The first 1,000 people to use the link will get a 1 month free trial of Skillshare: 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: twitter.com/PlaystayShaun_ Shauns UA-cam Channel: ua-cam.com/users/PlaystayShaun
The devs of the earlier games described what makes an assassins creed game with 3 pillars combat, parkour, and social stealth so that’s what I would say makes up a real AC game. Black flag has all of these things and it does focus on the brotherhood more than any other AC game other than AC 1 but it decides for most of the game to explore the brotherhood from the outside perspective of a pirate. These three pillars are exclusively assassin‘s Creed and were the former AC identity before origins made the AC brand exactly like every other Ubisoft game (mediocre dog ass).
I think when a lot of people say it’s a good game but not a good assassin’s creed game they’re trying to say that it lacks the originality of the original few games. I couldn’t name a single other franchise where you could use each of these “pillar mechanics” in succession.
I only like the older games in this series because the newer game’s key mechanics and format aren’t exclusive to AC and aren’t even done slightly as well as most games with a similar “format”
I love your videos Aqua. I definitely think the next game you should talk about is Days Gone. I think it is a severely under appreciated PS4 game, and also has the biggest disparity between player and reviewer opinions that I’ve ever seen.
I'm also at the end of Black flag just got one last sequence left. And its more of a Pirate game than an Assassins Creed game. Sure there are Assassins and Templars. But the story is revolved around Edwards life. How he only work for his own personal gains without caring much for anyone else. And at the end he was left for nothing. Everyone who cared for Edward dies.
Actually, Bonnett gets captured and hung, which is mentioned by the guards during the prison escape. They mention that he cries and begs for forgiveness. It's incredibly depressing.
Seeing him on the dinner table broke my heart but I just ignored it, and then I caught that dialogue on a replay. Genuinely made me wanna cry more than anything in this series.
Thing is, he's a fantastic historical figure! "The gentleman pirate" they called him. Dude was just lower aristocracy and decided ti go into the piracy life, giving his pirates a regular pay instead of share of the loot, reading to them, and overall being a really swell guy. He, being as he was, wasn't so successful, so he found Blackbeard crewless and shipless and gave him temporary control over his ship and crew cause he needed the expertise. Funnily enough, Blackbeard actually returned them once he got back on his feet. There's so much more going on that I can't recall with fidelity, definitely go look him up.
there's a taika waititi project called our flag means death which is a pirate-esque sitcom which puts stede bonnet and ed thatch as a couple. I've heard it's hilarious.
The thing that genuinely kept me going on the waves was the shanties and the ship combat was done extremely well to me and there were just a lot of mechanics that were enjoyable
The dude that sings most of them, Sean Deaghar, actually has a UA-cam channel under his name where he covered a lot of shanties and even did historical dives into some of them
25:06 I thought he was about to play some of my favorite songs ever the sea shanties from this game. Maybe some Lowlands Away or Way Me Susianah then I hear "FORTNITE BATTLE PASS"
Not so fun fact: Bonnet was actually hung for piracy in Charleston, South Carolina. The scene with him and Edward saying goodbye is last time Edward would ever hear from him. He was hung three weeks after Blackbeard was killed in North Carolina. It’s kind of tragic because he was actually a very nice person by all accounts.
Your black flag experience completely mirrors mine. I got the game for Christmas the year of its release, I played it for a few days and didn’t give it a chance. A few years later I played the game through after hearing good things about it, & wow did I regret not giving it a chance. This game was golden, a well needed breath of fresh air.
Honestly I feel this exact way about Origins, Odyssey, and Valhalla. Those three games are actually AMAZING ngl, but I've heard nothing but bad so I straight up just almost didn't give them a chance
Parting Glass, Edward reminiscing his dead friends (even the ones who betrayed him) and giving the flower to his estranged daughter whose mother died... This ending man. Breaks me every time 🥲
Even if you skipped through the story and just played the pirate side the parting glass at the end brought everything together shattering most people and getting them to play again and enjoy the time with your companions.
Same. Parting Glass had a bittersweet brutality to it. It was what tied everything in Black Flag together for me. Such a memorable ending, even after all these years.
Black flag is the story about becoming an Assassin. Whereas in other AC games like 1,2 and 3 you get the reins as an Assassin relatively early and throughout the game you become a better Assassin. Moreover, unlike with Valhalla and Odeyssey they used themes of Freedom as a similar struggle for both Assassins and Pirates
It’s the first game where a true outsider, someone with no prior connection through family or other, is discovering the Assassins and finding a connection to the Creed. Altaïr grew up with it. Giovanni intended to bring Ezio into the Brotherhood and many of his allies in II were also in the Brotherhood guiding him. It wasn’t until Revelations where Ezio truly explored himself in relation to the Creed and his interpretation. Conner’s father was a Templar, a seasoned veteran of one and already an intended target of the Colonial Brotherhood, and the conflict nothing new to the Kenway family. Edward didn’t have family in the Brotherhood, his parents were humble sheep farmers and he stumbled into the conflict quite by chance. Yes, the novelisation adds in that people who ran him out of his home town were Templar led, but a farmer young man with known alcohol issues in a relationship with a wealthy man’s daughter would ruffle feathers anyway.
AC 2 is also Ezio Journey becoming Assassin. While the sequel is more oh him reviving it. AC4 is about the same story wise. Also AC games mostly repeated few times of player played as the protagonist from birth to adulthood.
The fact this man only has 100k subs is baffling to me. The obvious time and effort he puts into these videos is well worthy of at least 1 Million. Keep it up man! I'm know one day you're channel will boom with success!
Hey aqua! Kenway's fleet was a companion app so you could grind while doing something else or sleeping. But after a few years the app got shut down and the fleet battles got added to the main game.
I remeber preordering it on steam. Being insanly excited. Then finnaly the day pf its release came. And i couldnt play it. Then the next day. And the next.
