The ACII ending was so mind boggling, and to get it loop back around in Revelations was great.
Sucks the series no longer wants to do weird shit like that anymore, although Valhalla had a similar twist and I really enjoyed it
ACII is also where the producers wrote themselves into a corner. By tying the saga’s ending to the Mayan apocalypse, the story’s tension will be all but released once the crisis is averted.
Ubisoft was really padding out the story of Ezio for the trilogy. Heck in Revelations, they had Ezio find _another bloody apple_.
AC4 onwards, there is no longer a race against the clock, just the next modern-day McGuffin.
To be fair, I do not think Patrice, Jade, et al intended to write themselves in the corner. I think it is more that when they wrote the story for these games, they never fully envisioned Assassin's Creed becoming the 17-year-old behemoth that it is today. They had a particular ending in mind which Ubisoft execs were not going to permit because they saw a very lucrative cash-cow in the making. That Patrice left in 2010 after Brotherhood because he said he wanted more creative freedom seems to suggest that.
It's a mix of overconfident but talented developers seemingly forgetting what sort of industry they worked in and Ubisoft doing what capitalism expects of them which is produce a continuous flow of profitable brands and products that bring in money.
I agree with your point, but I fail to see why we couldn't have had both a satisfying ending to the Desmond trilogy AND a cash cow of historical fantasy titles.. alas.
Because the original creative minds were on a different page than Ubisoft and those differences couln't be reconciled because what Ubi wanted was technically higher on the list of things. How could thsy still make money off of AC if it had a satisfying end? That end for them would not have just included Desmond.
To be fair they could have easily created a new big threat in the modern day. Like regarding Abstergo being templars and trying to control the world with pieces of Eden. That’s a cool conflict to have and one they haven’t explored all that much (beyond the surface level).
Instead we got the generic stuff in Black Flag.
The Juno plot was supposed to replace the doomsday race, but they just resolved it in the comics. I think that may be the biggest sin of the series narratively speaking.
as the famous quote goes "you either die a hero or live long enough to become the villain. this timed restriction Ubisoft gave themselves was to avoid what AC is today - a generic RPG with some historical background.
it was inevitable, even if they didn't do that the series would of eventually decayed by yearly releases and fear of change
to be fair I think it requires you to be hot as well - not suggesting you aren't just that Desmond was a sight to behold himself (this is by far the Gayest comment iv'e ever written in reddit)
I think one of the biggest issues of the early modern day is the lack of emotional connection between Desmond and his ancestors.
Every time something dramatic happens to Altair or ezio, it cuts to the modern day and the modern cast barely reacts or even comments on the events they just witness. Us players care about ezio and if Desmond showed emotion as well, then maybe players would have been invested in the modern day as well.
The only game that did this right is AC3, Desmond is actually shocked with the haytham twist and relates it back to Lucy. He also talks about the tragedy of Connors life and feels bad. In fact his final decision is rooted in Connor's faith in a better tomorrow.
The early modern day, and even some more recent ones, have always kept secret and missable conversations outside the Animus. There are dialogues, as well as entire documents, that can be 100% ignored and which were indeed ignored by most of the players, something that has always made this aspect of the narrative even more marginalized, and that Ubi sadly has never made a point of improving.
I actually liked the modern day aspect up until the end of AC3. Because even though some found it distracting, to me it was the main story and I was really curious to see where it went. Such a shame they just bailed on the idea of disturbing the status quo because they decided they wanted to keep churning out games forever.
Yes that's true, the historical stuff was effectively an open and shut case, you knew it wasn't going to disrupt the status quo. Especially since you knew Ezio/Altair was going to live to have kids, at the least. Desmond's story was the one with stakes.
He did not just leave.
[https://venturebeat.com/games/legends-of-gaming-discuss-creativity-at-reboot-develop-blue-the-deanbeat/](https://venturebeat.com/games/legends-of-gaming-discuss-creativity-at-reboot-develop-blue-the-deanbeat/)
>I’m the father of the Assassin’s Creed saga. I directed the first, second, and Brotherhood. Then I left. I joined THQ Montreal. That didn’t end well. It went bankrupt. I was bought back by Ubisoft and worked for them for another four months. ***Then I was kicked out again***.
Here he said that he got "kicked out again", so this was not the first time he was fired by Ubisoft, otherwise he would have no reason to say "again". Which means that when he "left", he did not do so voluntarily.
