| 1 | [[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/acblackflag.jpg]] |
| 2 | [[caption-width-right:350:''"This is a jackdaw... But if you should ask him, he would claim to be an eagle."'']] |
| 3 | |
| 4 | ->''"Captains will curse our flag, and kings will fear it. As long as empires generate wealth and riches, we will be there to bleed them dry."'' |
| 5 | -->-- '''Edward Kenway''' |
| 6 | |
| 7 | ''Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag'' is the sixth main entry and fourth numbered installment of the ''Franchise/AssassinsCreed'' series, released in 2013 on Platform/PlayStation3, Platform/PlayStation4, Platform/Xbox360, Platform/XboxOne, Platform/WiiU, and [[Platform/IBMPersonalComputer PC]]. |
| 8 | |
| 9 | As usual for the franchise, this game features an all-new Assassin protagonist within a brand-new time period. Unusually, the TimeSkip is ''backwards'' from the previous protagonist [[VideoGame/AssassinsCreedIII Connor]] - a first for the series - to the life of his grandfather, Edward Kenway (Creator/MattRyan), and set in UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfPiracy. Even more unusually, the present-day story moves forward from the climax of ''III'', where you now play as a researcher working in Abstergo Entertainment gathering "footage" of Edward Kenway's life for the company to use in making their own spin on the story. |
| 10 | |
| 11 | It was released on October 29, 2013 on the Platform/PlayStation3, Platform/{{Xbox 360}}, and Platform/WiiU platforms, and was later released for the Platform/PlayStation4 and Platform/XboxOne on November 15th and 22nd[[note]]as a launch title for both[[/note]] respectively. A PC version came out on November 19th. A version for the Platform/NintendoSwitch came out on December 6, 2019 alongside ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedRogue'' as part of ''The Rebel Collection,'' with all single-player DLC included. It also has a non-canon manga adaptation. |
| 12 | |
| 13 | The first trailer, released on March 4th, 2013, can be seen [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_GDeIee6Kc here]]. |
| 14 | |
| 15 | Soon after the game came out, a DLC campaign was released for it named ''Freedom Cry''. It stars Adéwalé, Edward's [[TheLancer Lancer]] from the main game fifteen years after the events of ''Black Flag''. Tropes for it go on its own page, ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedFreedomCry''. |
| 16 | |
| 17 | Ubisoft would later announce ''VideoGame/SkullAndBones'', a pirate game with gameplay based on the naval combat of ''Black Flag'' developed by the same creative team at Ubisoft Singapore. Eight years after the release of the game, a South Korean webtoon sequel will focus on the life of Edward Kenway after the end of the Golden Age of Piracy. |
| 18 | |
| 19 | Note that due to what happened at the end of the [[VideoGame/AssassinsCreedIII last game]], '''[[Administrivia/YouHaveBeenWarned be warned]] of unmarked spoilers'''. |
| 20 | |
| 21 | ---- |
| 22 | !!''Black Flag'' provides examples of: |
| 23 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 24 | [[folder:Tropes A-C]] |
| 25 | * AcceptableBreaksFromReality: Ships sail far, far faster than they are capable of in real life, with the player's brig able to easily clear a nautical mile within about a minute. Even applies in-universe, as the Animus features a 'Travel' speed that's far faster than Full Sail. Also discussed in the Database entry for the Cathedral of Havana; it's admitted that the building as designed is from far too late a period to fit the game, but 'Abstergo' are willing to fudge it as half of the experience they're selling is cool buildings to climb. |
| 26 | * AchievementSystem: While all the games in the ''Franchise/AssassinsCreed'' series have featured Xbox Achievements, ''Black Flag'' is the first to have an internal set of achievements, called Abstergo Challenges. |
| 27 | * TheAlcoholic: |
| 28 | ** Pirates in general are depicted as heavy drinkers. Edward is one such, even in his pre-piracy flashbacks, but apparently manages to avoid full-blown alcoholism. |
| 29 | ** "Calico" Jack Rackham channels [[Franchise/PiratesOfTheCaribbean Jack Sparrow]] for his love of debauchery and is never once seen sober. Both in the game and historically, he is captured while he and most of his crew are passed out below decks. |
| 30 | ** Charles Vane tells Edward how his father died of drink before he managed to fulfill his dream of sailing the seas. |
| 31 | * AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: In-universe, this is PlayedForLaughs when Abstergo Entertainment's internal market feasibility analysis videos' narrations depict Altaïr as a hypocritical, murderous fanatic with Abbas Sofian as a TokenGoodTeammate[[note]]complete with suggesting that they seek out an Abbas descendant[[/note]], Ezio as a corrupt, violent sleazebag who tries to put the moves on the supposedly "''impressionable''" Shao Jun, Connor [[TakeThatCritics as a stoic bore whose early years would be too foreign for "normal" audiences to relate to]], and Aveline de Grandpre as a dutiful daughter to Madeline de l'Isle, with all four videos using ''wildly'' out-of-context clips from their respective real-world games and ''WesternAnimation/AssassinsCreedEmbers''. Moreover, at least two other Abstergo Entertainment internal videos confirm that Edward Kenway's doomed to be similarly mischaracterized, and ''you are tasked with garnering the material with which to mischaracterize him''. |
| 32 | * AllThereInTheManual: Players who are curious about Edward's post-game life can read the canonical novel ''Literature/AssassinsCreedForsaken'', which bridges the gap between IV and III. Likewise, ''Literature/AssassinsCreedIVBlackFlag'' the novelization of this game contains Edward's backstory and origins and provides an epilogue for the game. |
| 33 | * AllYourBaseAreBelongToUs: |
| 34 | ** As the English progress in their anti-piracy campaign, they eventually move on Nassau, offering the King's Pardon to any pirates who wish to renounce their "wicked lives" and the hangman's noose to any who don't. This forces Edward to move his base of operations to Great Inagua. [[spoiler:Ah Tabai and his Assassins eventually move there as well after Torres's men ravage Tulum]]. |
| 35 | ** Thanks to unwittingly selling out the locations of the Assassin strongholds in the area to the Templars while disguised as Duncan Walpole, Edward is recruited to defend them against Templar attacks throughout the main story and several side missions. |
| 36 | * AncientConspiracy: |
| 37 | ** DownplayedTrope with the Templars. While they maintain a presence in the Caribbean and are reasonably wealthy and influential, they aren't doing nearly as much grandiose scheming as in previous games, having had their operations severely hindered by Assassin attacks. This is why they seek the Observatory, so they will be able to spy on anyone they want. Further, the English Navy is a much more powerful presence. |
| 38 | ** Played with in modern times. Abstergo Industries is implied to be doing all manner of ridiculous nastiness by the player's contact. Abstergo Entertainment, however, is primarily a video game company. Doubles as RuleOfFunny, as they're using a device which can read the memories of the dead through their descendants for the MundaneUtility of making VR games similar to ''[[BitingTheHandHumor Assassin's Creed]]''. |
| 39 | * AncientOrderOfProtectors: The Guardians were native warriors who inhabited the jungles of Long Bay, Jamaica, to prevent outsiders from accessing "the Observatory." [[spoiler: Bartholomew Roberts]] mentions that they were apparently bred specifically to defend the site. Accordingly, the player character has to fight his way through them to get to the Observatory. |
| 40 | * AndNowForSomeoneCompletelyDifferent: |
| 41 | ** Alongside the obvious jump to a new protagonist, this installment marks the end of Desmond as the central character. Although his DNA and memory are used, the new protagonist is a HeroicMime PlayerCharacter who is a simple researcher for a company, rather than a badass hero with a SecretLegacy. |
| 42 | ** This game marks the first historical PlayerCharacter who is not an Assassin throughout most of the story, instead [[spoiler:becoming one near the end]]. |
| 43 | ** Two major {{DLC}}s have diffrent protagonists then the main game: ''Freedom Cry'', which has you playing as Adéwalé There's also the Playstation, PC, and Switch exclusive Aveline, which as the name implies, has you playing as Aveline from ''Assassin's Creed III: Liberation''. |
| 44 | * AndTheAdventureContinues: The last scene before the credits has Ah Tabai inform Edward that [[spoiler:Woodes Rogers is NotQuiteDead.]] Cue Edward sailing off to London, [[spoiler:his young daughter, Jenny, in tow.]] |
| 45 | * AndYourRewardIsClothes: ''Black Flag'' is unique for the number and range of alternative costumes. Edward's Assassin robes can get accessory cloaks and jackets; DLC provides more classical pirate outfits like Henry Morgan's Redingote, the Edward the Legend outfit, and Stede Bonnet's gentleman's outfit; you can unlock outfits like the Templar Armour and the Mayan Armour through side quests; and you can craft various hunter outfits. Buying a certain number of prior ''Franchise/AssassinsCreed'' installments on [=XBox=] Live, PSN, or Steam, also unlocks the previous series protagonists' outfits. The switch version includes them by default, as well as charcters from later games. |
| 46 | * AnimalMotifs: An in-story example. At one point the entirety of {{Aesop}}'s Fable, "The Eagle and the Jackdaw" is retold in the game. It very obviously leads to applicability on Edward's own story. Edward admits to naming his ship, the Jackdaw after a "sly bird" he loved to see as a boy. It comes to symbolize Edward's defiant over-reaching struggle to rise above his station, a "Jackdaw who'd have you believe he's an Eagle" or a "pirate who'd have you believe he's an Assassin". [[spoiler: Years later, on his retirement, he names his son, who he wishes to raise as an Assassin, Haytham, Arabic for Young Eagle]]. |
| 47 | * AnimalThemeNaming: Edward Kenway, the grandfather of Connor Kenway (of the previous game's fame), captains a ship called the Jackdaw. As in the Aesop fable, "[[https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Eagle_and_the_Jackdaw The Eagle and the Jackdaw]]", Edward is a common criminal (jackdaw) who pretends to be an Assassin (eagle). |
| 48 | * AntagonisticGovernor: Governor Laureano de Torres y Ayala and Governor Woodes Rogers. While the former isn't an outright villain, he is the Grand Master of the Templars, and believes only the exceptional should advance in the world. The latter isn't outright evil as well, but is still a Templar and a slaveowner. |
| 49 | * AntiFrustrationFeatures: If you have several hostile ships around you, they'll stop firing at you when you board one to take it as a prize. Same goes for forts if you initiate a ship boarding mini-event near a hostile fort. |
| 50 | * AntiquatedLinguistics: The 18th Century Caribbean features a bevy of period and nautical slang with old fashioned locution. The result is that even the language of working-class English and Welsh pirates sounds [[SophisticatedAsHell fancy]] to modern ears. The letters in the bottle ascribed to Thom Kavanaugh, and one of the collectibles are written in Augustan Era English and for RuleOfFun the Animus mission summaries are also done in the style of Chapter Titles, InWhichATropeIsDescribed. Furthermore, if you put on subtitles, nouns are capitalised much like in books of this era - Edward might say "We must find our target quickly", but the subtitles will read "We must find our Target quickly", for example[[note]]See CapitalLettersAreMagic below[[/note]]. |
| 51 | * ArcWords: After not being mentioned all throughout the previous game, "Nothing is true and everything is permitted" is discussed once more, the true meaning of the phrase being pondered again by the protagonist. Bartholomew Roberts has some, too: |
| 52 | -->"For I have dipped my hands in muddied waters, and withdrawing them find 'tis better to be a commander than a common man!" |
| 53 | * ArmorPiercingQuestion: When Edward assassinates Cockram and Burgess, they call him out on his selfish behavior, ending their rant with this trope: |
| 54 | --> "The Templars is our family. [[LonelyAtTheTop Where's yours?]]" |
| 55 | * ArmorOfInvincibility: There are two you can get over the course of the game. The Templar Armor, which is unlocked by completing all of the Templar Hunts, gives you 25% damage reduction. However, it's topped by the Mayan Armor that you get by solving all the Mayan Stele puzzles, which makes you completely ImmuneToBullets, thanks to the fact that it's built from salvaged First Civilization technology. It's much like the Shard of Eden from the previous game, only it always works. There's also the Stealth Outfit, which reduces the ability of guards to detect you. |
| 56 | * ArtificialBrilliance: |
| 57 | ** As with preceding games in this series, guards will search nearby hiding spots if they lose sight of you, and will frequently cover each other when doing so, guaranteeing that you'll be spotted if you attempt a stealth assassination. If grenadiers suspect that you're hiding in a haystack or a patch of foliage, they'll toss a grenade in there rather than endangering themselves by going in after you. If there's an alarm bell nearby, a guard will attempt to ring it when alerted. After a grenade is tossed, all enemies immediately back away from the blast radius. |
| 58 | ** The Spanish ship ''La Dama Negra'', a Legendary Ship, will adapt the use of its mortars based on your current course and position relative to hers. If her stern isn't facing your bow, she will lead her shots to try and force you off-course. If her stern ''is'' facing your bow, she will instead launch double mortar rounds to either side of your current course to deter you from turning (and thus aiming broadsides at her only vulnerable point). |
| 59 | * ArtificialStupidity: Also typical to the games, enemies will not react to sound from low-profile actions and running in close range. Stalking zones also serve as magical hiding places where you are invisible unless someone literally runs into you. Enemies also forget about you within a minute, even if you had just murdered a dozen of their friends, and will merrily patrol past the warm bodies of their former companions. |
| 60 | * ArtisticLicenseBiology: |
| 61 | ** Jellyfish only deal damage if Edward comes in contact with their body; their tentacles are harmless. That's the complete opposite of how they behave in real life since the cnidocytes that deliver the poison are located along their tentacles. |
| 62 | ** Macaws in cages have 3 toes instead of 4. |
| 63 | * ArtisticLicenseGeography: Many of the Caribbean islands and coastlines are depicted as rocky and mountainous. In real life, they're mostly quite flat. For example, compare [[http://img3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20140917175556/assassinscreed/images/d/d3/AC4_Crooked_Island.png Crooked Island]] in the game to [[http://www.sarlesrealty.com/images/seo/catlanding/crook1.jpg its real-world counterpart.]] |
| 64 | * ArtisticLicenseHistory: See the [[ArtisticLicenseHistory/AssassinsCreed franchise's page]]. |
| 65 | * AsTheGoodBookSays: Edward's memorably terse elegy to [[spoiler: Thatch]], "He drinks damnation." Additionally, while boarding an enemy ship, one of the Jackdaw's crewmen can declare that he and the rest of the crew will "Stand in your bones drinking your damnation." This sounds like badass pirate lingo, but traces its roots to the King James translation of the New Testament, 1 Corinthians: "For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself."[[note]]The original Biblical context of this verse concerns those who partake of the Lord's Supper without fully understanding its significance or taking it seriously.[[/note]] |
| 66 | * AssassinOutclassin: An early story mission has Edward Kenway, impersonating an Assassin who was a traitor (and whom Kenway killed in self-defense), meet with some Templars. During the meeting, they're attacked by Assassins who are after the Templars, but they don't expect Kenway's fighting skills. |
| 67 | * AssholeVictim: Most of the targets you kill have some redeeming qualities or at least believe that they are doing right. There are some exceptions. |
| 68 | ** Duncan Walpole, an Assassin who was pulling a FaceHeelTurn and, whose identity Edward hijacks, is an in-Universe one. The Assassins admit to Edward that he's no loss. |
| 69 | ** Laurens Prins, a Dutch slave trader, is another fellow that all sides admit they are better off without, even the Templars who seek to deal with him directly. |
| 70 | ** There's an Italian diplomat, Ruggiero Ferraro, who eases the guilt of shuffling him off the mortal coil by being a snob and a DirtyOldMan. [[note]]The character, voiced by Roger Craig Smith himself, is clearly a spoof of Ezio, whose longing for the architecture of Florence over the colonial architecture in Kingston is an affectionate TakeThatCritics to audiences who pine for ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedII''[[/note]] |
| 71 | * AttackAttackAttack: The complete Charles Vane doctrine of naval warfare. He manages a surprise attack against the English fleet blockading Nassau simply by being so crazily aggressive that they don't see him coming. In one mission where the ''Jackdaw'' has to track a Spanish ship of the line/man-o'-war, Vane is insane enough to take the 100-gun beast head-on with just a brig (his ''Ranger'') and a pair of smaller ships. |
| 72 | * AttackItsWeakPoint: Volleys of cannon fire may expose weak points in an enemy ship's hull or rigging which can be targeted with your swivel guns for major damage. |
| 73 | ** The Legendary Ship, ''La Dama Negra'', can only be damaged effectively in a few areas due to its armor. |
| 74 | * AwardBaitSong: Anne's song during the ending. Hits especially hard during the part where Edward sees [[spoiler: a vision of all his dead pirate friends sitting together happily]]. The song is an actual Irish folk song, ''The Parting Glass''. |
| 75 | * AwesomeButImpractical: The Observatory, at least in the 18th century. [[spoiler:Being able to see where anyone is and what they're doing in real-time just via a sample of their blood is impressive in the 21st century, but in the 18th the impracticality shows, since you'd need to know who that person is and where they are to get a blood sample anyway, and the Observatory's location makes acting on that knowledge with any speed impossible.]] |
| 76 | * AwesomeButTemporary: One mission has you taking the helm of Blackbeard's frigate, The Queen Anne's Revenge. A later mission has you taking control of a fully-gunned Portuguese Man-Of-War[[note]]But not a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portuguese_man_o%27_war Portuguese man o'war]][[/note]]. |
| 77 | * BagOfSpilling: Subverted. Edward steals all of Duncan Walpole's Assassin gear, but his hidden blades are broken, and he likely lost all of his equipment in the preceding ship battle. So, all you start with are your bare fists, money and smoke bomb pouches, two sabres, a snazzy Assassin's outfit, and a letter inviting you to meet with the governor of Cuba. |
| 78 | * BarbieDollAnatomy: Edward Kenway is depicted in flashbacks as having a wide tattoo where both his nipples should be. |
| 79 | * BarBrawl: Bar Fights can be done in order to recruit more men for your ship's crew. |
| 80 | * BatmanGambit: The game takes it to another level entirely. [[spoiler:Past and present incarnations of Roberts are manipulating Templars ''and'' Assassins on behalf of a third group, whose purpose is to get the present-day protagonist in a position where their body can be taken over by Juno. It only fails because Juno isn't quite powerful enough yet to do it.]] |
| 81 | * BattleTrophy: Templar smuggler Julien [=duCasse=] keeps a box full of Hidden Blades, the trademark weapon of the Assassins, with him as "souvenirs". |
| 82 | * BecomingTheMask: |
| 83 | ** Edward learns how to use the Hidden Blades by putting on an act for the Templars who think he's an Assassin defector; they want to see his stuff on a training course and he rolls with it. So, [[BavarianFireDrill through the sheer power of bluff]], his sailor's ability to climb agilely ("every finger a fishhook!") and some improvisation, he's become just like the guy he's impersonating. |
| 84 | ** A recurring theme is Ah Tabai telling Edward that he has to earn the outfit he had taken for himself. By the end he does, and he becomes a full-time Assassin. |
| 85 | ** Happens literally and often in the multiplayer, as morphing civilians to look like you is the easiest and most effective way of avoiding detection. |
| 86 | * BeefGate: The level 49-and-above Man o' War ships that patrol the south of the map are there to stop players who venture out of familiar waters without upgrading the ''Jackdaw'', while level 60 pirate hunter ships (which appear at Wanted Level 3) discourage players from letting their wanted level get too high. |
| 87 | * BeenThereShapedHistory: |
| 88 | ** This feels less prominent in this game than in the earlier titles, with the simple reason being that there isn't a lot we know about UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfPiracy and there are many missing details about the early lives, backgrounds and circumstances of historical pirates, both of which are {{lampshaded}} by the in-game database. Most pirates were illiterate sailors and left no contemporary first-person records. The major record of the time, Charles Johnson's book [[note]] ''A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pyrates''[[/note]] came several years after the period was over. As such the game takes much advantage of this lacuna in telling this story. Despite this Edward does participate in a few key events. |