Looking to help enlighten your experience with some friendly advice, fellow Assassin! 1. 14:19 Minor correction: you CAN reload your pistols without unloading the final bullet. LB/L1. 2. 20:32 I found that when it selects the side cannons, if you just move the right analog stick towards the front of the ship, the camera will adjust itself properly.
and to top it off, if anyone really just takes one moment to look into controller mapping at least, or to customize controls - they'd easily realise that manual reload is a thing.
@@jessequillen4695 i'm pretty sure its to do with the version of the game. i have the disc version on ps4 and on 1.0 there's no manual reload until you update.
This is my first video I have seen from you. It was amazing. You review was comprehensive but not repetitive and you stuck to your foundational premise (which was great) the whole way through. One of the best videos reviews I have ever seen. Liked and subscribed!
I’ve always thought this was a great AC game I never was like “wtf is this pirates and big boats? what the hell happened” this story actually hit me really hard especially when everything came falling apart at the end but Edward still came out ok it was a great redemption story and was the last time I actually completed an assassins creed story all the way through I never questioned when it came out if it was a “true” AC game
@@theguvnor1171 it felt like it had a good balance between pirate and AC stuff at the time, sure it was a departure but didn't feel like it was trying to escape the AC name like the RPG games do, it just wanted put a fun twist on old AC gameplay
I’ve tried and tried to get into black flag coming at it with that same nostalgic mindset, I left it for a while and came back with an open mind, I’m now loving it
You can actually force a reload of your pistols without firing all of them, you press the left bumper button, but the game never tells you this and I only learned it on my most recent playthrough by accident
I tend to think that the games stopped being "true AC games" after Syndicate. But that isn't based on my opinions of which is the best, or my personal enjoyment of any of the games, or which ones I grew up with. It's because there's literally interviews and quotes from people making the games saying that after Syndicate sales failed to impress, they purposely took a few years off to make the games more like the Witcher 3 and other popular RPG-type games of the time. They literally admitted that they compromised their own vision in order to make this unique series more like everything else. That's where they lost me, personally.
@@tosmooth694 Origin is still a bit too RPG. The problem is lack of a dense city for parkour which is the one mechanic that let AC stood out from the other games. Yes, Black Flag has ship combat but it still has a city that players can enjoy the parkour.
yea, so many people hated on unity and syndicate, but they were still very enjoyable games. im not gonna lie, odyssey, origins, and valhalla are not necessarily "bad" games, but they feel like imposters. like games trying to be something its not. if they were called their own thing instead of assassins creed, the reviews would look completely different.
@@DARKENINGTIMES I'd agree, except for origins. I love all ac games (apart from Valhalla, couldn't get into it) but odyssey is the first one to me (and perhaps only) that isn't AC
Bro your videos are actually so good wow, so in depth and analysis driven with key topics being bought up. If you keep going your channel will hit a million.
Replaying Black Flag made me realize something. Like Edward we shouldn’t think of the past and what we lost but remember it while looking at the future
I will watch this video soon, but I don't think it'll convince me after Whitelight pointed out the fundamental AC themes of Freedom vs Control and how perfectly the Golden Age of Piracy captures that. I look forward to hearing your arguments though!💜
I'll be honest, I kinda hate the self-righteous attitude of "Good pirate game, bad AC game" that some people have. People who constantly parrot that statement just can't get Ezio's dick out of their mouth. I love Ezio and the Ezio Trilogy but AC isn't limited to just Ezio. It has the potential to be so much more. Edward Kenway is one of the best AC protagonists and his story resonated with me like very few others have. Also, the Freedom vs Control angle is beautifully explored in the game. Torres is a Templar but he's not a bad person. He hates and actively discourages slavery and it's very refreshing to see Ubisoft give the "Control" side of the Freedom vs Control some actually good arguments instead of the strawman that it usually was in previous games. The Observatory also draws parallels to our modern surveillance state and once again brings forth the Freedom vs Control debate. AC4 is overall one of the best AC games ever made and my personal favourite.
1:30 I have listened to so many videos talking about how good black flag is but I have never heard such a amazing quote and then the music right after I immediately subscribed
49:11 Oof. I don't mean to be a downer but if you read the in-game journal entries for all the characters, it tells you that Stede Bonnet was hanged for being a pirate.
AC4 has in my opinion everything done great. The story and its progression, the environment, the gameplay, the soundtrack. Everything comes together to create a, in my opinion, a great pirate game. Not necessarily a great AC game, but a great game nonetheless. Seeing Edward grow and mature as a person feels meaningful as you've been through everything together, culminating in the ending, the song and seeing all of Edward's dead friends sitting at the table and him sailing back to England. It is a truly powerful moment and the best ending, in my opinion.
AC4 was truly something special. they added a new touch to the narrative of the series but simultaneously held onto the game mechanics that the fanbase knew and loved.
I’m aware that this comment will inevitably sound like I‘m ignoring the last portion of your video, and while I agree with just about everything that was said, I don’t agree that just the title alone makes it an AC game, that would suggest that any game with Assassin’s Creed stapled onto it could be one. Needless to say, I have my own opinion on what makes an Assassin’s Creed game. Personally I think the most important factors that make up up an AC game, is a historical time period, preferably intertwining the game’s story with real life historical events, a story that, whether it’s the primary storyline or just intertwines with the main plot, involves the conflict between the Assassins and the Templars (although not specifically the same, I do include Origins in this) and lastly is a good game. I don’t think it needs to be as complicated as everyone makes it out to be, personally my favorite AC games are Black Flag and Origins, so I’m in a rather weird position in these debates. In short, I figure as long as it has the bare minimum building blocks that have been a standard throughout the games, it constitutes being an Assassin’s Creed game.
I would guess that the "selecting wrong weapon" on the ship is because the mid line (where the program switches from one weapon to another) is thick enough that the camera line can mostly be on it and that would make the program 'panic' and send the camera to another side. think of it like trying to run into an object fast enough to avoid collision detection and then when the program finally detects the collision it sends you flying.
