Where Next For Assassin’s Creed After Odyssey?

E3 2018 was pretty good with plenty of games being shown and plenty of cringeworthy stage performances. One of the games shown was Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, and that made me a bit disappointed. Now, the game looks fine and might even be fun, but I don’t feel like AC is a franchise that needs to be annual. As someone who fell off the AC bandwagon because of oversaturation and mediocre games, this is concerning.

Last year’s AC Origins felt like the series was breathing free again for the first time in a very long time. Now, with Odyssey I feel like Ubisoft is saying: Once more into the breach lads, we can burn this franchise to the ground yet!

I hope I am wrong and that the game will be great, but it has my alarm bells chiming. I also hope that this gives the team a chance to work on the next installment a bit more and deliver a more substantial sequel down the line. So here are some places and eras I would like the series to visit. For me, a great location and period for Assassin’s Creed is one that a) has a lot of monuments to climb and b) is full of events and characters that lends itself to the series’ flavor of pseudo history.

Japan
Japan as a location for an Assassin’s Creed game has been floating around on the internet for some time, and it makes a lot of sense; Japan has a long history that is full of conflict and interesting personalities that would be great to explore. There are plenty of old temples and tall pagodas to climb on and jump from. Japan is also very mountainous with ruins, villages and temples situated on very remote locations, ready to be discovered.

The Japanese islands also have something to offer when it comes to the pseudo history and the ancient mysteries that AC’s more and more convoluted story could plug into. We have the gigantic submerged stone formations at Yonaguni, which most likely are natural formations but still retain enough irregularities that everyone from serious scientists, to ancient aliens-loons are investigating them. There is also the legendary kingdom of Yamatai that was ruled by the first empress of Japan, Himiko. A lot of myths and legends surround that place and its ruler. Its location remains a mystery to this day.

A western developed game set in Japan would probably take place during the Sengoku period (1467-1603). It is a period of civil war and the time in Japanese history that deals with the samurai and the ninja the most. It is the period that would be most recognizable for a western audience as well, since most movies and games takes place during this. We have notable characters like Tokugawa Ieyasu and Oda Nobunaga to name two of a plethora of colorful people from the period.There’s nothing wrong with this setting but I would like it to be set during a less explored period in western media. Like the Heian period (794-1185), especially the late Heian period, could be interesting since it sees the rise of the samurai, from low ranking servants to the dominant class in Japan. It is also the period in Japanese history when foreign concepts such as Chinese writing and Buddhism were introduced.

Another good candidate would be the Jomon period (14,000-300 BC), which saw the Japanese islands settled and invaded in periods from the Korean peninsula. There isn’t much known about this period except archaeological remains, such as pottery and mythology, and is ripe for historical speculation in a game like Assassin’s Creed.

Finally, an interesting period would be the Mongol invasions of Japan in the 13th century. It changed a lot of how Japan and the samurai fought and functioned. But since this period is covered in Ghost of Tsushima, it is perhaps unlikely they will visit this as well.

India
The Indus Valley civilization is considered to be one of the oldest in human history and has the benefit of being relatively well preserved, both through writing as well as ancient ruins. For instance, the submerged city of Dwarka could be as old as the last ice age, since it seems it was submerged 9000-10000 years ago when the ice melted. This could be a very interesting area and period to explore in a game like Assassin’s Creed. There are a lot of myths and legends in the region as well, these things are far from accepted history, but fits in well in that no man’s land between history and ancient-aliens quack that the Assassin’s Creed games peddle in.

For me, it would be most interesting to visit the area in the ancient past, perhaps around the time of Alexander the Great’s foiled attempt at conquering the region. The area boasts jungles and steppes, mountains and deserts full of ruins and temples to be explored. India is also a cultural crossroad with Middle Eastern culture in the west, China in the east and vast open areas in the north full of mounted barbarians.

India was already the setting for one of the games in the spinoff series Assassin’s Creed: Chronicles. But as it was a much smaller game set in the 19th century, I want to see a full-blown entry with the graphics and care given to Origins.

South America
A game set in South America would have plenty of ancient civilizations to pick and choose from. There are the Incas, the Mayans and the Aztecs for example. It is a continent that features plenty of mountainous regions and has a lot of ancient architecture that we can climb around on. Warfare and conflict is also a bit of a constant in the region’s history and an Assassin’s Creed game could explore plenty of religious thoughts and philosophy here.

South America is also a continent rife with legends and seemingly unexplained ruins and monuments that fit the series’ story well. Lost cities of gold and perfectly cut stones that by some estimates could be much older than what we consider being history today.

For me, a game set in South America should take place before European discovery. Perhaps you could play as an Aztec shaman or warrior, and the story could culminate with the arrival of European ships. Since between them, the Spanish military and the catholic priests destroyed a lot of the culture, cities and religion when they arrived, it would be more interesting to see what was there before.

So, what do you think? Any of these places tickle your fancy or do you have other suggestions?