Did you know that the Isu of Assassin's Creed (the first civilized species that occasionally appears and utters omens) have a term coined for them by Ubisoft? I don't know either, because I stopped even trying to understand the series and its metaplot until AC3, but Ubisoft writers and artists have had to deal with Isu-speak for years now, and at least one of them is not too happy about it: the recent AC A hidden message inserted into the comic shows the artists' frustration at having to write in a made-up language.

"I'd appreciate it if someone could explain to me how to write this shit," it says on an ancient and mysterious Isu tablet found in "Assassin's Creed": the graphic novel released last week, "Assassin's Creed: Valhalla-The Converts" (opens in new tab), a graphic novel released last week. However, this is not accurate: the literal translation would be "I would be grateful if someone like Esplus could tell me how to write this shit." Second languages are difficult, and it turns out that not all Ubisoft employees have fully mastered the linguistic nuances of the predecessor species of the AC series.

The outraged message was first spotted by a fan on Access the Animus (open in new tab) (via Kotaku (open in new tab)). Rather than being treated "as its own language with its own rules, grammar, and vocabulary," the message consists of "a 'one-to-one' conversion of English characters into Isu characters. This is a particular sore point for Access the Animus, which at this point has deciphered the Isu language (opens in new tab) years ago, but frankly, a message begging for help on "how to write this shit" in perfect Isu would have been a bit paradoxical.

If anything, it feels like a great metaphor for the entire AC metaplot: a grand idea has to go through thousands of Ubisoft staff and contractors before it is actually put into action, and not all of them are fully aware of the nitty-gritty details With 12 main games, one terrible movie (opens in new tab), and who knows how many tie-in novels and comics, it would be almost impossible to get everyone working on the AC project on the same story page. on the same story page would probably be almost impossible. One must expect the odd primal scream from someone whose salary depends on parsing what such a thing actually means.

So I'm glad I don't have to, and can just sit back and wait for the next installment in the series, Assassin's Creed: Mirage (open in new tab), which promises a return to the small-scale, stealth-oriented gameplay of the early AC games. Perhaps that's what Ubisoft needs to turn around its recent string of setbacks and failures (opens in new tab).