I feel like a lot of people take the word "assassin" to seriously. The story and gameplay is what makes it Assassins Creed. The MC doesn't need to be an assassin which is seen in several of the later games it's how they interact with the Creed itself how they effect it or it effects them throughout history. It stopped being about assassins after 3 and Unity but assassins were still involved and the Creed as well as the ideology even more so was still there in each MCs own perspective. How does the Creed effect a Pirate/Merc and change his life, how does it effect an abandoned child of a Spartan, a Viking, 2 warriors in Egypt etc. The Creed is there from the beginning and we see through their eyes and eventually what it leads them to. Wether it's a good game and or not doesn't change that it's an Assassins Creed game just like a bad season in an anime doesn't make it an entirely different series no matter how much we wish it wasn't a part of whatever gem the first season was. I personally didn't like Unity and I'm not really interested in Valhalla or Origins but I still feel they're apart of it. My favorite were Brotherhood and BlackFlag and probably always will be. Don't forget their saying that "Nothing is true, Everything is permitted" I feel that saying alone should answer your question wether it's an AC game or not though that may be a bit cryptic.
For me an AC game is simply an open world historical action game with parkour. Also I do think the movement is good in the RPG games. It may not be exactly your cup of tea but it's still parkour.
Tip: You can also avoid a rogue wave by sailing facing away from it instead of towards it. In battle you can fire maybe 2 volleys before the game forces the brace command. Not sure if this is helpful, but this is my personal experience and have almost always used this tactic in open sea without islands in the way.
I actually skipped 4 as you did but thanks to the fact I was left immensely disappointed with 3. When I eventually got the game for 10 bucks, I was floored on how good the game was on me rumble PS3
Black Flag was my entry into the series. I didn't even really know or understand what assassin's creed was at the time but had read about a fun pirate game. I tried playing the original trilogy afterwords and just could not get into them. There is something to be said for making the games different to attract new players.
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.
The devs of the earlier games described what makes an assassins creed game with 3 pillars combat, parkour, and social stealth so that’s what I would say makes up a real AC game. Black flag has all of these things and it does focus on the brotherhood more than any other AC game other than AC 1 but it decides for most of the game to explore the brotherhood from the outside perspective of a pirate. These three pillars are exclusively assassin‘s Creed and were the former AC identity before origins made the AC brand exactly like every other Ubisoft game (mediocre dog ass). I think when a lot of people say it’s a good game but not a good assassin’s creed game they’re trying to say that it lacks the originality of the original few games. I couldn’t name a single other franchise where you could use each of these “pillar mechanics” in succession. I only like the older games in this series because the newer game’s key mechanics and format aren’t exclusive to AC and aren’t even done slightly as well as most games with a similar “format”. you can still add more mechanics in addition to these pillars (ship combat, economics, brotherhood mechanic, town upkeep) to improve the variety of gameplay while still keeping the core pillar mechanics and the AC identity.
bro great video, cant imagine how many words the essay was you wrote for the script, like atleast 20 thousand words because its an hour long readl, great work.
This was my first assassins creed game last year and it definitely told me what I like about this series. I underutilized the hunting and a lot of the ship parts. But loved the “classic assasin stuff”. Can’t wait to play unity and get some assassin fantasy lol
@@ThatBoyAqua I know I was really upset cuz I thought he lived, if only there was better way to find out then just a random conversation most people will miss 😭
I appreciate the detail in background music you choose. Rather than strictly using the subject game's music, you insert stuff like the Destiny Islands music to match the tropical setting. I love it.
This was a great argument about the identity of Assassins Creed. Black Flag was the first AC I ever played and i fell in love with the series ever since. Even though i have played most AC games by now, i have still found nothing that tops Black Flag! (Btw the naval combat, exploration, and atmosphere of sailing around the Caribbean while listening to sea shanties is GOLD. It will never get old).
Little note for reloading at ~14:00 you can press either L1 or R1 (I don’t remember which) to do a tactical reload instead of emptying all of your pistols
I was thinking about Freedom Cry’s absence from this video and it gave me an idea. What if you tackled Freedom Cry and Rogue as a single video? They are both shorter narrative experiences and are built upon the same Black Flag framework. They are also very interesting parallels from a thematic standpoint, like how Ade’s increased brutality and ‘freedom at all costs’ mentality that briefly creeps over him in the third act vaguely reflecting the reasons that Shay left the brotherhood in Rogue.
@@DarkNorthEmperor Yeah I expected a crackdown twist related to the since the history was close and the assassins "gangs" look like the early version of the railroad. It did never did that just switch the groups behavior but still call them the same names. Gameplay very fun a somewhat more polished black flag gameplay is hard to mess up.
It's a game I thoroughly enjoyed playing. Sometimes I would just sail about for ages, singing sea shanties & plundering any ships that crossed my path!😁
This has to be my favorite Assassin’s Creed story-wise. It may not be your conventional AC, but the story alone is very self-contained, and never manages to get you bored.
This is by far my favorite entry in the series. The story, Edward, combat, the scenery, & the pirate theme?! (Who the fck doesn't love pirates?!?) Everything was great about it. Unity was also special, but this takes the cake as the best one for me. I long for the days where AC made you feel like an ultimate badass that could decimate an entire army in the coolest and most brutal way possible. That's what made AC special. The chain killing & counter kills were so cool & completely unique when compared to any game out there. 4 got everything awesome about Assassin's Creed right, and even managed to innovate. Great video dude!
Honestly, I've held the mindset of the title basically since this game released back when I was an edgy 14 year old who just learned what contrarian meant. That being said, I've learned to appreciate the devs for trying something new and starting to push the game in a different direction. I still don't necessarily like Black Flag as much as other entries purely because I've never been the biggest fan of naval combat or pirates in general, but I can still agree that it's a damn good game. Just took a few years to get over the jaded view I had of it after they killed off my boy Desmond and hadn't decided what they wanted to do with the present day segments yet.
The only reason that I bother with managing the fleet is because of the rare artifacts that you can find on the missions. And every artifact you find gets added to your mansion hideout, so you can wander around it and see your collection grow.
