We Played Assassin's Creed: Black Flag Resynced! - Kinda Funny Gamescast

Summary

Kinda Funny Gamescast – Episode Summary

Episode Title: We Played Assassin's Creed: Black Flag Resynced!
Date: May 21, 2026
Hosts: Greg Miller, Tim Gettys, with Assassin's Creed superfan Barrett Courtney
Main Topic: First hands-on impressions and deep dive into Assassin's Creed: Black Flag Resynced, Ubisoft’s full-scale remake of the iconic pirate-themed Assassin’s Creed entry.

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Episode Overview

This episode is a celebratory and in-depth discussion of Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag Resynced, with Barrett Courtney returning to the hosts’ desk as the franchise’s most enthusiastic expert. The crew unpacks Barrett’s hands-on preview from a recent Ubisoft event, breaks down the differences between the original and the remake, and explores what modern changes the developer is introducing. There’s reflection on the original Black Flag’s legacy, plenty of pirate and gaming banter, and honest conversation about what longtime and brand-new players should expect.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

Origins and Context of the Remake

(11:23 – 13:07)

• Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag Resynced has long been rumored. It’s officially launching July 9th, 2026, for $59.99 (Standard) and $69.99 (Deluxe).
• The original Black Flag (2013) was a breakout hit, known for its pirate theme and open Caribbean-world naval exploration.
• Greg recalls the immense time-sink of the original:

  “...I never made progress for shit in the story because wherever they started me, I was like, I’m going to be a goon and go island by island by island.” – Greg (13:40)

What Makes Resynced Different?

(14:05 – 22:12)

• Barrett describes Resynced as the first ground-up Assassin’s Creed remake and possibly Ubisoft's first full remake overall.
• The team’s goal: “Preserve, but also re-examine a beloved game.”

  “Resynced feels like it was pulled from an alternate timeline where instead of Black Flag coming out in 2013, it had released in between Assassin’s Creed Syndicate and Assassin’s Creed Origins, kind of bridging the gap...” – Barrett (15:25)

• Major new elements:
  • Enhanced visuals and gameplay (built in the latest Anvil engine, as used for Assassin’s Creed: Shadows).
  • Modernized combat and stealth (“Edward can free crouch!”).
  • Refined controls and “moment-to-moment” action, aiming to feel like our nostalgia-tinged memories but more polished (“...looks and plays how we look back at Black Flag with our rose tinted glasses.” – Barrett, 16:16).
• More dynamic and engaging combat, inspired by modern AC games but without full RPG stat complexity.

Story & Narrative Additions

(23:07 – 29:10)

• Remake aims to “fully flesh out Edward Kenway’s story,” potentially filling narrative gaps and strengthening character relationships (ex: Edward and Blackbeard).
• The modern-day storyline, considered confusing or uninviting for new players, is being overhauled for clarity while still honoring the original ("...it makes sense to kind of silo off [the modern day]"). – Barrett (25:32)
• New side content: More intimate naval crew/companion quests. Crew members will be more deeply characterized and recruited through their own storylines ("It’s attempting to make the crew feel a little bit more personalized." – Barrett, 28:54)
• Narrative goal: Deliver a pirate story that’s thematically about “being in an aimless time in your life... and when it’s time to stand up for something, what are you going to do with that?” (41:35)

Core Gameplay Improvements

(29:50 – 50:58)

• Refined ship combat: Feels familiar but gets new weapons, additive features, and technical polish.
• Major focus on ensuring “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” – the team honors what made Black Flag’s exploration and naval battles satisfying.
• Underwater exploration ("...you can go underwater anywhere in the ocean now," 48:56), dynamic weather, and a brighter, richer Caribbean world.
• Enhanced controls for classic Assassin’s parkour, but some input fuzziness remains (“...the game mistranslates what you’re doing.” – Barrett, 53:52).
• Ship combat stays fun and accessible; learning curve is gentle and rewarding.

Remaster vs. Remake – Why Black Flag?

(34:33 – 41:05)

• Why remake Black Flag instead of AC1/2?
  • Black Flag is disconnected from the complex Desmond/Templar storyline—makes for an easier “blockbuster” entry point.
  • AC1 would require massive overhaul to be fun by today’s standards ("Assassin’s Creed 1 needs a lot of TLC to get those systems and mechanics up to a place where it’s fun." – Greg, 38:59)
  • Rising cultural interest in “pirate adventures” (ex: One Piece).
• The theme of personal aimlessness and eventual purpose resonates more universally than the traditional “duty to the Creed” in earlier games.

Value for New and Returning Players

(33:00 – 34:33; 39:45 – 41:05)

• Barrett argues Resynced is a perfect first Assassin’s Creed for newcomers because:
  • “It emulates the feeling of what the original games were without having to go back to the dated design and gameplay feel of those games.”
  • The story is self-contained, and the remake’s visuals/gameplay are modernized.
• For returning fans, it provides new characterization and a reason to revisit a favorite.

Technical & Quality-Of-Life Insights

(43:35 – 53:59)

• New tools (the rope dart, now earned earlier), new enemy types (some still under NDA or not yet seen).
• Ship combat borrows nothing from Skull and Bones ("...they were like, no, no, no, no. We need to look back at Black Flag. Again, if it's not broken, don't fix it." – Barrett, 46:38).
• Mini-complaints: classic AC issue of parkour input confusion, minor bugs observed in preview build (ex: Edward not equipping his swords), but these may be fixed for launch.

Shanties, Vibes, and Closing Impressions

(51:27 – 55:14)

• Sea shanties return ("Shanties are back. Shanties are great." – Barrett, 51:27), with tweaks making them easier to collect.
• Visuals and mechanics “look and play how you remember” (another nod to the “rose-tinted” remake philosophy).
• Barrett’s personal “Rose/Thorn/Bud”:
  • Rose: Mechanical/visual upgrades
  • Bud: New story content, new crew personalities
  • Thorn: Parkour input frustrations

What Does This Mean for Assassin’s Creed’s Future?

