed. t=The optional objective during the mission, as in, "What Connor really did" is specifically "Don't kill anyone."
cOms0qb.png
 
Somebody here on GAF suggested a long time ago having an Assassins Creed game take place in wartime Nazi Germany. Now Ass Creed usually bores the crap out of me for some strange reason that's beyond me.

But I would play the SHIT out of a Nazi Germany themed Assassins Creed game, fo' sho.


Not going to happen. They made a big deal in AC4 of saying that the Animus is incapable of doing vehicles with moving parts like cars,so no era past the 19th century is suitable.
They said it was because the Animus is working of the users own brain power and the moment you add such technical machines to the world, it breaks the immersion.
 

MormaPope

Banned
Stop spreading misinformation, literally the only person that Connor killed is
his best friend in self defense
, the optional objective during the mission, as in, "What Connor really did" is specifically "Don't kill anyone."
cOms0qb.png

What's the penalty for killing people, and what's the reward for not killing people? Full synchronization versus not Full synchronization? I can assure you, a lot of people murdered tribesmen without any remorse or second thought. Hell, instead of being a natural parameter due to storytelling, mission designers felt it would be a fun optional objective if players had to fight with their fists.

Reprimanding somebody and saying they're spreading misinformation because they didn't remember an optional objective in a Assassins Creed game is odd.
 
The only AC game I found really interesting was the pirate-themed Black Flag.
Bought a couple of other AC games, but the settings were boring to me.
Just like the next one - French Revolution? Meh.

An open world feudal Japan game would be awesome.
 

Chairman Yang

if he talks about books, you better damn well listen
Exactly which games are you referring to? The AAA ninja action adventure open world game that made it to US.
That's a super-specific request you have, there. It's like saying Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare is fresh and new because how many next-gen AAA near-future FPSes starring Kevin Spacey are there?

The Tenchu, Way of the Samurai, and Onimusha games made it to the US, and have some of the elements you're looking for. Yakuza Kenzan seems like exactly what you want but you'll need a translation.

Ok, now tell me the options for British Raj games. Any British Raj game that's even vaguely like AC will do! See the issue? It's not like feudal Japan is overdone, but there are some options. Why not explore settings where there aren't any real options?
 

Crossing Eden

Hello, my name is Yves Guillemot, Vivendi S.A.'s Employee of the Month!
What's the penalty for killing people, and what's the reward for not killing people? Full synchronization versus not Full synchronization? I can assure you, a lot of people murdered tribesmen without any remorse or second thought. Hell, instead of being a natural parameter due to storytelling, mission designers felt it would be a fun optional objective if players had to fight with their fists.

Reprimanding somebody and saying they're spreading misinformation because they didn't remember an optional objective in a Assassins Creed game is odd.
You don't fight with your fists, Connor subdues his tribesmen in a non lethal way. Love the blanket statement btw, "Most people murdered the tribesmen." Your criticism was "Oh in the story Connor kills his tribesmen." Yet the optional objective, as in "what really happened" directly contradicts that statement. If you're gonna criticize a story then you should make sure that you know about the part that you're criticizing. Or better yet, it's odd to criticize a story if you don't remember the optional objective.
 

Lime

Member
I would love if the next setting will be modern warfare. Imagine having an assault rifle instead of swords, or having to man a fixed machine gun to mow down scripted waves of enemies, or having to go to a middle Eastern country and kill some evil dictator with the help of the arsenal of the US military. Maybe there will even be chest high walls to take cover in. Shit, it would be so unique and amazing.

If not that, then at least some Towers to climb and Press Y on, because I haven't had enough of those yet.

I really really really hope Ubisoft takes note.
 
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