Magical Abilities Removed From Upcoming Assassin’s Creed Hexe, Leak Suggests

Fresh leaks point to a major change for the upcoming witchcraft-themed Assassin’s Creed Hexe, and expectation of an Assassin’s Creed 1 remake.

With Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced now fully revealed by Ubisoft, attention has turned to what’s going on elsewhere with the franchise. Over the weekend, reliable Assassin’s Creed insider j0nathan detailed further behind-the-scenes changes for Hexe — following confirmation of another top developer leaving the project.

As reported yesterday, Hexe’s game director Benoit Richer recently departed the game (and Ubisoft itself) for reasons unknown. His loss comes swiftly after the exit of Clint Hocking, Hexe’s creative director, following a major internal reshuffle at the top of the franchise that saw Ubisoft veteran Jean Guesdon ascend to become Assassin’s Creed Head of Content. Guesdon is also now serving as Hexe’s creative director.

Now, in a post on social media, j0nathon has claimed that Hexe has gone through changes since Guesdon’s promotion, including a decision by him to “get rid of everything that was ‘magical’ in Hexe.” Said j0nathon: “For example, we were supposed to control a cat, well, ultimately that’s been canceled.”

Assassin’s Creed has frequently dabbled in sci-fi or magical elements — indeed, its core conceit relies on the ability to access memories stored in DNA, and wield special powers (such as the ability to see enemies through walls) left over from the bloodline of an ancient previous civilization. But the extent to which it has included more dramatic super-powered elements has waxed and waned over time. For instance: compare Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, where you essentially level up protagonist Kassandra into a demigod, and the more recent Assassin’s Creed Mirage, the stripped-back smaller-scale adventure that feels far more ground level.

While little has been officially confirmed of Assassin’s Creed Hexe’s focus, what we do know has pointed to it being an entry focused on the 17th century era of witch trials in central Europe. Some expectation of witchcraft-y magical powers had seemed likely, then, and befitting the setting. Presumably, characters with witchcraft-like powers would be explained in the same way other abilities throughout the series have been — via the use of special artefacts (for example the Apple of Eden to control minds) bloodline-related abilities (such as Eagle Vision), or, simply something the series handwaves as possible (jumping off a cathedral into a small pile of hay).

Indeed, controlling animals has been possible for a while, ever since Assassin’s Creed Origins introduced the ability to warg into your eagle drone — a feature that returned in Odyssey and Valhalla. There are numerous reasons why Assassin’s Creed could explain the ability to control a cat, then, but it sounds like this won’t be possible.

Finally, in another leak, j0nathon stated that Ubisoft was working on an Assassin’s Creed 1 remake — or had been a couple of years ago, with no word it’s been canned in the years since. A remake of the original Assassin’s Creed is not a surprise, seeing as Ubisoft previously confirmed it had multiple remakes (not just Black Flag) in the works, and the positive response to the similar, AC1-esque Mirage. AC1 is now also the most dated of Assassin’s Creed games, even if its backwards compatible Xbox 360 version plays at a higher frame-rate on modern consoles.

In other words, it is long due a proper spruce-up — and could benefit from the many later advances added to the series, which really only found its footing in its subsequent Ezio era. Indeed, it’s intriguing to think what an AC1 remake might look like, perhaps with each of its large open areas combined into a wider open world. Potentially, its story could be expanded with hints to characters and settings in later entries — just as numerous later entries have harked back to its events, and the story of original Assassin protagonist Altaïr.

Before all of that, of course, Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced will arrive on July 9. Assassin’s Creed Hexe is not expected to arrive until 2027.

Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at [email protected] or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social