(55:14 – 56:30)

• Smaller-scale AC games aren’t “the future” per se—Ubisoft adapts direction regularly.
• Black Flag Resynced is not small (in size or scope). Mirage’s struggles were more about ideas than size.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Barrett on nostalgia and remakes:

  “Resynced feels like it was pulled from an alternate timeline... it looks and plays how we look back at Black Flag with our rose tinted glasses.” (15:25, 16:16)

• Greg on Black Flag’s pirate fantasy:

  “...this is like I’m on a Caribbean vacation.” (42:38)

• Barrett on Edward Kenway’s journey:

  “...a story about being in an aimless time in your life and not feeling ashamed for that... then when it’s time to stand up for something, what are you going to do with that?” (41:35)

• Barrett on Ubisoft Singapore’s design philosophy:

  “If it isn’t broke, don’t fix it.” (19:12, 46:38)

• On the future of Assassin’s Creed:

  “I don’t see Black Flag as a small game... they go left, right, whichever way the wind kind of blows for the series.” (55:31)

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Important Timestamps

• 00:07 – 06:40: Introductions, Barrett’s background as an Assassin’s Creed expert, nostalgia for franchise history
• 11:23 – 13:07: Black Flag Resynced announcement details, why the team is excited
• 15:25 – 16:43: Philosophy of the remake and Barrett’s first big impressions
• 23:07 – 26:54: Narrative changes, modern-day story tweaks, crew side missions
• 29:50 – 50:58: Gameplay improvements, underwater and ship combat, technical polish, new systems
• 51:27 – 55:14: Shanties, Rose/Thorn/Bud preview, minor preview build issues
• 55:14 – 56:30: Future of Assassin’s Creed – what does this remake signal?
• Throughout: Live chat and superchats featuring pressing fan questions and lighthearted moments

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Final Thoughts

Barrett enthusiastically recommends Black Flag Resynced as a worthy return for fans and an excellent entry point for newcomers, praising Ubisoft for meaningful enhancements and nuanced additions without sacrificing the fun, exploration, and spirit that made the original a classic. Despite a few lingering nitpicks about parkour, Barrett and Greg both agree this is a remake aimed at both nostalgia and modern sensibility—timed perfectly for a summer of pirate adventuring.

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For Fans, Newcomers, and Skeptics Alike:
If you long for open seas, clashing cutlasses, and a pirate story with more modern polish—but want the heart of the classic—this remake is absolutely on your radar.

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(End of summary. Skipped ads, membership promos, and unrelated post-show chatter as instructed.)

Transcript

[A]

What's up, everybody? Welcome to the Kinda Funny Games cast for Thursday, May 21, 2026. Number one, crane operator Greg Miller's birthday. I'm one of your hosts, Greg Miller, alongside boss baby CEO Junior Tim junior And the man who is our Assassin's Creed expert, Bear Courtney.

[B]

God damn it, Greg. I can't. I can't believe you would let the pretentious Lego Batman reviewer back onto the show. I swear, Greg Barrett even enjoy the games. He better not. You better not. If he even thinks about, you know, his connection with a video game, his personal connection, and thinks about that a little bit deeper and tries to unpack that in front of me, I will shit my pants and make it your problem.

[A]

Just want to know if it's fun or not. I don't want to hear oh my

[B]

God, I want to hear any.

[A]

So many people loved you on that review. I always tell you, don't focus on just the negative comments.

[B]

Yeah, it's so much easier to do because I already hate myself. My favorite was people being like, why is he looking for nostalgia for, like, LEGO nostalgia and like Arkham nostalgia? I don't know, maybe because the game marketed itself that as that. What are we doing? What are we doing?

[A]

This is why your parent. Your appearances on the desk are so rare. I just can't take the pressure. You know what I mean? You fold.

[B]

Folding chair.

[A]

How the hell are you?

[B]

I'm doing all right. You know, I'm. I'm tired. But we're. We're almost through the week. Yeah.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And yeah, it's been a tough one. You know, what we're talking about today. It's been a tough one to kind of hold in because this happened a few weeks ago. Yeah.

[A]

I've gone out of my way not to talk to you about it.

[B]

Yeah. And. And I'm excited to have this conversation today, but it was fun to to a preview event for the first time in three years. I'm trying to remember when Jedi Survivor now, my preview events are actually rare. I think the last one I did was Jedi Survivor. I went down to LA for that one. And then before that, again, think about how much the culture at Kind of Funny has changed. I was the guy who previewed securo back in 2019 because no one else, at least at the time, gave a shit about Seiro. And so mistakenly, I was the guy who previewed that. But, you know, it was a great excuse to see Mitchell Saltzman again at the time. But that was also funny of, you know, going to this preview event and getting to actually like see people, meet people that we have talked to online of course read stories from. You know, we had Ty guy Travis in yesterday and so I, I was

[A]

shocked when he introduced himself to Tim. I was like, I'm sorry you guys don't know each other. Like it didn't even dawn on you. Travis has never actually come here. He's never actually done stuff with us.

[B]

And it's funny cuz. Yeah, I've seen him twice this month because of that cuz he was at the Assassin's Creed thing and it's the most I've seen him since I worked at IGN when he used to be on the product side of ign, which is really funny and a, a great blast from the past. I also met Wesley LeBlanc who I mistakenly said Wesley Yin Pool and it was really embarrassing and I just, I just, I'm going to put that out there. Let's just be frank.

[A]

There's too many Wesley. There should only be one. I, I put it on social media today and they just read it on Games Daily. Fucking killer opening graph from Wesley on Game Informer today for his Bubsy 40. It reminded me of my Naughty Dog or Naughty Bear opener back at IGN where he's like this game sucks. Everybody like get him, get him. Let the hang it out.

[B]

But I've also to, to bring it back to, to Batman just for a quick second. I have been taking in a lot of the feedback and a lot of people were, were correct. I should have given it a 6.5. So that's on me. That's on me and I'm.

[A]

Are we amending it to a six.

[B]

Five? Yeah. Oh wow.

[A]

There you go.

[B]

6.5.

[A]

Update the graphics.

[B]

We don't, we don't shape it for a two person shot.

[A]

We weren't ready for that when we weren't there. But I'm glad, I'm glad you' glad you're exploring the scale.

[B]

Thank you.

[A]

More importantly, Barrett, Courtney, usually you're over there on the ones and twos. This is Assassin's Creed. I expect us to bring in a few new audience members here. Who are you when you, when you, when you want to just like they, maybe they know the Chuckleheads are kind of funny. You are not of course a rare treat, but you aren't on that often.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Give them a favorite game all time.

[B]

My favorite game of all time.

[A]

Ruin your top 100.

[B]

Give me all 100. Do I ruin it right now? Do I just say what my number one is right now? Persona 3 Reload. And that is, you know, kind of encompassing Persona 3 as, as a whole there. But I would say, you know, some of my favorite franchises may not be represented in fully in my top 100 list. Right, sure. But I, I love Legend of Zelda. I made a huge video about the legend of Zelda 6 a little over six years ago that came out, which is insane. And I followed that up with a, about Assassin's Creed. Because Assassin's Creed has been such a big part of my gaming, personal gaming lineage, even back in the, in a time where I wasn't playing a lot of games in high school.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

But this was still a series that really stood out to me because of my friends who were playing a lot more games looking at me and being like, you would really dig this. And you know, getting me into Assassin's Creed 2 at the time and then falling down the rabbit hole and playing Brotherhood and catching up with the series and all of this stuff. And it's a franchise that I have never strayed away from.

[A]

Even with how the dark times, even

[B]

when the review embargo for Unity was after the game came out and you know, that embargo came up and it was not great, I still drove to GameStop and picked up a copy myself because I was still interested. What are they doing with this next generation of Assassin's Creed? And so, you know, it's a very important series because I, I, I love, I love it even in its, in its low parts. And yeah, I did a whole reflective video on replaying the entire series, ranking them all and all that stuff and kind of.

