Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced, a remake of the 2013 title, is not a sequel to Assassin's Creed III as its predecessor was, but rather a continuation of the 2025 game Assassin's Creed Shadows. This narrative connection, however, is largely obscured within Resynced, a decision that undermines the impact of its storytelling.
Normally, the chronological progression in the Assassin's Creed series places the Kenway Saga after the Ezio trilogy. While Assassin's Creed III was the first Kenway Saga game released, Black Flag chronologically follows the events of Edward Kenway, grandfather to Connor Kenway from Assassin's Creed III. The notes suggest that Shadows' final downloadable content directly sets up Black Flag's events, implying that Naoe and Yasuke from Shadows played a significant role in giving the Assassins an early advantage in the West Indies, particularly in their search for the Observatory. This makes the choice to hide Resynced's status as a sequel to Shadows particularly perplexing.
Upon launching Resynced, players are presented with an introduction identical to Shadows', which welcomes them to the Animus and hints at hidden truths within simulated memories. Initially, this suggests that the Animus users in Resynced's present day are accessing simulations chronologically alongside those in Shadows. However, the game subtly reveals its true place in the timeline through four hidden rifts scattered across the Caribbean.
These rifts are remnants of the narrative framework established in Shadows, which involved players interacting with mysterious figures known as the Guide and Ego within spaces between Naoe and Yasuke's memories. The Guide advocates for humanity's right to choose, while Ego seeks to control society through artificially generated content. It is revealed that the Guide and Ego are warring facets of a single Templar-created artificial intelligence that uses simulated memories and player reactions to determine its philosophical path. These modern-day elements, including the involvement of a character named Eagle, were mandatory for progressing the story in Shadows.
Resynced continues this narrative thread, with Ego using the hidden rifts to test the player's belief in free will by presenting simulated realities designed to encourage surrendering rights to artificial intelligence. Crucially, unlike in Shadows, engaging with these narrative points in Resynced is entirely optional. Players can bypass them entirely, potentially missing the game's connection to Shadows and its underlying themes.
This approach represents a missed opportunity. The rifts in Shadows provided essential narrative framing, a function that the optional rifts in Resynced also serve. The story is demonstrably stronger with this framing, and by making these elements so easy to miss, Ubisoft risks players being unaware that Resynced builds directly upon the storylines of another game. This is especially unfortunate given how effectively the two games complement each other when played sequentially.
The modern-day narrative in Shadows explored the dangers of ignorance and the consequences of ignoring problems. This theme resonated strongly as Naoe and Yasuke's stories unfolded during a period when Japan was isolated, making it vulnerable to Templar influence. They learned that focusing only on one's immediate surroundings is perilous and that resisting the status quo and ignorance is a responsibility. Resynced picks up this thread by examining Edward Kenway's life of rebellion against societal expectations, his wife, the English crown, and even the Assassin's own philosophy. The game's optional modern-day narrative frames Edward's actions as a warning about the potential dangers of rebelling against the status quo and ignorance.
While Ego's philosophy is presented as misguided, this framing makes Resynced's narrative feel like a counterpoint to the Guide's philosophy in Shadows. It is speculated that the upcoming Assassin's Creed Project Hexe will serve as a tiebreaker, potentially forming a trilogy of games where two artificial minds debate the merits of Assassin and Templar doctrines. However, with a significant portion of Ego's narrative being optional in Resynced, fans may only grasp half of this intended argument, especially if they did not fully engage with Shadows' present-day plotlines.
If Resynced was always intended to be a direct sequel to Shadows, the remake could have committed more fully to this connection. As a full remake rather than a simple graphical update, it could have integrated Edward's discovery of Naoe and Yasuke's contributions—and potentially Kassandra's—more prominently. Making the modern-day framing more overt and better connected to recent franchise entries would have strengthened the overall narrative. Instead of secreting away Resynced's narrative ties, Ubisoft could have leveraged them to create a more cohesive and impactful experience, as the game is undeniably enhanced by the knowledge of its sequel status to Shadows.