| 89 | ** Edward and Adéwalé acquire the ship that becomes the ''Jackdaw'' in the midst of the hurricane that causes the sinking of the famous Spanish Treasure Fleet which caused a gold rush and a frantic search by sailors for buried treasure and provided much inspiration for later stories about pirates. |
| 90 | ** Edward also witnesses and participates in events like [[spoiler: Blackbeard's last stand, Jack Rackham's mutiny against Charles Vane, Benjamin Hornigold's mysterious death and Bartholomew Roberts' AwesomeMomentOfCrowning as TheCaptain and his eventual death]]. |
| 91 | * BeethovenWasAnAlienSpy: [[spoiler: Benjamin Hornigold]] became a Templar, [[spoiler: Mary Read]] was an Assassin, and [[spoiler: Black Bart was a Sage, the "clone" of a precursor god who has reincarnated several times throughout History, always with the same physical appearance and memories of ancient times]] |
| 92 | * BestHerToBedHer: At the end of the game when [[spoiler:the Assassins stay on your Island, there will be a female assassin by your bed. When you interact with her she will suddenly run off. If you catch her the scene will transition back to your bedroom with her sleeping on your bed, suggesting this trope happened.]] |
| 93 | * BehemothBattle: Watching two Man o' Wars circle each other while exchanging mortar salvos and withering broadsides never gets old. |
| 94 | * {{Bifauxnen}}: [[spoiler: James Kidd, aka Mary Read]], looks quite masculine even once her secret is out. This should come as less of a surprise if you know your pirate history. |
| 95 | * BigBad: Laureano de Torres y Ayala is initially set up as the main antagonist until it's revealed half-way through the story that it's actually [[spoiler:Bartholomew Roberts]] who is the true villain of the game. In the modern day segments, it's revealed that [[spoiler:Bartholomew]] and John Standish are the reincarnations of Juno's husband [[spoiler: Aita]] making him the real Big Bad of ''Black Flag''. |
| 96 | * BigFancyHouse: Edward's manor in Inagua; after it's been upgraded, it becomes a pretty white manor, filled with Mayan art, and with a huge, colourful garden filled with tropical flowers, and a guest house because why not. It becomes especially lovely when the skeleton wearing Templar armour is removed. |
| 97 | * BitingTheHandHumor Abstergo Entertainment, the Templar front present in the modern day segment of the game and up to all sorts of no good is a French-Canadian video game developer based in Montreal. Abstergo Entertainment was literally created by Abstergo acquiring Ubisoft Montreal. Also, in a bit of meta humor, Abstergo Entertainment is listed in the game's startup as the developer, even starting up [[http://abstergo.org/ its own website]]. |
| 98 | * BittersweetEnding: Both for Edward's story and the modern-day storyline. |
| 99 | ** Edward [[spoiler:is going home to England with a daughter, his future is secure, the Assassins have taken his hideout as their new base and possess the Crystal Skull, and the Caribbean Templars have been wiped out. However, almost everyone Edward has loved has either died or he will never see them again, his wife died while he was away making his quest for his fortune a ShaggyDogStory, and the Golden Age of Piracy has come to its end. Additionally, anyone who has played ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedIII'' and/or read the ExpandedUniverse novels knows that Edward will die ignominiously, and his son will become a Templar and undo most all of Edward's work in the new world.]] |
| 100 | ** In the modern-day story, [[spoiler:John Standish is dead, Juno is still a non-threat without a body, the analyst PlayerCharacter is alive, and the Assassins have a lot of valuable data on Abstergo. On the other hand the analyst now knows they are in constant danger of Abstergo locking them up whenever they see fit, there's the chance they'll be found out about their plots with Standish and the Assassins, the Templars have the location of the Observatory now, and all of the analyst's hard work is being rewarded with the knowledge the adventures they lived through are being [[{{Flanderization}} Flanderized]] into a cheesy video game to serve as pro-Templar propaganda.]] |
| 101 | * BlatantLies: |
| 102 | ** Lying is Abstergo's stock in trade. In the introduction to the Sample 17 Project, Desmond Miles is called a "very generous donor". Anyone who knows about the earlier games can see just how far from the truth this is. |
| 103 | ** Abstergo's executives also seek to remove and "correct" those historical points of view which contradict their agenda. They reject Altaïr, Ezio, and Connor's stories to make games because they aren't "propaganda friendly". |
| 104 | ** The naval contracts you get from Milo Van Der Graaff. While he claims to be an "Honest Businessman and Friend" it's clear he's as much of a crook as any pirate and is merely outsourcing his criminal activities through Edward. |
| 105 | * BlindIdiotTranslation: While the Czech subtitles are actually good, the database entries went rather weird places with localisation, including Desmond Miles being mistaken for a woman, which had some strange influence over what "bleeding effect" possibly could be in the translator's eyes. |
| 106 | --> (Paraphrased) "The public was relieved to hear [Desmond Miles] didn't suffer from any residual periods." |
| 107 | * BlingBlingBang: |
| 108 | ** Getting the elite upgrades for your ship's weapons outfits it with golden cannons, mortars, and swivels, despite this being incredibly impractical for actual weaponry. There is also a set of golden pistols which can be earned for completing all naval contracts. |
| 109 | ** The majority of multiplayer characters get gilded, gem-studded, or otherwise extremely flashy signature weapons as you gain prestige. |
| 110 | * BloodIsSquickerInWater: Harpooning animals is just as bloody in-game as it is in RealLife, a fact that actually triggered some public backlash shortly after the game was released. Edward being bitten by a shark also spills copious amounts of blood into the sea. |
| 111 | * BoardingParty: The game has even more of this with nearly 40% of the game taking place on the high seas, and ''not'' limited to specific missions[[note]]almost any ship except gunboats and Legendary ships can be boarded by depleting their Hull to the point where any further attacks would sink them, then coming up alongside them (or colliding with them) and initiating a boarding action[[/note]]. This time, the character replayed by the Animus is Connor's grandfather, a pirate/Assassin named Edward Kenway. According to one of the trailers, Blackbeard claims that he once saw Kenway clear the deck of a Spanish galleon ''by himself'' without breaking a sweat. Better yet, ''this is not only entirely, legitimately possible in gameplay''[[note]]though you have to either be out of naval combat, run far enough away to exit naval combat, or immediately initiate it after a successful boarding during a one-second window where the ship is treated as not being in naval combat... release the wheel, dive off of Kenway's ship and ''swim'' over to the target ship[[/note]], but possibly ''even easier than taking on that ship in regular naval combat''! |
| 112 | * BookEnds: |
| 113 | ** The first time Edward meets Woodes Rogers in-game, it's at a governor's (Torres') home in a dead man's (Walpole's) clothes. The last time it's at a governor's (Rogers') home in a dead man's (Ferraro's) clothes. |
| 114 | ** Edward's first visit to the Observatory has him beat up the native Guardians. His last visit has him saving them. |
| 115 | ** Edward first comes to Tulum from the beach and arrives at the Temple, where he fights off invading Redcoats, Ah Tabai chastises him and tells him he's unwelcome, and he is shown where the Mayan armour is kept. His last visit begins at the Temple, where Ah Tabai forgives him and tells him he is welcome, and ends at the beach where Edward defends the base from the invading Spanish. And if the player has kept up with his Mayan Stele puzzles, this is Edward's first opportunity to get to the Temple and put the armour on... |
| 116 | ** The game ends with Edward at the theater with a young Haytham, the same location that the previous game begins. |
| 117 | ** This one's somewhat subtle. Both the first and last time you're given proper control of a ship (after Cape Bonavista in the first memory and during the credits) Edward's passenger (Stede Bonnet and Jenny, respectively) asks if they'll see pirates during their trip, with Edward answering that it's unlikely. |
| 118 | * BoringButPractical: Brigs carry about half as many resources as ships of the line do, but to loot the full amount you need to board the ship, which is a dangerous and time-consuming business if the target is a frigate or Man o' War. The most efficient way to farm resources, though not the flashiest one, is therefore to focus on boarding brigs while sinking any lone ship of the line that crosses your path. Schooners also sometimes carry impressive payloads and are even easier (and less exciting) to board than brigs. These easily captured ships can also be used to keep your notoriety low, or to convert them into gemstones for Kenway's Fleet. |
| 119 | * BoringReturnJourney: Given the depths Edward descends to in his diving forays with the ''Jackdaw'''s diving bell, and the lack of decompression chambers back then, resurfacing safely would take hours, something the game thankfully skips over in a short cutscene. |
| 120 | * BottomlessMagazines: Averted for the most part, as with every other game in this series, but played straight with the [[ImpossiblyCoolWeapon pistol swords]], which can fire off finishers for a whole galleon consecutively. |
| 121 | * BountyHunter: Getting too much notoriety at sea will cause pirate hunters to come after you. |
| 122 | * BraggingRightsReward: |
| 123 | ** Beating all four of the Legendary Ships unlocks a stronger ram attack. Of course, your regular ram attack, when fully upgraded, is enough to take out most ships in the game anyway, so there's nothing left worth using it on. |
| 124 | ** There are upgrades for your hideout that allow you to hire dancers and pirates for free. These upgrades cost 15,000 and 7,000 reales, respectively, to allow you to save 150 reales every time you hire these groups. You would have to hire and use 100 different groups of dancers just to break even on investing in their building at the hideout. Good luck finding that many uses for them throughout the entire game, even if you're actively trying. |
| 125 | ** Completing all of the assassination contracts unlocks the Pistol Swords. While they have appropriately flashy unique animations and the best stats in the game, they're matched with the ''far'' cheaper Officer's Rapiers. |
| 126 | * BreadAndCircuses: In one of the hacked conversations, we see a chat log where Olivier describes Abstergo Entertainment's management strategy as being just like this: offer the staff some token form of good cheer and feel-good company while secretly eroding labour laws and overworking them. He even takes the "bread" part literally, suggesting that Melanie should give the employees pain au chocolat breakfasts and "secretly" sneak coffee liqueur. |
| 127 | * BribingYourWayToVictory: Just like ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedIII'', ''Assassin's Creed IV'' multiplayer allows you to spend real money to purchase Erudito Credits to unlock skills, character customization items, and emblem unlocks before you are high enough level to unlock them naturally. There are also download packs on the XBLA, PSN, and [=UPlay=] stores to unlock all skills and/or customization options. |
| 128 | * BritainIsOnlyEngland: Fairly early in the game, a character dismissively calls PlayerCharacter an Englishman. Edward irritatedly retorts that he's ''Welsh'', not ''English''. |
| 129 | * BusCrash: [[spoiler: Stede Bonnet is last seen sailing away, captain of his own ship, cheerfully waving goodbye to Edward and thanking him for his friendship. He is later captured and executed offscreen, and even this is only mentioned by easily missed mook conversation during the prison break, as well as in his database entry; though he still appears at the table alongside the rest of Edward's dead pirate friends.]] |
| 130 | * CainAndAbel: The Travers brothers, Upton and Vance; the latter tries to kill the former to possess his half of a treasure map. Gets a bit heavy-handed when Vance's girlfriend, Jiang Ling, references the story in a bid to get Vance to kill Upton personally. |
| 131 | * CallBack: In ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedBrotherhood'' in one of the chats you can have with Shaun he stated that he wished for amazing things, like a private espresso bar. In Abstergo he runs an espresso bar. |
| 132 | * CallForward: Since Edward is the father of Haytham, several of their actions parallel each other in ironic ways. He also has similarities to his grandson Connor. |
| 133 | ** Both of them come in by ship and were tasked by their superiors to deliver something valuable. However, Haytham had this his whole time, whereas Edward stole this from an Assassin. |
| 134 | ** The first few moments of the game reveal [[spoiler:the supposed Assassin is actually a Templar]]. Strangely, Haytham was this originally, while Edward does this for personal gain. |
| 135 | ** Like Connor, Edward develops a lot of his core fighting skills and freerunning and climbing skills from his prior experience as a sailor, similar to Connor who could run on trees and is a capable hunter because of his Native American upbringing and heritage. Both Edward and Connor become TheCaptain of the CoolShip. Edward is likewise very {{Hotblooded}} and reckless, closer to Connor than Haytham who is an ImperturbableEnglishman. |
| 136 | ** This game creates a 3-for-3 of Kenways [[spoiler: sentenced to death by hanging and later rescued. Like Connor, Edward is rescued by the Assassin Mentor.]] |
| 137 | * CanonImmigrant: One of the [[spoiler: Crystal Skulls]] makes their first appearance in an Assassin's Creed game, first appearing in ''Project Legacy.'' Though they are ''mentioned'' in Abstergo Emails in ''Assassin's Creed'' as "Mitchell-Hedges Communicators." |
| 138 | * CanonWelding: An EasterEgg the Abstergo analyst can find while hacking computers puts ''VideoGame/WatchDogs'' into the TheVerse of ''Assassin's Creed'' (and likely every other Ubisoft game that were in the game's universe outside of Creator/TomClancy games developed by the company). [[spoiler:Abstergo CEO Olivier Garneau also disappears from the rest of the game because he was later assassinated by Aiden Pearce of [=DedSec=] on behalf of the Assassin Brotherhood]]. |
| 139 | * CapitalLettersAreMagic: Nigh-every noun in the game is capitalized in the subtitles. This is a ShoutOut to the main reference for the game, "A General History Of The Pyrates". Or to the fact that capitalizing nouns was the style of the time, in the same way nouns still are in German. |
| 140 | * CartographySidequest: Conquering naval forts reveals entire regions of the overworld. |
| 141 | * CerebusRetcon: You can uncover notes revealing dark details on ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedIIILiberation'': [[spoiler:the person chosen to relive Aveline's life was a heterosexual man who began to question his gender identity as a result of experiencing the world through a heterosexual woman, and eventually died of a seizure.]] |
| 142 | * ColorCodedForYourConvenience: All unnamed [=NPCs=] wear colors indicating their faction. Friendly pirates dress in blue "sea clothes", while hostile pirates and privateers dress in black. Soldiers and sailors for each country wear color coded uniforms: English in red, Spanish in yellow, and Portuguese in blue. Their ships, too, are color-coded. Friendly pirates are unpainted, but fly white sails with black skulls. Spanish ships are red and gold, Portuguese ships are green and British ships are ([[AnachronismStew somewhat anachronistically]]) painted in black-and-yellow Nelson Cheqeur. Royal convoys, regardless of faction, have stark white hulls and Pirate hunters are RedAndBlackAndEvilAllOver. |
| 143 | * CombatPragmatist: |
| 144 | ** Edward Kenway, befitting his background and profession, won't hesitate to pull out (several) pistols in the middle of a swordfight or a number of other "ungentlemanly" fighting moves. |
| 145 | ** Brutes who catch you hiding in bushes or stalk zones often prefer to lob a grenade in with Edward rather than face him head-on. |
| 146 | * TheComputerIsACheatingBastard: |
| 147 | ** In an example that oddly works out in the player's favor, Edward is unable to break a Captain's defense without countering one of his attacks first, but Edward's crewmembers have no such restriction. |
| 148 | ** If Edward counters a Captain's attack, but the Captain is attacked by someone else, and Edward attempts to use the Break Defense maneuver, the Captain will forget he's supposed to be keeling over in pain, and will bitch-slap Edward for the attempt as normal. |
| 149 | * ConspicuousConsumption: Both InUniverse and out, adding a guesthouse to Edward's already huge mansion is hideously expensive[[note]]40,000 reales, more than the most expensive Jackdaw upgrade available[[/note]] while failing to do anything but look pretty (and even that's up for debate, seeing how the building is located in a fairly out-of-the-way spot). |
| 150 | * ContinuityNod: A memo found in the modern day segments reveals Abstergo Entertainment has access to the DNA of all the Animus Subjects, but when Melanie suggested going through Daniel Cross or Clay Kaczmarek's memories, orders came down from on-high telling her not to investigate any further. |
| 151 | * ContrastingSequelSetting: The game takes place in the West Indies during UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfPiracy. It's a world where it's perpetually summer and dominates by pirate towns, jungles, and the occasional ancient ruin, and everything is clearly in disarray. This sets the game apart from the temperate settings from its predecessors. The game hilariously {{Lampshade|Hanging}}s this trope when the Italian ambassador - who [[ActorAllusion has the same voice actor as Ezio]] - goes on a long rant complaining about how different, uncivilized and barbaric this place is compared to Italy. The modern section is in a fancy office building, which only ''looks'' happy and inviting - until [[spoiler:you get to the deeper parts of the building and suddenly it's the first game and ''III'' all over again]]. |
| 152 | * ControllableHelplessness: |
| 153 | ** After being [[spoiler:betrayed by Roberts at the Observatory]], Edward has to make his way back to his ship, but is badly injured while sliding down a hill and can only stagger. While you control him for the duration, it's obvious that he won't last long. This scene is [[CallBack highly reminiscent]] of the penultimate memory of ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedIII''. |
| 154 | ** In Sequence 11, Edward falls into a HeroicBSOD and [[DrowningMySorrows drinks himself into a stupor]]. During the ensuing MushroomSamba, you can control his actions to a limited extent, but it's clear that you're in a hallucination and that Edward is really lying on the floor in a tavern somewhere, raving. The scene looks somewhat similar to the experiences of the protagonist of [[MythologyGag another Ubisoft game]], ''VideoGame/FarCry3''. |
| 155 | ** When trapped in a gibbet, all Edward can do is rattle the cage and cry out. He uses this to distract the guards so Ah Tabai can kill them undetected. |
| 156 | * CoolButInefficient: Building a bonfire and a brothel in Edward's Inagua home base lets you hire drunken pirates and dancers for free, but these upgrades are so expensive that you need to hire a total of 140+ groups just to break even, which is more than the average player will use in several playthroughs combined. Still, a combination of VideoGameCaringPotential, MoneyForNothing and general eagerness to achieve OneHundredPercentCompletion means that pretty much everyone will eventually invest the money anyway. |
| 157 | * CoolShip: |
| 158 | ** Edward's vessel, the ''Jackdaw'', starts as an ordinary brig but has multiple upgrades which eventually turn it into a dreadnaught of the seas capable of defeating legendary ships and [[OneManArmy taking on whole fleets singlehandedly]]. |
| 159 | ** Blackbeard's ship, the ''Queen Anne's Revenge'', is a galleon with forty guns, as its owner proudly proclaims. You get to pilot it in one mission and, while it lacks mortars, those guns do a masterful job of tearing apart anything that gets in its broadsides. |
| 160 | ** The aforementioned Legendary ships are each a {{Superboss}} challenge waiting for you at the four corners of the world. Each has its own particular gimmick and all of them are faster and more heavily armed than you. |
| 161 | * CostumePorn: This installment may have the most gorgeous costume designs yet. From the costumes worn by the pirates (Black Bart, Blackbeard, Mary Read and Anne Bonny deserve special mention), to the cool Assassin uniform, to the sumptuous outfits worn by the Templars. Edward's wardrobe alone is remarkable, featuring various pirate outfits, Assassin robes, and fashionable outfits of the day. Then there's the Templar and Mayan armour - the former is sleek and black and badass-looking, while the latter pairs golden First civ armour plate with ornate, electric blue robes. |