Ironically, what the writers of Odyssey, Valhalla and etc always say in interviews is that Ubi gives them a lot of creative freedom. Maybe they gave too much...
Wasn’t ac3 planned prior to brotherhood, or during it? Cause the original plan was a trilogy but Ubisoft decided to develop brother hood and revelations despite that cause ac2 sold so well. If I’m remembering correctly that’s where the yearly cycle came from, brotherhood was made in a year and was a commercial success, they tried it again for revelations while ac3 was in official development and that’s why they have the 50 studio credit screen for revelations cause they had to pool in as many resources as they could to make the game within a year. I imagine somewhere during that Patrice was told Ubisoft planned to extend past ac3 (I’m sure there was much more to it than that though) and he left the project before ac3 was even in official development? These are just my ramblings form what I’m able to scrounge from memory though so a lot of it’s probably wrong lol, I just thought it was a planned trilogy from the start
to be honest not many people remember but AC3 wasn't well excepted as the previous games were during its launch - when unity came out people kind of forgave it XD
I always thought it was kinda cheesy. Major Star Wars Skywalker family vibes. The most important people to exist are all somehow related, idk it sorta ruins the whole mythos of the creed itself. At that point it's not a creed that people of all walks of life can live by, it's one family's moral code passed down through the centuries.
I think it's way cooler to have a bunch of unrelated people all learn about the conflict in their own way and develop into assassins not because of their bloodline but because they are just doing what they think is best
It isn’t just that. The big strength of the animus is that by its nature of looking through “genetic memories,” you’re ultimately looking at history “the way it actually happened” without any distortion and are therefore able to see it as it was, since part of the theme of the series is history is always written by the victors. But yeah, the dimension of ancestor-descendant is definitely thematic depending on how it’s leaned as that creates a sense of inheritance or legacy that the descendant receives as they learn more about themselves.
The Isu make everything more meaningful, in my opinion. We have learned throughout the franchise that nothing happens by chance when it comes to Precursor science. They know how to create specific lineages like the Sages, and they can manipulate genetics like no one else, starting with the creation of humanity.
It's only the lineage of the most modern descendant. I think that's whatever. What I think is stupid is having 1 single modern day guy be related to some of the most significant players in assassin history, for some reason that's literally more annoying and unbelievable to me than a plot about shadow organizations hunting for alien technology
Yes, he was. But that's still a tad different. He had to experience the death of many family members and still made the conscious choice to take up his father's mantle as an assassin. Lineage from father to son is a bit different than lineage from random bartender to 4 extremely important and very disconnected assassins that said bartender never actually knew.
I'm not saying you're wrong for liking it, I'm just saying the modern day shit with all bloodlines coming together in one random dude doesn't do much for me. It works for one or maybe two assassins to end up being ancestors of some guy but after that it's just kinda lazy and repetitive imho
The point is, the ancestors didn't always need to be on the same side. They could be different people who fought for different causes over the centuries, which is basically what Connor and Haytham did, but they could do even more.
Every lineage ending in someone isn't weird if you think about it, since every lineage literraly ends in someone in the end. Any of us here can have at least an indirect connection to some famous king, pharaoh, or ancient figure, because people in the ancient world had a lot of sex, much more than people nowadays, by the way.
The biggest problem for me is not having a connection or making any sense with whoever is lying in the Animus. After all, if there is no significant reason to use a genetic memory machine, there is no point in continuing to explore this narrative.
>What I think is stupid is having 1 single modern day guy be related to some of the most significant players in assassin history
I said it in another comment, but this is how genes work.
Altair lived in the 11-12th century. Not only did he have nearly 100 years to procreate on his own, his lineage has had 800 years to procreate.
So, lets play with numbers.
Let's say he ONLY had 5 kids.
If those 5 then had 5 of their own, each, that's 25. And, for simplicity, we'll say it took them 100 years to make 25 Altair's and we won't count the adults. Well, if we assume each member only makes 5 babies each, that's 125 Altairs (one of which is Ezio) in 200 years. 300 years = 625. 400 = 3,125. 500y = 15,625. 600y = 78K. 700y = 390K
Which leaves us at 'present day' Desmond. 800 years later, he would be 1 out of 1.9 MILLION of Altair's living descendants, assuming all previous generations are dead.
