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Edited by Playstayshaun
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With the polarising releases of Assassin’s Creed Odyssey and Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, the Assassin’s Creed fanbase have a new challenge to face. They must now juggle treating each other like rabid apes with holding onto their childhood. The solution? Playing the older games, it’s frankly the only reason most of us continue to purchase the newer games. A diminishing hope that maybe this time we will get a return to what made our memories so good, a return to quality, a return to what Assassin’s Creed is. Because surely, Assassin’s Creed isn’t about vikings or spartans, it’s about Assassin’s. But perhaps that very identity, one that becomes blurier with each new entry, as it adds a gaussian to the legacy of these games, isn’t as clear as we once thought.
The Assassin’s Creed games have been anything but consistent, and as I’ve replayed the games I have found myself struggling to nail an identity to Assassin’s Creed, which is something I’ve never faced before. Growing up, the Assassin’s Creed games have always had an identity in movement, finesse, charm, and maturity. It’s these qualities that made me appreciate the first 4 entries and to an extent the 3rd game. Even if looking back I realised the games aren’t as good as I remember, the sentiment is the same, I have fond memories of collecting all those damn feathers, and sneaking down to the basement in the middle of the night to upgrade my villa, praying that the floorboards don’t creak loud enough to wake my parents. It’s this very mindset that made me reject Assassin’s Creed IV. It wasn’t an Assassin’s Creed game, it was a pirate game. This is a flawed mindset, and one that initially challenged me when I actually played Black Flag. There was so much here that I thought I wouldn’t like that, when I did eventually play it over a year after its release, I was blown away at how much of a fool I was.
This game wasn’t a traditional Assassin’s Creed game… it was better. This game made me realise that I have to try something before I knock it, and while there are still some Assassin’s Creed games I don’t want to go back to, Valhalla I’m looking at you, it’s worth taking a chance because this might actually be my favourite Assassin’s Creed game, period. So let’s talk about the game, it’s identity, the series identity, and what this game means to the Assassin’s Creed Legacy. This time, we travel to the West Indies with a band of pirates who are jacks of the same trade and serve one master, gold. While Edward might be on the cover, do not mistake yourselves, the main character here is gold. Greed is the main antagonist and it’s Edwards consistent battle against his own greed and that of others that eventually leads him to the middle of an ideological war zone between two factions we know all too well. This fight prompts Edward to finally mature, even if it is at the cost of everyone and everything. But rather than stalking from the shadows as an Assassin frequently does, Edward prefers a louder approach, that involves a lot more liquor, and a hell of a lot more gunpowder. Through this swashbuckling spyglass lens we see something we’ve never seen before, the Assassin Templar conflict, from an outsiders view, and an outsider that couldn’t care less.
– Chapters –
Introduction: 0:00
Ch. 1: Jumping Ship: 10:43
Ch. 2: Tails of Culture: 22:01
Ch. 3: Assassin Shackles: 40:54
Ch. 4: Not an AC Game: 56:16
Post-Script: 1:09:27
Black Flag is NOT an Assassin’s Creed Game. This is an Assassin’s Creed Black Flag critique and an Assassin’s Creed Black Flag analysis. This Assassin’s Creed Black Flag retrospective will answer what is The best Assassin’s Creed Game, as it is one of the last games in my Assassin’s Creed retrospective. I know many of you have been waiting for a That Boy Aqua Black Flag video so here it is. I didn’t want to go with a Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Years Later video as I use this game more as a vehicle to discuss what makes an Assassin’s Creed game an Assassin’s Creed game. This is still a Assassin’s Creed IV critique, AC IV review, AC IV critique, and a majority of the video is an Assassin’s Creed IV Black Flag critique, an Assassin’s Creed IV Black Flag review, and an Assassin’s Creed analysis. Video by That Boy Aqua.
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The first 1,000 people to use the link will get a 1 month free trial of Skillshare: https://skl.sh/thatboyaqua06221
EDIT: I didn't know you could reload with the bumpers, for some reason pressing every button when I played didn't do the trick, so disregard my opinions on that 🙂
Also, Edwards Fleet was a companion app that shut down a few years back, but I still think it's lame lol thanks to Eyüp Öksüz for pointing that out
Edited by Playstayshaun
Shauns Twitter: https://twitter.com/PlaystayShaun_
Shauns YouTube Channel: https://youtube.com/c/PlaystayShaun
I'm pretty sure you can reload whenever you want. I have a habit of reloading even if I just shoot a single bullet and this game was no exception.
Not a big ac fan. The first 2 felt like the exact same game. Until I seen the game play on this, and the Sid Meyer's Pirates vibes had me sold. This game is on my all time fav video game list. Along with Ocarina of Time, Fallout 4, Age Of Empires, Star Wars Battefront, and Knights of the Old Republic. Love this game.
What's your problem with asparagus???
Definitely my favorite of all ps3 game i can ▶️ play. Never bought a ps4 or ps5 console
I like odyssey
I love this game. I wasn't a fan until they released ac origins on gamepass. I downloaded it an I was blown away. Then I heard about this game .it was 10 bucks so I bought it. Needless to say I wasn't disappointed. 👌
On the Xbox 360 if you press "X" you will start the reload animation even if you only shot one gun, the Nintendo switch is the same except it's "Y". Now I don't know about playstations but I would assume it's square
You can reload your pistols freely, it's left bumper, at least on Xbox
Maybe the game needed post-game DLC, where you see Edward do assassin stuff, maybe with more Haythm too
I played this game so much that after taking down Man of Wars I'd stop my ship completely right behind it. Board it by myself take out all the objectives like the crew, flags, captain and gunpowder then jump back to mine and board it without losing a single man.