[A]

Which has a hundred thousand views. Congratulations.

[B]

Oh, it's at the bottom of the doc.

[A]

I opened it up today and yeah, five years ago. 100, 100,620 views right there.

[B]

Hell yeah.

[A]

Hell yeah.

[B]

And so it was, it was Fun.

[A]

Was a 2 hour, 13 minute video over 5 years.

[B]

And it was, it was fun to go back and kind of take all of these in more within the context of when they're all coming out next to each other, seeing the threads of what these teams under Ubisoft are, you know, trying to build upon when it comes to the Assassin's Creed formula, obviously story stuff, which is, you know, neither here nor there at this point anymore when it comes to the modern day stuff. But it was a fascinating journey to go back and I think that came out leading into or like right after Valhalla, because I included Valhalla in that video as well.

[A]

Okay, okay, fair enough. And then Barrett, for People, what did you play last night? What are you playing right now? What is actually bopping around when you have a second to sit down? What are you playing?

[B]

I am not really consistently playing anything right now. I should be going back to Planet of Lana 2 on the Switch to. I really loved that first game.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Mike and I share that love. And I started it up. I'm. I was in the groove and then I think something or another came out, whether that was like a Batman or something else or a preview or what have you. And then, yeah, I should be going into that. There's a couple of embargoed things I should be playing, but I'm not. I. I beat Bubsy 40. I gave that a five out of 10 on the games day on games daily just right before this. So there you go. You know, come back in two days,

[A]

we'll change the score.

[B]

Yeah, I. I think I'm in a waiting period on some things. Right. So right now I'm just watching a lot of things with. With Alyssa because we're both kind of busy right now. So whenever there's free time, we just like to, you know, I have that with each other. And it's me playing a video game right now. Doesn't really go into that.

[A]

Yeah, yeah. It's hard to have quality time, huh?

[B]

Yeah, exactly.

[A]

Last night I didn't want to have quality time with my wife, so I went home and played video games. And what I want to do is give a shout out and a continued shout out to Thick as thieves.

[B]

Ooh.

[A]

This is the game we streamed yesterday. Blessing and I did, of course, Other side entertainment. Please go check out the YouTube VOD of it. YouTube.com kind of funnygames. We've talked about this one obviously before in showcases than in, hey, here's all the games coming out this month. And then for it to come out yesterday. 499 to get into this game and it's, you know, it is a stealth thief, not an extraction shooter, but it's kind of extraction of like, there's two maps, there's 16 different missions, there's two playable characters. Small team working on this thing for, yeah, five bucks. I was blown away by how much fun Blessing I had with it yesterday. And then I got home and I was like, I looked at everything and I'm like, I'm in the same little boat. Like we're, you know, on the precipice of a few different big reviews. And it's like I'm waiting for that code. So it's like, rather than start something or even go back and continue something that I was like, I want to ride the high of this. And I went, you can play it solo or co op. I went and played this solo last night and had another great, great mission with it. It was my first time running on Thief difficulty, which put way more ghost guards out there. And I learned how to fight them now. And all this different stuff. Lots of good shit going on in Thickest Thieves. We should support cool small games and again, 4.99 on Steam right now.

[B]

Cool small games with teams that are willing to completely pivot their kind of original vision.

[A]

Sure.

[B]

When they get to the point of is there any fun in what we're doing right now? And changing that up because this was supposed to be a PvP v. E and they completely changed it over to a PV experience. Right. So good on them for that.

[A]

Lots of fun to be had there. Lots of cool shit to unlock. You know, it's again, I don't know. I think I said 16 missions is what you're talking about yesterday. Right. In terms of like there's. You can do missions as much as you want, but there's like 16, like whatever main objectives or whatever. Will I see all of them through? I doubt it. But when we finished yesterday, I was like, will I play this again? I don't know. And then like I got home and I'm like, I want to play more.

[B]

Sometimes it's nice to just take a night and play a game. Not in the constriction of what we do for arcade job. Yeah. With the content machine that constantly begs us to play and talk about the new thing. And sometimes it's nice, you know, just play something for yourself.

[A]

Do the little new thing.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

I mean, concurrent on that was a thousand players yesterday on launch. Go support them. Go get more people playing that game. That's five bucks. Come on. Speaking of five bucks, sky super chats and says $5 super chat for Barrett being behind the desk. Return of the King. That's him right there, everybody. This, of course, is the kind of funny games cast. Each and every weekday we run you through the biggest topics in video games, whether they be previews, reviews, or just topics we need to talk about. If you like that, talk with just like sky did super chat on YouTube.com kindafunnygames while we're live, we're also live on Twitch, but you can only super chat on YouTube to be part of the show. Then of course go to patreon.com kindafunny to be a Patreon producer, just like Carl Jacobs, Omega Buster and Delaney the Psalm twining did. For now, let's begin the show with what is and forever will be topic of the show.

[B]

Tots, tuts tuts tuts tuts tuts tuts tuts.

[A]

Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynched no colon. No colon.

[B]

As a lot of people pointed out on social media today, it's all.

[A]

It's a mouthful of a title. It had been rumored forever and ever and ever and ever and ever. Then finally the invites started going out for you to go see this. Steam description reads the iconic Solo Pirate Adventure returns Sail the Caribbean. Or do you say Caribbean? Is this like caramel and caramel? Can you say it both ways or is there a way you should be doing it? Sale the Caribbean the Caribbean as Edward Kenway during the golden age of piracy in this faithfully enhanced remake featuring stunning visuals, upgraded gameplay and new content, it is set to release on July 9th. That's so soon. It is $59.99 for the Standard Edition, $69.99 for the Deluxe edition. Of course you're picking up those sticks and being Edward Kenway once again. Of course 2013 originally saw Assassin's Creed Black Flag come to those consoles back then a Metacritic of 88 for the

[B]

original game on 360 and PS3 and

[A]

when you went and saw this wasn't cross gen with PS4, it was a

[B]

weird one where it came out first 360ps3 and then a month later when the new consoles came out it re released on there.

[A]

I played on PS4 as a launch game and that's what I remember. You went and saw this and again I wanted to go. I had a conflict. You and me love Assassin's Creed. You way more obviously but like I love Assassin's Creed as well. And I loved Black Flag back in the day but every time the rumor came around I was very much like cool. Black Flag is great, but I don't know. Old games older. I really want to go back and replay it. You came back and the only thing you said to me was like, you're going to be interested in this one.

[B]

I think so.

[A]

And to wake up this morning and see the preview embargo lift and see titles like this from Kotaku. I played four hours of the Assassin's Creed Black Flag remake and it's exactly what I want. IGN Assassin's Creed Black Flag resynced is much more than a facelift. And then to look at this footage I was like, oh no, this is going to be trouble. Black Flag, in the pantheon of Greg games is one of the few games I've ever had the similar Kevin Coelho reaction to where I eventually had to go, I need to stop. Like I put, I never made progress for shit in the story because wherever they started me, I was like, I'm going to be a goon and go island by island by island. And eventually I zoomed the map out and I was like, it's 20 hours, 30 hours or it was. I have to stop.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And I put it down and never went back, but loved my time with it. So now to see this, I'm like, oh, Barrett, shall I be concerned for my free time, my relationships, for this puppy we just got? They need to eat.

