As a result, a lot of those very same assassins to be were then appalled a few weeks later when Ubisoft confirmed that leaked info and images of a new Assassin’s Creed game called Assassin’s Creed Victory (which will be set in Victorian London) were legitimate. It wasn’t so much that Ubisoft is already working on another Assassin’s Creed game because everyone is aware that AC games are created alongside one another (see: Unity and Rogue), but it was frustrating to learn that another new game world was being developed as Unity’s development suffered.
So the suggestion that yet another flagship Assassin’s Creed is in development, or more specifically, the timing of such a suggestion may be cause for more community frustration. In this case it may also be cause for some excitement since fans have long clamored for Ubisoft to make an Assassin’s Creed game that’s set in Japan – and the publisher and developer may be working on that after all.
That’s what an official Assassin’s Creed Unity collectible leads us to believe, anyway. Writing on the Ubisoft forum, user Cornik22 explains that they bought the Assassin’s Creed Unity: The Complete Official Guide back in November but a recent re-read of the book turned up some interesting information. It showed off a concept of the Abstergo foyer that has never made it into a final release of an AC game, but it’s significant as it actually hints at future Assassin’s Creed locations.
Why Assassin’s Creed Should Go to Japan
With Assassin’s Creed Victory scheduled for 2015, the next Assassin’s Creed Japan is expected for fall 2016 but if Ubisoft is exploring Japan in a future adventure, it could be one of the series’ most exciting and unique entries yet. That’s because any Assassin’s Creed game in Japan would most likely be set during the Edo period that spanned 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. It was a time of serious hardships for the Japanese people, including conflicts, famine and oppressive rule under Tokugawa shoguns (Japan’s feudal military rulers) and freedom and liberation have been recurring themes in every Assassin’s Creed game.Assassin’s Creed Japan would likely be set in either the 17th or the 18th centuries too. as these were the worst and the most eventful times during the Edo period prior to the final fall of the Tokugawa dynasty in 1868.
The 17th century contains several pro-freedom events for Ubisoft to cover. The entire Edo period saw strict laws enforced where Western principles and teachings were banned, most notably the ban of Christianity 1614, the ban of foreign travel and reading foreign books in 1633 and the ban of ship building in 1638. There was the Shimabara Rebellion that took place in 1638 as overtaxed peasants and ‘chonin’ (feudal Japan’s working class) looked to break out against the persecution. The rebellion was ultimately crushed (the Tokugawa Shogunate sent over 125,000 soldiers to deal with them) but it certainly lays a convincing, oppressive stage for our AC Japan protagonist to perform on.
18th century Japan was more eventful still as that included the Horeki River Improvement Incident in 1754 (where the Tokugawas forced the Satsumas to carry out impossible work to stop the country’s rivers from flooding); the rule of Tokugawa Ieshige who let corruption run rampant from 1745 to 1760; and the Great Tenmei famine of 1782-88. And, as Assassin’s Creed is always big on including notable figures, the artist Hokusai (who was essentially the Japanese Da Vinci) who was born in 1760 would be a good choice.
