Assassin's Creed: Mirage announced; ancient China and feudal Japan setting in the works

For the purists fans who have wanted Assassin's Creed (AC) to return to its roots, Ubisoft's latest announcement should be cause for celebration.

During the 2022 showcase yesterday (Sept 11), the video game company revealed the next title in its core series. Titled Mirage, the game focuses on Basim Ibn Ishaq as he grows from a street thief to a master assassin.

Like Aladdin, if he were running with the Assassins instead of marrying Princess Jasmine.

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Basim is a familiar character for those who played Assassin's Creed: Valhalla as he provided mentorship for Eivor pretty early on in the game.

Mirage is set in Baghdad and takes place 20 years before Valhalla, charting Basim's journey under his mentor Roshan (voiced by Shohreh Aghdashloo). The trailer that was screened definitely harkens back to the earlier days of Assassin's Creed but something sinister is spooking even those who walk in the shadows.

At the end of the trailer, after a successful assassination, Basim performs the customary death rite of dipping a feather in the victim's blood. This usually takes place in an otherworldly, and sometimes ghostly, plane.

In the trailer for Mirage, though, as Basim is performing the ceremony, he spots a frightening creature rising from the black smoke in the distance. The camera then zooms into his shocked expression before the trailer ends.

Unfortunately, Ubisoft has yet to reveal details on that.

However, Ubisoft Bordeaux's narrative director Sarah Beaulieu said the game goes back "to the roots" of the series as an action-adventure, narrative-driven game.

She added: "We've been focusing on stealth, parkour and of course, assassinations."

Ancient China and feudal Japan

Why stop at just one announcement when you can tease more?

Apart from Mirage, the showcase also revealed the development of three more Assassin's Creed games, two of which are set in Asia.

The first is Assassin's Creed: Codename Jade (a working title) and according to the teaser trailer, it takes place in 215 BCE in ancient China. It's a mobile game — albeit a very polished one — but for the first time in the Assassin's Creed open-world games, players can create their own character.

Marc-Alexis Cote, the vice-president and executive producer of the series, said players can "parkour atop the Great Wall of China" among other assassin things like combat and sneaking around.

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The second is Assassin's Creed: Codename Red and takes place in feudal Japan, a setting that AC fans have been requesting for a long time. It was described by Cote as the "future of our open-world RPG games on Assassin's Creed" and is developed by Ubisoft Quebec, the studio behind Odyssey.

Cote said players will be able to "live a very powerful shinobi fantasy".

The last title announced is Codename: Hexe and it is being developed by Ubisoft Montreal. The brief teaser shows a totem, made from sticks to form the Assassin insignia, hanging from the branches of a withered tree. The totem slowly melds into the title screen of the game and is placed on top of a magic circle.

No details about this instalment of the flagship series were revealed except that it's a "very different type of Assassin's Creed game".

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However, our money is on something related to witches. Aside from the obvious magic circle, the use of such totems and witchcraft were included in Valhalla, which was also developed by Ubisoft Montreal.

Go figure.

Fans on Reddit have also dissected the trailer and most seem to agree on a Germanic setting relating to witches. Should these speculations prove right, the most likely setting would be the Wurzburg witch trials.

bryanlim@asiaone.com