[B]

Yeah, this let me do a long winded answer to please, your question.

[A]

Do whatever you want. It's your show.

[B]

Yeah. With. With Black Flag resync being the first full from the ground remake for Assassin's Creed and correct me if I'm wrong, chat maybe the first actual full remake Ubisoft has ever actually got to release. Correct me if I'm wrong there they find themselves in an interesting opportunity to both one preserve, but also to re examine a beloved game in their grand catalog of titles. And I think the answer they have found with resync is a really promising one with a little over two hours of gameplay. I think so far Resynced feels like it was pulled from an alternate timeline where instead of Black Flag coming out in 2013, it had released in between Assassin's Creed Syndicate and Assassin's Creed Origins, kind of bridging the gap between the major two styles of Assassin's Creed we know today.

[A]

Sure. Right before that RPG gets invented full blown and then not traditional Assassin's Creed. Here's a smaller environment.

[B]

Exactly. And so it comes with a lot of modern sensibilities with combat, stealth, level design as well. That reminds me a lot of playing Origins, playing. Playing Odyssey in kind of its moment to moment, but not going full into stats and builds and committing to, you know, specific like weapon upgrades for like one weapon that you're trying to go from like a gray to a gold or anything like that. So in that balance I think they have found a. A remake, honestly that looks and plays how we look back at Black Flag with our rose tinted glasses.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

Something that really stood out to me when Roger got to see the kind of like actual reveal that I had gotten to see a little bit early. I think like a week ahead where they did the whole breakdown and showed the full trailer and all this stuff. Roger was like, damn, this actually looks really good. Because in my head it looks like how it came out. And then I pulled up footage from 13 years ago and you're like, no, that's, that's an aged game.

[A]

Yeah, for sure.

[B]

Yeah. For Black Flag in particular, like, I loved it back in 2013, definitely felt its age when I revisited it for Assassin's Creed in review. And now playing, you know, a small chunk of this, I am really excited to see this full remake and see not only what they choose to kind of preserve and build a build upon to, you know, bring back this feeling of what Black Flag meant back in 2013, but I'm also really excited to see what changes they're, they're making with this game that could flesh it out a little bit more and actually like kind of fill in some gaps, whether that's through gameplay or even story that might have felt a little bit thin or unfinished at the time to really, I think make a full like definite definitive quote, unquote, whatever. But like, hey, let's try to fully flesh out Edward Kenway's story here. And it has me really excited and I will say previewing this, playing this two weeks ago, roughly two and a half maybe, and then having another month and a half to wait until the game comes out. It has been tough because I have really only been thinking about this game.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

And I, I am really excited to go back into it and lose a lot of time back into this game that I have fully played through twice. I, I started a, like a PS4 when it like got re released playthrough that I never fully finished, but you know, gone through and did a lot of stuff in that playthrough as well. Yeah, I think this is hitting all of the right notes to, to have people kind of jump into this game, whether they're old fans or new.

[A]

So hit me at the top with this. For returning players or folks like me who played it back in the day, what are the changes here? Because even you, you're talking about fleshing out Edward and obviously there's more modern mechanics and stuff like that. It. Does it feel like it's completely remade? Does it feel familiar? Is like what is what. When they, when they show you and they give you the presentation, what are they talking about being the new bells and whistles? Are you feeling them? And do you think that's what stands out?

[B]

Yes. So yeah, there's a full, from the ground up remake this is being remade in their modern version of the Anvil engine, which was the same engine that they used for Shadows, which is an iteration on some of their modern stuff that they have. And a lot of the big changes are field to combat, kind of moment to moment stealth, which I think on the surface, you know, when they, when they first revealed this and you know, one of the, you know, stealth upgrades that they, they changed this time around is Edward Can Free Crouch. You're like, okay, that sounds stupid. Like why, why are we, why are we bullet pointing this as a big update? But then when you probably go back to Black Flag originally and you think about the more modern sensibilities of not just Assassin's Creed, but other stealth, you know, light games, you know, there, there's little touches here and there that I think kind of give that like, oh, this, this feels good to play today. And I think that was kind of their mindset going into this was something Paul Fu said, who I think was the creative director on this game was like, if it, if it isn't broke, don't fix it. Gotcha. And so I think a lot of systems here are going to feel familiar, but don't feel like I'm playing an old game.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

But again still preserve that feeling of what it was like to play Black Flag and other old Assassin's Creed games back in the day. And I think that's really shown in the combat where, you know, now it's like, it's all, you know, still the trigger buttons and stuff again that it has that feeling of more so what Odyssey and Origins plays like. But with, instead of focusing on RPG systems and DPS and all this stuff, they're still focused on kind of that like quick time action stuff that you felt from the OG Assassin's Creed games. And you know, now it's not so much of just hitting Y once and then hitting X over and over and over again to, you know, get an auto, you know, five person auto kill or whatever, you still have that mechanic here. But now it's, you got to focus more on the timing, you know, and you have to, you know, it has you engaged a little bit more, which

[A]

you feel like you're doing more on the sticks.

[B]

Yes. And that was something I definitely felt when I replayed Black Flag five or six years ago was, oh man. In a lot of old school Assassin's Creed games it's like, oh man, this felt so good at the time. But when you revisit it today, it doesn't feel as engaging. Especially when you're doing kind of the very simple combat over and over and over again. And, you know, it reminds me a lot, especially in the combat. Stick with me here. Because it's not quite a one to one. You know, a lot of Fromsoft games are about learning and committing to builds.

[A]

Sure.

[B]

And then to bring back it. To bring it back to Sekiro here. A lot of Sekiro is less of that and more so being engaged in what is happening in front of you and learning from that. And that's kind of what Black Resynced feels like compared to the other modern Assassin's Creed games. Not nearly as hard. Don't freak out. That I brought up FromSoftware. It was just an analogy. Don't freak out. And so, yeah, I think that's kind of the what they're aiming to do here. And I think they're accomplishing it really well, at least in the chunk that I played. It doesn't. It's preserving this feeling, this idea of what Black Flag is. But not. And you know, when they're doing updates, they're not completely abandoning that to just have it fit a shape that it doesn't quite fit with the other, you know, modern Assassin's Creed games.

[A]

Got you. You know, I talked at the top of these headlines today being so positive. Right. People being on board with this. The one I want to call out and jump off of is over at Gamespot there. Jordan wrote Assassin's Creed. Black Flag resync might be adding as many problems as it's fixing. And one of the things Jordan brings up is fixing an already fantastic story. What are they doing narratively or what do they talk to you about what they're doing in terms of Edward's story, in terms of Black Flag in general.

