Feudal Japan Assassin's Creed Might Feel Too Familiar, Dev Says

According to Alex Hutchinson, who was the creative director on 2012's Assassin's Creed III, an Assassin's Creed game set in feudal Japan might feel too familiar. In an interview with Total Xbox, Hutchinson said the setting sets up well from a design perspective, but explained that the ninja/samurai vibe has already been well-established in other games and Ubisoft would rather reach out and do something altogether new.

"You could always do it, but the point I was trying to make was that in the broad strokes and scale of history, [feudal Japan is] a theme that's been well-mined in video games," Hutchinson said. "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?'" -- Alex Hutchinson

"Feudal Japan would work as an Assassin's game, for sure," he added. "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.'"

Though it sounds like there are no plans for a core Assassin's Creed game set in feudal Japan, Ubisoft recently released iOS game Assassin's Creed Memories, which is set in that time period.

Asked where he would take the Assassin's Creed franchise if the decision were up to him, Hutchinson reiterated that the British Raj is high on his list. The top-requested settings, according to previous comments from Ubisoft, are feudal Japan, World War II, and ancient Egypt. November's Assassin's Creed Unity is set in Paris, while this year's other game, Assassin's Creed Rogue, takes place in North America during the Seven Years' War in the mid-18th century.

Hutchinson is now the creative director on Far Cry 4. The game ships in November, after which he plans to take a vacation and then get to work on a new, unannounced game.

Ubisoft said previously that, thanks to Assassin's Creed's fictional Animus technology, "the entire human history is our playground" for future games.