History YMMV / AssassinsCreedIVBlackFlag

* EsotericHappyEnding: The ending to the game is rather uplifting, with Edward fully embracing joining the order and finally reuniting with his family. This is slightly marred by the fact that Edward himself is very blatantly DoomedByCanon thanks to this being a prequel to [[VideoGame/AssassinsCreedIII the previous game]]. [[spoiler: In fact we know for a fact that Edward suffers perhaps [[DownerEnding the bleakest]] HappyEndingOverride of any of the ''Assassin's Creed'' protagonists. He gets killed by mercenaries hired by his apprentice Birch, with his death being a contributing factor to the downfall of the Assassin Brotherhood in London. His daughter gets made into a sex slave while Haytham gets indoctrinated into becoming a Templar by Birch]]. Knowledge of this makes the seemingly upbeat ending come off as rather bittersweet.

* PolishedPort: In contrast to the Wii U port of the game (see below), the UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch version on ''The Rebel Collection'' is a MUCH better translation. While taking a slight hit visually, the framerate rarely dips whether docked or in handheld, and it has exclusive Switch features like HD Rumble and gyro-aiming for ranged weapons. The only downside is that Rogue isn't on the cart, thus requiring a download of it.

* FoeYay:
** Black Bart seems to be very flirty with Edward, noting that, "I see in you a touch of untested genius."
--> ''By jove, Edward Kenway! How can I not be impressed by the attention you've paid me! May the best of we two sing praises of the second!"''
** Likewise, John makes some remarks about the Analyst's "tender body", which he wants Juno, whom he is obsessively in love with, to possess. The Analyst's gender is deliberately never stated...

* FanPreferredCouple: Kenway/James Kidd or [[spoiler:Kenway/Mary Read]] is one of the most popular pairings of the game, if not ''the'' most popular. Even though the game sets them up as PlatonicLifePartners, their endearing chemistry and [[spoiler:Edward's grieving following Mary's death]] made them a popular ship.

** [[FromNobodyToNightmare Bartholomew Roberts]] is an elusive {{wild card}} who ends up becoming the most successful pirate of his time. Pursued by both Assassins and Templars for his knowledge of The Observatory, Roberts helps [[PlayerCharacter Edward Kenway]] locate the Observatory after he gets Edward to free his crew and steal a Man-O-War for him. Reaching the Observatory, Roberts removes the Crystal Skull, leaving the Observatory inoperable to anyone else, before he [[ChronicBackstabbingDisorder backstabs]] Edward and sells him to British authorities once [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness he served his purpose]]. Eventually getting killed by Edward, Roberts asks that Edward destroy his body before he [[FaceDeathWithDignity gracefully passes]], having followed his creed to live "a merry life and a short one."

* FranchiseOriginalSin: When it was released, Black Flag was generally well received for breathing new life into a franchise that had begun to fall prey to StrictlyFormula. However, some of the things that set apart it apart from previous instalments (An outsider protagonist who is initially indifferent to the Assassin/Templar conflict, and a large part of the game focusing less on stealth and more on pure combat with [[RPGElements RPG Elements]] - In Black Flag's case naval combat.) are also things later games in the series, particularly Videogame/AssassinsCreedOdyssey and Videogame/AssassinsCreedValhalla, would be criticized for.

* LateArrivalSpoiler: The game spoils a big plot twist from ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedIIILiberation'' [[spoiler: (the main character's mother Madeline is really a Templar)]], which came out less than a year earlier for the UsefulNotes/PlayStationVita and was re-released in 2014.

* TakeThatCritics: The narrator of Connor's video says that Abstergo Entertainment also give thought to the idea of focusing on Connor's pre-Assassin years, but determined that while the setting might interest "educated" viewers, it would be "too foreign" for "normal" audiences to relate to, complete with a claim that [[BlatantLies the omnipresence of his people (in the context of depicting Connor's early years) would necessarily preclude "balance" with which to tell "the true story of America"]].

* CrazyAwesome: Blackbeard. He's violent, he's ruthless, and he's impulsive, but damned if he isn't likeable! [[spoiler: Sadly, he's TooCoolToLive.]]

* MagnificentBastard: [[FromNobodyToNightmare Bartholomew Roberts]] is an elusive {{wild card}} who ends up becoming the most successful pirate of his time. Pursued by both Assassins and Templars for his knowledge of The Observatory, Roberts helps [[PlayerCharacter Edward Kenway]] locate the Observatory after he gets Edward to free his crew and steal a Man-O-War for him. Reaching the Observatory, Roberts removes the Crystal Skull, leaving the Observatory inoperable to anyone else, before he [[ChronicBackstabbingDisorder backstabs]] Edward and sells him to British authorities once [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness he served his purpose]]. Eventually getting killed by Edward, Roberts asks that Edward destroy his body before he [[FaceDeathWithDignity gracefully passes]], having followed his creed to live "a merry life and a short one."

* SpiritualAdaptation:
** If you want to see what a ''Franchise/PiratesOfTheCaribbean'' video game would look like then ''Black Flag'' serves as an amazing adaptation. The game even spoofs the franchise with a fictional, in-universe movie titled ''Devils of the Caribbean''.
** It's also a very close adaptation of ''Series/BlackSails''. Not only do they share the same setting, locations, tone, and similar cast of characters but they involve pirate captains sailing the high seas with a motley crew of shipmates and also serve as a prequel to another work.

* MagnificentBastard: Bartholomew Roberts is an elusive {{wild card}} who ends up becoming the most successful pirate of his time. Pursued by both Assassins and Templars for his knowledge of The Observatory, Roberts helps [[PlayerCharacter Edward Kenway]] locate the Observatory after he gets Edward to free his crew and steal a Man-O-War for him. Reaching the Observatory, Roberts removes the Crystal Skull, leaving the Observatory inoperable to anyone else, before he [[ChronicBackstabbingDisorder backstabs]] Edward and sells him to British authorities once [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness he served his purpose]]. Eventually getting killed by Edward, Roberts asks that Edward destroy his body before he [[FaceDeathWithDignity gracefully passes]], having followed his creed to live "a merry life and a short one."

*** Fourth, the post-boarding prompt for what to do with a captured prize will still appear -- in particular, "Repair the ''Jackdaw''" -- ''even if a multi-ship combat is still ongoing''. Combined withe the ''Jackdaw''[='=]s invincibility during boarding, a player can keep the ''Jackdaw'' afloat in a drawn-out battle for as long as they can make it to the next boarding, i.e. "nibbling one's way up the food chain" against a high-level enemy ship by focusing on disabling, then boarding and capturing lower-level allies to "recover health" whenever needed.

** It's also a very close adaptation of ''Series/BlackSails''. Not only do they share the same setting, locations, tone, and similar cast of characters but they involve pirate captains sailing the high seas with their own ships and also serve as a prequel to another work.

** It's also a very close adaptation of Creator/{{Starz}}' ''Series/BlackSails''. Not only do they share the same setting, locations, tone, and similar cast of characters but they involve pirate captains sailing the high seas with their own ships and also serve as a prequel to another work.

** It's also a very close adaptation of Creator/Starz' ''Series/BlackSails''. Not only do they share the same setting, locations, tone, and similar cast of characters but they involve pirate captains sailing the high seas with their own ships and also serve as a prequel to another work.

* If you want to see what a ''Franchise/PiratesOfTheCaribbean'' video game would look like then ''Black Flag'' serves as an amazing adaptation. The game even spoofs the franchise with a fictional, in-universe movie titled ''Devils of the Caribbean''.
* It's also a very close adaptation of Creator/Starz' ''Series/BlackSails''. Not only do they share the same setting, locations, tone, and similar cast of characters but they involve pirate captains sailing the high seas with their own ships and also serve as a prequel to another work.

* SpiritualAdaptation: If you want to see what a ''Franchise/PiratesOfTheCaribbean'' video game would look like then ''Black Flag'' serves as an amazing adaptation. The game even spoofs the franchise with a fictional, in-universe movie titled ''Devils of the Caribbean''.

* SpiritualAdaptation: If you want to see what a ''Franchise/PiratesOfTheCaribbean'' video game would look like, then ''Black Flag'' serves as an amazing adaptation. The game even spoofs the franchise with a fictional, in-universe movie titled ''Devils of the Caribbean''.

* DemonicSpiders: Water spouts deal an insane amount of damage to anything caught in their large area of effect[[note]]they take about three seconds of being vaguely near one to empty a fully upgraded ''Jackdaw'''s health segment regardless of bracing or not, making it the most damaging thing in the game[[/note]], move around erratically, always happen in heavy weather that makes navigating difficult anyway, and there's absolutely nothing the player can do about them except running away, which isn't always an option and harder than it sounds in any case. They're also much, much faster than any ship including the ''Jackdaw''. The storms that spawn them can happen anywhere at any time outside of story missions, so there's always a chance of a random spout completely ruining your day in 30 seconds or less. Oh, and they usually come in packs of three, with you caught right in the middle. They do sometimes help the player by destroying enemy ships, but the odds are much higher that they'll go after the ''Jackdaw'' instead.

** Those damn sea-shanties. They're hard as shit to locate on the map, easily blending into its surroundings so that you'd have to scour every inch of it to find them. Like the Almanac pages from ''III'', they're floating pages that fly away when you get near them, requiring you to run all over the friggin city chasing them down. And if you don't catch them in a certain amount of time they disappear, requiring you to go all the way back to the start and wait several minutes for them to respawn.
*** Most shanties are trivial to catch by spawn-camping their respawn point for a minute after their disappearance. Still tedious and annoying, though.

* Hilarious in Hindsight: The "Team Edward Kenway" jokes became even funnier after Syndicate introduced Jacob Frye. As a bonus, they're both the primary protagonists of their respective games and the first two such primary protagonists to be British.
** [[InsistentTerminology Edward’s Welsh, actually]].