[B]

And yeah, so this is an interesting one. They are, right now, at least they are not releasing this game with the full, like, DLC and all that stuff. There's Freedom Cry and all that stuff that a lot of fans like, definitely really wanted. We'll see if they do like a Persona 3 reload thing later on where

[A]

there's money in those hills if you buy this one and it keeps Ubisoft afloat. Hell yeah, go for it.

[B]

Exactly. So there's stuff like that missing. And the. The way they talked about kind of the. The story overall, it, it. The framework that they are going, at least what they say are going into with this game is trying to enhance kind of like fully fleshing out and tidying up Edward's story in a way that makes sense to kind of revisit today. Right. Black Flag comes out right after the end of Desmond's story. It felt like an interesting reset point. And so there's a lot of like, interesting things it was doing or interesting. There's a lot of different things it was trying to do with its modern day, which they have said for reasons is being reworked, which makes a lot of sense because of where the modern day stuff was at the time. I don't think it makes sense to like fully go back and like fully readapt that. But it doesn't sound like they're abandoning that idea altogether. Especially because there's something in Edward's story that I'm not going to spoil that is paid off in the modern day. So, like, how do you go about, like, still doing that to make a certain character moment from Edward's time really hit? And so again, it seems all in service of like, how do we tell this guy's story? And so are you fine with that? I. I think so. I think if you try to go back and like redo the modern day and to get new players into it, I. I think the, the beginning, I replayed Black Flag, the intro, the night before I went to this preview.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And I could imagine new players coming in, being interested in a pirate story, especially, you know, what the hell's going on. Yeah, especially, you know, in the midst of like one piece getting huge and all this other pirates media coming out and people being really engaged in. And then, you know, 30 minutes into this adventure, you're getting pulled into modern day and you're like, I don't understand any of this. So I think it makes sense to kind of sil off. I'm interested to see how they adapt the modern day stuff when it comes to Edward's story, at least from my understanding, they're adding more here. And I think that is probably a. A smart move because from what I remember from revisiting Black Flag, there's at least stuff upon revisiting when you look back at Edward's story that naturally, like a lot of Assassin's Creed games, you're jumping throughout time and you're. You're getting kind of timeline skips and all this stuff. And I think through that there were some aspects of Edward's story, especially with his other brethren, pirates like Blackbeard and other people who were a part of like the Nassau Project, that started to feel a little bit thin in terms of motivation and incomplete. And it seems like this team has felt that too.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

This is Ubisoft Singapore, who wasn't the lead developer on Black Flag originally, but they did help with some of the development. And I think they made the, like, the E3 demo that originally came out back in the day. And so this seems to be a team who has, like, kind of thought a lot about, like, if we were to ever go back to this story, what would we kind of fill out to kind of fill in the gaps of what felt weird at the time? Something I remember Imran saying when this was properly announced on social media, there's like a scene between Edward and Blackbeard that at one point it seems like, oh, they're homies. And then the kind of the next seed or next check in. Edward's like, yo, Blackbeard's insane. And there's kind of like a whoa, this is a weird kind of whiplash here. So I'm excited to see what they do to fill that out. There's a new sequence kind of bringing in a character who I think was mentioned in the original version of this game and fully bringing them in. And I think that'll help kind of like really flesh out where these pirates go, especially near the end of the story. And then on top of that, you're also getting kind of, from what I understand, what is it optional kind of like side quest stuff with the naval officers. It might be main story. I forget. But besides Ottawale on the. On the crew, right. Your crew kind of feels like a generic crew. You just. It doesn't. Yeah, very disposable. You're picking up. You're picking them up on. In the middle of the sea. They're a part of it. They feel just like kind of an entity. Right. And the naval officers, which I got to experience one mission recruiting, feels like it. It's attempting to make the crew feel a little bit more personalized. Edward is looking for a shipwright. And you know, as someone who's been watching a lot of One Piece, I'm like, oh, Frankie from One Piece. Right. Like, I understand that now. And I think they're again, using kind of this. This moment where with a lot of people getting into pirate stuff recently, they're like, oh, we can actually flesh this stuff out. People understand what these things mean and we can add more personal stories to these specific people.

[A]

Blew it right there.

[B]

Oh, yeah, I totally. That we can add stuff. Kevin, if you want to bring up a new mission, you know, I got to, you know, free this. This woman from captivity. I got to sneak on board to this ship. If you Want to skip ahead? I think probably like a minute 30 into this, Kev. You know, I. I get to free her from. From this prison and then take her back to home base and kind of like slowly recruit her. And then I didn't get to experience the rest of her, like, questline, it seems. But you know, it's like, all right, we're planting the season. If I help her out on this, you know, she'll. She might actually like, join the crew proper.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

And it reminds me, and again, I'm sorry to bring this up of one piece, where every new person who joins Luffy's crew is at first going through their own, and then they all come together and help that person figure out what's going on in their hometown or what's going on in their personal life. They see that Luffy is a great dude and they're like, you know what? I ride with you, I'll die for you type of thing. I love that.

[A]

They're classic RPGs of building the Mass Effect crew.

[B]

Exactly. Exactly. And it feels, I think, the highest compliment I can give to again, only this one new mission is that it doesn't feel out of place. If you had told me, hey, this was something from the OG that you might have just like forgotten about or never engaged with and you should have. I would have been like, oh, damn. Like, yeah, it feels kind of right at home. And that's the. That's the thing that really stood out to me there, that it felt fitting for who Edward was and who his character is. And it gave a new opportunity to again make his crew feel a little bit more. Give it. Give it a little bit more personality. Outside. Yeah, outside of. Just out of Walley and some of the other captains who might join you along the way.

[A]

Oh, yeah, Barrett, I have lots more questions. The chat and the super chats have a lot more questions.

[B]

A lot more.

[A]

Make sure YouTube.com kind of funny games you super chat right now. So we get them in here. But before then, I'll remind you, we couldn't do this without you supporting Kinda Funny with your Kinda Funny membership. Of course, you give us $10, we give you everything we do for the entire month. That's more than 80 episodes of content ad free. You get your daily dose of me, Greg Miller, in a series we call Greg Way. And of course you get good karma for supporting an 11 person, 11 year old small business. But right now, you're not using your benefits. So while you hear about these ads, I'm gonna run and try to get my water and get back in time.

[C]

Do you smell it in the air? It's review season and it's only going to get crazier. Forza, Soros, Lego Batman and so much more is coming soon. And that's on top of Games Daily in review, Screencast, Kind of Funny Podcast and our streams. Our small 11 person team couldn't do it without your Support over on Patreon.com kind of funny. That's the best place to support us and keep updated on all of our podcasts as they happen, get shows ad free and access exclusive content. But if you don't got a buck to toss our way, we've got you covered. Head over to our Spotify podcast feeds. Follow, watch, listen and rate us. We've been getting a lot of support from new eyes over there and your help goes a long way and Spotify even has video versions of all of our podcasts if you like looking at our beautiful faces. So head over to Spotify, Rate, comment and follow to keep up with all of our upcoming reviews and daily gaming coverage.

[A]

Welcome back everybody.