| 162 | * CountryMatters: |
| 163 | ** This phrase is uttered by the "dancers" - they are "well-versed in country matters." |
| 164 | ** Vane slips the C-word into a particularly gnarly threat. |
| 165 | * CrowsNestCartography: In addition to unlocking land maps through high-altitude viewpoints, you must also conquer massive naval strongholds to reveal portions of the ocean map to reveal locations and collectibles when using the ''Jackdaw.'' |
| 166 | * CrystalSkull: The game has a data file about crystal skulls that you can obtain by hacking a computer at Abstergo Entertainment in the modern-day section. Later, [[spoiler: in Edward Kenway's story, a crystal skull turns out to be the {{Macguffin}}, as in, the object that makes the Observatory so sought after by the Templars.]] |
| 167 | * CurbStompBattle: What is virtually guaranteed to happen to new players curious about those cute red ship symbols in the four corners of the world map. Even those who know what they're getting themselves into will probably get curb-stomped at least once anyway. |
| 168 | * CutHisHeartOutWithASpoon: Edward playfully threatens to cut an adversary's lips off and feed them to him if he doesn't reveal some sensitive information. As it turns out, the historical pirate, Edward Low, did this exact thing to a captured ship's captain who had thrown his gold overboard rather than allow it to be captured. |
| 169 | * CutLexLuthorACheck: |
| 170 | ** In a subversion, Abstergo is using the Animus technology to make lame pop culture junk as a cash grab, rather than to broaden our understanding of human history, something [[LampshadeHanging pointed out]] by the internal memos you can read. This is partially deliberate, as they are trying to control the masses, not educate them. |
| 171 | ** In a rare example of the protagonist falling victim to this, it's played straight by [[OnlyInItForTheMoney money-obsessed]] Edward himself thanks to the Kenway's Fleet mini-game. It takes most of the game for Edward to take up a higher cause than amassing riches, but by the time he gets there he's likely to command a trade empire that spans the known world, based on an armada of powerful warships that none can threaten and that rakes in cash by the bucket load. By that point the whole "hunt for the Observatory to get rich quickly" thing is pretty much pointless. |
| 172 | * CutsceneIncompetence: The scene in which [[spoiler: the mutinous Jack Rackham has his mooks hold Edward and Vane at gunpoint]] wouldn't have posed much difficulty had it happened in-game. Same goes for [[spoiler:Thatch's death scene]]. |
| 173 | [[/folder]] |
| 174 | |
| 175 | [[folder:Tropes D-L]] |
| 176 | * DamnItFeelsGoodToBeAGangster: The in-game Abstergo promos project this image of piracy [[note]] "Nothing is sacred and everyone is committed" [[/note]] and Stede Bonnet initially signs up with Blackbeard longing for adventure and excitement. The game plays both angles: a pirate's life is full of freedom and adrenaline but it comes at the price of living in a WretchedHive like Nassau, having to cope with ChronicBackstabbingDisorder vis-a-vis mutiny and DysfunctionJunction and the vast ocean filled with EverythingTryingToKillYou. |
| 177 | * DeadPersonImpersonation: Edward gets his CallToAdventure when his ship is sunk during a battle with a ship crewed by an Assassin. They eventually fight, the wounded Assassin loses, and Edward finds a note that the guy was going to get a huge reward for showing up in Havana. Not one to waste an opportunity for profit, Edward dons his costume. |
| 178 | * DeathFromAbove: The whole point of mortars is to rain fiery death on hapless targets from afar. The ''Jackdaw'' can do this reasonbly effectively once upgraded, enemy Man o' Wars ''love'' to spam mortar fire in salvos of 6-8 shots, but worst of all is the legendary ship La Dama Negra. Her mortar batteries are so powerful that getting caught in one of her barrages can take off at least one bar of a fully upgraded ''Jackdaw'''s health in a flash, and even more if you forgot to brace. Add to that the fact that her mortars avert CrosshairAware ''and'' the vessel's immunity to broadside damage, and you have one of the most nightmarish {{Boss Battle}}s in the game on your hand. |
| 179 | * DeathOrGloryAttack: The "Kenway Broadside". You bait enemies into ramming you, then instead of trying to escape open up with all guns as quickly as you can. It's an absolutely devastating strategy against military brigs... but you have to let them [[RammingAlwaysWorks ram you first]]. |
| 180 | * DeconstructorFleet: While the series has always shined a light on popular history, ''Black Flag'' drastically deconstructs our familiar ideas of pirate life. |
| 181 | ** Rather than fearsome criminals, pirates are mainly ex-sailors and soldiers who turn to piracy because of poor pay, little chance of meritorious ranking and terrible treatment and poor conditions in the navies of the major nations. They are neither evil nor are they ThePiratesWhoDontDoAnything. Rather, they practice a form of democracy reminiscent of Union politics and the Nassau Republic was technically the first attempt at democracy in the New World. However, because the main form of income is high seas robbery, the economy in the region falters as a result of their actions, leaving them to struggle for basic living supplies like medicine. Most pirates live in wretched slum conditions in Nassau. |
| 182 | ** Rather than a fearsome pirate of legend, Blackbeard is simply a desperate sailor who in his own words barely survived four decades and is trying to survive the next one. He also rarely kills people, relying on theatrical effects. Most pirates, with the exception of Charles Vane, rely more on reputation and LargeHam displays to get across the message than actual violence. |
| 183 | ** Furthermore, the game places pirates in a larger context of colonialism. The Atlantic slave trade is a far more profitable endeavor than piracy, and yet at the time this game is set, slavery is still legal while piracy is persecuted by the same governments who enable these laws and profit from this cruelty. |
| 184 | ** The game satirizes how history becomes pop culture fodder with Abstergo Entertainment ComicallyMissingThePoint about the memories of the ancestors they seek to exploit. They are more interested in making ''Franchise/PiratesOfTheCaribbean'' knock-offs than telling true stories. |
| 185 | ** The game also deconstructs some of the classic pirate character archetypes, showing that a reckless LovableRogue WildCard pirate who plays both sides, a la Jack Sparrow, would end up alienating and compromising the people around him, making him TheFriendNobodyLikes at best, and TheMillstone at worst. Furthermore, TheMutiny, which is treated as a great crime in nautical stories, is merely shown as democracy in action in the game, since if the sailors no longer trust their captain to give them good work and keep them from needless danger, they have every right to depose said captain and choose another. [[spoiler: By the way, you're playing that guy for most of the game, until some CharacterDevelopment]]. |
| 186 | * DefeatMeansFriendship: When you capture an enemy vessel, you can impress some of its crew into your service, and you may further choose to give the crew control of their ship if they swear loyalty to you and join your pirate navy. Considering the terrible conditions sailors were subject to during the period, this would have represented a fantastic turn of fortune for most of them. Amusingly, this results in an instant costume switch for your freshly minted pirate recruits. |
| 187 | * DeliberateValuesDissonance: |
| 188 | ** There's an interesting example in-universe between Torres and Prins. Due to their differing cultural and religious backgrounds, they have very different views on the issues of slavery and proper business conduct. Prins claims that, as a Spaniard, Torres's historical connection to the Moors has made him sympathetic to African slaves [[note]] which is a racist comment that essentially accuses Torres of being Muslim[[/note]]. Torres in turn wonders if Prins's odd behavior is motivated by "Protestant piety" though he's more jocular. |
| 189 | ** Commodore Chamberlane and his squad also dislike Woodes Rogers because of his Templar affiliation, which they consider to be either a sign that he's a "heathen", a "Jacobite", or a "Catholic". |
| 190 | ** Most of the individuals the pirates target work for the powerful European colonial empires which dominate the Caribbean during this period, many of whom work to uphold the brutal system of slavery which underpins the economy of the entire region; Governor Woodes Rogers himself owns several slave ships. In his day, Rogers (and others like him) would be TheHero. Today he's a {{Hypocrite}}, considering that slavery and colonialism have become justifiable targets in the [=21st=] Century, and it's not hard to root for the pirates and for Kenway. |
| 191 | ** Mary revealing that she and Anne are pregnant would have been scandalous in their time. While they are spared the noose for the sake of their unborn children, these two women (female pirates dressed in men's clothes, no less) have just admitted to being pregnant out of wedlock. Goes even further when Anne declares "We'll be up the duff next time you come knockin'!" To modern audiences, this is something of a BadassBoast (with added cute - she's just so eager!), but saying something so brazen (in a strong Irish accent, no less) would have been outrageous in her time! |
| 192 | ** Edward Kenway himself, while surprisingly tolerant due to [[JustifiedTrope having shipped with a lot of different people]], does once bring up to his Trinidadian ex-slave quartermaster Adewalé the possibility of returning to Africa. Adewalé's response amounts to, "Why would I go back to a place I've never been to?" |
| 193 | * DesertedIsland: Edward Kenway and Charles Vain get stranded this way when one of Vain's men betrays him. |
| 194 | * DevelopersForesight: |
| 195 | ** Trying to take down a ship that outclasses the ''Jackdaw''? If you can swim over to it and take out the deck crew in hand-to-hand before entering naval combat, one shot from your cannons will win the battle automatically, just as if you'd disabled it in normal naval combat. |
| 196 | ** If you intervene in a battle between Spanish and British ships but only attack one side, the other side will assume you're a friendly privateer and leave you alone. |
| 197 | ** You can't equip a single sword, axe, or musket, but they each come with a complete set of unique kill animations thanks to your ability to steal them from enemies. |
| 198 | ** Like in previous games, you can drop money as a distraction. However, monks won't pick up a single coin, even if you literally throw it at them. |
| 199 | ** Hidden in the game files is a secret audio recording in which "John from IT" [[https://youtu.be/WLr3xEA-enk mocks anyone who finds it]]. |
| 200 | ** Like in ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedIII,'' if Edward is interrupted while switching weapons or reloading his pistols and performs a counter kill, the kill will be an unarmed beatdown. |
| 201 | * DemocracyIsBad: |
| 202 | ** The game highlights the pirates as being, from a modern perspective, [[FairForItsDay somewhat more egalitarian]] than the European colonial empires who they fight against, who combat piracy yet uphold a far more destructive form of theft, slavery. They practice meritorious advancement, have a racially integrated BadassCrew and Anne Bonny, who becomes an in-universe MemeticBadass as the ur-PirateGirl. However the fact that they are a DysfunctionJunction [[note]] "We're not men meant to govern." - Edward Kenway [[/note]] and their income coming from high seas robbery means they are not able to sustain their ideals, with even an initial WideEyedIdealist like Benjamin Hornigold pulling a ScrewThisImOuttaHere. |
| 203 | --> '''Benjamin Hornigold''': We had here a rare opportunity; a chance to take something base and shape it into a government, made and maintained by men of vision. But in two years we pissed it away. |
| 204 | ** The game also defines TheMutiny not as a great crime of treachery but merely Democracy in action, respecting the right of the crew, more or less, to exercise franchise over their captain who, however badass he may be, must rely on them finally. |
| 205 | * DifferentForGirls: Discussed by Vidic and Subject One, the descendant of [[VideoGame/AssassinsCreedIIILiberation Aveline de Grandpré]], in a recording you can find. Subject One notes that his center of gravity is lower, and he can feel the eyes of everyone looking at her attractiveness, and finds the roles society expects of a woman restricting. He is also really uncomfortable with attraction she has to men, and asserts that he is not gay. Another peculiarity he discusses at length is how Aveline's body language during social situations might be a hint that she does think about sex, though he has a lot of trouble differentiating it from his own biologically male tendencies. |
| 206 | * DirtyBusiness: [[spoiler: Bartholomew Roberts, aka Black Bart]] specifically tells Edward to destroy his body after he is killed so that the Templars can't take advantage of [[NotQuiteHuman what he is]] to advance their own goals. |
| 207 | * DirtyOldMan: The Abstergo Market researchers tasked with reviewing the various ancestors' suitability for new intellectual properties speculate that Ezio Auditore may have had something of "the old lecher" in him in his later years (supplemented by out-of-context screenshots from ''Assassin's Creed: Embers''). Coincidentally, Ruggiero Ferraro, an Italian diplomat Edward tracks down, with whom Ezio shares a voice actor, turns out to be an old lecher in his own right. |
| 208 | * DiscOneNuke: If you are diligent in upgrading the Jackdaw and exploring the map, by the time you reach sequence 6 and complete the memory "Diving for Medicines" (which unlocks diving missions giving you access to the Elite Upgrades, assuming you don't have them already by way of the Technology Pack Time Saver DLC, which is a DiscOneNuke itself) you will have everything you need to fully upgrade the Jackdaw, complete all assassins contracts and naval contracts and the Templar Hunt missions. At the end of which you will have a [[OneManArmy One Ship Armada]] captained by a guy who holds dual pistol swords (which fire bullets as a finishing move) and gold-plated pistols which has the best stats and the Templar Armour. There's still half the game left, which is [[{{Pun}} smooth sailing]] from then on. Happy pirating! |
| 209 | * DistantSequel: The game is a prequel to ''III'' set during [[UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfPiracy the Golden Age of Piracy]], around fifty years before the predecessor's events, following the grandfather of ''III''[='=]s protagonist. |
| 210 | * DocumentaryOfLies: By the events of this game, Abstergo successfully creates an industry where they use employees to uncover real history and twist the information they find to make historical, evil Templars look like heroes and the historical, heroic Assassins look like villains. Then they put the information out as movies, video games, television shows, and documentaries, claiming the consumer is experiencing real history. |
| 211 | * DoNotGoGentle: The game has the mission [[TitleDrop "Do Not Go Gently..."]] in which [[spoiler:Blackbeard and company are ambushed by the British and he dies fighting them off.]] |
| 212 | * DoNotTouchTheFunnelCloud: Narrowly averted for water spouts - they'll start dealing damage to ships even if the funnel hasn't touched the vessel yet. Their area of effect is still much smaller than it should be, though, probably as a form of AntiFrustrationFeature. These things are dangerous enough as they are. |
| 213 | * DoomedByCanon: Players could be forgiven for being unaware that everything they do in the game, even if they go for HundredPercentCompletion, will be undone in the end, since while some of that is a given due to [[spoiler:him returning to England with riches enough for land, finery, and title]] as per the ending, ''Literature/AssassinsCreedForsaken'' already revealed -- hence why his own Database entry in ''IV'' does -- that [[spoiler:Edward dies in 1735]], [[spoiler:his daughter is still estranged from him]], and shows that [[spoiler:his son Haytham goes on to become a Templar Grand Master]]... who in ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedIII'' [[spoiler:will be killed by his son, Edward's grandson, Ratonhnhaké:ton aka Connor Kenway]]. |
| 214 | * DoorToBefore: A couple of the pirate dens which can only be entered through underwater caverns have this. The exit is clearly visible from outside but can't initially be reached due to its higher elevation. |
| 215 | * DoubleEntendre: |
| 216 | ** Not surprisingly, some of the sea shanties are rife with this. |
| 217 | --> "She's lovely aloft, lads, she's lovely down below..." |
| 218 | ** The Tavern songs[[note]]They are played by a live band in the taverns you visit[[/note]], "The Trooper and the Maid" and [[IntercourseWithYou "Blow the Candles Out"]] are more upfront. |
| 219 | * DownloadableContent: The game is rife with content packs, some of which were bundled together in a digital "Gold Edition": |
| 220 | ** ''Aveline Pack'', an extra mission featuring the protagonist of ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedIIILiberation''. |
| 221 | ** ''Black Island Pack'', which includes a treasure-hunting mission, an additional ship and armor set. |
| 222 | ** ''Captain Kenway's Legacy Pack'', which includes golden scimitars for single-player and an extra multiplayer costume. |
| 223 | ** ''Crusader and Florentine Pack'', which gives additional ship customization options based on the colors of the [[VideoGame/AssassinsCreedI first]] [[VideoGame/AssassinsCreedII two]] games. An additional customization pack, ''Death Vessel'', was released soon after. |
| 224 | ** ''Hidden Mystery Pack'', which includes an additional treasure-hunting mission, an additional ship and costume, and extra multiplayer models. |
| 225 | ** ''Pirates Bounty Pack'', which includes additional weapons and relics. |
| 226 | ** ''Sacrificed Secrets Pack'', which includes an additional treasure-hunting mission, an additional weapon/costume and extra relics. |
| 227 | ** The Season Pass, which includes a ''Kraken Pack'' (additional ship customization options inspired by sea monsters), a single-player expansion featuring Edward's first-mate as the protagonist and additional multiplayer characters. |
| 228 | ** Several "Time Saver" packs that remove the requirements to unlock certain types of upgrades in the game. |
| 229 | * DualBoss: One of the Legendary Ship battles involves fighting the sister man-o-wars H.M.S. Fearless, and the Royal Sovereign. If they start trying to get you between them, '''run for it'''. |
| 230 | * DualWielding: Both swords and pistols are sold in sets, and Edward even receives two Hidden Blades together instead of only one, "''As is the custom, (yes)?''"[[note]]This is one of the first signs that, like in ''Assassin[='=]s Creed III'' with Haytham Kenway and his companions, something's up with "Duncan Walpole" and his contacts...[[/note]] |
| 231 | -->'''Sword sets''': A pirate with only one sword set is no true pirate.\ |
| 232 | '''Pistol sets''': A pirate can - nay, MUST - be judged by the number and the quality of the pistols he carries. |
| 233 | * DysfunctionJunction: The reason the pirate republic fails. All of them have wildly different personalities and a range of personal issues. Benjamin Hornigold believes, at least initially, that Nassau can be a functioning democracy and that they can transcend their pirate origins and transform into a legitimate state. Blackbeard believes the same but he has been at it for so long that [[ChronicVillainy he can't think]] of any other form of life and ultimately decides to retire. Charles Vane is a BombThrowingAnarchist who sees the pirate life as license to be TheUnfettered while Edward Kenway is OnlyInItForTheMoney and longs for OneLastJob, a score so bountiful that he never has to rob or work again. Rackham has no aspirations beyond his next bottle of rum, while James Kidd is a pirate only nominally. |
| 234 | * EasyLevelTrick: Chasing down the numerous sea shanty sheets can be a real chore. Good thing then that most spawn only a short distance above a solid surface, so Edward can just let the sheet escape and wait at its spawn point for a minute or so, picking it up without a fuss the moment it respawns. A scant few shanties hover in the air instead, so this won't work with them, but camping as close as possible to their respawn point still gives you enough of a headstart to make the chase significantly easier. |
| 235 | * EasterEgg: In one of the diving missions, it is possible to activate a cutscene in which a giant squid attacks a white whale. Possibly a nod to ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedII'', which also featured a giant squid easter egg. |
| 236 | * EndOfAnAge: At the end of the game, when Jenny asks Edward if they can see any pirates, Edward sadly laments, "No, I'm afraid there's not much chance of that." This is because UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfPiracy is now over. |
