It is clear why the upcomingAssassin’s Creed Mirageis already exciting swathes of fans, with the release promising to return the franchise to its more intimate narratively-driven roots. Being a clear departure from the more recent trend of expansive open-world RPGs that the IP has released, the upcoming game crucially tells a story about familiar characters within an even more familiar setting.
As a more narrative experience, a lot of importance is placed upon the involved characters ofAssassin’s Creed Mirage, and they should all offer memorable and useful roles within the game’s story. With this in mind, the fairly new character of Roshan seems to have the most potential intrigue inMirage’snarrative, but the presence of the character as a mentor could overshadow the character’s storytelling value.
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Assassin’s Creed Mirage’s Setting and Characters
The story ofAssassin’s Creed Miragewill reportedly take place 20 years prior to the story events ofAssassin’s Creed Valhalla, with the upcoming release essentially being a loose prequel to the already-releasedValhalla. The main connection between the two titles is the presence of Basim Ibn Ishaq, an important character withinValhallawho is now set to be the protagonist of his own title inMirage.
Miragewill tell the tale of Basim as a younger man who stumbles across the Hidden Ones, theprecursor organization of the Assassin Brotherhood. Being plucked from the streets of Baghdad,Miragewill showcase how Basim rose from humble beginnings to become a Master Assassin within the Hidden Ones. Of course, the game will also convey Basim’s struggle with his status as a Sage to the Isu God Loki, with the past-life memories of Loki slowly being revealed to Basim over the course of his younger life. It appears that a lot of Basim’s success can be attributed to the tutelage of his mentor, Roshan, yet this role could see the character take less narrative importance within the game overall.
Roshan’s Presence In Assassin’s Creed Mirage
Roshan is clearly set to be a focal character withinAssassin’s Creed Mirage, with the figure already being subject to a lot of attention within the game’s early promotional material. As well as this,Roshan even featured in late DLC forAssassin’s Creed Valhalla, tangibly linking the character to the wider events of the franchise and to the likes of Eivor.
One of the biggest points of interest surrounding the character is thatAssassin’s Creed Mirage’s Roshanis voiced by the instantly recognizable Shohreh Aghdashloo, with Ubisoft clearly putting a lot of stock into the casting and on-screen presence of the figure. While these factors paint a picture of Roshan being a memorable and impactful figure, her nature as a mentor to Basim will likely relegate a lot of Roshan’s involvement to simply being a vessel for tutorials.
Roshan will likely be the way in which the player is taught the basics ofAssassin’s Creed’s freerunning, combat, and more, yet Ubisoft needs to ensure that this does not overshadow the wider purpose of the character.Miragewould do well to keep Roshan’s involvement consistent throughout the game, as the character should have consistent narrative importance even after the early learning stages of the title. The potential for Roshan as a memorable and impactful figure is more than present, yetMiragecrucially needs to maintain a strong balance between her involvement as an in-game tutorial and a source of genuine and direct narrative involvement.
Assassin’s Creed Mirageis in development for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
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