[B]

He made it there.

[A]

Lots of questions, lots of things, lots of different directions to go. I'm very excited to go in all of them with you, but I want to go here. Okay. Lincoln Hawkers just regularly chatted but I like the question so I stole it from Twitch. As someone who never played Black Flag, I'm interested in this but having trouble stomaching the price point for this kind of a remake. Which I thought. But as me learning about all this today, reading these previews, looking at the I was surprised to see it. The basic 60. $60.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

$10 less than what I am usually paying for a current gen game. I mean you played it but my initial, I mean Black Flag was a humongous game and from the ground up remake, like what are we talking about?

[B]

Yeah, you know, everybody's personal situation, not just financially but also interesting like their personal kind of of interest in what art grabs them. You know, it's tough to say for you whether that's worth not just the money but the the time investment as well. If Assassin's Creed has ever been very similar to one Andy Cortez, if you've always thought when a new one comes out, maybe this is the one, maybe this is the one. You know, I, I can't answer that for you if this is the one, but I would make the argument if you're going to drop into a game in the series, I think this is a great place to start because I think you get a taste of at least again, with the two hours that I played. It emulates the. The feeling of what the original games were without having to go back to the data, design and gameplay feel of those games. And it also drops you into a story that is not really tethered to anything else in the series. Right. And you know, something else kind of bounce off of that idea. I forget if it's a Super Chat or not.

[A]

So it was a regular Super Chat,

[B]

something I'm about to talk about.

[A]

Which one do you want? Why remake four?

[B]

Why Black Flag?

[A]

Angelo Super Chats and says any insight on why they chose to remake 4 specifically? Obviously it's popular, but I feel like one or two entry would hit hard as well. Shout out to Ezio.

[B]

So nothing from them in particular, but I thought a lot about this because selfishly I'm like, yeah, go to Black Flag, one of my favorite in the series. Of course, why not? I thought a lot about, like, why not just go back to one, which I think is obviously the one that has aged the worst, being the. The first one, and them trying to figure out what that formula for the franchise even is. Right. And I think, and it's a question I probably should have asked the team when I got the opportunity to talk to them. I think when you look back at it, Black Flag, when you look at it in the context of the series, and this is why I brought up resync coming out feeling like it came out in between Syndicate and Origins, when you look back at the history of where Black Flag came out originally in our timeline, it kind of feels out of place with the series. You know, when you go from the Ezio trilogy to Assassin's Creed 3, which feels just kind of like a bigger version of what those. Those games were. And then you go to this huge, sprawling open world with all of these different areas to explore and a story that feels disconnected from everything, and we're also doing sailing and all of this stuff, you're like, holy cow, that's crazy. And then, you know, let's ignore Rogue because Rogue was just, you know, them trying to repeat that. But then you go to Unity and it just takes you back to a city and it brings back that smaller scope and like kind of refocuses and tries to go back to the OG formula. And then we get sick of that after Syndicate, even though Syndicate is secretly the best game in the series. And then we go back to. Let's go back to that idea of doing this huge open world thing, but really try to sink our teeth into the RPG side of it. And I think that's possibly why they wanted to revisit Black Flag again. This is, you know, just me theory casting here, but it was something that I thought of if I was in this position. I think Black Flag would be the most fun to go back to because it feels so out of place with where it came out originally. And I think it's a fun opportunity to make it feel a bit more comfortable in its own shoes. Something that Nicholas Lopez said, who is kind of one of the heads for the engine itself, said, like, they look at Black Flag especially as, you know, it's the Howard Stark quote, We are limited by the technology of our time, kind of. And I think the result of that is kind of seeing Black Flag at its full potential. That's my analysis of it. And I think that's. I think that's why you'd go back to this instead of an AC1. I'd see the argument for AC1 especially. But I think it's also, you know, where, you know, nerd culture is right now. Again, like, I bring one piece up for a reason of, like, how that is taking over a lot of nerd culture with the live action Netflix adaptation. Right. I think that's why you go back to that aesthetically. I think also if you go back to AC1 or AC2, then you're dedicating a team because inevitably you're going to have to say to yourself, all right, are we remaking Desmond and Ezio's story for the next 12 years? Yeah, you know, and I think Black Flag being so easily separated from a lot of that stuff, but still being part of that older generation, I think that's why you come to that conclusion.

[A]

You're spot on with so much of it. And the one thing I'd want to flesh out is just a fan and somebody who lived through it. Right. Like, I'm working at ignorance, working on these games, previews and Yeti, the edit and stuff like that. Like, it is the idea that. I think Black Flag, don't get me wrong, Assassin's Creed, incredibly successful, but I think it was one of the one that really broke out where it wasn't that there, there. To your point. Yeah, there's modern stuff, but it really is. It's just a pirate game. Go be a pirate. Like, you didn't need the baggage of the Templars and this in Desmond and Kristen Bell. And it's like. Like to go back and remake two. Well, you got to remake one, you know what I mean? If we're remaking one, because you got

[B]

to start Desmond's story, you know, and

[A]

if you're remaking one, I really feel. And this isn't an insult To Assassin's Creed 1, I think most would agree who played it at the time, and I would imagine if you played it now, like, Assassin's Creed 1, like, needs a lot of TLC to get those systems and mechanics up to a place where it's fun.

[B]

Yeah. Like Black Funny enough from the start was fun. Yeah, right.

[A]

Yeah, exactly. You jump in, and it's fun. And I still think, like, again, for you, what you keep bringing up of pirates being in the culture. Pirates are always in pop culture. And it's such an easy fantasy. Exactly. Such an easy fantasy to wrap your head around. Whereas to go back and be like, all right, well, we're doing Assassin's Creed 1 and you're an assassin, and you're this, and it's that, and it's like, yeah, but I don't know. I feel like this is such more a blockbuster. Popcorn. Get in, have fun. Have your ship, get through. Do you think?

[B]

And I think to kind of go back to the original question of, like, why this one? Why should I be interested? You know, they're also talking kind of the value of the game as well. But I think something else that kind of intrigued new players who have not played Black Flag before. I think another reason why it stands out. A big trope in Assassin's Creed, the series that kind of gets used over and over again. And kind of was one of my biggest dings on Shadows, because Shadows really felt like it was just kind of playing the hits thematically on what the series has already pulled from is this idea of, like, immediate duty to a. A cause and a vision on how to accomplish that. And Black Flag bucked that trend. I got to talk to Matt Ryan, who is the voice actor for Edward Kenway, or voice or just actor. Maybe. He. He had an interesting quote about, like, the term voice actors outdated, which I would maybe agree in some cases. Disagree in a lot of other cases, but something he said. Because a question that I had for him is, what is something that you have taken away from Black Flag that you hoped the original fans really took away from this game and what new fans might get out of it as well today. And this is a loose quote because I stupidly didn't record audio for the interview I had with him. He said the. The thing he really hopes get across two people is this story about being in an aimless Time in your life and kind of letting that take over you and not feeling ashamed for that. Just be quick.