This is the only AC game I've played through multiple times AND been interested in completing all the other little missions too! One of the things that makes this my favourite AC game is actually the MUSIC, which appeals to my celtic heart but also is just so well performed and recorded and used and man I love this game (also I really like the modern day stuff sue me) Weirdly one of the things I loved about this game a lot was the accents - they're regional and correct and interesting, which makes a nice change from the same company that did the accents for AC syndicate (the worst 'english' accents I've ever heard) - incidentally this is also why I saw the Roberts/IT Guy twist coming from miles off, because he sounded like a person doing an American accent, not a real American person Edit: also welsh protagonist. It's what we needed
The title of this video partially explains why Black Flag is my favorite in the series. I love the historical settings, the characters, the open world, and the variety in gameplay between the various entries. I've never been a fan of the "traditional" assassin's creed experience.
Black Flag is an excellent pirate game but it is also an excellent Assassins Creed game. Yes Edward isnt a traditional protagonist of the series and he starts off more removed from the Assassins Order in the beginning of the game but Black Flag more than any previous AC has to do with the very core of what it means to be an Assassin. Edward's entire arc is about finding out what the Assassins 'creed' means to him and to the order, "Nothing is true, everything is permitted." The entire story is about the ideology of the Assassins. He's the first protagonist who wasnt born into the order or forced into it via familial connections to it. He chooses it over the course of the game, overcoming his greed to live for something more than just himself. To me its one of the best Assassin stories in the entire series, easily standing up with Ezio's and Bayek's story. Now to be fair, I weigh story and characters as the most important thing of what makes an AC game an AC game, gameplay is important but its not the defining feature for me. Im ok with that stuff changing (as long as its good changes that work for that individual game). So arguments based around the gameplay isnt AC enough, just isnt gonna land with me (even pro arguments for it being an AC game because gameplay reasons). Those are worthy critiques and I have plenty of Black Flags gameplay element that i would want changed to make a better game but I wouldnt change anything about the story to make it more AC because its already extremely AC to me and is great.
Perfectly said and I wholeheartedly agree AC is a game based off of interactions. Interactions with various well crafted characters, places and times. I find this is the core to the game more so then the assassin vs Templar’s or anything else put in the games. It’s the interactions between classic characters like da Vinci and other historical characters or pretty much anyone in black flag that elevated the series above its counterparts.
The reason I bought the newer games is because I kept hoping they would be like origins, but both managed to deviate vastly despite having the same structure Other than that, yeah Black flag is definitely my favorite. It's the best one because it is also a pirate game, but all of the elements of assassin's Creed are still there
The first 1,000 people to use the link will get a 1 month free trial of Skillshare: 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: twitter.com/PlaystayShaun_
Shauns UA-cam Channel: ua-cam.com/users/PlaystayShaun
The devs of the earlier games described what makes an assassins creed game with 3 pillars combat, parkour, and social stealth so that’s what I would say makes up a real AC game. Black flag has all of these things and it does focus on the brotherhood more than any other AC game other than AC 1 but it decides for most of the game to explore the brotherhood from the outside perspective of a pirate. These three pillars are exclusively assassin‘s Creed and were the former AC identity before origins made the AC brand exactly like every other Ubisoft game (mediocre dog ass).
I think when a lot of people say it’s a good game but not a good assassin’s creed game they’re trying to say that it lacks the originality of the original few games. I couldn’t name a single other franchise where you could use each of these “pillar mechanics” in succession.
I only like the older games in this series because the newer game’s key mechanics and format aren’t exclusive to AC and aren’t even done slightly as well as most games with a similar “format”
I love your videos Aqua. I definitely think the next game you should talk about is Days Gone. I think it is a severely under appreciated PS4 game, and also has the biggest disparity between player and reviewer opinions that I’ve ever seen.
I'm also at the end of Black flag just got one last sequence left. And its more of a Pirate game than an Assassins Creed game. Sure there are Assassins and Templars. But the story is revolved around Edwards life. How he only work for his own personal gains without caring much for anyone else. And at the end he was left for nothing. Everyone who cared for Edward dies.
Actually, Bonnett gets captured and hung, which is mentioned by the guards during the prison escape. They mention that he cries and begs for forgiveness. It's incredibly depressing.
Seeing him on the dinner table broke my heart but I just ignored it, and then I caught that dialogue on a replay. Genuinely made me wanna cry more than anything in this series.
Thing is, he's a fantastic historical figure!
"The gentleman pirate" they called him. Dude was just lower aristocracy and decided ti go into the piracy life, giving his pirates a regular pay instead of share of the loot, reading to them, and overall being a really swell guy.
He, being as he was, wasn't so successful, so he found Blackbeard crewless and shipless and gave him temporary control over his ship and crew cause he needed the expertise. Funnily enough, Blackbeard actually returned them once he got back on his feet.
There's so much more going on that I can't recall with fidelity, definitely go look him up.
there's a taika waititi project called our flag means death which is a pirate-esque sitcom which puts stede bonnet and ed thatch as a couple. I've heard it's hilarious.
Yea you are right
Internet historian has a great video on Bonnet.
The thing that genuinely kept me going on the waves was the shanties and the ship combat was done extremely well to me and there were just a lot of mechanics that were enjoyable
Those shanties were legendary
What will we do with a drunken salor, what will we do with a drunken salor,
What will we do with a drunken salor early in the morning!
That’s a lie, that’s a lie that’s a lie lie lie!
@@youtubehatestruthtellers8065 Fortnite Battlepass
The dude that sings most of them, Sean Deaghar, actually has a UA-cam channel under his name where he covered a lot of shanties and even did historical dives into some of them
25:06 I thought he was about to play some of my favorite songs ever the sea shanties from this game. Maybe some Lowlands Away or Way Me Susianah then I hear "FORTNITE BATTLE PASS"
Wdym fortnite battlepass is one of the Best sea shanty of all time
@@Literallyryangosling777 yeah
Not so fun fact: Bonnet was actually hung for piracy in Charleston, South Carolina. The scene with him and Edward saying goodbye is last time Edward would ever hear from him. He was hung three weeks after Blackbeard was killed in North Carolina.
It’s kind of tragic because he was actually a very nice person by all accounts.