| 237 | * EnemyEatsYourLunch: At one point, Kenway conquers a fort where Governor Torres is visiting. Kenway walks in on Torres having some tea. As Kenway makes it clear that he's going to rob Torres and could do far worse, he pours himself a cup of tea (though the scene ends before he drinks it). |
| 238 | * EverybodysDeadDave: Near the end, Edward and Bonny lament over the fact that they are [[spoiler:virtually the remnants of UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfPiracy, with [[AllYourBaseAreBelongToUs Nassau under British control]], [[UsefulNotes/{{Blackbeard}} Thatch]], Vane, Rackham, Hornigold, Bonnet, and Read all dead, and they're about to personally hunt down and execute Bart Roberts]]. |
| 239 | * EveryoneComesBackFantasyPartyEnding: As the ship carrying his daughter pulls into Great Inagua, [[spoiler:Edward looks at one of the tables where his whole crew is having a good drink and imagines seeing Blackbeard, Benjamin Hornigold, Calico Jack, Stede Bonnet, Charles Vane, and Mary Read among them]]. |
| 240 | * EverythingTryingToKillYou: The underwater segments. Swim carelessly in the open? Shark will hurt you. Swim carelessly near the sea floor? Moray eels will hurt you. Swim carelessly inside a wreck? Sea urchins will hurt you. Swim carelessly outside a wreck? Jellyfish will hurt you. [[OverlyLongGag Swim carelessly]] for too long? The lack of air will hurt and kill you. |
| 241 | * EvilCounterpart: [[spoiler: Black Bart Roberts]] to Edward. Both are legendary pirate captains, both wear outfits filched from dead men (The Princess' captain and Duncan Walpole respectively), both are targeted for their supernatural powers (Edward by the Assassins for his Eagle Sense, [[spoiler: Roberts by the Templars as a Sage.]]), and both are kidnapped by the Templars. To hammer the point home, both are even Welsh! The key differences lie in [[spoiler: Roberts' cruelty, lack of honour, and their outlooks on life - Roberts wanting a short and glorious life and Edward a long and easy one.]] |
| 242 | * ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: |
| 243 | ** Île à Vache has... cows on it. (It's French for "isle of cows".) |
| 244 | ** Assassinate in Multiplayer. Your goal is to find a target, and assassinate it. |
| 245 | * ExactTimeToFailure: |
| 246 | ** You'll occasionally come across drifting ship hulks carrying a bunch of resource crates on deck. Boarding them gives you exactly 30 seconds, counted down by a huge on-screen timer, to loot as much as you can before the ship blows up. |
| 247 | ** Losing track of the target that you're supposed to be tailing for too long will give you 20 seconds to catch back up with them before automatic desychronization. Thankfully, tagging these targets with Eagle Vision helps mitigate this somewhat. |
| 248 | * ExecutiveMeddling: In-universe. Some of the bits you get from the hacking games involve marketing execs saying why they feel releasing games about [[VideoGame/AssassinsCreedI Altaïr]], [[VideoGame/AssassinsCreedII Ezio]], and [[VideoGame/AssassinsCreedIII Connor]] would be bad ideas, though they did give a pass to [[VideoGame/AssassinsCreedIIILiberation Aveline]]. |
| 249 | * ExpositoryGameplayLimitation: The game gets a special mention for having an optional objective to indicate that Edward Kenway canonically [[RefugeInAudacity picked the pockets of several Templars during one of these conversations]]. |
| 250 | * EyepatchOfPower: Only Stede Bonnet wears one, the Edward the Legend outfit allows Edward to do this too. Averted though. |
| 251 | * FalseFlagOperation: Done quite literally in one mission where a captured Portuguese flag is used to infiltrate a restricted area. Disguise is a common theme too with Edward twice stealing a dead man's clothing to assume a false identity. |
| 252 | * FashionDissonance: All Sages eventually grow a long moustache, regardless of race or time period. Even among the Maya, who didn't grow out facial hair, and even [[PornStache in the modern era.]] [[spoiler: If that wasn't enough, John is made to look even more of an outsider by adopting elements of Black Bart Roberts' costume.]] |
| 253 | * FinalExamBoss: All four legendary ships, the optional {{Superboss}}es which are placed on the four corners of the game map test your skills in navigation, strategy and use of resources. Each ship, once sunk, yields a loot of 20,000 reales (though the man-o-war tandem reward is split amongst both ships), and defeating all four gives the ''Jackdaw'' the ''El Impoluto''[='=]s charging ability. |
| 254 | ** In the northwest corner of the map is the ship ''El Impoluto'', [[LightningBruiser a ship packing the firepower of a man-o-war and the speed and maneuverability of a]] [[FragileSpeedster gunship]]. Its main offensive tactic is to charge straight at you, reaching speeds the ''Jackdaw'' could never reach even at travel speed, and ram you into submission. And in the process of getting back into ramming position, its broadsides and forward guns will keep you busy in the meantime. |
| 255 | ** The northeast has two man-o-wars, the [[DualBoss Dual Bosses]] HMS ''Fearless'' and the ''Royal Sovereign''. They tend to attack in tandem, first attempting to sandwich you between their individual broadsides, and after they pass you, they turn around in front of you, continuing their broadside assault as they get back into position and keep you between their paths. Defeat one of them, and the survivor TurnsRed - its cannons all become heated (dealing about twice as much damage), [[IncendiaryExponent the ship sets itself on fire]] and [[RammingAlwaysWorks switches tactics from long-range bombardment to utterly lethal ram attacks]]. |
| 256 | ** The southwest corner features ''La Dama Negra'', a man-o-war whose hull is NighInvulnerable to any cannon fire, barring one particular weak spot at the stern. It also has mortars with no warning markers, and it likes to use them A LOT. |
| 257 | ** To the southeast of the map is the HMS ''Prince'', described by the ''Jackdaw'' crew as a ghost ship. The main challenge for this encounter is that once it spots you, the weather immediately takes a turn for the worse, plunging you in the midst of a thunderstorm and severely lowering your visibility. As you struggle to find it, it will bombard you with mortars; get too close, and you'll eat a broadside before it tries to disappear again. |
| 258 | * FirstEpisodeTwist: Edward is not an Assassin for most of the game, instead [[DeadPersonImpersonation impersonating an Assassin]] [[KlingonPromotion he had just killed]] and spends a good portion of his time playing both the Assassins and Templars for his own benefit. |
| 259 | * FlyingDutchman: |
| 260 | ** Stealthily spoofed in the final Naval Contract mission by the ''Hollander'', the personal Man o' War of the "merchant" that gave out all these contracts. "Hollander" is another term for a Dutchman, and since the guy is fleeing[[note]]or "flying", to use a more archaic term[[/note]] from his many enemies in this mission, it makes him a Flying Dutchman. |
| 261 | ** ''HMS Prince'' seems to invoke this sort of image, with its tattered appearence and the ominous fog that perpetually surrounds it. |
| 262 | * FootnoteFever: Since Shaun is [[spoiler: working as a barista on Abstergo Entertainment campus]], the database is done by the Kenway Line Team, filled with wiki-like notes and gossip about old historical figure, and is almost -- ''almost'' -- as funny as Shaun's snarky commentary, filled as it is with EntertaininglyWrong conclusions and vapid marketing lingo. |
| 263 | * ForegoneConclusion: The game suffers from this not only in the usual sense (The events relived are pretty well recorded) but also because it's a prequel to ''Assassin's Creed III''. Edward will need to live until he has his second child (Haytham), the pirates will not achieve their goal of democracy in Nassau, and [[spoiler:Blackbeard, Rackam, Hornigold, Vane, Black Bart, Stede and Mary Read will die before the game ends]]. |
| 264 | * {{Foreshadowing}}: |
| 265 | ** Less of a storyline reveal, and more of a bit of humor. The main designer for the in-game "Black Flag" prototype complains to Abstergo analyst that Edward Kenway's Welsh accent is unattractive and offputting for audiences, and wishes to replace it with a voice like "James Bond." [[spoiler:Cut to the ending, and Edward has put on a Bond-like British accent to fit in with the high-society aristocrats for about the same reason]]. |
| 266 | ** During Edward's "Delirium" sequence, a hallucination of Woodes Rogers on a pedestal speaks to a crowd. The next time we see the real Rogers, he is giving a speech to Kingston high society at a party, [[spoiler: and after this Edward stabs him.]] |
| 267 | ** In the same sequence, Edward swims in the sea, through dozens of drowned corpses. [[spoiler: He sees a similar sight when on the hunt for Roberts at Principe.]] |
| 268 | ** Also in the same sequence, during the argument between Caroline and Edward on the ''Jackdaw'', [[spoiler: Caroline is clutching her belly, possibly a signal from Edward’s subconscious of their child]]. |
| 269 | ** Checking the footnotes shows that underneath her "let's do it, team" attitude, Melanie [=Lemay=] has a lot of Templar-friendly attitudes. [[spoiler:At the end of the game, she replaces the missing Olivier as head of Abstergo Entertainment, and by ''Rogue'' has become a member of the Templars proper.]] |
| 270 | ** Blink and you'll miss it, but during the hunting tutorial, Edward is collecting pelts for his holsters, while Adewale is the one getting food for the crew. [[spoiler:The crew doesn't turn on Edward right away, but when they do, is it a surprise they make Ade interim Captain?]] |
| 271 | * FramingDevice: This game and ''Liberation'' take this a step further by postulating that Abstergo has formed an entertainment division dedicated to bringing Animus technology to the mass-market in the form of video games and movies, providing streamlined and carefully edited excerpts from the memory-sequences that are researched in their labs. As a meta-joke, the company they hire to deliver these products is Creator/{{Ubisoft}}, the developer of the real franchise, and ''Black Flag'' contains multiple in-jokes and nods as a result. |
| 272 | * FramingTheGuiltyParty: Partway through the Abstergo sequences, you become a suspect in the rash of hacking and are imprisoned (but still allowed to continue your Animus research). After [[spoiler:John's psychotic breakdown over Juno's failure to possess you, he tries to kill you, but is instead shot dead by Abstergo security]]. The material revealed in his files is sufficient to clear you completely, despite the fact that you ''are'' the person who did the hacking. |
| 273 | * FriendlyPlayfulDolphin: Although they are non-interactive, dolphins follow ships and play around in their bow waves. |
| 274 | * FromCamouflageToCriminal: Edward Kenway was a {{privateer}} in the employ of the United Kingdom during the UsefulNotes/WarOfTheSpanishSuccession, but when the war ended it left him without a livelihood, and he turned to plain old piracy. |
| 275 | * GambitPileup: Every faction in the game, Assassins, Templars, Pirates and royal navies of England and Spain has an angle and their own long-term plans with each side ruining the other's plans. Add a HumanoidAbomination like a Sage who goes FromNobodyToNightmare and everything gets even more tangled. There's also the fact that pirate captains on treasure hunts have to be worried about being mutinied or shanghaied while on land. Good times. Often happens in the multiplayer, such as when a single player is targeted by several others at once. |
| 276 | * GameBreakingBug: The game has numerous aggravating bugs even years after support for it ceased, like Edward getting stuck in scenery or randomly leaving combat mode during boarding actions (which makes him sheathe his weapons and therefore unable to parry quickly), but worst of all is the legendary ships' habit of taking their cash reward with them into the deep upon their demise. Nothing like spending an hour trying to bring the behemoth down, only to see your hard-earned reward of 20,000 reales move out of your reach, and there's not even a way to replay the battle. |
| 277 | * GameplayAndStoryIntegration: Edward, upon being stranded on an island with an increasingly deranged Vane and without any sort of armor or protection, becomes ''much more'' vulnerable to gunfire. |
| 278 | * GameplayAndStorySegregation: |
| 279 | ** In the intro, Walpole tries to shoot Kenway with his gun, only for it to fail on account of just being dunked in the ocean. Kenway, once he gets his own pistols, can swim, get out of water, and immediately fire his weapons. Justified since there were ways to waterproof flintlock pistols to some extent; they just weren't very reliable. Maybe Edward simply takes better care of his equipment. |
| 280 | ** Characters are seen in cutscenes to use pistols as ThrowAwayGuns, only bothering to reload them once well out of combat. In gameplay, Edward keeps the same set all the time and can reload all four of them in about three seconds. (For extra fun, the animation looks like he's breech loading all the shells into a single gun, unlike Connor in the previous game who had to load each barrel of each gun he had.) |
| 281 | ** Edward can swim in full gear, but must remove it all in order to do the diving missions, including his swords and hidden blades, which would come in very handy against sharks. |
| 282 | ** It is assumed in most scenes that Edward is wearing Assassin robes with a hood. He will make the motion of raising and lowering it whether the outfit he's currently wearing has a hood at all, or if the hood has a "lowered" animation. Strangely, this happens in Nassau when he's canonically in pirate clothes and cannot change. |
| 283 | ** You can accept Assassin contracts before actually making contact with the leadership, where you're told about contracts. You can also complete the Templar sidequests where you work alongside the Assassins before the same point, yet the Assassins will know who you are. |
| 284 | ** "Stealth bonuses" for raiding warehouses are earned by not allowing any alarm bells to be rung, even if you disabled them and then openly murdered every single guard. |
| 285 | ** No matter how upgraded the ''Jackdaw'' is or how well you perform in combat, cutscenes in main memory sequence missions will assume Edward's ship to be as strong as you'd reasonably expect a normal pirate brig to be. |
| 286 | ** In-Story, the pirates are at their strongest at the beginning of the game, with Blackbeard, Hornigold, and the full of Nassau at your back. However, you are at your strongest at the end, capturing fort after fort one after the other with hordes of pirates appearing out of nowhere to raise the black flag and actively defend the immediate area against Spanish or English ships. After the fall of Nassau, you are reduced to being on your own and should not only been unable to capture any more forts, but lose control of any that you did have (which obviously does not happen). |
| 287 | ** During the mission to assassinate [[spoiler:Prins]], in the subsequent cutscene [[spoiler:Roberts]] shoots the alarm bell to summon guards, even if you had previously disabled the bell. A bit forgivable though as the gunshot probably would have done the trick by itself to alert the guards even if the bell didn't. |
| 288 | ** Edward's only motivation for most of the game is that [[OnlyInItForTheMoney he can make enough cash]] so he can set up himself and his wife for a long, comfortable life. However, regardless if you're already swimming in hundreds of thousands of Spanish Reales, he still won't believe he has enough. On a similar note, [[spoiler:the crew eventually chooses to abandon Edward to Roberts' mercy because he's been too focused on hunting more esoteric treasures instead of taking ships that they themselves can use to retire from pirating in comfort, regardless of how many ships you've captured and how well Edward treats them.]] |
| 289 | ** Adéwalé and the rest of the crew eventually [[spoiler:mutiny and abandon an injured Edward to Black Bart]], purportedly because Edward has spent too much time obsessing about the Observatory rather than standard pirate activity. Meanwhile, the player has probably personally boarded more than a hundred ships, taken over several forts, found tons of treasure, amassed a fleet of several man o' wars, and has tens of thousands of reales. Not quite good enough for them, apparently. |
| 290 | * GangplankGalleon: As the game is set during UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfPiracy, a majority of it is set aboard pirate ships and within Caribbean ports. |
| 291 | * GenerationXerox: The Sages, as [[spoiler: reincarnations of the deity Aita]]. Physically, they look the same, with heterochromia and long black moustaches. They also share some personality quirks: [[spoiler: John has Black Bart's infatuation with Juno, his insanity, and his violent streak, as well as Thom Kavanagh's hobby of leaving notes.]] |
| 292 | * GeoEffects: Hostile ships aren't the only danger in the Carribean Sea you have to look out for. Heavy storms not only make steering much more difficult, they also spawn additional phenomena like rogue waves or water spouts to make your life miserable. Rogue waves will wash away a good chunk of your crew if you fail to take them head-on whereas water spouts simply deal a crapton of damage if they come anywhere near something with a health bar. There're also strong winds that can pick up anywhere at any time, but apart from throwing you off course for a moment they don't do all that much. |
| 293 | * GhostPirate: The ''Deceased Crew" cheat gives the Jackdaw a literal skeleton crew. |
| 294 | * GiantSquid: If Edward looks out a certain window at the Antocha wreck for a short while, a cinematic depicting a battle between a Giant Squid and a white whale would occur. |
| 295 | * GlobalCurrency: While other currencies, such as English pounds, are acknowledged in the story, Edward's wealth is tracked in Spanish reales, which appear to be good everywhere. TruthInTelevision for the period in this case. |
| 296 | * GoldColoredSuperiority: |
| 297 | ** Combining this with BlingOfWar, the ''Jackdaw'''s elite weapons are uniformly gold-plated cannons of various bores, and the elite hull upgrade includes many golden highlights, too. |
| 298 | ** Similarly, the game's best pistol set is simply named "golden flintlock pistols". |
| 299 | * GoMadFromTheRevelation: The Sage kills the RedShirt pirates brought along on the journey to the Observatory because they would go mad if they saw what's inside; Edward, on the other hand, he believes is made of sterner stuff. |
| 300 | * GoodScarsEvilScars: Edward has a number of facial scars, but they mostly just reinforce his rough-and-ready personality rather than mar his appearance. Woodes Rogers, on the other hand, has a mass of ugly purple scar tissue, which makes him look very creepy. |
| 301 | * TheGoodTheBadAndTheEvil: Breaking from the series tradition of the conflict being only between The Assassins and the Templars, this game adds The Pirates as a third party WildCard to the mix. And both aforementioned sides have a shared disdain for pirates because they find them lacking in ''any'' [[TheUnfettered principles or code]]. |
| 302 | * GoryDiscretionShot: The camera pans down as a British sailor administers the coup de grace to [[spoiler: Blackbeard's neck. Historically, Thatch was decapitated at Lieutenant Maynard's orders after being overwhelmed in battle. The cutscene shows his hat poignantly falling to the deck behind him]]. |
| 303 | * GrandTheftMe: Due to Juno's meddling, in every human generation the Sage appears, due to a special combination of genetic patterns in a zygote that triggers his genetic code to overwrite the child's (destroying whatever person that zygote might have become). As the Sage is the memory-ghost of Juno's husband, Aita, this is also a form of {{reincarnation}}. |
| 304 | * GreyAndGrayMorality: Compared to previous games, ''Black Flag'' took a step backward. At first the Templars are seen to participate in activities that, while unsavory by today's standards, were fairly typical for privileged men of the era. (One even chides an associate who expresses disgust at his dealing in slaves, asking how subjugating black men is morally worse than subjugating all men.) Edward becomes a privateer, and later pirate, for the sole purpose of getting rich, and he's point-blank about this to everyone he meets. There are a few lines he won't cross... he reacts ''very'' negatively when someone asks if he's thinking of taking of slaving, for instance... but otherwise has no qualms about sacking ships, putting innocent sailors to the sword, and plundering warehouses, like any other good 'n hearty freebooter. When he meets the Assassins (whom he learns absolutely nothing about beforehand), they're portrayed as stubborn, unpleasant, highly territorial recluses. However, through a series of mutual struggles, Edward becomes sympathetic to the Assassins' cause, ultimately adding their symbol to his flag, and learns that the Templars intended to use the Sage as part of a plot to take over the English government. There's also a bit of greying in that some of Edward's pirate friends are more rambunctious than he is, showing that he keeps problematic company. Some of the pirates even defect to the Templars, believing either that the Templars at least would take care of them compared to the chaos of striking out on their own, or that the experiment of the Pirate Republic showed that the world needed the order the Templars offer. So while there are seductive points to these Templars overall, Edward concludes that as bad as he's been, what the Templars are doing is even worse. |