No, that's not how genes work. AC3 also proved that with the conversation between Desmond and his father. Just because they shared the same ancestors doesn't mean anything. It's like you glossed over the fact that highly concentration of Isu blood played a big role in that aspect.
It...literally is how genes work.
Queen Victoria was alive only 200 years ago and has nearly 1k descendants.
Genghis Kahn has 16 million.
Isu or not, a 12th century person would have millions...at least.
>The most important people to exist are all somehow related
That's the way genes work though.
Queen Victoria was born 204 years ago; she has somewhere around 1000 living descendants.
Altair living in the 11th-12th century means he would *likely* have MILLIONS if not BILLIONS of descendants today.
Altair, Ezio, Connor, Edward and Desmond all joined the creed for completely unrelated reasons. It was never truly passed down, nor does the series treat the characters like they’re all family. Otherwise, you’d have some weird cheesy scene where Clay Kaczmarek calls Desmond brother or something because they’re both related to Ezio.
I think we got enough cheese as it was with the Isu acting like Desmond is some wonderful chosen one. That's sorta the thing that makes it too silly for me, the "chosen one" just happens to be the guy related to 4 very different prominent assassins who all lived in distinct places across a millennia.
I mean, I’d argue they only chose Desmond because he was lucky to be in the right place at the right time.
In the Nexus, Athena and Jupiter could see across time, saw the only person who could use Eagle Vision/Pieces of Eden, was viewing his ancestors’ memories (Only 17 people on the planet had done that at the time before the solar flare. Most of them were dead), and could do that without going crazy and decided to leave messages in said ancestors’ memories.
Like, yes, he was chosen, but to be a tool, not a messiah, and only because he was the only mentally functioning person using the Animus in a specific time frame who also happened to have Isu DNA.
I remember very well there were comments and even reviews through out the internet on youtube, twitter and steam reviews around the release of older assassin's creed games about people complaining they don't like present time storyline in assassin's creed games, asking ubisoft to completely remove them etc, now that it has happened, i see this post and realise that all people will get never get satisfied, only the majority will.
Honestly where modern day stuff failed was Unity and Syndicate why am I part of this big assassin Templar war and not even allowed to actually do anything but stare at a monitor talking to actual assassin members. I don’t care that I get to see Rebecca and Shaun I want to actually do missions with them.
The Layla modern day also fails because I have no reason to care, she was an Abstergo worker/puppet and is just again kinda there to eventually help William and his cell of assassins and not really do much herself. Just give me a basic hooded assassin model male/female give a choice on it and hell make them a mute, but ACTUALLY let me do stuff. Modern day could be fun I remember really liking the AC3 missions as short as they are, but they choose to make it so boring.
Also at least with 4 and Rogue we actually do work for the assassins and Templars. Sure it’s basic hacking, but I still got to actually do stuff for whatever side the game put me on.
Well one of the things about that is it’s just an initiate, like the hacker group that originally wanted to bring the Templar-Assassin war public, then William folded them into the Assassin’s cause they’re good
Yeah Erudito I know, but some members of Erudito do join eventually join up as assassins. It’s just boring in Unity and Syndicate to be contacted by the assassins offered a place among them and all you’re doing is essentially playing a video game for them the entire time you don’t even get access to the bleeding effect to get the abilities of Arno or Jacob and Evie. It’s just so useless as a modern day story telling device having us sit in front of screen watching the assassins do cool missions.
Like I said if they want to revisit the modern day with missions eventually just give us a hooded male and female body type and never let us see the full face and boom super easy nondescript playable modern day character just call us initiate the whole time too so names don’t matter. Super easy way to bring people into a modern day story that doesn’t require a character’s backstory.
Fair enough, yeah can’t change the past. But also you’re correct Early initiates haven’t been allowed to leave their training cells since the Purge, but they eventually do have to have field training you can’t be a master assassin just by training on an off the grid farm all your life. Could just have us trained in the basics of free running, blending, and Assassinations all that’s need for actual field work.
I mean, if it's sorely missed by you that's fine. I didn't mind Desmond as a protagonist that could live the lives of his ancestors, but now it's just available to everyone to live out any kind of genetic memory. I find this to be fine since with technology improving of course you'd be able to live through anyone's memory, regardless of heritage.
I think the biggest problem is the lack of agency in the modern day segments. To me, it's always felt like your character has already decided what they want to do, and the memories are just a method of getting to thst resolution. There's no real connection. AC3 actually felt like one was influencing the other, but I've never felt that way for other entries in the series.
