14 DAY TRIAL // Assassin's Creed 3 Creative Director Alex Hutchinson believes that the Feudal Japan setting that's been demanded by fans won't work that well for the series as it's already been explored by many other games before it.
Assassin's Creed games have explored all sorts of historical settings and large events over the years, leading many to speculate before any new game announcement where the action might take place.
After seeing the Crusades, the Renaissance, the American Revolution, the Golden Age of piracy, or the French Revolution, in the upcoming Assassin's Creed Unity, fans are still thinking about a game set in Feudal Japan.
The Japanese setting might not delight fans
However, according to Assassin's Creed 3 Creative Director Alex Hutchinson, who now oversees Far Cry 4 at Ubisoft Montreal, such a setting might not work as fans expect it to, largely because it's been quite popular in the video game industry.
"You could always do it," he tells TotalXbox about setting Assassin's Creed in Japan, "but the point I was trying to make was that in the broad strokes and scale of history, that's a theme that's been well-mined in videogames."
The series thrives by exploring different settings
According to Hutchinson, who goes back to a previous statement made ahead of the release of Assassin's Creed 3, the point of the franchise is to take various time periods and put a specific twist on them, especially those that haven't been explored by other games.
"So, Assassin's Creed is one of those games that can take [lesser-known] time periods or corners of the world and make them cool, fun, new and refreshing. Feudal Japan would work as an Assassin's game, for sure, but I feel like it would start to look like 'oh, have I played this?' You know what I mean - 'oh, I've been a ninja before, I've been a samurai before'."
The developer also confirms that, were he still working on the franchise for Ubisoft Montreal, a possible setting would be India, during the British Raj, as it hasn't been explored by video games and would deliver some intriguing gameplay elements.
However, right now, he is the creative director for Far Cry 4, set in the fictional Himalayan country of Kyrat, which borrows quite a bit from India and other real-life countries in that area.
The Assassin's Creed series will see the debut of Unity, set during the French Revolution, and Rogue, set between Assassin's Creed 4 and 3, next month on quite a few different platforms. Unity will get a special separate game as part of its Season Pass, in the form of Assassin's Creed Chronicles, which takes place in China.