Over the years, the Assassin’s Creed franchise has gone from a linear, focused storyline in an open world setting to evolving into role-playing games from the ground up. Although there’s not necessarily anything wrong with an RPG, they tend to stray away from what Assassin’s Creed had started as in more ways than one. Assassin’s Creed Mirage was hyped up to focus on going back to the basics, and it’s become a clear indicator that the RPG genre and Assassin’s Creed do not have to be blended together in order to find success.
That’s not to say that there aren’t aspects of RPG games that are suited very well to the Assassin’s Creed series. The map in Mirage as compared to some of the recent entries like Valhalla or Origins clearly demonstrates a change in the way the game is meant to be played, as well as the general breadth of everything that you’re able to do being more focused and concise. The story’s overall structure is the best example of just how great these games can be, without needing to be set up as RPGs.