[A]

Punch that dude in the head. He fell face first into the fire, lit up. Oh no.

[B]

We'll talk about technical things. Kind of not feeling ashamed about this aimless time in your life and just letting. Going with the flow, but then eventually letting that aimlessness take you into a direction and then what do you do with that call? And I, I think that's something that is really resonant with Edward Kenway's story. More so than a lot of others. More realistically of like. I think a lot of people have that phase in their life where they don't know what the fuck they're doing and they have to kind of exist and go through those motions and then eventually when it's time to stand up for something, what are you going to do with that? And I think Edward's story really hits something there that I, I think a lot of people in similar ways or in different ways can feel still kind of overall. So that's a, that's a sell on kind of the thematically what a Black Flag is all about, which, you know, ties into being a pirate and all of this.

[A]

Exactly. I mean that's the thing if even looking, you know, not being on sticks, just watching this and seeing how it looks on modern stuff. Like earlier when you were on the ship and you jumped off and you're swimming and like I've seen screenshots of the coral and it's like immediately capturing what I remember of Black Flag, which was like, this is like I'm on a Caribbean vacation. Like, you know what I mean? And that was where to your aimlessness.

[B]

Right.

[A]

Of like, like it was. I'm having so much fun. Moment to moment, land on the tiniest of islands, find the treasure chest, go see what this cave is, yada, yada, yada, that if I would have given myself to it, it would have found the story. But it was like just being this sun parched, you know what I mean? These gorgeous blues and greens. Like, I fucking loved that. And remember that so fondly that seeing this today, I'm like, oh man, this is going to be July for me.

[B]

Something to, to transition to another. I, I know we have more super chats and I, I wonder if they ask about this, but they're just talking

[A]

about how much they love you. Hawkins. Super chat says I have a fever and the only prescription is more Barrett.

[B]

Hey baby, I'm here for you. Talking about the, the technical more of the technical side of things and how that might affect gameplay and mechanics and all that stuff. You know, something that they bullet pointed in their reveal, right, is we get the rope dart way earlier in the game. It was like a very like, I think the second to last sequence in the game. It was like, oh, this feels like they had a great idea and put it in at the last second because they had to then rethink about the design for the rest of the game and whether this tool is overpowered. So you have that. I would say the how everything feels with the. The new tools and how you're using the tools took a bit to wrap my head around. And I think that's just also the nature of previews where I'm not getting the kind of immediate walkthrough of, hey, you have the rope dart. Now here's what you use to kind of bring it up. Where you see in the bottom right here you have you hold down RT and then I think press B to use it.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

But it was one of those like, because it's kind of pulling more from that origins Odyssey feel of using your equipment, using your weapons. It took a little bit for me especially maybe playing Black Flag the night before kind of skewed kind of, you know, my, my coordination with all of that. So that took a little bit to kind of figure out a big thing. And this is something I asked Paul the again, I believe the creative director was, you know, Singapore was the. The studio that worked on the. The hit triple a quadruple A game. Skull and Bones.

[A]

Skull and Bones.

[B]

Something I asked.

[A]

I love the Steam description. Out the fucking gate. The iconic solo pirate adventure returns. We you saw see things. You might have thought it looked cool. This is what it was based. This is the one.

[B]

Something I asked especially, you know, Skull and Bones originally way too late being kind of them trying to capitalize on the popularity of Black Flag making it this but then also trying to capitalize on Sea of Thieves trying to make it this multiplayer but with the like similar systems to ship combat. Because a lot of people love just getting lost and doing ship combat in Black Flag. Something I asked him was like, what did you learn? What did y' all as a studio learn from that? And I, I again I'm paraphrasing. What they learned was just look at Black Flag. I haven't touched Skull and Bones, but from my understanding the way he was talking about it, a lot of the ship combat is a way more detailed and a bit more simmy. And yeah, you know, using this like 100 and like 360 degree of how you're using all of your, your tools and weapons. And you know, I'm happy to report that they were like, no, no, no, no. We need to look back at Black Flight because again, if it's not broken, don't fix it, right?

[A]

Everyone really like this. It was detailed enough, you know, follow little arc and that's where your cannonballs are going. Let's go have some fun.

[B]

And so yeah, it's more so just additive on the ship combat feel as well, you know, taking down a fortress. Kev, I think I have a clip for you of attacking a fortress or something like that. All of that still feels the same. They've added new weapons but you know, it's still kind of this for four plane angle of you have your, your front attack, your back attack and then your two side attacks that are roughly the same. But then they're adding more fun things, you know, chain balls that I, I don't know what their kind of differences are there in how they're taking down ships. I'm interested with these new tools how they design kind of more interesting maybe like ship enemy designs and all that stuff. They've been talking about adding new like com hand to hand combat enemies, enemies to come in and kind of break up the flow and make you think about how you're using all their tools. Okay, I haven't seen that yet with the ship combat of like what justifies bringing in some of these more specific new upgrades. For ship combat, you know, there's a double shot that is secondary fire for chain shots. Fire barrels have a larger range, but they also have shrapnel barrels which is like the secondary fire, like fire barrels were a thing in the original, but now they're adding shrapnel. How does that all like actually like function? Is that actually additive? I'm interested to see if that's pulled off at all. But the basis is still there and it always felt good and it still feels good today, which I think is more so the kind of important thing to address here. And so yeah, those were kind of like the, the big things that stood out to me of like going back kind of replaying going back to the ship combat in a modern lens and then going back to kind of like sword and hand to hand combat and really having a fun time with it and getting encouraged again outside of not understanding how to use certain tools to think about it more and you know, shake up what I'm using. And the, the big thing here and another technical thing, they've been like shouting out like, oh, you can go underwater anywhere in the ocean. So like under the sea. Because I think there were like specific

[A]

places under the sea.

[B]

Yeah, I do remember from Little Mermaid too. And so I think it was very specific spots. You could like kind of like swim underwater. And not talking about the big diving bell missions but just like kind of swimming they've added like you can do that anywhere. Now again, I wonder how like substantial that feels. You know, I love that you ping

[A]

the water, you look for something, you go, yeah.

[B]

And you know, there's also, you know, them saying like, hey, this is the modern version of Anvil that Shadows use. You know, Shadow's big selling point was like we have this dynamic weather system and we have this dynamic or you know, like this season system that'll affect stealth and all that stuff. One of my big bigger things with Shadows was like I don't really feel like I felt that in the moment. Yes. Maybe like being in like the winter season change. Obviously that's not going to be like a thing here because it's the Caribbean so it's pretty much just warm and sunny all the time. Pretty much. Right. But still you have this dynamic weather that could affect, you know, how, you know, seeable is Edward and all that stuff. And in the moment to moment I remember foreshadows not really like feeling the significance of that. I wonder if that plays more here. I'd say I think the, the biggest thing with weather that like really stood out to me. We might see it here. No, I think I go into the base when you get storms out and like you're, you're just like going out into the sea. There is a lot of like, oh, I gotta like not just like let this wave kind of take over. I, I do wonder what the kind of punishment for like letting you know, being capsized. I have no idea. But there's still moments where it was like, oh, that's a big rogue wave coming. What is that going to do? Probably just damage, but it makes you think a little bit, you know, have some fun random moments other than just, you know, taking in the vibes, letting see shanties play from the crew and all that stuff. So yeah, I'm liking what I'm seeing

[A]

here for the game and for the release schedule as I look out to July.