RE: Not so fun fact: in the mission you can hear some guards talk about Stede being hanged, it's actually quite depressing
Except the whole child abandonment thing
He actually had a pardon and went pirating again. Before blackbeard was his shadow captain he was nice but after he became a killer
@@dwylie83 source
@Nestor Melendez history books? Bonnet got his, blackbeards and another guys but on the way back he needed money so started pirating again
25:05
This is gold
Someone needs to clip that and post it separated so we can listen to it on repeat!
Your black flag experience completely mirrors mine. I got the game for Christmas the year of its release, I played it for a few days and didn’t give it a chance. A few years later I played the game through after hearing good things about it, & wow did I regret not giving it a chance. This game was golden, a well needed breath of fresh air.
I love Unity so much. I’ve put like 10 hours in and it’s only 15%. Love when games used to have real substance
@@LobsterFraDiavloblud was just afk in the loading screen or what?
Honestly I feel this exact way about Origins, Odyssey, and Valhalla.
Those three games are actually AMAZING ngl, but I've heard nothing but bad so I straight up just almost didn't give them a chance
Parting Glass, Edward reminiscing his dead friends (even the ones who betrayed him) and giving the flower to his estranged daughter whose mother died... This ending man. Breaks me every time 🥲
Even if you skipped through the story and just played the pirate side the parting glass at the end brought everything together shattering most people and getting them to play again and enjoy the time with your companions.
Same. Parting Glass had a bittersweet brutality to it. It was what tied everything in Black Flag together for me. Such a memorable ending, even after all these years.
The music, the voice acting, the character portrayal, the ship cruising, the story... Replaying it is so satisfying and nostalgic...
25:06 this music?
@@speak-the-red-lettersThat one.
Black flag is the story about becoming an Assassin. Whereas in other AC games like 1,2 and 3 you get the reins as an Assassin relatively early and throughout the game you become a better Assassin.
Moreover, unlike with Valhalla and Odeyssey they used themes of Freedom as a similar struggle for both Assassins and Pirates
It’s the first game where a true outsider, someone with no prior connection through family or other, is discovering the Assassins and finding a connection to the Creed. Altaïr grew up with it. Giovanni intended to bring Ezio into the Brotherhood and many of his allies in II were also in the Brotherhood guiding him. It wasn’t until Revelations where Ezio truly explored himself in relation to the Creed and his interpretation. Conner’s father was a Templar, a seasoned veteran of one and already an intended target of the Colonial Brotherhood, and the conflict nothing new to the Kenway family. Edward didn’t have family in the Brotherhood, his parents were humble sheep farmers and he stumbled into the conflict quite by chance. Yes, the novelisation adds in that people who ran him out of his home town were Templar led, but a farmer young man with known alcohol issues in a relationship with a wealthy man’s daughter would ruffle feathers anyway.
AC 2 is also Ezio Journey becoming Assassin. While the sequel is more oh him reviving it. AC4 is about the same story wise.
Also AC games mostly repeated few times of player played as the protagonist from birth to adulthood.
It is now over a decade
Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag is now objectively Ubisoft's best pirate game.
bu-but its not a AAAA game?!? The extra A means its better, right?!?
The fact this man only has 100k subs is baffling to me. The obvious time and effort he puts into these videos is well worthy of at least 1 Million. Keep it up man! I'm know one day you're channel will boom with success!
Thank you! I feel blessed enough with the audience I have now, and your support inspires me to try and get better with each video! 💙
Wait, he only has 100k? I thought he had a million
Welcome to UA-cam
When I actually clicked on his channel I thought he had 1 mil subs
i didnt even realize he only had 100k till you said that, im so happy i get to be part of the 100k!
Black Flag is hands down my favorite game in the series. Only story I actually felt when playing through the games. Edward is such a good character.
A line from this game that sums up Ubisoft and how it rotted.
_"In a world without gold we could have been heroes"_
Thanks
25:06 got me laughing hard
Fortnite battle pass
@@L1M.L4M i just shit out my ass
Didn’t it get us all?
@@L1M.L4M i just shit out my ass
its honestly so well i done i cant tell if its fake or if its an actual thing is the game
no one tell him what actually happens to bonnet
Hey aqua! Kenway's fleet was a companion app so you could grind while doing something else or sleeping. But after a few years the app got shut down and the fleet battles got added to the main game.
That makes alot more sense, thanks for letting me know I'll add it to the pinned comment!
@@ThatBoyAqua No worries! Keep up the good work...
I wish they didn’t get rid of it
The fleet was always in the game, the app was so you didnt need to play it in the game all the time
@@rafaeltaets2396 Didn't know that
Can't believe its been 9 years already. I remember waiting for this game to come out watching gameplay reveals.
I remeber preordering it on steam. Being insanly excited. Then finnaly the day pf its release came. And i couldnt play it. Then the next day. And the next.
Looking to help enlighten your experience with some friendly advice, fellow Assassin!
1. 14:19 Minor correction: you CAN reload your pistols without unloading the final bullet. LB/L1.
2. 20:32 I found that when it selects the side cannons, if you just move the right analog stick towards the front of the ship, the camera will adjust itself properly.
Was about to say the same)
I noticed that too. I distinctly remember manually reloading my pistols.
and to top it off, if anyone really just takes one moment to look into controller mapping at least, or to customize controls - they'd easily realise that manual reload is a thing.
When he said no free reload I thought it might have been a ps only thing because I play xbox and can reload.
@@jessequillen4695 i'm pretty sure its to do with the version of the game. i have the disc version on ps4 and on 1.0 there's no manual reload until you update.
This is my first video I have seen from you. It was amazing. You review was comprehensive but not repetitive and you stuck to your foundational premise (which was great) the whole way through. One of the best videos reviews I have ever seen. Liked and subscribed!
I’ve always thought this was a great AC game I never was like “wtf is this pirates and big boats? what the hell happened” this story actually hit me really hard especially when everything came falling apart at the end but Edward still came out ok it was a great redemption story and was the last time I actually completed an assassins creed story all the way through I never questioned when it came out if it was a “true” AC game
"Boat? I dont see a boat"
Bet you then thought the same for Odyssey and Valhalla right?
@@robbydutta6521 probly not, those games sucked as assassins creed games🤷♂️
Assassin’s Creed 4: Pirates and Big Boats
@@theguvnor1171 it felt like it had a good balance between pirate and AC stuff at the time, sure it was a departure but didn't feel like it was trying to escape the AC name like the RPG games do, it just wanted put a fun twist on old AC gameplay
I’ve tried and tried to get into black flag coming at it with that same nostalgic mindset, I left it for a while and came back with an open mind, I’m now loving it
You can press L1 or LB to reload regardless of how many bullets you have left btw
lol I can't believe the only button I didn't try was the right one, thanks for letting me know I'll update the pinned comment!
Can't you also cancel animations when you need to counter?
I can't remember if you could, but it seems right.
I think you are supposed to, but sometimes it just flat out doesn’t let you, so I’m not sure
lol i was sure you could
thank youuu
You can actually force a reload of your pistols without firing all of them, you press the left bumper button, but the game never tells you this and I only learned it on my most recent playthrough by accident
Thanks for mentioning the podcast. I hadn't heard about it before this video and I enjoy it!
Thank you, any feedback regarding it is much appreciated!
25:06 You truly have a good taste in Sea Shanties, I can tell.
I tend to think that the games stopped being "true AC games" after Syndicate. But that isn't based on my opinions of which is the best, or my personal enjoyment of any of the games, or which ones I grew up with. It's because there's literally interviews and quotes from people making the games saying that after Syndicate sales failed to impress, they purposely took a few years off to make the games more like the Witcher 3 and other popular RPG-type games of the time. They literally admitted that they compromised their own vision in order to make this unique series more like everything else. That's where they lost me, personally.
@@tosmooth694 Origin is still a bit too RPG. The problem is lack of a dense city for parkour which is the one mechanic that let AC stood out from the other games. Yes, Black Flag has ship combat but it still has a city that players can enjoy the parkour.
yea, so many people hated on unity and syndicate, but they were still very enjoyable games. im not gonna lie, odyssey, origins, and valhalla are not necessarily "bad" games, but they feel like imposters. like games trying to be something its not. if they were called their own thing instead of assassins creed, the reviews would look completely different.
@@DARKENINGTIMES I'd agree, except for origins. I love all ac games (apart from Valhalla, couldn't get into it) but odyssey is the first one to me (and perhaps only) that isn't AC
I would say after origins
@@purplenurple8816 no origins was the start of that change that made it seem too different
Bro your videos are actually so good wow, so in depth and analysis driven with key topics being bought up. If you keep going your channel will hit a million.
25:06 Best part
Replaying Black Flag made me realize something. Like Edward we shouldn’t think of the past and what we lost but remember it while looking at the future
I will watch this video soon, but I don't think it'll convince me after Whitelight pointed out the fundamental AC themes of Freedom vs Control and how perfectly the Golden Age of Piracy captures that.
I look forward to hearing your arguments though!💜
Ahahaha
I'll be honest, I kinda hate the self-righteous attitude of "Good pirate game, bad AC game" that some people have.
People who constantly parrot that statement just can't get Ezio's dick out of their mouth.
I love Ezio and the Ezio Trilogy but AC isn't limited to just Ezio. It has the potential to be so much more.
Edward Kenway is one of the best AC protagonists and his story resonated with me like very few others have.
Also, the Freedom vs Control angle is beautifully explored in the game. Torres is a Templar but he's not a bad person. He hates and actively discourages slavery and it's very refreshing to see Ubisoft give the "Control" side of the Freedom vs Control some actually good arguments instead of the strawman that it usually was in previous games. The Observatory also draws parallels to our modern surveillance state and once again brings forth the Freedom vs Control debate.
AC4 is overall one of the best AC games ever made and my personal favourite.
@@sars910 agree
@@sars910 hahahahha I so agree with you
@@sars910 I think we all are tired of every assasin getting compared to ezio. Even ezio did things that assasins don't do
1:30 I have listened to so many videos talking about how good black flag is but I have never heard such a amazing quote and then the music right after I immediately subscribed
I deeply appreciate the time and effort you put into this. As an assassin’s creed fan this was entertainment I needed.
the sponsor is a big brain move
49:11 Oof.
I don't mean to be a downer but if you read the in-game journal entries for all the characters, it tells you that Stede Bonnet was hanged for being a pirate.
The only assassins creed game I have 100% completion for. This and Origins had the best open world
AC4 has in my opinion everything done great. The story and its progression, the environment, the gameplay, the soundtrack. Everything comes together to create a, in my opinion, a great pirate game. Not necessarily a great AC game, but a great game nonetheless. Seeing Edward grow and mature as a person feels meaningful as you've been through everything together, culminating in the ending, the song and seeing all of Edward's dead friends sitting at the table and him sailing back to England. It is a truly powerful moment and the best ending, in my opinion.
Black Flag stands head and shoulders above the rest of the series. Its not a good assassins creed game, it is THE BEST assassins creed game!
Agree on everything but the gameplay. Stealth and combat on foot is shit, ship combat is great though
AC4 was truly something special. they added a new touch to the narrative of the series but simultaneously held onto the game mechanics that the fanbase knew and loved.
Absolutely love the videos man! My go to channel for game reviews!
I love the Trailer Park Boys reference of "Getting two birds stoned at once." .
And yet it's the best Assassin's Creed game.
It is so weird that the most sold games in this franchise aren't even AC games...
@@alinpetrescu2309 lol right? It's almost like the hoods and capes are no as popular as we thought.
I disagree origins is my favorite it balanced the RPG and the story and it felt like a AC game at least in my opinion
I disagree origins is my favorite ac game it was a balance of RPG and story but that's my opinion
Obviously regarding something as best is subjective and opinionated but I really enjoyed black flag
"So you can get two birds stoned,"
Man, I wish Biff were that clever.
Me: *sees the title*
Also me: SACRILEGE!!!
25:06 That came out of left field and I love it
Bro the sound track hits😮💨
I’m aware that this comment will inevitably sound like I‘m ignoring the last portion of your video, and while I agree with just about everything that was said, I don’t agree that just the title alone makes it an AC game, that would suggest that any game with Assassin’s Creed stapled onto it could be one. Needless to say, I have my own opinion on what makes an Assassin’s Creed game.
Personally I think the most important factors that make up up an AC game, is a historical time period, preferably intertwining the game’s story with real life historical events, a story that, whether it’s the primary storyline or just intertwines with the main plot, involves the conflict between the Assassins and the Templars (although not specifically the same, I do include Origins in this) and lastly is a good game.
I don’t think it needs to be as complicated as everyone makes it out to be, personally my favorite AC games are Black Flag and Origins, so I’m in a rather weird position in these debates. In short, I figure as long as it has the bare minimum building blocks that have been a standard throughout the games, it constitutes being an Assassin’s Creed game.
I would guess that the "selecting wrong weapon" on the ship is because the mid line (where the program switches from one weapon to another) is thick enough that the camera line can mostly be on it and that would make the program 'panic' and send the camera to another side.
think of it like trying to run into an object fast enough to avoid collision detection and then when the program finally detects the collision it sends you flying.
I feel like this video will (or at least should) become relevant again in the wake of Skull and Bones
That video said 100% of what I think of ac4.
Thank you for making it
I'm about to turn 31 , I still remember how addicted I was to even the first game .
I feel like a lot of people take the word "assassin" to seriously. The story and gameplay is what makes it Assassins Creed. The MC doesn't need to be an assassin which is seen in several of the later games it's how they interact with the Creed itself how they effect it or it effects them throughout history. It stopped being about assassins after 3 and Unity but assassins were still involved and the Creed as well as the ideology even more so was still there in each MCs own perspective. How does the Creed effect a Pirate/Merc and change his life, how does it effect an abandoned child of a Spartan, a Viking, 2 warriors in Egypt etc. The Creed is there from the beginning and we see through their eyes and eventually what it leads them to. Wether it's a good game and or not doesn't change that it's an Assassins Creed game just like a bad season in an anime doesn't make it an entirely different series no matter how much we wish it wasn't a part of whatever gem the first season was. I personally didn't like Unity and I'm not really interested in Valhalla or Origins but I still feel they're apart of it. My favorite were Brotherhood and BlackFlag and probably always will be. Don't forget their saying that "Nothing is true, Everything is permitted" I feel that saying alone should answer your question wether it's an AC game or not though that may be a bit cryptic.
For me an AC game is simply an open world historical action game with parkour. Also I do think the movement is good in the RPG games. It may not be exactly your cup of tea but it's still parkour.
I was not mentally prepared for the "Battle Pass" shanty and now have it stuck in my head.
Black Flag sequel would be crazy
Tip: You can also avoid a rogue wave by sailing facing away from it instead of towards it. In battle you can fire maybe 2 volleys before the game forces the brace command. Not sure if this is helpful, but this is my personal experience and have almost always used this tactic in open sea without islands in the way.
I feel very old. Black Flag still feels relatively modern to me.
5:50 omg it’s me :0
"Ezio is a mary sue" i'm still laughing
I actually skipped 4 as you did but thanks to the fact I was left immensely disappointed with 3.
When I eventually got the game for 10 bucks, I was floored on how good the game was on me rumble PS3
Black Flag was my entry into the series. I didn't even really know or understand what assassin's creed was at the time but had read about a fun pirate game. I tried playing the original trilogy afterwords and just could not get into them. There is something to be said for making the games different to attract new players.
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.
The devs of the earlier games described what makes an assassins creed game with 3 pillars combat, parkour, and social stealth so that’s what I would say makes up a real AC game. Black flag has all of these things and it does focus on the brotherhood more than any other AC game other than AC 1 but it decides for most of the game to explore the brotherhood from the outside perspective of a pirate. These three pillars are exclusively assassin‘s Creed and were the former AC identity before origins made the AC brand exactly like every other Ubisoft game (mediocre dog ass). I think when a lot of people say it’s a good game but not a good assassin’s creed game they’re trying to say that it lacks the originality of the original few games. I couldn’t name a single other franchise where you could use each of these “pillar mechanics” in succession. I only like the older games in this series because the newer game’s key mechanics and format aren’t exclusive to AC and aren’t even done slightly as well as most games with a similar “format”. you can still add more mechanics in addition to these pillars (ship combat, economics, brotherhood mechanic, town upkeep) to improve the variety of gameplay while still keeping the core pillar mechanics and the AC identity.
Perfect video! Love it. These analysis brings back memories. Thanks :)
That TPB reference at 36:37 made my day
bro great video, cant imagine how many words the essay was you wrote for the script, like atleast 20 thousand words because its an hour long readl, great work.
49:11 Bonnet doesn’t survive, while you escape the prison you can hear two guards saying how he was executed.
He's also one of the "ghosts" in the end
35:33 as a fellow Canadian, I appreciate your use of "Rickyism."
25:06 Had me laughing lmfao 😂
25:06
Me and the bois on our way to slay the kraken
This was my first assassins creed game last year and it definitely told me what I like about this series. I underutilized the hunting and a lot of the ship parts. But loved the “classic assasin stuff”. Can’t wait to play unity and get some assassin fantasy lol
you actually can reload the pistols without emptying them, just hit L1 above the trigger
Sadly Bonnet actually got hanged, you can overhear Spanish soldiers talking about it when Edward is escaping the prison
ARE YOU SERIOUS!? That's actually the saddest shit in the game 😭
@@ThatBoyAqua I know I was really upset cuz I thought he lived, if only there was better way to find out then just a random conversation most people will miss 😭
You are wrong on the reload thing. You can reload your pistols manually. Just press L1 while having them equiped and Edward will reload.
I appreciate the detail in background music you choose. Rather than strictly using the subject game's music, you insert stuff like the Destiny Islands music to match the tropical setting. I love it.
this aged well, AC mirage is going back to its roots
This was a great argument about the identity of Assassins Creed. Black Flag was the first AC I ever played and i fell in love with the series ever since. Even though i have played most AC games by now, i have still found nothing that tops Black Flag! (Btw the naval combat, exploration, and atmosphere of sailing around the Caribbean while listening to sea shanties is GOLD. It will never get old).