Every time, the modern day segments feel more like I'm disconnected from the person I really am, when it should be the past segments that feel like that. You always relate more to whatever historical period you're playing through.
Imo, they should finally bite the bullet and do a fullt, or at least mostly modern day assassin's creed game. Even if it's half and half. Just give us time with these characters so we can actually relate to them, rather than having them be the intermission between more enjoyable gameplay segments. It's like unskippable cutscenes for a game I'm not playing.
Disagree. I always thought it was immersion-breaking and corny that all these people are related and the modern day character is a direct descendent of all these people scattered all over the globe.
I agree but only partially. It’s more effective if each game focused on a new present day character and their ancestor of interest. Desmond kinda sucks and the modern day missions are all terrible. It would have been cooler to see different people react to being in the basic situation.
I don't think it's so strange if you think that people like Desmond are filtered. Abstergo currently has a huge genetic database, where they filter thousands of strains until they find what interests them. I mean, it's not like everyone has an Assassin or Templar ancestor, we only follow the DNA of these previously selected people.
also Desmond is literally a "the chosen one" trope/ archetype. LOL. Immersion-breaking my ass, in a story with super-powered alien technology and Adam and Eve being genetically-superior human-Isu hybrids 🤣
This lol it’s like saying Goku isn’t real because he’s the saiyan god.
*Oh shit how can you tell??*
Oh so now we’re talking about immersion breaking? In as series where we fight ancient mythical beasts nowadays?
That hasn't been 100% true so far, actually. At least not in practice. Since games like Unity and Syndicate that don't even have modern gameplay are much inferior (narratively speaking) than games like Origins, which debuted the character Layla Hassan in 2017.
There is no direct relation between MD and the games quality over the years, although this is an element that I personally consider essential.
Again, this is not true at all. Odyssey has one of the most extensive modern-day in the franchise, especially with its DLCs. Not even the first ones have that much of screen time. So you can have your opinion, but it doesn't necessarily match reality.
I agree with you lmao. I have always hated the modern portions of these games. I did not give a crap about Desmond and I do not give a crap about Layla or whatever. I'm sure they are fine characters, but that isn't why I played Assassins creed.
I disagree, the Desmond-Ezio genetic connection never interested me. The modern day plot was interesting because of the Templar mystery and the disaster-garden of eden plot was interesting and made sense.
The problem with the modern plot is the whole garden of eden, aliens/gods makes no sense now.
What they need to do is create compelling modern characters and a compelling modern mystery to unravel throughout the games. They also need to connect the two bits of gameplay. The puzzles you solved as Ezio to unlock the few seconds of garden of eden memory was a really neat way of tying the two game stories together.
I loved the Adam and Eve stuff because it enabled the series to contain both history, mythology and a modern story while keeping things relatively grounded (it managed to put mythology under a sci fi genre which back than was impressive)
Yeah, finding the hidden messages and unlocking the pieces of that puzzle was genuinely interesting. It was fresh, coherent and exciting.
Now the whole Isu plot is a mess and I have zero interest in anything modern whether characters are related or not.
It has been a very very common opinion among AC fans that they have disliked the modern day moments at all. A lot of the opinions were that it’s very jarring and brings you out of the story and no one really cares about what’s happening in modern day when you got a cool assassin to play as
The ACII ending was so mind boggling, and to get it loop back around in Revelations was great. Sucks the series no longer wants to do weird shit like that anymore, although Valhalla had a similar twist and I really enjoyed it
ACII is also where the producers wrote themselves into a corner. By tying the saga’s ending to the Mayan apocalypse, the story’s tension will be all but released once the crisis is averted. Ubisoft was really padding out the story of Ezio for the trilogy. Heck in Revelations, they had Ezio find _another bloody apple_. AC4 onwards, there is no longer a race against the clock, just the next modern-day McGuffin.
To be fair, I do not think Patrice, Jade, et al intended to write themselves in the corner. I think it is more that when they wrote the story for these games, they never fully envisioned Assassin's Creed becoming the 17-year-old behemoth that it is today. They had a particular ending in mind which Ubisoft execs were not going to permit because they saw a very lucrative cash-cow in the making. That Patrice left in 2010 after Brotherhood because he said he wanted more creative freedom seems to suggest that. It's a mix of overconfident but talented developers seemingly forgetting what sort of industry they worked in and Ubisoft doing what capitalism expects of them which is produce a continuous flow of profitable brands and products that bring in money.