[B]

Right.

[A]

He's got Assassin's Creed right there on July 9th. Looks like that's a good time for Greg to really get lost in this. Not have a lot of different Games popping up that I'm going to be obsessed with. I'll be on the, you know, the adventures of Elliot and the bad hat will have just come out and God,

[B]

that hat is so stupid to get

[A]

me out of that hat as soon as you can. I'm excited about that. Barrett, any final thoughts from the preview? We didn't touch on there other stuff you want to get out there.

[B]

Shanties are back. Shanties are great.

[A]

They talk about how many new ones they put in there. I have to imagine there are new ones.

[B]

I forget if they detailed like how many new ones there are. Something I noticed. I forget if this was for the. Just the preview we played. You know the thing about collecting new shanties is you see these little like music notes. Yeah. Music pages floating through in the original. Those would like. If you didn't complete it in time they would like float away and you'd have to come back later. At least in our preview build they didn't. So they, they would just like stop and like I don't know if that's them deciding, hey, you know, we don't want people to. To like just forget about this and not come back to it. We want people to hear the shanty so we want to give them an opportunity.

[A]

Back in my day you had to be good to get those Y so

[B]

we'll see with a little stuff like that. But it's still. There's something kind of magical that this and particularly like Wind Waker just really capture about taking in kind of this like bigger journey and setting sail and it feels great. Something I'll steal from Blessing who stole from Janet is the rose Thorn bud that we usually bring up in previews. My Rose here, obviously the mechanical and visual upgrades I think they have done a lot to you know, maybe not the most creative remake visually. But it's just, it's.

[A]

It looks good though.

[B]

Good. And again it looks and plays how you think back to it because if you actually go back to that original game it's way simpler and way less engaging in moment to moment kind of gameplay and it does not look nearly as good as you remember it being. Right. And so that's kind of my. My rose here, my bud is the. The new story content. I'm excited to see that fully play out and bloom and see if that actually successfully makes the crew for Edway Edward Kenway feel a bit more personalized. And so I'm excited to see that. And then My Thorn we didn't really talk about but this is a classic thing that I bring up with every Assassin's Creed game something they have never fixed. It's always the more you add to parkouring and like their big thing here is, you know, you can do, like, back ejects and side things and all that stuff, making it feel a bit more modernized. This is something they've never fixed. To me personally, I think it's just how many different inputs there are.

[A]

Sure.

[B]

That can up or the game mistranslates what you're doing. And I felt that especially when trying

[A]

to jump left, you just jumping up.

[B]

Yeah. Or when you're taking over ships and like, you know, you. You board someone else's ship to fight a bunch of enemies.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And in the original, I would like to go up and like, try to get like as high as possible and then assassinate someone from above and then get into the combat. And then, you know, with all of the different ropes and kind of boards that you're. You have kind of mixing in between two ships, it gets a little bit hairy. So that's. That's one thing that really stood out to me. But again, this is a preview build. We'll see, like, if they touch that stuff up at all for its main release. And all the bugs that we. Visual bugs that we've been seeing, like, there was a moment, I think, in this mission with Blackbeard where I had to save him on the beach, and I didn't include this in the gameplay, so don't worry about looking for a Kev. For some reason, Edward wouldn't pull out his swords. So, like, I just. I had to like, fist fight people. And it got to the point I was like, okay, I'm not completely gonna stop. I'm gonna let Edward die here. And then hopefully that. That reset will let him equip his swords, which it did. So little things like that. But again, we still have like a month and a half left, so we'll see what they. They do to improve that.

[A]

Excellent. I'm very excited. Barrett, before I let you go, the final super chat about Assassin's Creed comes from Stannis, who says is smaller Assassin's Creed, the future. I know Mirage didn't hit, but how does this remake affect the future of Assassin's Creed, you think?

[B]

I mean, I would say that I wouldn't. I don't see Black Flag as a small game. I don't think it's a small project, especially when you're talking about remaking a game that even back then was pretty sizable for the. The franchise. I don't know if it really paints a picture of where the series is going because they go left, right, whichever way the wind kind of blows for the. For the series. So we'll see. You know, I know Mirage wasn't a big hit, but I also think that, you know, it wasn't because it was a smaller game. I just think, you know, they're pulling from stuff from Valhalla that wasn't the most interesting. And the more interesting stuff was for, like, deep, nerdy people like myself and the homie Jarrett Green who reviewed Mirage, I believe, for. For IGN at the time. Yeah, I don't. I don't know what this paints for the. The future.

[A]

What the is going to happen to Ubisoft. Yeah, six to nine to eight to 18 months.

[B]

Because, you know, maybe they're fully generative AI game hits, and that's every Ubisoft game in the future.

[A]

Well, this one looks good and I'm excited for it. Bear, thank you for such an extensive preview. This is why you're our Assassin's Creed man. Hey, if you want to hear Barrett talk more about Assassin's Creed, go to kindafunny.com Assassin's Creed. It'll take you right to Barrett's 100,000. View Assassin's Creed in Review and ignore.

[B]

Whenever I pull up the ranking, ignore the fact that Assassin's Creed 1 is misspelled throughout the entire video. I left out an S. It's hard.

[A]

There's too many S's in there. I think we can all agree, everybody. Thank you so much for watching this episode of the Kinda Funny Gamescast. Let us know if you're gonna pick up up Black Flag, resynced in the comments below. But if you're watching live on Twitch TV, kind of funny games YouTube.com kind of funny games podcast services around the globe. Remember, our programming day is far from over. From here it is Star wars in Review. They're doing Mandalorian and Grogu.

[B]

Mandu and Grogu. You think they like it?

[A]

I do, yeah.

[B]

You think they really love it? Do you think I love it? Do you think it'll be top three Star Wars?

[A]

No, I do not think it'll be top.

[B]

Do you think it'll be above Last Jedi?

[A]

Where do they have Last Jedi ranked?

[B]

They can ever keep up?

[A]

6.

[B]

It's been seven years since the last official Star wars in Review episode.

[A]

I'll say sure it's above Last Jedi show. Okay. All right. And then after that, they're doing a screencast for the boys season finale. So I think it'll probably be start spoiler free and then get spoilery so you can check out there and have all this information. But if you're not watching live, you can get all that later. We'd love you to get it with your kinda funny membership patreon.com kinda funny YouTube.com kindafunnygame Apple Spotify. You can go there, get the membership, get everything ad free, get your daily dose of Greg Miller. And of course get good karma for supporting an 11 person 11 year old small business. But for now, until next time, it's been our pleasure to serve you. Great preview Bear.