Assassin's Creed Mirage's "more intimate scale" was directly shaped by fans exhausted with enormous RPGs

Assassin's Creed fans helped shape Ubisoft's decision to create the "more intimate" world of Assassin's Creed Mirage.

Speaking to 12DOVE as part of our Big in 2023 showcase for Assassin's Creed Mirage, creative director Stéphane Boudon said that while "a convergence of several inputs" helped shape the creation of Mirage, the first in their mind is the voice of the community. "Origins, Odyssey, Valhalla. They are all great games with the promise to live an epic journey in a strong fantasy," he says. 

2017's Origins marked a notable departure from the original Assassin's Creed formula, adjusting the series closer to a traditional RPG and moving on from many of the ideas that had been present in the games from their inception all the way up to Assassin's Creed Syndicate. But after Odyssey's world eclipsed Origins' and Valhalla grew larger still, fans wanted another change of tack:

"Amongst our fans, we started hearing the desire for a character-driven story, focused on the core pillars of the first ACs in a more intimate scale. It resonates with us as well, as developers, and this was the starting point of the project."

Mirage pays homage to the original Assassin's Creed in several ways. That "more intimate scale" was a necessity when Altair took his first shaky, free-running steps, but Basim's story makes a more deliberate choice to embrace that scope. It's also set in a similar part of the world, returning to the Middle East via 9th-century Baghdad (rather than the Holy Land) and concerning itself directly with the Assassin's Order, rather than the proto-killers that more recent games have dabbled with.

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