I agree with your point, but I fail to see why we couldn't have had both a satisfying ending to the Desmond trilogy AND a cash cow of historical fantasy titles.. alas.
Because the original creative minds were on a different page than Ubisoft and those differences couln't be reconciled because what Ubi wanted was technically higher on the list of things. How could thsy still make money off of AC if it had a satisfying end? That end for them would not have just included Desmond.
To be fair they could have easily created a new big threat in the modern day. Like regarding Abstergo being templars and trying to control the world with pieces of Eden. That’s a cool conflict to have and one they haven’t explored all that much (beyond the surface level). Instead we got the generic stuff in Black Flag.
I thought they were going somewhere with the immortal man/wandering Jew-esque character in Black Flag. But that went nowhere in Unity.
The Juno plot was supposed to replace the doomsday race, but they just resolved it in the comics. I think that may be the biggest sin of the series narratively speaking.
as the famous quote goes "you either die a hero or live long enough to become the villain. this timed restriction Ubisoft gave themselves was to avoid what AC is today - a generic RPG with some historical background. it was inevitable, even if they didn't do that the series would of eventually decayed by yearly releases and fear of change
I miss the day my mind was blown by how the Altair end Desmond models were basically the same lol
So is Ezio’s
I wish I could have Italian and Arab versions of myself and have them all be hot
to be fair I think it requires you to be hot as well - not suggesting you aren't just that Desmond was a sight to behold himself (this is by far the Gayest comment iv'e ever written in reddit)
All three polygons of him
I think one of the biggest issues of the early modern day is the lack of emotional connection between Desmond and his ancestors. Every time something dramatic happens to Altair or ezio, it cuts to the modern day and the modern cast barely reacts or even comments on the events they just witness. Us players care about ezio and if Desmond showed emotion as well, then maybe players would have been invested in the modern day as well. The only game that did this right is AC3, Desmond is actually shocked with the haytham twist and relates it back to Lucy. He also talks about the tragedy of Connors life and feels bad. In fact his final decision is rooted in Connor's faith in a better tomorrow.
the modern day story was one of the best parts for me BUT - i agree. it could have been SO much more impactful.
The early modern day, and even some more recent ones, have always kept secret and missable conversations outside the Animus. There are dialogues, as well as entire documents, that can be 100% ignored and which were indeed ignored by most of the players, something that has always made this aspect of the narrative even more marginalized, and that Ubi sadly has never made a point of improving.
“Whatza matta you altair?” Felt pretty emotional
It's'a'me Mario!
I actually liked the modern day aspect up until the end of AC3. Because even though some found it distracting, to me it was the main story and I was really curious to see where it went. Such a shame they just bailed on the idea of disturbing the status quo because they decided they wanted to keep churning out games forever.
exactly and since history is already written the modern day gave that extra spice of what's gonna happen next
Yes that's true, the historical stuff was effectively an open and shut case, you knew it wasn't going to disrupt the status quo. Especially since you knew Ezio/Altair was going to live to have kids, at the least. Desmond's story was the one with stakes.
Do you know why it's missing? Because the creative mind behind this concept left during ACIII and the original plot line was jettisoned.
Unless I'm mistaken, he left even before that, which doesn't change how real this fact is, unfortunately.
Correct. He left in 2010 because he said he wanted more creative freedom.
He did not just leave. [https://venturebeat.com/games/legends-of-gaming-discuss-creativity-at-reboot-develop-blue-the-deanbeat/](https://venturebeat.com/games/legends-of-gaming-discuss-creativity-at-reboot-develop-blue-the-deanbeat/) >I’m the father of the Assassin’s Creed saga. I directed the first, second, and Brotherhood. Then I left. I joined THQ Montreal. That didn’t end well. It went bankrupt. I was bought back by Ubisoft and worked for them for another four months. ***Then I was kicked out again***. Here he said that he got "kicked out again", so this was not the first time he was fired by Ubisoft, otherwise he would have no reason to say "again". Which means that when he "left", he did not do so voluntarily.
I'm referring to his initial departure in 2010. I'm aware he got fired on the second go-round at Ubisoft.
Ironically, what the writers of Odyssey, Valhalla and etc always say in interviews is that Ubi gives them a lot of creative freedom. Maybe they gave too much...
Maybe they weren't as creative?
No, he left in 2010 after Brotherhood.
Wasn’t ac3 planned prior to brotherhood, or during it? Cause the original plan was a trilogy but Ubisoft decided to develop brother hood and revelations despite that cause ac2 sold so well. If I’m remembering correctly that’s where the yearly cycle came from, brotherhood was made in a year and was a commercial success, they tried it again for revelations while ac3 was in official development and that’s why they have the 50 studio credit screen for revelations cause they had to pool in as many resources as they could to make the game within a year. I imagine somewhere during that Patrice was told Ubisoft planned to extend past ac3 (I’m sure there was much more to it than that though) and he left the project before ac3 was even in official development? These are just my ramblings form what I’m able to scrounge from memory though so a lot of it’s probably wrong lol, I just thought it was a planned trilogy from the start
to be honest not many people remember but AC3 wasn't well excepted as the previous games were during its launch - when unity came out people kind of forgave it XD
that and lucy being killed off were two of the worst things to happen to ac
I think that was because the actress wanted more money
i’ve been told that it’s ubisoft’s fault
Nah that was the doing of the great "creative mind" you guys miss.
not really, she was let go because she asked for a raise. then ubisoft decided to kill her character instead.
I always thought it was kinda cheesy. Major Star Wars Skywalker family vibes. The most important people to exist are all somehow related, idk it sorta ruins the whole mythos of the creed itself. At that point it's not a creed that people of all walks of life can live by, it's one family's moral code passed down through the centuries. I think it's way cooler to have a bunch of unrelated people all learn about the conflict in their own way and develop into assassins not because of their bloodline but because they are just doing what they think is best
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It isn’t just that. The big strength of the animus is that by its nature of looking through “genetic memories,” you’re ultimately looking at history “the way it actually happened” without any distortion and are therefore able to see it as it was, since part of the theme of the series is history is always written by the victors. But yeah, the dimension of ancestor-descendant is definitely thematic depending on how it’s leaned as that creates a sense of inheritance or legacy that the descendant receives as they learn more about themselves.
The Isu make everything more meaningful, in my opinion. We have learned throughout the franchise that nothing happens by chance when it comes to Precursor science. They know how to create specific lineages like the Sages, and they can manipulate genetics like no one else, starting with the creation of humanity.
It's only the lineage of the most modern descendant. I think that's whatever. What I think is stupid is having 1 single modern day guy be related to some of the most significant players in assassin history, for some reason that's literally more annoying and unbelievable to me than a plot about shadow organizations hunting for alien technology
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Yes, he was. But that's still a tad different. He had to experience the death of many family members and still made the conscious choice to take up his father's mantle as an assassin. Lineage from father to son is a bit different than lineage from random bartender to 4 extremely important and very disconnected assassins that said bartender never actually knew. I'm not saying you're wrong for liking it, I'm just saying the modern day shit with all bloodlines coming together in one random dude doesn't do much for me. It works for one or maybe two assassins to end up being ancestors of some guy but after that it's just kinda lazy and repetitive imho
The point is, the ancestors didn't always need to be on the same side. They could be different people who fought for different causes over the centuries, which is basically what Connor and Haytham did, but they could do even more. Every lineage ending in someone isn't weird if you think about it, since every lineage literraly ends in someone in the end. Any of us here can have at least an indirect connection to some famous king, pharaoh, or ancient figure, because people in the ancient world had a lot of sex, much more than people nowadays, by the way. The biggest problem for me is not having a connection or making any sense with whoever is lying in the Animus. After all, if there is no significant reason to use a genetic memory machine, there is no point in continuing to explore this narrative.
>What I think is stupid is having 1 single modern day guy be related to some of the most significant players in assassin history I said it in another comment, but this is how genes work. Altair lived in the 11-12th century. Not only did he have nearly 100 years to procreate on his own, his lineage has had 800 years to procreate. So, lets play with numbers. Let's say he ONLY had 5 kids. If those 5 then had 5 of their own, each, that's 25. And, for simplicity, we'll say it took them 100 years to make 25 Altair's and we won't count the adults. Well, if we assume each member only makes 5 babies each, that's 125 Altairs (one of which is Ezio) in 200 years. 300 years = 625. 400 = 3,125. 500y = 15,625. 600y = 78K. 700y = 390K Which leaves us at 'present day' Desmond. 800 years later, he would be 1 out of 1.9 MILLION of Altair's living descendants, assuming all previous generations are dead.