| 305 | * GriefSong: The ending song of the game, not only in lyrics but even with [[spoiler:showing all the comrades who died over the course of the game, drinking peacefully while smiling at Edward]]. |
| 306 | --> But since it falls unto my lot |
| 307 | --> That I should rise and you should not |
| 308 | --> I'll gently rise and I'll softly call\ |
| 309 | Good night and joy be with you all |
| 310 | * GroinAttack: In the multiplayer component of the game, the Buccaneer has a brutal one. [[https://gfycat.com/uncomfortablecheerfulibis As shown here]], he swings his hook between the legs of the Puppeteer, getting the point right in her genitals. As she grabs her newly-maimed lady bits and screams in agony, he dumps her over his head, killing her and mercifully completing the contract. |
| 311 | * GuideDangIt: |
| 312 | ** The instructions for the "optional objectives" needed for full synchronization are not always clear. "Disarm three guards and kill them?" OK, but where did you mention having to kill them with their own weapons? Similarly, the requirement that you remain undetected while looking for [[spoiler: Hornigold]] fails to specify that it only applies to the sea segment and one odd requirement for the penultimate mission flashes up briefly at the beginning of the [[spoiler: climactic fight with El Tiburón]], and only applies to that specific fight sequence, so expect a few frustrating reloads. |
| 313 | ** "Visit old friends", in the mission ''Suffer Without Dying''. The only hint is the 0/2 (indicating that there are two people to find) - beyond that, you are given no indication of where to go. Even worse, the main mission already involves finding two of Edward's old friends. |
| 314 | ** Also, one of the best ranged weapons (possibly best weapons period) is the throwing knife. Even though you can only hold one at a time and can only snap-shot them, they are ''completely'' silent and, unlike their previous counterparts, will kill anything (with the possible exception of certain bosses) in a single hit. Nowhere in the game are you told that they exist, let alone that you can only obtain them by disarming agile guards and/or picking up their discarded weapons. |
| 315 | * GunsAkimbo: Although Edward never dual-wields pistols in the traditional sense, he and other pirates can and do carry multiple pistols at any given time, allowing chained pistol kills (with a corresponding achievement for getting a four-kill streak). [[JustifiedTrope This is justified historically]]: as firearms of the day lacked an internal magazine, this was the only practical way to fire multiple shots in a row, and nobody had time or space to reload in the close-quarters combat found on a ship. |
| 316 | * HackingMinigame: In the present-day segments of the game, you can walk around Abstergo and hack your colleagues computers by playing one of three different minigames depending on what floor you're on. |
| 317 | * HangingJudge: The judge in Kingston sentences every pirate to death without much in the way of a trial, as was common during the era. At the very least, they do give consideration to women who "plead their bellies" (claim pregnancy during the trial) and delay their sentences until they give birth. |
| 318 | * HaveAGayOldTime: If the subtitles are switched on you can hear the leader of the graverobber you are sent to assassinate telling his men to leave no bush unmolested. |
| 319 | * HaveIMentionedIAmHeterosexualToday: Vidic's interview with Subject One gives us our first glimpse of an Animus user viewing someone of the opposite sex's (Aveline's) memories. Subject One is a straight white man playing a black woman in the 18th century, and experiencing sexual attention from men, and Aveline's attraction to men, makes him audibly uncomfortable. |
| 320 | * HeelRealization: The main story is centered on the slow maturation of Edward's conscience and his dawning realization of what his ambitions and desires have cost people around him. This comes to a head when [[spoiler:Mary Read dies]]. |
| 321 | * HeroicBSOD: Edward suffers a mental and emotional breakdown after [[spoiler:Mary Read's death]], becoming a [[DrowningMySorrows drunken mess]] for what appear to be several months. |
| 322 | * HeroOfAnotherStory: Edward Kenway's quartermaster, ex-slave Adewale, leaves the crew to have his own adventures in a SpinOff DLC about two-thirds of the way through the main story. You also periodically interact with fellow pirates, one of whom, Anne Bonny, replaces Ade as quartermaster. |
| 323 | * HighlyVisibleNinja: |
| 324 | ** Edward's pirate cloak might meet the color code, but with a giant skull and crossbones emblazoned on the back, it's not exactly inconspicuous. For bonus hilarity, through the Animus interface he can be dressed in Altaïr's, Ezio's, and/or Connor's costumes if you played those games. This is, of course, not what he would have actually been wearing in the memories in question. |
| 325 | ** The multiplayer characters are usually dressed in colorful outfits and war paint. The only thing keeping them from being stabbed on sight is that everyone else has the same outfit. |
| 326 | * HistoricalCharactersFictionalRelative: Subverted. When the character James Kidd first appears, it's directly stated that he's the son of Captain Kidd, if the name wasn't enough of an indicator. The subversion is that [[spoiler: not only is Kidd not really a Kidd, he's not fictional and isn't even a man--it's a persona played by the historical lady pirate Mary Read as part of her Assassin activities]]. |
| 327 | * HistoricalDomainCharacter: The following pirates turn up throughout the game: Blackbeard (Edward Thatch), the most famous English pirate and ally of Edward Kenway; Benjamin Hornigold, an English pirate; [[PirateGirl Anne Bonny]], a famous Irish female pirate; "Calico" Jack Rackham, an English pirate; and Charles Vane, another infamous English pirate. Additionally, Laureano de Torres y Ayala, the Spanish Governor of the Caribbean; Mary Read, a second famous female pirate, and Bartholomew Roberts, the most successful pirate of UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfPiracy; all play major roles in the plot. A major villain is found in Woodes Rogers, a privateer turned first royal Governor of the Bahamas. And most interestingly of all, comic relief character Stede Bonnet is actually portrayed somewhat accurately, particularly for this series. He was indeed a wealthy landowner who decided to become a pirate for no particular reason anyone could see, and despite his near-incompetence and mercenary crew, managed to become a close associate of Blackbeard. |
| 328 | * HistoricalHeroUpgrade: |
| 329 | ** Since you work for Abstergo Entertainment, a front company for the modern-day Templars, it comes as little surprise that they are trying to do this to the {{Big Bad}}s of all the previous games, under the caption of "Great Minds of History": [[VideoGame/AssassinsCreedI Robert de Sable]], [[VideoGame/AssassinsCreedII Rodrigo Borgia]], [[VideoGame/AssassinsCreedIII Haytham Kenway]] and [[VideoGame/AssassinsCreedIIILiberation Madeline de l'Isle]]. While Haytham is [[AmbiguouslyEvil ambiguous]] enough to qualify for a [[TokenGoodTeammate pass]], the Rodrigo Borgia one is remarkable for its self-delusion in calling him a "progressive, [[DirtyOldMan bon-vivant]] who cared about family values". They even praise him as a man of faith when the ''Assassin's Creed'' version of Rodrigo Borgia was an atheist. It's even more surprising given that the modern-Templars are said to view the Borgia's reign over the Templars as OldShame, considering how he and his underlings abandoned all of the Templar principles. |
| 330 | ** A straight example is Blackbeard. He's shown to be LighterAndSofter in comparison to all his other depictions, deliberately putting on a mask of terror because it keeps him from having to kill people. Of all the pirates of the ''Nassau Flying Gang'', he is the most heroic and competes with Stede Bonnet for being the most likable. |
| 331 | ** Stede Bonnet himself is portrayed as an essentially harmless rich boy who addresses everyone in a polite, chipper fashion, while his historical counterpart was known to torture merchant crewmen who resisted him. |
| 332 | * HistoricalInJoke: When confronting Governor Torres, Edward threatens to "[[AttackTheMouth cut off [Torres'] lips and make him eat them.]]" This is directly taken from the actions of the infamous pirate Edward Low, who once cut off a defiant prisoner's lips, broiled them, [[{{Autocannibalism}} and forced him to eat them while still hot.]] |
| 333 | * HoistByTheirOwnPetard: Once the ''Jackdaw'''s swivel guns are sufficiently upgraded to allow for quick target acquisition, every hostile ship that drops fire barrels is liable to get blown up by its own weapons because none are fast enough to escape a fire barrel's blast radius before you detonate it from afar. |
| 334 | * HouseboatHero: Edward makes the Jackdaw his base of operation at least until he takes the island of Great Inagua under his control from an Templar agent. |
| 335 | * TheHunterBecomesTheHunted: Pirate hunters are supposed to be hunting you. The problem is that is that the plentiful amounts of metal they carry make them attractive targets for plunder. And their ships tend to be of a higher quality than their Spanish and English counterparts, making them valuable additions to Kenway's fleet. So players starved for resources early in the game might actually welcome the attention. This is a given in multiplayer, since high scoring players are usually given the most pursuers. |
| 336 | * {{Hypocrite}}: When he assassinates [[spoiler:Hornigold]], Edward accuses him of abandoning the ideal that they were working for. Then [[spoiler:Ben]] points out that the whole time, while he was working for a principle under the Templars, Kenway hadn't been working for ''any'' principle, and had only been chasing after his own perceived fortune. |
| 337 | * IAmVeryBritish: Edward swaps his native Welsh accent for Received Pronunciation when he meets Torres in the guise of Duncan Walpole. [[spoiler: At the very end of the game at the Opera, after becoming an English nobleman, he speaks in a very polished tone. Though he lets it slip when he tells his son, that they should leave "this posh gig" and go to White's Chocolate House]]. |
| 338 | * ImpossiblyCoolClothes: Outfits that should make stealth, blending into a crowd and/or crazy freerunning impossible are a staple of the series already, but the Crimson Cloak outfit takes it a step further by adding an extremely opulent cape that looks like heavy brocade. Trying to swim in that thing should take you to the bottom within seconds, and how Edward keeps all that salt water from ruining the color is anybody's guess. |
| 339 | * InherentlyFunnyWords: During the first mission of the Templar Hunt in Nassau, the two guys you're tailing to their hideout are having a blast dissecting the word "smuggler". |
| 340 | * InjuredPlayerCharacterStage: Edward slashes his arm on a tree while sliding down a slope, leaving him limping towards his crew on a beach before he collapses of blood loss. |
| 341 | * InsistentTerminology: |
| 342 | ** The Jackdaw is a ''ship'', not a ''boat''. |
| 343 | ** Jennifer's last name is ''[[BerserkButton not]]'' [[BerserkButton Kenway, it's]] ''[[BerserkButton Scott.]]'' |
| 344 | * {{Interquel}}: The Animus portion takes place between Ezio's and Connor's eras and stars Connor's paternal grandfather. That said, the actual present day FramingStory is a {{sequel}} to ''III''. |
| 345 | * InTheBlood: The game reveals that, although Desmond's family history is rather more full than others with traits from Those Who Came Before, the Eagle Vision isn't unique to his bloodline. Some people have enough TWCB DNA that they simply express Eagle Vision traits naturally, while others can learn to do so. Edward Kenway had innate, untrained Eagle Vision but was utterly unrelated to the Assassins before the events of this game. Desmond, with multiple Assassin lineages behind him (including Edward) had to go through TrainingFromHell to express it. |
| 346 | * InTheHood: |
| 347 | ** Edward Kenway gets a hood early when he takes them from the body of a man who tried to kill him. Most of his outfits after that also have the hood. Not the two ArmorOfInvincibility, though. Which makes it amusing when his animation still has him pulling up a hood that isn't there. |
| 348 | ** Almost all the assassins players meet along the way also have hoods. The one exception is [[spoiler:James Kid/Mary Read]], who talks a lot more and whose ability with disguise is more important to the plot. |
| 349 | * InVehicleInvulnerability: You and your crew members are never injured in naval combat unless your ship itself is sunk. Rather, your crew act as a resource to enable boarding other vessels, so having them all die in the exchange of cannon-fire before boarding would be annoying as a game mechanic. There's also an inversion of the trope: while you aren't at the helm of the ''Jackdaw'', it is completely invulnerable, even if there's a raging battle going on around you. |
| 350 | * InVinoVeritas: |
| 351 | ** Woodes Rogers gets very drunk in a party towards the end of the game after having been called back to England, and as a result he gets much, ''much'' more honest than he usually is. |
| 352 | -->'''Noblewoman''': How is your wife doing?\ |
| 353 | '''Rogers''': I haven't the faintest idea, and I don't intend to inquire any further. We separated almost five years ago, and both our lives have been the better for it. [...] Perhaps I'll be more candid later when the remainder of my reason has left me. |
| 354 | ** And in the same scene... |
| 355 | --->'''Rogers''': ...And yet, for all my successes, his majesty has seen fit to sack me! And call me back to England! God bless the fucker! |
| 356 | * JollyRoger: A variant is used that has a white skull at the base of a stylized A on a black background, combining the Jolly Roger with the Assassins' iconography. |
| 357 | * JuliusBeethovenDaVinci: The game introduces the idea of individuals who have the genetics, and [[GeneticMemory thus memories]], of one of the AbusivePrecursors, Aita. This means that numerous historical figures (and potentially countless unknown persons) have been a variation of the same individual. Most purported Sages are unnamed, but in addition to [[spoiler:Bartholomew Roberts and the Count of St. Germain]]--who play major roles in ''Black Flag'' and ''[[VideoGame/AssassinsCreedUnity Unity]]''--they also seem to include the Wandering Jew from the Bible, Jacques de Molay, and (seemingly) David Bowie. |
| 358 | * JumpScare: |
| 359 | ** When you finally arrive at the Observatory, pistol shots ring out, completely unexpectedly. It turns out to be Roberts shooting his own men because they would GoMadFromTheRevelation of what's inside. Edward is horrified, but has no choice but to follow him. |
| 360 | ** Shark attacks in the diving sequences can seemingly come out of nowhere, as can animal attacks while hunting in the jungle. In whaling missions, your prey may sometimes leap out of the water right next to your boat, damaging and possibly sinking you if you don't harpoon them very quickly. |
| 361 | ** Moray eels, who can't even be fought off. |
| 362 | * JustLikeMakingLove: The game parodies Monkey Island in a discussion between some guards on the left side of Laurens Prins's mansion, during the mission where you have to infiltrate this mansion. |
| 363 | -->"The way I see it, sword fighting is a little like making love. It's not always what you do, but what you say"\ |
| 364 | "A pity for you then, you're the most inarticulate bugger I've ever met"\ |
| 365 | "Oy, man. That ain't... that ain't... nice." |
| 366 | * JustShootHim: Actually the easiest way to solve chase scenes in this iteration. You do, after all, have up to 4 pistols and each one is instantly fatal to unarmored foes when shot in the back. Most every chase can be completely avoided by quick aim right at the beginning while the target is turning to run. |
| 367 | * KirkSummation: The Templar Kenneth Abraham expresses his surprise that his enemy Antó was able to defeat him. Antó spells it out for him: |
| 368 | -->'''Abraham:''' Antó. How many years have we fought? Your men, in the mountains, with no weapons to speak of. And my army, resplendent. And yet you live, and I die...\ |
| 369 | '''Antó:''' You lacked the conviction to win. |
| 370 | * LadyNotAppearingInThisGame: The two buxom women from Edward's bed in the cinematic trailer have nothing to do with the actual game, [[spoiler: though they are evoked somewhat by an odd piece of post-completion content whereby Edward can interact with women around his house and have them appear in his bed]]. |
| 371 | * LeaningOnTheFourthWall: |
| 372 | ** The Abstergo emails discussing future settings to explore is a direct parody of the fan discussions of the series as well as the various issues involved in the use of some settings. Indeed much of the present day is filled with jokes and gags about video game development. The game's writers noted that the Abstergo Employee Handbook is modeled on Ubisoft Montreal's which also serves as the model for Abstergo Entertainment. |
| 373 | ** The first time Edward meets Stede Bonnet again, the latter delightedly notices that "the West Indies are a compact place", lampshading the necessarily compressed game world. |
| 374 | * LighterAndSofter: Despite having a GrayAndGrayMorality as well the most ruthless Assassin protagonist yet, ''Black Flag'' is considerably lighter than ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedIII'' which ended on a real downer in both the past and the present. The Animus music is also very light and uplifting compared to the more somber and downbeat moods in the past games. Also, compare the cover art with that of the preceding title: where [=AC3=] had Connor poised to tomahawk an unambiguously British redcoat to death, [=AC4=] has Edward standing above a dead body of vague nationality. All in all, much less provocative. |
| 375 | * LightningBruiser: |
| 376 | ** Once fully upgraded, the ''Jackdaw'' becomes this. It's faster and more maneuverable than almost any other ship in the game, hits harder than any of them, and can soak up entire broadsides from Man of War-class ships (heavy shot broadsides no less). The only ships that outclass it in terms of sheer stats are the Legendary Ships. Not even Black Bart's ''Royal Fortune'' measures up. |
| 377 | ** The Level 60 Man o' Wars deployed by pirate hunters at higher wanted levels technically outclass an upgraded Jackdaw (Level 50), but are easily overcome with the right tactics. |
| 378 | ** ''El Impoluto'', a legendary Level 75 Man o' War and the only ship of its class that mounts a naval ram. The beast is just as heavily armored and armed as the other legendary ships, but unlike them it's ''extremely'' fast and agile, capable of outrunning and outmaneuvering the ''Jackdaw'' no matter the situation (the only other vessels that can do this are [[TheGoomba gunships]]). Needless to say that a wicked-fast Man o' War purpose-built for ram attacks is a very deadly foe. |
| 379 | * LonelyAtTheTop: Part of [[spoiler:Edward Kenway]]'s HeelRealization is from him ''finally'' admitting this, or at least verbalizing it. For all the wealth that he's gained, near the end of the game [[spoiler:Mary Read passed away despite his attempts to rescue her in his escape from Kingston, his crew mutinies against him or ditches him at least twice, and the end, Adewale -- who'd been with him from the very beginning of the days of the ''Jackdaw'' -- has finally had enough of Edward and leaves to join the Assassins... and when he struck down Ben Hornigold, his former friend turned Templar, he was in no uncertain terms told that he'd be all alone in the world]]. |
| 380 | * LootCommand: The game features the same hunting and skinning mechanics from its predecessor, with a bit less justification as the main character is a British pirate. On the other hand, the whale/shark fishing fit the theme well. |
| 381 | [[/folder]] |
| 382 | |
| 383 | [[folder:Tropes M-Z]] |
| 384 | * MacGuffin: Instead of being an esoteric tool with a thousand uses like the Apple, this time the MacGuffin is surprisingly simple and straightforward in its use and intent: it's something that can be used to spy on anyone, anywhere in the world. The ultimate surveillance tool, which would make anyone able to rule the world with an iron fist. |
| 385 | ** The game actually has two such things, the irony being that on account of times changing, what is a MacGuffin in one century becomes irrelevant centuries later and vice versa. For instance, the Observatory would have had deadly uses for the Templars in the 18th to 19th Centuries, but Abstergo researchers note that 21st Century surveillance technology more or less allows them to the same. Their real interest is... |
| 386 | ** [[spoiler: The rows of blood vials which Black Bart or Aita tells Edward has the blood of the First Civilization. He tells Edward that it's not worth anything in the 18th Century but will be in "a later epoch". Abstergo has no useful samples to sequence the genome of such a being. With the possession of John from IT's body and his memories, presumably, in Cloud they have a headstart on finding the rest of the blood vials]]. ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedUnity'' confirms that this is indeed the next quest for the Assassins, Templars, and [[spoiler:Juno and her Instruments]]. |