Funny fact the kenway fleet was for your phones there was an app connected to it.
Little note for reloading at ~14:00 you can press either L1 or R1 (I don’t remember which) to do a tactical reload instead of emptying all of your pistols
I wish you had said "my favorite game, unity" at the beginning so I knew to discount your opinion
I was thinking about Freedom Cry’s absence from this video and it gave me an idea.
What if you tackled Freedom Cry and Rogue as a single video? They are both shorter narrative experiences and are built upon the same Black Flag framework.
They are also very interesting parallels from a thematic standpoint, like how Ade’s increased brutality and ‘freedom at all costs’ mentality that briefly creeps over him in the third act vaguely reflecting the reasons that Shay left the brotherhood in Rogue.
I am not favourable to the story of Rogue, but I still love it due to the really smooth gameplay.
@@DarkNorthEmperor Yeah I expected a crackdown twist related to the since the history was close and the assassins "gangs" look like the early version of the railroad. It did never did that just switch the groups behavior but still call them the same names. Gameplay very fun a somewhat more polished black flag gameplay is hard to mess up.
@@Jak239JC overall, it was a fun game. It's good timepass, as I can put it.
It's a game I thoroughly enjoyed playing. Sometimes I would just sail about for ages, singing sea shanties & plundering any ships that crossed my path!😁
25:06
No explanation needed
Im pretty sure you can manually reload any pistol shots without wasting them all by pressing the left bumber button like LB OR L1
This has to be my favorite Assassin’s Creed story-wise. It may not be your conventional AC, but the story alone is very self-contained, and never manages to get you bored.
i only played kenways fleet only for the two maps for tresure chests
An assassin's creed game for me, is a game which involves a creed of assassins, preferably who fight templars. A hidden war, in plain sight.
This is by far my favorite entry in the series. The story, Edward, combat, the scenery, & the pirate theme?! (Who the fck doesn't love pirates?!?)
Everything was great about it. Unity was also special, but this takes the cake as the best one for me.
I long for the days where AC made you feel like an ultimate badass that could decimate an entire army in the coolest and most brutal way possible.
That's what made AC special. The chain killing & counter kills were so cool & completely unique when compared to any game out there.
4 got everything awesome about Assassin's Creed right, and even managed to innovate.
Great video dude!
Honestly, I've held the mindset of the title basically since this game released back when I was an edgy 14 year old who just learned what contrarian meant. That being said, I've learned to appreciate the devs for trying something new and starting to push the game in a different direction. I still don't necessarily like Black Flag as much as other entries purely because I've never been the biggest fan of naval combat or pirates in general, but I can still agree that it's a damn good game. Just took a few years to get over the jaded view I had of it after they killed off my boy Desmond and hadn't decided what they wanted to do with the present day segments yet.
I’m just happy other people are passionate about AC. No one I know likes the series
Yo at 25:00 had me fucking dying.
The only reason that I bother with managing the fleet is because of the rare artifacts that you can find on the missions. And every artifact you find gets added to your mansion hideout, so you can wander around it and see your collection grow.
This is the only AC game I've played through multiple times AND been interested in completing all the other little missions too! One of the things that makes this my favourite AC game is actually the MUSIC, which appeals to my celtic heart but also is just so well performed and recorded and used and man I love this game (also I really like the modern day stuff sue me)
Weirdly one of the things I loved about this game a lot was the accents - they're regional and correct and interesting, which makes a nice change from the same company that did the accents for AC syndicate (the worst 'english' accents I've ever heard) - incidentally this is also why I saw the Roberts/IT Guy twist coming from miles off, because he sounded like a person doing an American accent, not a real American person
Edit: also welsh protagonist. It's what we needed
You can reload without firing all your pistols...
The title of this video partially explains why Black Flag is my favorite in the series. I love the historical settings, the characters, the open world, and the variety in gameplay between the various entries. I've never been a fan of the "traditional" assassin's creed experience.
I completely agree I care more about the setting Than the title
Pistol swords = Unique animations that take 3 times longer than the regular ones.
Black Flag is an excellent pirate game but it is also an excellent Assassins Creed game. Yes Edward isnt a traditional protagonist of the series and he starts off more removed from the Assassins Order in the beginning of the game but Black Flag more than any previous AC has to do with the very core of what it means to be an Assassin. Edward's entire arc is about finding out what the Assassins 'creed' means to him and to the order, "Nothing is true, everything is permitted." The entire story is about the ideology of the Assassins. He's the first protagonist who wasnt born into the order or forced into it via familial connections to it. He chooses it over the course of the game, overcoming his greed to live for something more than just himself. To me its one of the best Assassin stories in the entire series, easily standing up with Ezio's and Bayek's story.
Now to be fair, I weigh story and characters as the most important thing of what makes an AC game an AC game, gameplay is important but its not the defining feature for me. Im ok with that stuff changing (as long as its good changes that work for that individual game). So arguments based around the gameplay isnt AC enough, just isnt gonna land with me (even pro arguments for it being an AC game because gameplay reasons). Those are worthy critiques and I have plenty of Black Flags gameplay element that i would want changed to make a better game but I wouldnt change anything about the story to make it more AC because its already extremely AC to me and is great.
Perfectly said and I wholeheartedly agree AC is a game based off of interactions. Interactions with various well crafted characters, places and times. I find this is the core to the game more so then the assassin vs Templar’s or anything else put in the games. It’s the interactions between classic characters like da Vinci and other historical characters or pretty much anyone in black flag that elevated the series above its counterparts.
the ending of this video rings so true that he is literally narrating the future release of AC Shadows.
This where the fun begins
You're not a loser.
The reason I bought the newer games is because I kept hoping they would be like origins, but both managed to deviate vastly despite having the same structure
Other than that, yeah Black flag is definitely my favorite. It's the best one because it is also a pirate game, but all of the elements of assassin's Creed are still there