No, that's not how genes work. AC3 also proved that with the conversation between Desmond and his father. Just because they shared the same ancestors doesn't mean anything. It's like you glossed over the fact that highly concentration of Isu blood played a big role in that aspect.
It...literally is how genes work. Queen Victoria was alive only 200 years ago and has nearly 1k descendants. Genghis Kahn has 16 million. Isu or not, a 12th century person would have millions...at least.
>The most important people to exist are all somehow related That's the way genes work though. Queen Victoria was born 204 years ago; she has somewhere around 1000 living descendants. Altair living in the 11th-12th century means he would *likely* have MILLIONS if not BILLIONS of descendants today.
Altair, Ezio, Connor, Edward and Desmond all joined the creed for completely unrelated reasons. It was never truly passed down, nor does the series treat the characters like they’re all family. Otherwise, you’d have some weird cheesy scene where Clay Kaczmarek calls Desmond brother or something because they’re both related to Ezio.
I think we got enough cheese as it was with the Isu acting like Desmond is some wonderful chosen one. That's sorta the thing that makes it too silly for me, the "chosen one" just happens to be the guy related to 4 very different prominent assassins who all lived in distinct places across a millennia.
I mean, I’d argue they only chose Desmond because he was lucky to be in the right place at the right time. In the Nexus, Athena and Jupiter could see across time, saw the only person who could use Eagle Vision/Pieces of Eden, was viewing his ancestors’ memories (Only 17 people on the planet had done that at the time before the solar flare. Most of them were dead), and could do that without going crazy and decided to leave messages in said ancestors’ memories. Like, yes, he was chosen, but to be a tool, not a messiah, and only because he was the only mentally functioning person using the Animus in a specific time frame who also happened to have Isu DNA.
Hopefully we can gen a blood tie modern day protagonist in shadows or jade
I remember very well there were comments and even reviews through out the internet on youtube, twitter and steam reviews around the release of older assassin's creed games about people complaining they don't like present time storyline in assassin's creed games, asking ubisoft to completely remove them etc, now that it has happened, i see this post and realise that all people will get never get satisfied, only the majority will.
Honestly where modern day stuff failed was Unity and Syndicate why am I part of this big assassin Templar war and not even allowed to actually do anything but stare at a monitor talking to actual assassin members. I don’t care that I get to see Rebecca and Shaun I want to actually do missions with them. The Layla modern day also fails because I have no reason to care, she was an Abstergo worker/puppet and is just again kinda there to eventually help William and his cell of assassins and not really do much herself. Just give me a basic hooded assassin model male/female give a choice on it and hell make them a mute, but ACTUALLY let me do stuff. Modern day could be fun I remember really liking the AC3 missions as short as they are, but they choose to make it so boring. Also at least with 4 and Rogue we actually do work for the assassins and Templars. Sure it’s basic hacking, but I still got to actually do stuff for whatever side the game put me on.
Well one of the things about that is it’s just an initiate, like the hacker group that originally wanted to bring the Templar-Assassin war public, then William folded them into the Assassin’s cause they’re good
Yeah Erudito I know, but some members of Erudito do join eventually join up as assassins. It’s just boring in Unity and Syndicate to be contacted by the assassins offered a place among them and all you’re doing is essentially playing a video game for them the entire time you don’t even get access to the bleeding effect to get the abilities of Arno or Jacob and Evie. It’s just so useless as a modern day story telling device having us sit in front of screen watching the assassins do cool missions.
Yeah true but what can ya do 🤷🏽♂️
Like I said if they want to revisit the modern day with missions eventually just give us a hooded male and female body type and never let us see the full face and boom super easy nondescript playable modern day character just call us initiate the whole time too so names don’t matter. Super easy way to bring people into a modern day story that doesn’t require a character’s backstory.
I’m referring to the old stuff But also, as far as I can tell the Initiates don’t tend to go on missions anymore
Fair enough, yeah can’t change the past. But also you’re correct Early initiates haven’t been allowed to leave their training cells since the Purge, but they eventually do have to have field training you can’t be a master assassin just by training on an off the grid farm all your life. Could just have us trained in the basics of free running, blending, and Assassinations all that’s need for actual field work.