| 387 | * MadnessMantra: All around the Abstergo Entertainment office building, you can find sticky notes which contain rambling messages, presumably from someone brainwashed by Juno. Every instance of her name is suffixed with "MAY SHE GUIDE US INTO THE GREY". [[spoiler:The Sages from both the past and present – Bartholomew Roberts and John from IT respectively – say something along those lines right before their deaths. Interestingly, another Sage, Thom Kavanaugh, never uses the phrase, presumably since he retained his humanity and prevailed over his First Civilization alter-ego, Aita.]] |
| 388 | * ManifestoMakingMalcontent: In the present-day sections of the game, the player can find sticky notes scattered around the Abstergo offices outlining the manifesto of the Instruments of the First Will, a cult that worships [[AbusivePrecursors the First Civilization.]] It mostly consists of rants about [[LuddWasRight the evils of technology]] and predictions of the return of Juno. [[spoiler: The author later tries to trick the player into allowing Juno to possess them.]] |
| 389 | * MeaningfulBackgroundEvent: You'll probably notice of all the reused characters for all the employees and pedestrians at Abstergo, yet the barista at the lobby and the courier that shows up on occasion are completely unique [=NPCs=]. [[spoiler:That's because they're Shaun and Rebecca from the previous games.]] |
| 390 | * MeaningfulName: Edward Kenway means "Prosperous Brave Royal Fighter". His ship, the Jackdaw, has a meaningful name as well. (see AnimalMotifs). |
| 391 | * MeleeATrois: In an attempt to flee from Edward's surprise attack on Principe, Roberts accidentally sails into an open battle between the British and Spanish navies that were pursuing him. Both sides immediately disengage and attack Bart's ship. |
| 392 | * MindRape: [[spoiler: John and Juno conspire to have the latter possess the Analyst. May even involve the ''physical'' sort, based on your interpretation of John's comments on the Analyst's "tender" body.]] |
| 393 | * MisplacedWildlife: Jaguars, howler monkeys, and deer living on the island of Principe. |
| 394 | * MissionControlIsOffItsMeds: John from IT starts going a little crazy in later present-day missions. |
| 395 | * MistakenForForeigner: Edward Kenway once asked his ex-slave quartermaster Adéwalé if he'd take his share of treasure from a fort they were about to attack and live like a king in Africa. Adéwalé clarifies that he's Trinidadian and has never set foot in Africa. |
| 396 | * MixAndMatchWeapon: You can get a pair of gunswords if you complete all assassination tasks. They aren't any more deadly than any other pair of blades in the game, but they do provide for some unique finishing moves, such as stabbing a guy and then using a gun blast to quickly get him off the blade. |
| 397 | * MobySchtick: You can get an achievement/trophy for successfully harpooning a white sperm whale. In fact, the database entry for the White Whale all but says "Yes, we put Moby Dick in the simulation, because why not?" |
| 398 | * MolotovTruck: One of the campaign missions involves the player character teaming up with [[HistoricalDomainCharacter Charles Vane and Jack Rackham]] to use a fire ship to break a British blockade around Nassau after it comes under occupation by Woodes Rogers. |
| 399 | * MoneyForNothing: The game manages to solve this problem for most of its campaign. This time around, your ship is a core element of the game, and it costs a good amount of both cash and resources to upgrade. However, once you ''have'' turned it into an unstoppable machine of nautical robbery, you only have a handful of man-o-wars hiding in corners of the map to cut your teeth on, and the bank they carry doesn't have much practical use. There ''are'' island upgrades, of course, but they are more for the looks and unlocking a few collectibles rather than tuning your main ride. |
| 400 | * MookChivalry: |
| 401 | ** In naval combat, all hostile actions against the ''Jackdaw'' cease the instant you initiate a boarding maneuver, meaning that you can, should you choose, fully repair your vessel in the middle of a pitched fight, then resume fighting the enemy ships who have apparently been sitting at anchor, patiently waiting for you to finish. The ''Jackdaw'' is also immune to damage while in port, or indeed any time you are not at the helm. They ''will'' fire at Edward though, should he choose to take a non-boarding swim while enemy vessels are around. |
| 402 | ** Combat as Edward averts this: the guards with guns are all too happy to shoot you while their buddies try and make mincemeat out of you with swords and axes. It also sort of happens in the multiplayer, in that several players will line up behind each other to let you finish murdering so they can get to murdering you. |
| 403 | * MooksButNoBosses: Although the major assassination targets are all top fighters (unlike in ''III'' where many were non-combatants) they are all only on par with EliteMooks. Only the ClimaxBoss [[spoiler:El Tiburón]] puts up a genuine boss fight, and even he doesn't have ContractualBossImmunity and can be instant-killed with a backstab if you can manage one. All of the other Templar bosses have to be assassinated with a OneHitKill for full sync, except for Torres, who is a decrepit 77-year-old who can be air-assassinated or thrown off a cliff, sometimes by accident. There are also four {{Superboss}} ships in the form of the four legendary ships. |
| 404 | * MoreDakka: The Edward Thatch approach to weaponry: his frigate has over forty cannons, and he carries six pistols on his person. Edward's smaller brig does have fewer cannons, but can be upgraded with more, and has additional mortars. Edward can have four pistols with an additional two pistol swords. |
| 405 | * MultinationalTeam: It gets more obvious here than in previous games, since the Assassins there are much more visibly diverse: their Mentor is Mayan, your Assassin contacts include Englishmen, black Africans, and Taino, and the player character himself is explicitly Welsh. Opposite them, the Caribbean Templars are led by a Spaniard and include Englishmen, a Frenchmen, and a minor character who is Chinese. |
| 406 | * MusicalEpisode: Considering the number of folk songs in the game and the numerous ones you listen while piloting the Jackdaw, this is as close as the series will get to "Assassin's Creed: The Musical". |
| 407 | * MythologyGag: |
| 408 | ** [[spoiler: The Woodes Rogers assassination level]] has you tail an Italian diplomat voiced by Roger Craig Smith, who longs for the architecture of Florence and its streets, complaining that the buildings of new colonial cities like Kingston and the Caribbean are boring and lame. A nod to the fans who prize the franchise's [[VideoGame/AssassinsCreedII most popular game]]. |
| 409 | ** Melanie Lemay takes the Research Analyst up an elevator and talks about putting a trailer together that's exactly like ACIV's launch trailer, with Blackbeard narrating to prospective sailors about working with Edward Kenway. |
| 410 | ** During Edward's MushroomSamba and the retelling of the Jackdaw Fable, you have to assassinate three targets. One of the random choices they turn into afterwards looks a lot like [[VideoGame/AssassinsCreedI Abbas.]] |
| 411 | * NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: Devil's Eyes Caverns and the Black Trench don't exactly sound like cozy places for diving. The latter is one of the most heavily shark-infested underwater locations in the game. |
| 412 | * NeverHurtAnInnocent: When you sink civilian fishing boats, the game just states that Edward Kenway did not kill civilians without desyncing. Justified in that he only joins the Assassin Brotherhood later. In a later mission, however, Edward has to sneak through an Assassin village without killing any of the Order guards. |
| 413 | * NeverTrustATrailer: More like "Never Trust a Gameplay Preview." With the attack on Blackbeard's party, the preview video and the actual gameplay differ significantly, including a different opening cutscene and the trail being much less wild. It is highly likely that the trailer footage comes from the [=PS4=]/One version gameplay, as the comparatively limited graphical power of the [=PS3=]/360 probably could not keep up with the rendering of such high-definition details. |
| 414 | * NinjaPirateZombieRobot: |
| 415 | ** ''Literally.'' Edward Kenway is an Assassin, a pirate and an ancestor of a contemporary protagonist whose life is being relived via technology. |
| 416 | ** An in-game Abstergo Email discusses how they can do a Ninja or Pirate story but laments how Zombies are ahistorical. In reply, a colleague cites historical basis for Zombies, further feeding fuel to the fire for the crazy directions the series can take. |
| 417 | * NoCutsceneInventoryInertia: Averted once again in this game, where your weapons, armor and cosmetic changes are reflected in cutscenes. The scenes still play out like they would with the normal model, though: Edward will still try to put his hood on while using costumes that don´t have them and will try to put his hood down while using costumes that have them fixed. |
| 418 | * NoManShouldHaveThisPower: How Edward [[spoiler:feels about the Observatory towards the end, and he expresses the same to Woodes Rogers. Though initially he was giddy about it potentially making him and Roberts "masters of the ocean"]]. |
| 419 | * NomDeMom: Jennifer Scott, Edward Kenway's daughter with his first wife Caroline, decide to keep using her mother's surname even after she reconnects with her father and begins to live with him since she was solely raised by her mother and never even met her father until after her mother had already died. Unusually for this trope, Edward's relationship with Caroline seems to be amicable, and Edward seems to approve of Caroline's choice to honor her mother. |
| 420 | * NoMoreHoldingBackSpeech: Bartholomew Roberts begins his pirate career with one of these, some of which is TruthInTelevision, including quotations from ''A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the most notorious Pyrates''. |
| 421 | --->'''Black Bart:''' In honest service there are thin commons, low wages, and hard labour. Yet as gentlemen of fortune we enjoy plenty and satisfaction, pleasure and ease, liberty and power... so what man with a sensible mind would choose the former life, when the only hasard we pirates run is a sour look from those without strength or splendour! Now, I have been among you six weeks, and in that time I have adopted your outlook as my own, and with so fierce a conviction that it may frighten you to see your passions reflected from me in so stark a light. But... if it's a captain you see in me now, aye then... I'll be your bloody captain! For I have dipped my hands in muddied waters, and withdrawing them find 'tis better to be a commander than a common man! |
| 422 | * NoNameGiven: The Analyst. Done to preserve the idea that the player is the Analyst. Lampshaded by [[spoiler: Juno]], who calls them a "cipher". |
| 423 | * NoSell: Go ahead. Try to [[spoiler:sink the ''La Dama Negra'' with good old-fashioned broadsides from afar]] and [[CurbStompBattle see what happens]]. |
| 424 | * NostalgiaLevel: The main story features a point where an entire city is a Restricted Zone - basically, if a guard sees you, you have about ten seconds before he'll start trying to kill you. This causes the kind of caution, rooftop-running, and paranoia that players haven't seen since ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedI'', where basically every city had hyper-touchy guards that would kill you as soon as look at you. |
| 425 | * OceanPunk: The Caribbean sea of the early 18th Century is a real-life and in-game example, with civilization scattered across small islands of varying distances that have to be crossed by ships across waters filled with sharks, whales, dolphins and jellyfish. |
| 426 | * OffscreenMomentOfAwesome: After being [[spoiler:marooned by Jack Rackham]], Edward ''single-handedly'' captures a fishing schooner (probably armed only with his hidden blades), then takes back the Jackdaw with the help of Kidd and Adéwalé. |
| 427 | * OhCrap: The Jackdaw's crew are clearly freaked out by the HMS Prince and its ghost ship-like appearance. |
| 428 | -->'''Crewman #1:''' What's that in the fog? It looks like a ship!\ |
| 429 | '''Crewman #2:''' Aye, risen from the dead to sink us! |
| 430 | * OneSteveLimit: Downplayed with protagonist Edward Kenway joined by Edward "Blackbeard" Thatch. But the latter is never simply called "Edward" in the game; he's generally called Blackbeard or by his surname alone, while Kenway introduces him to Adewale as "Ed" Thatch. |
| 431 | * OldSaveBonus: The game gives Edward the outfits of the protagonists of the previous entries in the series for having data of the games on your Uplay account (so it's unlocked even if you're on another platform). |
| 432 | * OnlyInItForTheMoney: Abstergo Entertainment's executives, even those who are in the know about the true nature of their company, are more concerned with making money and good products (for certain definitions of "good") than forwarding their Templar superiors' visions. Edward Kenway himself starts out with this mentality, and the game basically chronicles his long and arduous CharacterDevelopment. |
| 433 | * OutlivingOnesOffspring: Ah Tabai, the mentor of the West Indies Assassins, had only one son who died before the age of ten. Anne Bonny's child dies shortly after being born. |
| 434 | * OxygenMeter: In the [[UnderTheSea undersea levels]] of the game, Edward will slowly run out of air, shown on a meter. He can replenish his air by sticking his head in various pockets of air contained in overturned barrels or underwater caverns, or by simply returning to the diving bell used to reach the sea floor. |
| 435 | * PantheraAwesome: Jaguars appear in the game, including black and unique white variants. Ocelots can be found as well, though they're not as hostile. |
| 436 | * PaintingTheMedium: The subtitles for the game capitalize all nouns as was the written custom during the early 18th century, and spell out certain words such as "awful" in the form of "awe-full" to represent language drift. It was also an {{homage}} to Charles Johnson's ''A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the most notorious Pyrates'', the seminal book on UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfPiracy which served as a main source for ''Black Flag''. |
| 437 | * PhysicalGod: The Sages are avatars [[spoiler: of the First Civilization "god" Aita. The Sage of the present-day conspires to make Juno one as well.]] |
| 438 | * {{Pirate}}: A given for UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfPiracy. The game's pirates are a solid middle ground between Type 1 and Type 2, they seem to avoid large scale RapePillageAndBurn but will shank and plunder ships for salvage, crew and or add them to their fleet. |
| 439 | * APirate400YearsTooLate: [[spoiler: John the IT guy, a Sage and reincarnation of Black Bart Roberts.]] His jeans and hoodie are accessorised with an ornate belt and old-fashioned cameo necklace, and he has a big black moustache. [[spoiler: He even speaks in Black Bart's accent in his final moments.]] |
| 440 | * PirateGirl: The originals, Anne Bonny and [[spoiler: Mary Read who for much of the game poses as SweetPollyOliver James Kidd]]. Lady Black, The Rebel, and The Firebrand are present as well in the Multiplayer. |
| 441 | * PirateSong: The game lets your crew sing various sea shanties while sailing. There are also [[GottaCatchEmAll collectible song lyrics]] scattered about that unlock more songs. |
| 442 | * ThePiratesWhoDontDoAnything: |
| 443 | ** Earlier games had Templars actively involved in local politics and doing their best to KickTheDog and making the place they are in a WretchedHive, in addition to their usual lust after some MagicFromTechnology. In ''Black Flag'', the Templars are the most sympathetic and least evil of the Assassin's Creed games thus far with none of them getting any KickTheDog moment and with them performing their governmental appointments with general competence. This is reinforced by the fact that Edward Kenway's [[spoiler:ArchEnemy for the game ''isn't'' even a Templar, though the FinalBoss of the game is the Templar Grandmaster, Governor Laureano de Torres]]. Of course, this is discussed in the game itself when Edward and Anne Bonny talk about why they should stop [[spoiler: Governor Torres from getting hold of the Observatory]]. Once he gets hold of it, The Templars never have to KickTheDog anymore to get what they want and simply be TheManBehindTheMan. |
| 444 | ** In the game, the Templars are still VisionaryVillain who aim to blackmail the world to do their bidding. They are also major aristocratic Jerks with Woodes Rogers calling Kenway a "cretin" and Julien du Casse calling him a "filthy peasant" and even Torres for all his token claims against slavery isn't interested in actively stopping it and is a self-confessed plutocrat who looks down on slaver Laurens Prins for his AtLeastIAdmitIt stance. |
| 445 | ** The driving force of the plots this time is neither the Templars, nor the Assassins, but [[spoiler:the Sages, the genetic reincarnations of Juno's lover Aita. Edward Kenway's exploits center around his quest to find the Observatory and the one person who knows how to use it, Bartholomew Roberts. Meanwhile, the present-day protagonist is being guided by somebody working in Abstergo's IT division, who turns out to be the latest incarnation. His goal is to finally revive the recently-freed Juno by letting her hijack the protagonist's body; unfortunately for him, it doesn't work]]. |
| 446 | * APlaceHoldsMemories: In the ending, as Edward is ready to leave the Caribbean, he looks to a table at the bar in Nassau he used to hang around in all the time and sees a vision/memory of all his dead friends drinking together. |
| 447 | * PlatformActivatedAbility: In certain islands of the Caribbean, there are unique monoliths that are erected next to seemingly-unimportant stone pillars. However, the monoliths clearly emanate a unique energy, so if Edward stands on top of one and then enters through Eagle Vision, he can perform an astral alignment of the nearby stone pillars (and, if close to them, also palm trees) by positioning an arrangement of white outlines in the right position to synchronize them mentally with said pillars and trees. Doing this allows Edward to pinpoint the exact spot of a keystone buried underground, which he can then unearth and collect. Once all keystones are gathered, he can use them to unlock a vault in Tulum that guards the legendary Mayan outfit. |
| 448 | * PlayableEpilogue: Upon the main compaign's completion, players have the freedom to continue challenges on land, do the story perfectly, or just sail the seas to kill, plunder, and seek treasure. |
| 449 | * PlayingTheHeartStrings: Drowns out most of the sounds while a slow, tearful melody plays when you swim back to your ship after [[spoiler:Blackbeard's]] death. |
| 450 | * PlotParallel: To Aesop's ''The Eagle and the Jackdaw'' which is retold in its entirety in the game. |
| 451 | * PointOfNoReturn: The mission where you go to [[spoiler:the Observatory]] is this. NothingIsTheSameAnymore after that, for one thing, [[spoiler:Adéwalé will no longer be your first mate, leaving you first alone in the ocean to do all kinds of pirate activity with no First Mate and then after doing the mission in Tulum you get an Assassin Skull logo as a flag, showing that you have joined them and Anne Bonny becomes your quartermaster and all that's left is one final sequence]]. That said, nearly the entire map is open till then so you can fully upgrade your Jackdaw into elite and upgrade your hideout by that, and can definitely fight the Legendary ships by then. |
| 452 | * PunctuatedPounding: As Edward pummels [[spoiler: Charles Vane]]: |
| 453 | --->'''Edward: YOU GOD! DAMNED! FUCKING!''' '''''KNAVE,''''' '''[[spoiler: VANE!]]''' |
| 454 | * RacialFaceBlindness: Played with in "The Maroon Assassin," a Templar Hunt side mission in which Edward teams up with a black Assassin. |
| 455 | ->'''Antó:''' What do you want, Englishman? |
| 456 | ->'''Edward:''' Edward Kenway. I'm here to warn you of danger. And I'm Welsh. |
| 457 | ->'''Antó:''' You all look the same to me. |
| 458 | * RagnarokProofing: The Observatory has clearly seen better days. [[spoiler:But for a facility that's several thousands of years old, it's held up remarkably well, with its security defenses and even lighting still functional. Roberts himself lampshades this as he guides Edward inside it]]. |
| 459 | * RammingAlwaysWorks: |
| 460 | ** As soon as the Jackdaw has been equipped with a naval ram, it provides players with one of their most powerful assets in almost any battle at sea. The fully upgraded ram is capable of [[OneHitKill one-shotting]] everything that isn't a ship of the line (frigates and Man o'Wars), and it still inflicts horrendous damage on the latter, often taking out a frigate in two and a Man o'War in three to four good hits. Repeated ram attacks, combined with copious salvos of chain-shot, are arguably the safest (if not the only truly viable) tactic to sink the [[spoiler:''La Dama Negra'', a legendary Man o'War whose stern is its only weak spot]]. The whole thing gets cranked up to eleven after all four legendary ships have been defeated and the Jackdaw receives the [[spoiler:''El Impoluto'''s]] charged ram attack, which at least doubles the naval ram's already ludidcrous damage. |
