Ubisoft is once again hammering home the point that Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced is really, really, definitely not an RPG in the vein of Assassin's Creed Shadows and Valhalla.
After Ubisoft finally let the leaks loose and formally announced the remade pirate game, one of the first things game director Richard Knight noted about the project was that Black Flag Resynced "is not an RPG." Considering how divisive the more stat-driven entries in the series can be with long-time fans, the immediate clarification wasn't too surprising.
The publisher is now emphasizing the point even further, though. Not only is Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced not an RPG, according to Ubisoft, it's also not borrowing any RPG-adjacent systems from its older (or younger?) siblings.
"Please note: although health and defense bars are present in default settings, this does not change the fact that Black Flag Resynced remains an action-adventure game," Ubisoft writes in a recent post about the game's HUD. "The combat works similarly to the original game, with health and defense bars being optional. There are no levels, no gear scores, and no progression gates."
As Ubisoft explains, those new HUD elements aren't there to check damage points and whatnot. Specifically, the defense bar simply supports Black Flag Resynced's revamped combat, which lets you stagger enemies with quick parries and special attacks before opening them up to a lethal takedown once their defense is fully depleted.
"This display [the defense meter] will highlight how and when enemies are weakened, and how different enemy archetypes respond to specific combat actions – which is at the core of the new combat depth where your choices and the move you trigger will dictate a fight."
Best of all, you can tweak any of the HUD elements to your liking. Black Flag Resynced supposedly has four presets that chip away at the visual noise on screen or you can opt to toy with the game's HUD manually to completely turn off button prompts and parry indicators, for example, to your liking.