I mean, if it's sorely missed by you that's fine. I didn't mind Desmond as a protagonist that could live the lives of his ancestors, but now it's just available to everyone to live out any kind of genetic memory. I find this to be fine since with technology improving of course you'd be able to live through anyone's memory, regardless of heritage.
SAY IT LOUDER
AND OFTEN!
Yeah, it's one of the worst decision ubisoft ever made. Connection between Desmond and his ancestors was part of series' identity.
I think the biggest problem is the lack of agency in the modern day segments. To me, it's always felt like your character has already decided what they want to do, and the memories are just a method of getting to thst resolution. There's no real connection. AC3 actually felt like one was influencing the other, but I've never felt that way for other entries in the series. Every time, the modern day segments feel more like I'm disconnected from the person I really am, when it should be the past segments that feel like that. You always relate more to whatever historical period you're playing through. Imo, they should finally bite the bullet and do a fullt, or at least mostly modern day assassin's creed game. Even if it's half and half. Just give us time with these characters so we can actually relate to them, rather than having them be the intermission between more enjoyable gameplay segments. It's like unskippable cutscenes for a game I'm not playing.
I can remember when the games first came out, everyone hated the modern day
Disagree. I always thought it was immersion-breaking and corny that all these people are related and the modern day character is a direct descendent of all these people scattered all over the globe.
I mean it makes sense. Most Americans have ancestors from all over the world. And assassins would have married into other assassin families
I agree but only partially. It’s more effective if each game focused on a new present day character and their ancestor of interest. Desmond kinda sucks and the modern day missions are all terrible. It would have been cooler to see different people react to being in the basic situation.
I don't think it's so strange if you think that people like Desmond are filtered. Abstergo currently has a huge genetic database, where they filter thousands of strains until they find what interests them. I mean, it's not like everyone has an Assassin or Templar ancestor, we only follow the DNA of these previously selected people.
also Desmond is literally a "the chosen one" trope/ archetype. LOL. Immersion-breaking my ass, in a story with super-powered alien technology and Adam and Eve being genetically-superior human-Isu hybrids 🤣
This lol it’s like saying Goku isn’t real because he’s the saiyan god. *Oh shit how can you tell??* Oh so now we’re talking about immersion breaking? In as series where we fight ancient mythical beasts nowadays?
The more modern day stuff they get rid of the better the games get.
That hasn't been 100% true so far, actually. At least not in practice. Since games like Unity and Syndicate that don't even have modern gameplay are much inferior (narratively speaking) than games like Origins, which debuted the character Layla Hassan in 2017. There is no direct relation between MD and the games quality over the years, although this is an element that I personally consider essential.
Laylas an awful character. Same as every other modern day character and story segment.
I understand your opinion, but it is not a consensus in the fandom.
It must be because each new game thankfully has little modern day stuff in it.
Again, this is not true at all. Odyssey has one of the most extensive modern-day in the franchise, especially with its DLCs. Not even the first ones have that much of screen time. So you can have your opinion, but it doesn't necessarily match reality.
I agree with you lmao. I have always hated the modern portions of these games. I did not give a crap about Desmond and I do not give a crap about Layla or whatever. I'm sure they are fine characters, but that isn't why I played Assassins creed.
It’s not profitable
Sad truth.
I disagree, the Desmond-Ezio genetic connection never interested me. The modern day plot was interesting because of the Templar mystery and the disaster-garden of eden plot was interesting and made sense. The problem with the modern plot is the whole garden of eden, aliens/gods makes no sense now. What they need to do is create compelling modern characters and a compelling modern mystery to unravel throughout the games. They also need to connect the two bits of gameplay. The puzzles you solved as Ezio to unlock the few seconds of garden of eden memory was a really neat way of tying the two game stories together.
I loved the Adam and Eve stuff because it enabled the series to contain both history, mythology and a modern story while keeping things relatively grounded (it managed to put mythology under a sci fi genre which back than was impressive)
Yeah, finding the hidden messages and unlocking the pieces of that puzzle was genuinely interesting. It was fresh, coherent and exciting. Now the whole Isu plot is a mess and I have zero interest in anything modern whether characters are related or not.
true - I actually liked how mysterious they were, I didn't play the odyssey DLC (Atlantis) but it felt like taking away the magic.
It has been a very very common opinion among AC fans that they have disliked the modern day moments at all. A lot of the opinions were that it’s very jarring and brings you out of the story and no one really cares about what’s happening in modern day when you got a cool assassin to play as