| 461 | ** For a case of HoistByTheirOwnPetard, several enemy ships can pull this stunt as well. [[spoiler:''El Impoluto'' is easily the most infamous example, being the only Man o'War with a naval ram in the entire game, and by far the fastest one to boot. Whatever you do when you fight her, '''get the hell out of her way when she charges'''. The ''H.M.S. Fearless'' or the ''Royal Sovereign'', the Carribean's resident DualBoss, will also try to ram the Jackdaw into oblivion the moment one of them is sunk]]. Enemy brigs can conduct ram attacks as well which, while not nearly as devastating [[spoiler:as ''El Impoluto's'']], are still one of the most damaging things the Jackdaw can face on the ocean. |
| 462 | * RealIsBrown: Averted, with the Caribbean portrayed in vivid green and blue hues in sunshine, and even when it's storming, it's hardly dull to look at. |
| 463 | * TheReasonYouSuckSpeech : Edward gets from one from nearly everyone he meets. But the most cruel and resonant one comes from himself or rather [[spoiler:his MushroomSamba where he imagines Black Bart, his ArchEnemy tell him he never had it in him to be a pirate, and then Woodes Rogers]] retells the entirety of Aesop's ''The Eagle and the Jackdaw'' obviously using it to mock Edward's pride and ambitions. |
| 464 | --> '' So with [[TheDeterminator a great flapping and rustling of feathers]], the jackdaw came [[SuicidalOverconfidence down swiftly]] and clutched at the coat of [[TooDumbToLive a large ram]]. But when he tried to fly away, [[DidntThinkThisThrough he found he could not]] lift the animal, for his size and strength were not up to the task. And even as the jackdaw struggled, the ram hardly noticed he was there. Nearby, just across the field, the shepherd saw the fluttering bird [[JerkAss and was quite amused]]. Running up, he captured the jackdaw [[KickTheDog and clipped its wings]]. That evening he gave the jackdaw to his children as [[CosmicPlaything a gift]]. "What an odd little bird this is, father!" they laughed and shouted. "What do you call him?" "This is [[ThisLoserIsYou a jackdaw]]," the father said. [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything "But if you should ask him, he would claim to be an eagle."]]'' |
| 465 | * RecursiveCanon: This game and ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedIIILiberation'' also exist as in-universe games, titled "''Pirates of Nightmares''" and "''Liberation''", respectively, and are developed by Abstergo Entertainment. Supposedly developed by taking data from the Animus and then turning that information into a video game, these projects exist to skew public favor for the Templar's interpretation of history. The actual games themselves paint the Assasins as the good guys so it's hard to tell what the Templars were going for if their own games are more or less on the same trajectory. |
| 466 | * RedAndBlackAndEvilAllOver: The Templar armour is apparently designed around this principle. |
| 467 | * RedOniBlueOni: Edward often pleads with the fiery, impulsive Thatch to be more cautious and discreet in his actions... to little avail. Edward is the Blue to the Red of Thatch and Vane but is himself the Red to Adéwalé, James Kidd, Benjamin Hornigold and the rest. |
| 468 | * RefugeInAudacity: Of all the Assassin protagonists in the series so far, Edward seems to do the Brotherhood the least favor in preserving their low profile given that he's a notorious pirate who conceals barely any of his weapons (his four flintlock pistols and two massive cutlasses being the most overt ones on his person). Then there's the giant Assassin logo on his flag. Then again, this arrogance is part of why the Assassins plain don't like him at first, and [[spoiler:James Kidd]] doesn't mince words about Edward's "''Prancing about like one of us, bringing Shame to our Cause''." |
| 469 | * RenovatingThePlayerHeadquarters: The nature of the game makes your ship the Jackdaw a more mobile version of this trope. Again you can improve it, allowing Edward to use it to collect valuable items such as whale oil and treasure chests. Improving it also allows the Jackdaw to also fight other ships, making travel much easier. |
| 470 | * {{Retirony}}: [[spoiler:Blackbeard is attacked by Woodes Rogers' fleet on the day of his retirement party.]] |
| 471 | * RightUnderTheirNoses: The modern day Assassins (save William, who is undoubtedly too conspicuous even for this brazen plan) have taken to hiding from the international Templar manhunt targeting them by working in the lobby of Abstergo Entertainment -- Shaun as a barista and Rebecca as a courier. |
| 472 | * RoaringRampageOfRevenge: Neither the ''Royal Sovereign'' nor the ''H.M.S. Fearless'' take it well when their respective sister ship is sunk during their legendary DualBoss battle. The surviving one will immediately [[IncendiaryExponent light itself on fire]] from prow to stern, [[KillItWithFire switch from regular cannonballs to heated shot]], shift from long-range bombardment to suicidal (and very deadly) ram attacks in an apparent attempt at TakingYouWithMe. Better make sure to whittle both ships down to near-death so you're able to deliver their killing blows in quick succession. |
| 473 | * RuinsForRuinsSake: There are Mayan ruins almost ''everywhere'' in the West Indies. Several of them ''are'' based on real ruins, such as the Assassins' base of operations at Tulum in the Yucatan, and most of the others are small enough for their non-existence in real-life to be excused by breaking down in the 300 years since the events of the game take place, but some are so large and significant a feature of their locations that they can only have been included for the sake of them, especially considering that the Maya didn't live and build outside of southern Mexico and northern Central America and most of these ruins are found on Caribbean islands. |
| 474 | * RuleOfCool: |
| 475 | ** The ''Jackdaw'' can have heated cannon shot. In real life, heated shot was generally too dangerous to use on ships, due to the high risk of setting them on fire, and was largely restricted to shore batteries. But setting enemy ships on fire is ''so'' cool. |
| 476 | ** The naval rams which are so ubiquitous in the game did not play a major role in 18th century naval warfare. While more commonly used in earlier medieval naval combat where a ship's speed was supplemented by oars, the advent of common cannons made ramming an impractical maneuver, as its use involved literally [[TooStupidToLive charging into an enemy's cannon-bearing broadside]]. Ramming would also pose a nigh-suicidal risk to the attacker's bowsprit, the spar projecting over a ship's bow to which the foremast is stayed, as well as several sails important to control of the vessel. Which goes to say, damage to the bowsprit would be a potentially battle-ending calamity. Rams also have the unfortunate tendency to hole a target below the waterline, and it's difficult to capture or plunder a ship that's busy letting the sea in. |
| 477 | ** Acrobatic and Aerial kills don't give much of a score boost in the multiplayer, and are probably the second most attention drawing way to do it next to Contested kills, but they're so badass that it's one of the most common sights in any match. |
| 478 | * SanitySlippage: [[spoiler: John the IT guy.]] Well, for a set value of sanity. [[spoiler: Most evident in the stickies he leaves around the office - already really odd behaviour, but it gets worse. The sticky notes make up a pledge of allegiance to Juno, which starts off quite composed, but soon loses grammar, syntax, and finally composure, so towards the end John is simply writing in barely-articulate ranting walls of text.]] |
| 479 | * ScaryBlackMan: Downplayed by Adé, who is a very friendly person, but can be scary when he wants to be. Played completely straight with Antó, leader of the Maroons and a 7-foot-tall Master Assassin with a gravelly voice. |
| 480 | * SceneryPorn: The Caribbean sea and islands are ''gorgeous'', if [[ArtisticLicenseGeography largely inaccurate]]. |
| 481 | * ScoundrelCode: [[http://assassinscreed.wikia.com/wiki/Pirate_code_of_Bartholomew_Roberts Bartholomew "Black Bart" Roberts' famous code]] [[InsistentTerminology with 11 articles]] factors into the game. It's pure SchmuckBait, as it places all power in Roberts' hands, but as he himself notes, [[NoHonorAmongThieves he never said anything about loyalty in them]]. |
| 482 | * SeaSinkhole: A glitch can cause the water under the ''Jackdaw'' to render incorrectly or not at all, resulting in a steep-sided hole in the ocean where the ship ought to be. |
| 483 | * SelfDeprecation: The crew pokes fun at themselves with the ''Derby Ram'' shanty. |
| 484 | --> '''Lead Singer:''' The crew of the good ship Jackdaw is handsome, strong and brave! The finest crowd of sailors that ever sailed over the waves!\ |
| 485 | '''Crew:''' That's a lie, that's a lie, that's a lie, lie, lie! |
| 486 | * SetAMookToKillAMook: Berserk Darts cause any enemy hit with them to go berserk and attack anyone nearby. Any surrounding mooks will all focus their attention on the berserked mook, which means the easiest way to take out assassination targets is to just hit them with a berserk dart and watch as everyone gangs up on them. When the berserk time is up, the affected target dies. Unfortunately, berserked mooks will still go for you if they spot you. |
| 487 | * ShipwreckStart: The game opens with the game's main claim to fame - a quick tutorial on the basics of naval combat, only for the ship you used to be destroyed, effectively forcing main protagonist Edward Kenway to swim to shore. From there, he tries to haggle another survivor - Duncan Walpole - for some change, only for Walpole to brandish a flintlock pistol and try to kill him (to no avail; lucky for Edward). Kenway then chases after Walpole and the game kicks off with a tutorial on the usual ''Assassin's Creed'' fare (e.g., [[LeParkour freerunning]], |
| 488 | * ShootTheRope: There's an early mission in which you run around Nassau saving pirates from British soldiers in order to recruit them into your crew. The final pirate you're made to save is about to be hanged; one of the missions' bonus objectives is to shoot the rope to free him. |
| 489 | * ShoutOut: |
| 490 | ** John is [[Franchise/MassEffect calibrating]], not fixing. |
| 491 | ** Bartholemew Roberts, at one point, shouts that there's "Nothing like the hot winds of Hell blowing in your face!" That being a line from the Ghost Pirate [=LeChuck=]. |
| 492 | ** Roberts also asks Edward at one point, [[Film/{{Airplane}} "Have you... have you ever seen the inside of a Jamaican prison, boy? Have you?"]] |
| 493 | ** One of the assassination side-quests is for a captain called [[VideoGame/TheSecretOfMonkeyIsland Mancomb Seepgood]]. |
| 494 | ** A discussion between some guards on the left side of Laurens Prins's mansion, during the mission where you have to infiltrate this mansion, reminds us very much about the sword teacher from ''VideoGame/TheSecretOfMonkeyIsland'': |
| 495 | -->"The way I see it, sword fighting is a little like making love. It's not always what you do, but what you say"\ |
| 496 | "A pity for you then, you're the most inarticulate bugger I've ever met"\ |
| 497 | "Oy, man. That ain't... that ain't... nice." |
| 498 | ** The name of one of the missions is [[Platform/{{Commodore 64}} Commodore Eighty-Sixed]]. This also refers to the Intel [=x86=] CPU architecture. During the mission, Kenway even complains about workers 'lagging'. |
| 499 | ** Abstergo Entertainment is a media company who is secretly at the service of an AncientConspiracy, tasked with manipulation the truth through medias and their building occupies the spot of the former Montreal Olympic Stadium. Not unlike ''Videogame/DeusExHumanRevolution's'' Picus Entertainment, a media company who is secretly serving an AncientConspiracy (The Illuminati), tasked with manipulating and altering the truth and is ''also'' based out of Montreal's Olympic Stadium. |
| 500 | ** Abstergo has Blume, the company that produced [[VideoGame/WatchDogs ctOS]] (which can spy on anyone), pitch said product to them. |
| 501 | ** The title of one of the missions is ''Vainglorious Bastards'', a pun that combines the Mission giver Charles Vane with Creator/QuentinTarantino's film ''Film/InglouriousBasterds''. |
| 502 | ** One of the achievements at the end of a sequence is called "Been Down So Long", a reference to Richard Farina's novel, ''Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up to Me''. |
| 503 | ** And of course the entirety of Aesop's Fable of ''The Eagle and the Jackdaw'' is retold in the game. |
| 504 | ** One of the possible names for a Pirate Hunter frigate is [[Manga/OnePiece Thriller Bark.]] Other names include [[Literature/TheOdyssey Penelope, Ithaca]], and [[Literature/TheIliad Helen O' Troy]], as well as [[Literature/HoratioHornblower Hornblower]] and [[Literature/AubreyMaturin Aubrey]] |
| 505 | ** The achievement for killing Laurens Prins Theatre/DeathOfASalesman. |
| 506 | ** One of the naval contracts, about destroying false documents, is called VideoGame/PapersPlease. |
| 507 | ** One of the missions is "[[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanTheCurseOfTheBlackPearl We Demand Parley]]." |
| 508 | ** In the modern-day segments, one of the Abstergo employees can be heard saying that their interaction with the IT department mostly consists of [[Series/TheITCrowd being asked to turn their computer off and on again in a pompous tone.]] |
| 509 | ** The bio for Josiah Burgess in the database includes some staff comments suggesting that, since so little is known about him, maybe they could get away with [[Manga/SpaceAdventureCobra tattooing a treasure map on his back.]] |
| 510 | ** In one of the audio logs, Warren Vidic makes an entrance with a sing-song [[https://youtu.be/BxAfDlxbfVk?t=24 Here I come to save the day!]] taken straight from ''WesternAnimation/MightyMouse''. |
| 511 | * ShownTheirWork: While Edward is meeting with the Templars for the first time, mention is made of a man named James Puckle who had invented a rapid-firing gun. The "Puckle gun" (essentially a flintlock revolver) actually was invented around the time of the game. In ''Rogue'', you get to finally use them. |
| 512 | * SidekickGraduationsStick: A theme in the game (drawn directly from real life), where sailors are shown to initially apprentice under experienced captains before [[TookALevelInBadass becoming legends]] in their own right. This is also an invoked trope because the Pirates became pirates because the British Navy had a SidekickGlassCeiling with low-level officers unable to advance in rank because of social status or nobility. That's one thing the pirates have over those who pursue them. |
| 513 | ** Edward Kenway initially is a mere sailor aboard a crew who first sailed under Captain Benjamin Hornigold and, after getting the Jackdaw, briefly interns under Blackbeard's flagship, the Queen Anne's Revenge and learns the ropes from Edward Thatch on how to maintain crew discipline. |
| 514 | ** Stede Bonnet, who Edward recruited to the Pirate gang of RagtagBunchOfMisfits is shown to undergo the same procedure, finally being promoted as captain of his own ship by Blackbeard which is TruthInTelevision. |
| 515 | ** Blackbeard himself served as Hornigold's NumberTwo before becoming TheCaptain and TheDreaded. |
| 516 | ** Likewise with Edward Kenway, [[spoiler:Adéwalé serves as TheLancer and his NumberTwo before pulling off a ScrewThisImOuttaHere as a result of Kenway's ItsAllAboutMe attitude and his own interest in the Assassins]]. He becomes a HeroOfAnotherStory in the DLC ''Freedom Cry''. |
| 517 | ** Anne Bonny starts as a waitress in Nassau before attracting Jack Rackham's attention and ends up [[spoiler:as Mary Read's NumberTwo and after her death and Adéwalé quitting the Jackdaw, becomes Edward Kenway's quartermaster]]. |
| 518 | ** Averted in the case of Jack Rackham, the team ButtMonkey who pulls TheMutiny on Charles Vane but immediately [[spoiler: makes his [[ItSeemedLikeAGoodIdeaAtTheTime incompetence]] clear to his crew. After James Kidd outs herself as Mary Read, she becomes the captain with Rackham as her beard and puppet]]. |
| 519 | * {{Sidequest}}: The game goes as far as giving the player the opportunity to explore a very large part of the Caribbean to visit numerous islands, in which plenty of collectibles can be found, enemy bases can be confronted and dismantled, and treasure chests can be opened; then there's fishing, exploring sunken ships, doing requested assassinations, etc. |
| 520 | * SillinessSwitch: The game has numerous "Abstergo Challenges" that unlock cheats once completed. One of these cheats turns the sprites of all enemy soldiers into [[VideoGame/RavingRabbids Rabbids]]. Another causes characters to say cheesy lines, and yet another causes lightning and DramaticThunder to strike every time Edward hits an enemy (including stealthy assassinations). |
| 521 | * SimpleYetAwesome: Berserk darts do the previous games' poison attack one better by being usable at very long range and driving targets into a frenzy, attacking their former allies and anyone else in reach and drawing the attention of guards in a large radius. They also don't cause the guards to raise an alarm, making them the perfect distraction. The only drawback is that if the berserk guard runs out of people to kill, [[HoistByHisOwnPetard he might go after you]]. It's also not a good idea to use them in the presence of hostages you need/want to save, like in the very mission that introduces Edward's blowpipe. |
| 522 | * TheSingularity: Referred to as "The Grey", it is apparently [[spoiler:Juno's endgame, to use the technology she now inhabits to usher forth a singularity where she will once more enslave humanity.]] |
| 523 | * SliceAndDiceSwordsmanship: Edward Kenway mainly [[DualWielding fights with twin blades]], most of which are cutlasses and other backswords. However, he can also equip pairs of narrow rapiers and smallswords, historically intended for thrusting and sometimes shallow cutting, yet share the brutal hack and slash animations of the bulky cutlasses. Repeatedly bashing a blade into an enemy's shoulder until it cuts deep into the torso looks a bit awkward with a skinny court sword. |
| 524 | * SlipperyAsAnEel: Spotted moray eels can be found hiding in seaweed, and they do attack Edward. |
| 525 | * SnowballLie: Edward pilfers Duncan's robes, summons, map, and package to make a quick buck finishing the late Assassin turncoat's delivery. The events that follow see him deeply involved with an massive global conspiracy and ancient hidden war he has no real comprehension of for a significant portion of the plot. |
| 526 | * SocietyIsToBlame: How the pirates see their lot. Bartholomew Roberts sums it up: |
| 527 | --> ''"In honest service there are thin commons, low wages, and hard labour. Yet as gentlemen of fortune we enjoy [[BetterLivingThroughEvil plenty and satisfaction]], pleasure and ease, liberty and power... so what man with a sensible mind would choose the former life, when the only [[AntiquatedLinguistics hasard]] we pirates run is [[MoralGuardians a sour]] look from those without strength or splendour!"'' |
| 528 | * SolemnEndingTheme: Anne Bonnie begins to sing ''The Parting Glass'', [[spoiler: accompanied by Edward seeing his fallen friends smiling and sharing some drinks before he goes to see his daughter.]] The lyrics to the song are at the bottom of this page. |
| 529 | * SpaceCompression: The Caribbean is compressed to only a tiny fraction of its real world size. It also only depicts Cuba, Half of Hispaniola (the Haiti half), Jamaica and the Bahamas. The lesser Antilles and the Northern coast of South America are completely off the map. These colonies were part of the French Empire [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9C9h3p5Efa4 which historian Robert Whitaker]] noted in conversation with specialist Dr. Bryan Glass is conspicuous for its absence in the main game, since French sailors and pirates were a major part of the Golden Age. |
| 530 | * SparingThemTheDirtyWork: Edward does this on two occasions: |
| 531 | ** Edward assassinates Hilary Flint so that his Assassin lover Rhona doesn't have to. |
| 532 | ** When [[spoiler:Vance Travers]] is revealed to be an Assassin turncoat, Edward does the deed of assassinating him so that Upton [[spoiler:doesn't have to kill his own brother.]] |
| 533 | * StockUnsolvedMysteries: There are pages from the Voynich manuscript in the archives of the game, but interestingly it does NOT state outright that they are of Precursor origin. |
| 534 | * StumbledIntoThePlot: Unlike most protagonists of the franchise, Edward Kenway simply happened to get shipwrecked next to an Assassin, getting him involved in the titular creed. |
| 535 | * {{Superboss}}: There are five legendary ships that you can fight in any of the four corners of the map: The [[LongRangeFighter HMS Prince]], who will pester you from afar with mortar shots, [[NighInvulnerability La Dama Negra]], who can only be fired at from behind, The [[DualBoss HMS Fearless]] and The [[DualBoss Royal Sovereign]], who will surround and double-team you, and the infamous [[LightningBruiser El Impoluto]], who uses her greater speed and maneuverability to ram your elite hull armor to oblivion. You win 20,000 Reales for winning each fight, but by that point you've probably bought all the ship upgrades you needed to actually beat them, so it's more of a BraggingRightsReward. Defeating all five ships gives the ''Jackdaw'' the ''El Impoluto'''s boosted ram attack, but then again, by that point there's not much left to use it on. |
