Jacob and Evie Frye, Assassin’s Creed Syndicate’s twin protagonists, were always a part of the game from the beginning of development, according to game director Scott Phillips.
In an interview with GameSpot, Phillips was asked why Ubisoft decided to have two protagonists in Assassin’s Creed Syndicate, a departure from the singular protagonist of previous Assassin’s Creed titles.
“Jacob and Evie were around from the beginning,” Phillips said. “We always knew we wanted this ability to tell a story from two different sides, to be able to have one side, and then show the consequences of what happens when you do it a certain way with another character. And so it just organically grew out of that. Their story together changed over time and developed more, and they became more interesting characters. They sort of bicker with each other in a sibling fashion, and I think they're really interesting characters.”
While the game was always going to have two protagonists, Phillips clarifies that the twins were not the starting point for constructing the narrative of Syndicate, but rather it was the setting from which everything else grew out of.
“I'd say the most important thing that the framework through which everything else came was the London 1868 setting, that time period,” Phillips said. “From there we developed characters, we developed what these characters would go through, what the story is we want to tell, what's the setting, what's the world like, what's the atmosphere, what other people would exist in that time period, can we interact with them. It develops organically from that origin of that time period.”
You can read the full interview here, which includes insights into how many play-testers preferred Jacob over Evie and vice versa, and what Phillips feels unsure about introducing in this year’s Assassin’s Creed title.
In other Assassin’s Creed Syndicate news, Ubisoft recently detailed how the game’s crafting and customization systems will work and announced a male trans character will be a part of the game’s narrative.
Assassin’s Creed Syndicate will launch first on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on Oct. 23, 2015 and then on PC on Nov. 19, 2015.
Source: GameSpot
