With Ubisoft's popular franchise set for a return to form with Assassin's Creed Mirage, the series' freerunning mechanics will likely be a major part of this upcoming title. Historically, the Assassin's Creed series has defined its identity by its stealthy, athletic world traversal system, though this mechanic has gotten somewhat lost in the past few entries. Now that Assassin's Creed Mirage promises to deliver that classic formula again, it could build upon the traditional freerunning gameplay by drawing inspiration from Square Enix's Kingdom Hearts series.
Although they are quite different in terms of genre, the Flowmotion mechanic from Kingdom Hearts could tie in nicely with Assassin's Creed Mirage's freerunning. As the series moves away from the large-scale open worlds of previous titles, there is room to develop and iterate upon some of the most popular aspects from the series' roots. With how satisfying Flowmotion is for level traversal in the Kingdom Hearts series, it seems like a natural evolution of Assassin's Creed's freerunning that Mirage could use to reach new heights.
How Assassin's Creed Mirage Could Incorporate a Flowmotion-like Mechanic
Flowmotion is a parkour ability first introduced in Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance as a method of quick level traversal. Players could dodge roll into certain environmental objects like walls or rails to enter a state of heightened maneuverability in which players are able to quickly bounce from wall to wall, slide down rails, and even glide for a short period after launching off surfaces. This mechanic greatly improved the movement capabilities of Sora and Riku in Kingdom Hearts 3D, and became a staple mechanic in subsequent entries.
With Assassin's Creed Mirage's set in the city streets of Baghdad in the year 861, the game is in a perfect position to give players new freerunning options amid narrow streets. As such, a movement ability similar to Flowmotion that would allow players to quickly bounce between walls or propel themselves swiftly between rooftops while tracking their target seems like a great way to freshen up a classic mechanic. The physics of this ability could even go a step further and revolve around building momentum to increase the speed and distance players can achieve.
Despite the more grounded narratives of earlier titles, Assassin's Creed Mirage could include some of the more supernatural elements from recent entries to justify this superhuman freerunning ability. The past few entries, including Assassin's Creed Origins, Assassin's Creed Odyssey, and Assassin's Creed Valhalla, have all featured mythological figures and deities in some way. While this aspect has been controversial among longtime fans, it would make sense for Assassin's Creed Mirage's Basim to have unnatural abilities given his connection with Loki and the Djinn that seems to possess him during assassinations.
It may seem odd for two series that otherwise have very little in common to share a specific mechanic, but considering the emphasis Assassin's Creed places on its freerunning, it makes a lot of sense to incorporate Kingdom Hearts' Flowmotion as a logical evolution. While it may run the risk of being too far removed from its more grounded story, there are ways of circumventing that issue depending on how the mechanic is implemented. If Ubisoft wants to freshen up the series while still taking Assassin's Creed Mirage back to its roots, a great way to do so would be to expand the player's movement capabilities.
Assassin's Creed Mirage is in development for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