| 536 | * SuperNotDrowningSkills: Unlike in earlier games, this is played straight for [=NPCs=]. Stede Bonnet swims with Edward-as-Duncan-Walpole to his schooner, the pirates you rescue for the soon-to-be-Jackdaw's crew swim between ships (Adewale included), and any nameless bit characters typically just swim to shore after being pushed into the water. |
| 537 | * SuspiciouslyAproposMusic: In the final Cutscene of the game, Anne Bonny sings a beautiful version of "The Parting Glass" as Edward Kenway reflects on his failures and how his selfishness has cost him his friends and his love life. Of particular note is that as Anne is singing the verse "And since it falls unto my lot, that I should rise and you should not" he sees his former friends, including Blackbeard and Mary Reed, sitting at a table and raising their glasses in toast. |
| 538 | * SwordAndGun: Edward's pose on the cover art, to some extent in gameplay as well. |
| 539 | * TakeThatAudience: [[spoiler:You want some more of that [[TheHeroDies poor lad Desmond]] for your "entertainment"? Here, have his "generously donated" body parts!]] |
| 540 | * TakeThatCritics: A subtle one has the in-universe front for the antagonist faction panning the idea of [[VideoGame/AssassinsCreedIII a game about Ratonhnhaké:ton]], specifically citing his stoic yet angry personality -- echoing some real-world player complaints about him -- but also claiming that depicting his early years was not recommended either because, "''although Ratonhnhaké:ton's early life would be of some interest to our more educated audience, it is unlikely that his story would appeal on a broader scale... being too 'foreign', as it were, to normal audiences''." |
| 541 | * TalkLikeAPirate: |
| 542 | ** Averted for the most part in the game. The pirates in the game speak a variety of accents from Edward's Welsh to Anne's Irish as well as Yorkshire and Norfolk. |
| 543 | ** Olivier does this briefly when he welcomes the Analyst to Abstergo's current prestige project. |
| 544 | ** Played moderately, but Blackbeard does have an accent in the trailer. Justified, as he was a native Bristolian, the region from which this practically-requisite accent originates. |
| 545 | ** The cheat Arr, Matey! makes it so Edward speaks in a deliberately overblown version of this. |
| 546 | * TattooedCrook: Edward Kenway himself and most pirates apparently. |
| 547 | * TheTeetotaler: Roberts doesn't drink, in keeping with his (possibly apocryphal) depiction in historical accounts. |
| 548 | * TemporaryOnlineContent: The community challenges for the game are no longer available. Thus, all of the bonus items unlocked through completing those challenges are permanently locked. |
| 549 | * ThematicSequelLogoChange: The Assassin sigil has a skull in it to represent the game taking place during the Golden Age of Piracy, and its pirate protagonist Edward Kenway. |
| 550 | * ThreateningShark: Sharks, including hammerhead, bull, and great white sharks, are the main enemies in the underwater segments. |
| 551 | * TitleDrop: A small one, when [[spoiler:James Kidd]] mentions that "''there's something in the Assassin's Creed that crosses all Boundaries''." A lot of the in-game mission titles are also dropped at some point, deriving from lines of dialogue. The game's subtitle is also dropped early in the game, shortly after Edward acquires the ''Jackdaw''. One of his allies gifts him a jolly roger and says he should "fly the black flag with pride." |
| 552 | * TookALevelInBadass: We get a glimpse of several characters going through this. |
| 553 | ** Edward Kenway is a mere crew member in the opening mission who becomes TheCaptain by luck and accident, and one of the most feared (and successful) pirates in the world by the end. |
| 554 | ** Edward's ArchEnemy, [[spoiler:Bartholomew Roberts]], undergoes the [[FromNobodyToNightmare villainous equivalent]] and ends up becoming Edward's AlwaysSomeoneBetter as a pirate. |
| 555 | ** Anne Bonny goes from barmaid to pirate, standing as BackToBackBadasses with Mary Read while their ship is being boarded by the English. The two women are the only ones to come out of the fight uninjured. |
| 556 | ** Averted with Stede Bonnet, who jumps at the chance to live a pirate's life, but is frankly awful at it, and the Animus database entry mentions that he is eventually captured and executed while blubbering and crying for mercy. |
| 557 | * TrailersAlwaysLie: |
| 558 | ** This is a rare case when a game comes up with an in-universe justification for this. The entire marketing campaign is ascribed to Abstergo in the modern day portion of the game. From the whole "Pirate trained by Assassins" marketing line[[note]]he basically ''improvises'' all of the core abilities and techniques ''well'' before knowingly meeting Assassins[[/note]] to his flag when Blackbeard tells him to "fly it proud"[[note]]He's not an Assassin yet so there's no Assassin symbol, just the black flag and skull[[/note]]... |
| 559 | ** In-universe, the marketing is lampshaded by Abstergo, Olivier noting that when they release their product they have to clean up the grit and working-class roots of Edward to make him a "ladies man" and James Bond type... possibly due to [[spoiler:the Templars' [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney demeanor in the 21st century]] based on the Subject 16 puzzles in ''Brotherhood'']]. |
| 560 | ** [[spoiler:The "final" Abstergo trailer for the pirates project, ''Devils of the Caribbean'']]. |
| 561 | * TreasureMap: You can find and follow treasure maps. Some just have money, but others contain schematics for elite upgrades for [[CoolBoat the Jackdaw]]. |
| 562 | * {{Troll}}: While sneaking around on his way to find James Kidd in the mission 'Nothing is True...', subtitles reveal that the assassins knew Edward was there the entire time and were just laughing at his attempts at stealth. |
| 563 | * TropicalIslandAdventure: This game is set all across the Caribbean, including the Cayman Islands, Cuba, Jamaica, and the Bahamas, as well as São Tomé and Príncipe off the coast of Central Africa. |
| 564 | * UncannyValley: Deliberately invoked with the Sages' face. Their unnatural blue and yellow eyes are unsettling enough, but in the denouement of the modern-day portion, we're given an up-close look at John's face, with every single blemish, every bit of stubble, being visible and magnified. |
| 565 | * UnderTheSea: Scattered through the Caribbean Sea are designated zones where Edward can swim in search of treasure and collectibles. He has to keep an eye on his OxygenMeter as well as the sharks lurking around. |
| 566 | * UnderwaterRuins: In addition to your standard underwater caves and shipwrecks, Edward can use a diving bell to explore some underwater ruins in the West Indies Sea, primarily Mayan in origin. Some other ruins in the overworld are also partially submerged. |
| 567 | * UnexpectedGameplayChange: |
| 568 | ** Kenway's Fleet is a fully embedded fleet management mini-game with TurnBasedStrategy elements in an otherwise third-person action RPG. Any ship you capture in normal gameplay can be transferred to the fleet to be sent on trading missions across the known world, interspersed with turn-based fleet battles between a maximum of three ships per side. The feature is completely optional but offers access to unique outfits and weapons, treasure maps, decorative objects for Edward's mansion, and tons of easy cash once you've unlocked the higher-level trade routes. |
| 569 | ** Diving levels run on a timer with limited refills and put you up against patrolling enemies you can't defend against because you have no weapons. You also have no armor, making Edward much squishier than players are used to by the time these levels are unlocked. |
| 570 | * UngratefulBastard: When the Sage is freed by the Assassins, the first thing he does is stab said Assassin in the neck with his own hidden blade. Later he does the same, when Edward Kenway and James Kidd rescue him from Laurens Prins, where he escapes but not before tripping the alarm bell and leaving them to deal with security. [[spoiler: When he becomes a Pirate Captain, Bartholomew Roberts rewards Edward Kenway by knocking of a side of a cliff and then sending him [[KickTheDog to prison to claim a bounty]], this after Edward had helped him steal his flagship, a Portuguese Man O'War. His response is a simple reminder]] that his [[SchmuckBait Pirate Code]] has no mention of the concept of loyalty. |
| 571 | --> ''"Roberts is [[{{Foreshadowing}} a devil]], with a queer aversion to kindness."'' |
| 572 | * {{Unishment}}: Most of the time, bounty hunters at sea are far more beneficial than detrimental. Their ships are of consistently higher level than their navy counterparts, making them the only ones worth capturing for the Kenway's Fleet minigame. They also carry large amounts of upgrade resources and are particularly reliable sources of the otherwise rare iron. Last but not least, it's very easy to force them spawn over and over again near captured forts for even faster resource farming, as opposed to randomly searching the open sea for worthy prizes. Just make sure the ''Jackdaw'' is sufficiently upgraded to survive the constant high-level battles. |
| 573 | * UnusuallyUninterestingSight: By roughly the 1600s, the typical assassin's uniform of white hooded robes ''should'' considered pretty strange, yet they aren't. |
| 574 | * UseYourHead: [[ShownTheirWork True to their real-life behavior]], the bull sharks that patrol sunken wrecks often hit Edward with a powerful headbutt instead of biting him. This habit is one of the reasons they were given their name. |
| 575 | * VehicularTurnabout: The game allows you to do this with enemy ships, as befitting a game set in the age of WoodenShipsAndIronMen. You can then decide what you want to do with the captured ship: break it down for pieces to repair your ship, use it to lower your wanted level, or send it to join your fleet, which operates in the Atlantic. |
| 576 | * VersionExclusiveContent: The costume was a preorder bonus for [=PS3=], but was upgraded to a base game unlockable costume on [=PS4=]. The PS Vita got Ray of Persia and Glob Cell, the former being Rayman dressed as the Franchise/PrinceOfPersia and the latter being Globox dressed as Sam Fisher, earned from beating two of the version's Murfy's Challenges levels (An Architect's Nightmare for Rayman's, Bounce to the Sky for Globox's). There's also Funky Ray; he requires you to have [[OldSaveBonus the Rayman Legends Challenge App]] on Wii U, but you can get him with uPlay units on [=PS4=] and Xbox One, making him exclusive to [[MediaNotes/TheEighthGenerationOfConsoleVideoGames the eighth generation]] onward. Finally, there's Champion Ray, who was originally a developer-only costume, but was later made available to [=VIP=] members of the community on the [=PS4=] and Xbox One versions; however, like every costume listed above, he became unlockable in the base game in ''Definitive Edition''. |
| 577 | * VideoGameCaringPotential: You can pet and feed domesticated animals. You can also go out of your way to save stranded sailors, even when your crew is completely topped off and picking up stragglers confers no practical advantage. |
| 578 | * VideoGameCrueltyPotential: |
| 579 | ** While you still suffer desync penalties for killing civilians and domestic animals, your crew suffers from WeHaveReserves; any crew lost during a boarding - up to and including swivel cannon friendly fire - is negligible thanks to the ability to recruit replacements. It's even lampshaded in-game; there's an achievement for recruiting a total of 500 crew members called "Cannon Fodder". |
| 580 | ** Berserk darts in general. Force your enemies to brutally murder their friends and comrades while you sadistically cackle at them from the bushes! Fun! |
| 581 | ** Sleep darts. Usually intended for players to simply knock out snipers or something for a little while, but if you use them on an enemy standing in water they drown immediately. |
| 582 | ** And watch what happens when a player with multiple pursuers finally gets downed in the Wanted mode of multiplayer: after being mortally wounded, they have to suffer the indignity of being literally curb-stomped by a small mosh pit of pursuers. |
| 583 | ** Plantation robbing sidequests are supposed to be stealth missions, but it feels so good to kill every last guard in a plantation. |
| 584 | * ViewersAreMorons: Abstergo Entertainment clearly believes this, all their products and information promos are filled with barely concealed condescension for their audiences. At one point, an in-story Marketing promo discusses the suitability of former PlayerCharacter [[VideoGame/AssassinsCreedIII Connor]] for an upcoming product but feels that the setting is "too foreign", that is a Native American setting in the Mohawk Valley (contemporary upstate New York). Which could also be a TakeThatCritics to the audiences who complained about the previous game. |
| 585 | * VillainProtagonist: |
| 586 | ** On the meta level, R-L and Abstergo Entertainment, [[spoiler:especially given that they all technically work for the Templars]]. On the other hand, at least a good chunk of the staff are generally good people. [[spoiler:And even those in the know are [[NotInThisForYourRevolution much more concerned with]] [[OnlyInItForTheMoney making profits and some entertainment]] than whatever their "superiors" have in store.]] |
| 587 | ** Edward Kenway himself qualifies, as per Darby [=McDevitt=], for most of the game he only cares for money and fame solely so he could have the "good life" and is willing to sacrifice his marriage, his few friendships and risk the lives of his own crew for his obsessions. The game is a long, drawn-out HeelRealization for him. Even after he devotes himself to the cause of the Assassins, he still remains a pirate and makes no apologies about robbing and murdering people by the dozens just to make a quick buck. |
| 588 | * VillainousBreakdown: |
| 589 | ** [[spoiler:When Juno declines to possess R-L just yet during the internment in the bunker, John breaks down big time, screaming at the Analyst about why they are "still here" and letting loose a ClusterFBomb. The next time we see him, he's completely given up his FauxAffablyEvil facade, full bore into FantasticRacism, and screaming like a lunatic when guards come in to save the Analyst]]. |
| 590 | ** Woodes Rogers does this after being removed from his post as governor, giving a speech at his leaving party where he calls the King an idiot, resents that his commitment to making the Caribbean a safer place has been overlooked, and predicts a time where he and Torres will witness the British and Spanish empires crumble. [[spoiler: Then he walks past Edward's bench and *snikt*]] |
| 591 | * WantedPoster: The game ditches the wanted meter while on land—enemies simply stopp chasing you if you hide for a while; but the game does add one in the sea. Sink too many ships in a short amount of time, and bounty hunter ships will come after you. |
| 592 | * WarpWhistle: The game lets you travel to any unlocked viewpoint even if you are in the middle of the sea (except if you are in the middle of a naval fight). There are also dozens of boats scattered throughout the map that teleport Edward to his ship. |
| 593 | * WhenThingsSpinScienceHappens: Initially played straight, but ultimately averted with the Observatory. The spinny bits just act as a giant projector, the important part does not only not spin, but doesn't need the spinny bit at all. It just can't create giant sized images by itself. |
| 594 | * WideOpenSandbox: The northern Caribbean Sea containing the Greater Antilles is fully sailable and filled with all sorts of locations. |
| 595 | * WhatHappenedToTheMouse: |
| 596 | ** [[spoiler: Stede Bonnet]] isn't given much of a send off, though details of what happened to him can be found in the Animus database and those who've read up on the history will also be able to fill in the blank. [[spoiler: During the mission where you escape from British captivity, you can overhear a conversation where the guards talk about Bonnet's execution]]. |
| 597 | ** Another pertinent example is [[spoiler:Anne Bonny, who seems to have been alive and in America in 1782, around the time Edward's descendants were active there. At the end of the game, she's alive and in one piece and remains in the Caribbean while Edward goes back to England with his daughter. Of course, this is fitting with history, as she disappeared from prison after Mary's death from fever, and we have no record of her afterwards.]]. |
| 598 | * WhatTheHellIsThatAccent: The Portuguese sailors have accents that doesn't sound even close to Portuguese, sounding more like bad ''Russian''. Anne Bonny, despite being voiced with an Irish accent, nevertheless is speaking with the ''wrong'' variant (Irish accents are hugely varied for a country that size. Anne is supposed to have been from Cork but the voice actress doesn't use a Cork accent). |
| 599 | * WhiteVoidRoom: Subverted in comparison to the previous games, as the memory corridor is now sea green with bokeh sparkles (the latter being similar to ''III'''s multiplayer interface, but much brighter). Also justified as it hearkens to the Animus interface in the First game which took place in the Abstergo office. Essentially the Animus of the Assassins favors white (except for the Black Room in ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedRevelations'' where the colours were inverted) while Templars interface have blue and green. |
| 600 | * WoodenShipsAndIronMen: The game is set several decades before ''III'' and has you pilot a pirate ship during UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfPiracy and features open world naval combat, building on the Naval gameplay. Justified, as the non-modern main character is Connor's grandfather Edward Kenway, a pirate/assassin who is the colleague and equal of the likes of Benjamin Hornigold, UsefulNotes/{{Blackbeard}}, Charles Vane and Bartholomew Roberts. |
| 601 | * WorkplaceAcquiredAbilities: Edward Kenway's skill at free running comes from working on a ship for the better part of a decade by the time he first discovers the Assassins. The need to quickly climb up a ship's masts and across its rigging translates well into climbing tall buildings and leaping across rooftops. |
| 602 | * WoundedGazelleGambit: Mary Read pulls one of these on some guards, so that they'll open the doors. She promptly kills them. |
| 603 | * WretchedHive: Nassau in the Bahamas was a Pirate republic, with elected officials and freedom to vote and initially is shown to be a small shantytowns with thatched houses and a small settlement with wooden support beams but is alive with local colour and character and seems like a cool place. However, in the game we see it get worse when disease and lack of medicine and infrastructure turn it into a slum with rats scurrying around, and people walking on streets in total sickness, which results in the Nassau Pirates LosingTheTeamSpirit and folding to Woodes Rogers. |
| 604 | * WrittenByTheWinners: What your job profile as Research Analyst for Abstergo Entertainment entails. Unearth the raw details of the past, find out how it happened and then send your footage to developers who will make a mockery of history and the lives of past figures. |
| 605 | * YouAllMeetInACell: After about an hour or so of prologue in Cuba, the game has Protagonist Edward Kenway taken prisoner and locked on a ship bound for Spain as part of the 1715 Spanish Treasure Fleet. He meets Adéwalé, a fellow prisoner and former slave, and together they break their bounds and use the approaching Hurricane to free a number of other prisoners, commander one of the smaller ships in the fleet and escape just before the Hurricane sinks the fleet. Adéwalé and the others become Edwards crew and the game opens up as they refit the stolen brig as a pirate ship that is used for the remainder of the game. |
| 606 | * YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: Bartholomew Roberts is portayed as a big believer in this trope; he kills the Portuguese captain who helped him set up a FalseFlagOperation (quoting the trope name to Edward when the latter asks why the captain isn't on the ship anymore), guns down members of his own crew to prevent them [[spoiler:being driven insane by the technology contained in the Observatory]], and [[spoiler:'rewards' Edward for helping him find the Observatory by handing him to the British Navy in exchange for a bounty and leaving him to rot in a Jamaican jail cell]]. |
| 607 | * YouShouldntKnowThisAlready: Even if you know exactly where a treasure chest is buried, you can't unearth it before you've found its respective treasure map. |
| 608 | [[/folder]] |
| 609 | ---- |
| 610 | ->''Of all the money that e'er I had...\ |
| 611 | I spent it in good company...\ |
| 612 | And all the harm that e'er I've done...\ |
| 613 | Alas it was to none but me...\ |
| 614 | And all I've done for want of wit...\ |
| 615 | To memory now I can't recall...\ |
| 616 | So fill to me the parting glass...\ |
| 617 | Good night and joy be with you all.\ |
| 618 | Of all the comrades that e'er I had...\ |
| 619 | They are sorry for my going away...\ |
| 620 | And all the sweethearts that e'er I've loved...\ |
| 621 | They would wish me one more day to stay...\ |
| 622 | But since it falls unto my lot...\ |
| 623 | That I should rise and you should not...\ |
| 624 | I'll gently rise and softly call...\ |
| 625 | Good night and joy be with you all...\ |
| 626 | Good night and joy be with you all.'' |
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