How Assassin’s Creed Red’s Insignia Could Be Influenced by Japanese History

From intricate parkour systems to intuitive combat mechanics to an overarching narrative that technically spans tens of thousands of years, the Assassin’s Creed series tackles a lot, and that’s not even touching the series’ varying historical settings. Usually changing with each new entry, Assassin’s Creed has dabbled in a number of historical settings over the years, all of which give their respective game a unique feeling. Even when the Assassin’s Creed formula has felt repetitive, the historical setting has helped to make each game stand out, and that upside will also be a boon for Assassin’s Creed Red.

After years of pleading from fans, Assassin’s Creed Red is finally taking players to Feudal Japan. While official details are limited right now, some recent leaks have detailed promising features, and seemingly paint a picture that Ubisoft is leaning more into real-world history than it ever has before, with one of the game’s playable characters apparently being based on a historical samurai. So, with this in mind, it seems likely that Assassin’s Creed Red will double down on one of the franchise’s more subtle traditions, having an identifiable piece of history in the game’s logo.

How History Might Shape Assassin’s Creed Red’s Logo

How History Has Influenced Past Assassin’s Creed Logos

The Assassin’s Creed franchise features one of the most iconic logos in all of gaming, with its triangular design now being instantly recognizable. There from day one, every Assassin’s Creed game has shared this same general insignia, though a few entries in, Ubisoft started to get a little more creative. Beginning with Assassin’s Creed 3 in 2012, every mainline Assassin’s Creed entry has a unique form of the usual Assassin guild logo, often changing the inner design of the logo in ways that signify some part of the game’s historical setting.

Assassin’s Creed 3, for instance, doesn’t change the logo itself, but paints it blue, and puts a “III” in Roman numerals in the center of the logo that are colored red, along with three stars below it, therefore evoking the American flag which directly ties in with the game’s American Revolution setting. Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag features an even more obvious logo change, with a simple skull being placed in the insignia’s center, referring to the game’s pirate theme.

As the years went on, the Assassin’s Creed franchise adopted more subtle logo changes, beginning with Assassin’s Creed Rogue which showed a splintered logo, hinting at the game’s Templar protagonist. These types of logo changes have continued ever since, with Assassin’s Creed Unity adding a few horizontal lines to the logo which made it look like a guillotine, and Syndicate adding a few dots to the logo to suggest the existence of metal bolts, which ties in with its Industrial Revolution setting.

What Assassin’s Creed Red’s Logo Could Look Like

In more recent years, the Assassin’s Creed series has started to return to making more obvious changes to the logo. Assassin’s Creed Origins boasted a gold logo with a large hieroglyphic eye in the center. Assassin’s Creed Odyssey‘s logo was shaped more like the Greek letter lambda with a large Spartan helmet in the center. And Assassin’s Creed Valhalla featured a blue logo that swapped its two sides for axes.

With Assassin’s Creed Red being the next mainline installment in the franchise, it seems likely that it’ll feature another bold insignia, with at least one major change to the usual logo. Though “Red” is currently only the game’s codename, it could easily go on to be used as the logo’s primary color, just as blue was for Valhalla. From there, Assassin’s Creed Red‘s logo has one big choice to make, whether the logo will add something to its center, or if it’ll change the logo’s side panels.

With Assassin’s Creed Red being set in Feudal Japan, there are a few iconic pieces of historical imagery that could easily fit in the center of the usual Assassin’s Creed logo. The most obvious option is a samurai helmet, similar to Odyssey‘s Spartan helmet. While katanas could be used as the logo’s side panels, their slender shape probably wouldn’t align well enough with the logo’s usual look.

Assassin’s Creed: Mirage

Assassin’s Creed: Mirage is the latest entry in Ubisoft’s iconic stealth series.

The game will be set in 9th century Baghdad and is going to take the Assassin’s Creed franchise back to its action-adventure roots with a more linear structure, rather than the role-playing style seen in the recent main series games. 

Released

October 12, 2023

Developer(s)

Ubisoft Bordeaux

Genre(s)

Action-Adventure

How Long To Beat

12 Hours

Metascore

78

PS Plus Availability

N/A