Ezio will be in the next Assassin’s Creed but not through witchcraft

A major leak of information regarding Assassin’s Creed Hexe suggests that that star of Assassin’s Creed 2 is set to return, alongside ‘lots of forests.’

Considering how long it took Ubisoft to properly announce Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced it’s anyone’s guess as to when they’ll start talking about the next mainline entry, which they revealed as having the codename Hexe – without saying anything else about it.

There’s a chance it may turn up in the not-E3 round of preview showcases this summer, but they probably won’t say anything much until after Resynced launches on July 9.

In the meantime, though, there’s an ever increasing series of rumours from normally reliable insiders, with one claiming to have evidence that Ezio Auditore da Firenze, from Assassin’s Creed 2, will be in Hexe, despite it being set over a hundred years later than his games.

Since Hexe is thought to revolve around witchcraft in Germany, in the 16th century, there’s a few ways you could contrive to feature Ezio, but apparently it’s not magic but a glitch in the animus – the scientific instrument that allows modern people to experience the lives of their ancestors.

According to leaker Rogue, who is well respected within the Assassin’s Creed community, protagonist Anika is a direct descendent of Claudia Auditore da Firenze, sister of Ezio.

Hexe has already seen the exit of two directors, which doesn’t bode well, but apparently one of the disagreements was over whether it should feature actual magic or not. The most recent rumour suggests it currently doesn’t, with Rogue claiming that a ‘memory glitch’ is how Anika is able to speak to Ezio.

The leaker claims to have datamined dialogue lines from the game, which suggest Ezio teaches Anika various skills, possibly including parkour.

Considering how much about the game already seems to have changed nothing is certain even if the leaker is being honest, but they suggest the primary location of the game is Wurzburg in Bavaria.

However, they’ll also apparently be ‘lots of forests’ and a skill for ‘tree-to-tree branch jumping.’ As opposed to a skill tree for branch jumping.

All of that sounds perfectly believable, and certainly trying to push the nostalgia button is the obvious thing to do when Ubisoft is in a tight spot, as Resynced itself proves.

If the leaks are already at the stage where multiple lines of dialogue are being made public then who knows what’s going to be revealed closer to release or whether Ubisoft will tolerate the leaks, as they did with Resynched, and regard it as good publicity.

Assassin’s Creed is in a peculiar place at the moment, as while last year’s Assassin’s Creed Shadows did well there’s a sense amongst the fandom that the series is in need of another refresh. Whether that will be Hexe remains to be seen but with the discussion around spin-off Invictus being so negative, Resynched can’t come soon enough – for fans or for Ubisoft.

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