Ac black flag was good but looking back it was held back by the hardware at the time
The first game of an IP always defines the fundamentals of that franchise. That's why there's usually backlash when things are changed too drastically. Resident Evil 7 saw this. It's a debate among Tomb Raider fans right now. It even happened to God of War. Not saying these new revamps are bad, but by asking "What makes an AC game?" and proposing it can be anything, and it's subjective… well, that can apply to anything that has changed over time. It becomes rhetorical. What makes a Ghost of Tsushima game? It's all the things that are in it now- until a sequel makes changes.
I think a fan knows what 'makes a game' by two main factors: How it looks, and how it feels to play. If a game has it's own identity- and a strong one- it becomes a comparison point to other games. It's why Spider-Man PS4 is so often compared to the Batman Arkham series. That doesn't happen if people don't know 'what makes a Batman Arkham game.' Going back to RE, the number of copycats that came out in its wake said it all. it's about what it has that no one else has. What it does that no one else does. A game's identity is its aesthetic and style and that can get lost when it conforms to be like something else on the market. For AC, which used to be so unique and feel like it's own thing, it does them no favors to now be called a "Witcher" clone because it feels like something else.
I can only speak for myself, but it's the anecdotal point I'll leave you with: I don't care for RPGs. Never have. And a big reason why I played AC was because it WASN'T one. Imagine how alienated I feel now that its completely changed genres. It tells me that my feelings and my fandom never mattered. It's more important to follow what's trendy and court those who never cared about Assassins Creed before, who now love the new games. It's weird to witness, and I'm sorry for the division it created, but its a division created by Ubisoft, because nobody asked for this. What makes an AC game? It wasn't enemy levels, gear grinds, and micro transactions. Until it was.
I don’t really like Assassin’s Creed games all that much! I love this though, cuz it’s a Pirate game at heart!
Here I am 15 minutes into the video and am already installing the game.
Darn… I guess it's time for the 4th playtrough.
I don't get how people can say Black Flag is a bad AC game. It's literally the story of an outsider who became an assassin. You literally impact both Orders with your actions and side with one for good. Edwards lineage literally impacted the both orders probably more than Ezio did.
13:16 when you are doing animation you can still parry anyone who is atacking it cancels the animation but doesin't ruin the kill
One of my favorite early game strategies is to get an aposing man o war agro on another one and weaken both for easy early game recorces
I actually really liked Kenway’s fleet. It felt really cool to control a pirate trading fleet, sending ships to South America, the East Coast, North Africa. It was easy, yes, and the travel routes being dangerous sometimes really didn’t affect the probability of success. I agree that the ship battles were boring and didn’t make much sense, I mean, I once had a battle that said it had a 100% success probability, and during it, I lost one of my ships. Success isn’t really defined in that. What I like the most about the fleet missions is the captions that each mission has. It lends a lot more to the time period, seeing how all those other places were in the 1700s, and what the fleet was actually doing in the missions. I don’t know, maybe I just like reading, but it felt like the fleet was actually going there and doing those things. I think the traveling taking real time also lends a lot to it, and it’s cool actually seeing your ships travel along the routes. I think it also created a lot of strategy when going after ships, like, if you had full health, you’d have to consider what type of ship you want to send to your fleet, how big, and whether or not you could take it on. I just thought it was cool.
Odessy is good, Valhalla is bad simple
#likeaviking
btw you can reload freely by pressing L3(xb) L1(ps)
a return to quality? Got that with origins and odyssey.
You could've just pressed the top trigger to reload your spent rounds, instead of waiting to fire the last shot and then reload.
but…you can manually reload. Am I crazy? I remember being able to.
Jesus loves you
I love how Dunkeys video about the franchise and how much he nitpicked in it.
What do you mean? You can reload the pistols whenever you want. Just press LB.
I thought u can manually reload ur guns no matter how many bullets u used, on pc u just press R
I’m sick of origins bein he praised chase that game was horrible besides the world and story and idk how people can’t see that. Combat was terrible, assassinations had like 3 clunky and unsatisfying animations 😂 and everyone sounded like Jamaican memes
Assassin's creed odyssey's release was not polarising, literally everybody, from critics to players loved. It's just the AC fans who cried the loudest. Literally look at steam reviews, nobody fucking cares.
The modern day sections are unbelievably annoying, I'd be happy to go in with a modern day assassins creed, WRAP UP THAT PLOT, then just go into the historic interactions between assassins and templars and forget the whole animus system
Also black flag was the first AC franchise game I played, and I loved it so much. It got me into rouge and syndicate, both good games in their own ways, now I think I'm about three quarters or so through valhalla which is nowhere near as fun to be honest
Best pirate game to date. Just wish they’d had more fantastical things but I really like the Manowar bosses.
Black flag is the best pirate game ever
I understand the complaints about the community not respecting the games as AC games and such, but I feel it gives leeway to how bad the series has become.
My reasons for not liking the modern RPG games is a compounding hatred of every little change. Eagle Vision is "wrong", combat is "wrong", having to spec into things like instant assassinations is "wrong", no viewpoints that uncover the map is "wrong", etc. etc.
This is not the series I fell in love with.
I'm sure on some level I could respect Origins, Odyssey, and Valhalla as their own games, their own separate series. If they were called "AC Legends" or something I could get behind that.
But they fact they override and replace the franchise I love is just unacceptable to me.
The modern games are not AC games, and I will stand by that.
I'm not sure Edward actually spares the crew when he repairs the jackdaw cuz the animation shows them firing their cannons afterwards and the ship sinking and since the mission introducing boarding had you lock them in the brig I think maybe he's actually drowning them
black flag was the first creed i played and i’ve done 100% on it i think it shows how it was the last true assassin creed game
Valhalla and odyssey are both great games