Alexandre Amancio, the creative director on the highly anticipated Assassin’s Creed Unity, has recently discussed how Arno Victor Dorian, a French-Austrian Assassin serving as the title’s main protagonist, shares similar traits with Ezio Auditore da Firenze, who was the lead hero in Assassin’s Creed II, Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood and Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood.
During an interview with the Examiner, Amancio told them how he believes that “every assassin we have had is really different” but this doesn’t mean that certain parallels between previous and current Assassin’s Creed protagonists can’t be found.
“Obviously, they are assassins so they have a certain archetype, but then we really try to create individual personalities,” Amancio explained. “The one Arno more closely resembles might be Ezio, just in the sense that Ezio also had that innocence at the beginning; however, Arno is a very different character from Ezio, he’s got a sense of humor which is similar, but very different. Ezio is more playful. He’s the archetypical Italian ladies’ man, whereas Arno is a little bit more reserved.”
Just as Amancio commented on Ezio being “the archetypical Italian ladies’ man,” the creative director talked about the influence that Élise de la Serre, a member of the Templar Order, will have on Arno Dorian, and how “He’s all about Elise, ever since his childhood.”
“Arno has a lot of humor, but his humor is a lot sharper. He has a lot of wit and a lot of speed in his replies,” he added.
“That also translates into his movements. His movements are very sharp, very deadly; he will go for the killing blow instantly. Arno is a character that has a lot of dimensions to him. He has some darkness, but I think he hides that darkness, unlike Connor, who is more of a quiet brooding character.
“I think Arno hides that darkness with humor and with a little bit of nonchalance. It’s only with Elise that you actually peer into Arno. When he’s interacting with her you begin to see cracks in his armor.”
Ubisoft has a history of breaking the fourth wall in Assassin’s Creed titles (Assassin’s Creed II and Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag) and Amancio elaborated on how this will be reimplemented in Unity by making every user feel like they are the main protagonist.
“The present day story is different, it’s a new beginning,” Amancio said. “It is in-line, although different, with Black Flag. In Black Flag you actually play yourself as an Abstergo employee in first-person. It’s not that, right? What we’re really trying to do is break the fourth wall. It’s smaller. Since it’s a new beginning, we really want to start slow. It starts to put each player at the center of the experience to try and address the player. Technically, every one of the players is the main protagonist of the present day story.”
With Ubisoft recently releasing a video featuring the cast of Assassin’s Creed Unity discussing their characters, including Dan Jeannotte (Arno) and Catherine Bérubé (Élise), Assassin’s Creed Unity will launch in November on Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC.