Ubisoft announced the upcoming Assassin's Creed Red last September, but the new game remains relativity mysterious. Fans know it takes place in feudal Japan, though developers have yet to reveal any specifics about the upcoming game's plot. It will also be an open-world RPG in the vein of Assassin's Creed: Origins, Assassin's Creed:Odyssey, and Assassin's Creed: Valhalla, rather than a city-focused game like the upcoming Assassin's Creed: Mirage. However, the game's release date and official title remain a mystery.
Still, a few details about the game's story have managed to leak out. This includes Assassin's Creed Red reportedly featuring two protagonists, one a samurai and the other a shinobi. The two leads could let players experience the story from different parts of feudal Japanese society and will likely have a significant impact on gameplay. In addition, the ability to play as a samurai also has some exciting implications because of how it relates to Assassin's Creed lore.
Assassin's Creed, Samurai, and the Warring States
The connection between shinobi and the series Assassins is obvious, both being stealth operatives with a fondness for rooftops. However, the role of the samurai in Assassin's Creed is just as important. Assassin's Creed's Assassin Brotherhood and Templar Order both arrived in Japan in the late 1500s, during the height of the Sengoku Jidai or Warring States Period. While Samurai existed for centuries before and after, the Sengoku period is the era they are most associated with. Most films and games about samurai take place during this era. Incidentally, this would make Assassin's Creed Red the most modern of the recent Assassin's Creed games, with the last several titles in earlier ages of history.
Samurai were members of an aristocratic warrior cast similar to European Knights. They served as professional soldiers and military officers for a class of feudal warlords called daimyo, who led Japan's noble families. The daimyo theoretically owed their allegiance to Japan's Shogun, a hereditary dictator who ruled on behalf of the Emperor. However, the Shoguns of Japan's Sengoku Jidai, or Warring States Period, proved unable to control these samurai warlords.
The Assassins Helped Unite Japan
One of the most famous of these daimyos was Oda Nobunaga, who rose from a minor warlord to the ruler of all of Japan. In Assasin's Creed lore, Nobunaga managed his conquest using the Sword of Eden, one of the many Pieces of Eden created by the Esu. Before that, he was an ally of the Assassins, who supported his goal of uniting the warring daimyos under a single banner. However, the alliance fell apart after Nobunaga acquired the Sword, and he was killed by the Assassin Yamauchi Taka, who sent the Sword to China.
That was not the first or only time the Brotherhood played a significant role in Japanese history. Assassins were constantly battling Templar influence in the country, assassinating those who sided with the Templars or stood in the way of unification. These Japanese Templars include historical figures like the daimyo Uesugi Kenshin and the famous female ninja Mochizuki Chiyome. The Brotherhood also assassinated Nobunaga's successor Toyotomi Hideyoshi, allowing their ally Tokugawa Ieyasu to take the throne as Japan's new Shogun. The Assassins would remain steadfast allies of the Tokugawa Shogunate.
Fans don't know precisely when Assassin's Creed Red takes place in Japan's history, but the Sengoku Period's closing decades seem the most likely choice. If so, it will give players a chance to experience these events up close. The samurai Assassin would probably take part in some of the era's most famous battles. Meanwhile, their status as members of the aristocracy gives Assasin's Creed Red's samurai protagonist an easy way into the private conversations of Japan’s feudal nobility.
Assassin's Creed Red is in development.