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Lineage W collaborated with Assassin's Creed from Ubisoft and revealed 6 Morph Skins of Assassin's Creed’s key characters and Event Dungeon. For 17 years, Assassin's Creed has introduced wide range of characters from different eras and Lineage W has put in much effort to bring these characters to world of Lineage W. Let’s dive in and find out the highlights of this collaboration and background story.

Assassin, slayer, killer, executioner… those who are tasked with killing people go by many names in the East and West. Because they take someone's life, they are often characterized as evil, but the Assassin's Creed combat action puts you in the shoes of the main character, the assassin, and makes you think about why they kill people, what’s the reason behind it.

Ezio Auditore, an iconic character in the Assassin's Creed franchise kills those he believes deserves to be killed and but at the same time he is also respectful of the dead and wishes them “Requiescat in Pace”. Edward Kenway, also another well-known Assassin’s Creed character is a pirate who is driven by self-interest but transforms into an assassin's assistant through a series of event. As you can see, the Assassin's Creed series have a variety of different assassins, each with their own personality that drives the story.

This was the starting point of this collaboration, to see how these unique characters would look like in the world of Lineage W.

Main focus in bringing Assassin's Creed to Lineage W was to preserve the look and combat style of the original characters as much as possible. We wanted to bring the icon ‘Assassination’ and ‘Parkour’ action of Assassin’s Creed in Lineage W style, in a way that was still exciting and engaging.

We had to find ways to bring Assassin's Creed action which has a high degree of freedom to Lineage W which is based on quarter-view and cell-based movement. After many discussions, one way we discovered was the popular Eagle Reconnaissance from Assassin's Creed: Origins launched in 2017. We adopted it into Lineage W environment, allowing players to play from a whole new perspective.

In the cinematic trailer, we reimagined several characters and signature scenes from Assassin’s Creed including Ezio in Lineage W style. Story takes place after the end of Aden Castle Siege. As the enemy knights are about to kill the monarch, Ezio appears to come to the monarch's aid. This plot is effectively delivered to viewers with symbolic Assassin's Creed elements such as the bird that serves as the Assassin's eye, ‘Leap of Faith*’ sequence where assassin jumps from the spire of tall building overlooking the town and assassin paying respect to the dead.

Furthermore, ‘Ezio's Family’, a well-known official theme song of Assassin’s Creed has been remixed by NCSOUND in Lineage W style and used in the cinematic trailer.

Cinematic trailer also showcases all 6 characters available in the collaboration skins. 6 characters Ezio Auditore, Edward James Kenway, Bayek, Kassandra, Eivor Varinsdottir and Basim Ibn Ishaq are well-known characters to the fans of Assassin’s Creed and to show their key action movements in the battle, we have carefully planned out the action sequence and used transition effect to swiftly change from one character to another.

Moving into Lineage W game, various Assassin's Creed characters are introduced as character skin in this collaboration. As of the skin visual, we selected the look based on the title image provided from Ubisoft and redesigned it to match the art style of Lineage W so that it blends seamlessly into the world of Lineage W.

Obtaining any of the 6 collaboration skin will allow players access to ‘Assassin's Agility’ spell and each collaboration skin has a unique spell of its own.

Apart from Ezio Auditore's spell ‘Eagle Sense’, other character skin provides action spell which has the following social features - Edward, the ‘Battle Initiator’ which signals the start of combat by firing, Bayek calls upon the ‘Senu’, his most trustworthy friend, Kassandra the ‘Legendary Mercenary’ which awakens the power of the Isu to let out a war cry that dominates the battlefield, Eivor the ‘Viking's Roar’ which signals the start of the war and Basim the ‘Smoke Bomb’ which sets off the smoke bomb to hide. These action spells are added to show off each skin’s identity during the collaboration period.

Players can experience Assassin's Creed signature parkour action in the event dungeon ‘Restricted Chelos' Manor’ and certain areas of Aden World. It was challenging to implement the wall climbing action in Lineage W. The existing morph skin spells require player to stop moving to perform the spell action. What we wanted was to connect the movement more smoothly, so we came up with a way to activate wall climbing action when player reaches a designated spot and developed ‘Assassin's Agility’ spell.

Since positioning can be strategically used in playing Lineage W, this spell will only be available in designated areas going forward.

‘Eagle Vision’ spell, which instantly reminds us of the iconic Eagle in Assassin’s Creed allows you to tap into the eagle’s vision to view the battle from the above and leave marks on the enemy. This spell is introduced in Lineage W for the first time and it can be crafted using ‘Assassin's Creed Special Craft Certificate’ during the collaboration period.

Restricted Chelos' Manor is an event dungeon available during this collaboration event. Players can access this dungeon 7 minutes daily in Ezio Auditore skin.

When the tyrannical and greedy Windawood Castle Lord Chelos discovered Codex Fragment which came into Aden World through a dimensional rift, he hid it in a treasure chest deep within his manor. Ezio Auditore asked Chelos to return the Codex Fragment but Chelos refused and imprisoned him.

Player must use the skill to escape the guard and break through to defeat Chelos as Ezio Auditore.

On top of previously mentioned ‘Assassin’s Agility’ and ‘Eagle Vision’, ‘Eagle Sense’ which allows players to quickly find the real treasure chests out of many chests and ‘Assassination’ which can be used to monsters to kill them in one hit while undetected by the guards are available to use to clear the dungeon within given time.

Codex items which can be added only during this event also reflected 6 collaboration characters' story and symbol, such as Flintlock Musket Pistol carried by Edward, Eagle Skull Necklace worn by the late son of Bayek etc. Players can find each character's story behind the item in the item tool tip.

These items can be purchased using the Codex Fragment which can be obtained from the event dungeon. Also during the event period, players can meet Apple of Eden NPC in Aden Castle.

It was quite challenging to select a single character that could encompass all collaboration characters, so we decided to use the concept of Apple of Eden which can manipulate reality to certain extend. Under this concept, Apple of Eden NPC will transform Codex fragments into meaning objects in the Lineage W world.

We have put in a lot of effort to create collaboration contents and resources so that players can experience the unique characters of Assassin's Creed in Lineage W. In this collaboration with Ubisoft, we were able to rely on their very detailed character guides to help us bring the characters to life and because we are both game developers, there was a good understanding of each other's perspective which made it easier to discuss the development and smoothed out the review process. We hope that players enjoy this collaboration, and we will strive to provide new experiences in future based on our various collaboration experiences.