History VideoGame / AssassinsCreedIVBlackFlag

* MisplacedWildlife: Jaguars, howler monkeys and deer living on the island of Principe.

Ubisoft would later announce ''VideoGame/SkullAndBones'', a pirate game with gameplay based on the naval combat of ''Black Flag'' developed by same creative team at Ubisoft Singapore.

* AcceptableBreaksFromReality: Ships sail far, far faster than they are capable of in real life, with the player's brig able to easily clear a nautical mile within about a minute.

** One of the possible names for a Pirate Hunter frigate is [[Anime/OnePiece Thriller Bark.]] Other names include [[Literature/TheOdyssey Penelope, Ithaca]], and [[Literature/TheIliad Helen O' Troy]], as well as [[Literature/HoratioHornblower Hornblower]] and [[Literature/AubreyMaturin Aubrey]]

** Two major {{DLC}}s have diffrent protagonists then the main game: Freedom Cry, which has you playing as Adéwalé There's also the Playstation, PC, and Switch exculsive Aveline, which as the name implies, has you playing as Aveline from Assassin's Creed III: Liberation.

** Two major DLCs have diffrent protagonists then the main game: Freedom Cry, which has you playing as Adéwalé There's also the Playstation, PC, and Switch exculsive Aveline, which as the name implies, has you playing as Aveline from Assassin's Creed III: Liberation.

** Since you work for Abstergo Entertainment, a front company for the modern-day Templars, it comes as little surprise that they are trying to do this to the {{Big Bad}}s of all the previous games, under the caption of "Great Minds of History": [[VideoGame/AssassinsCreed Robert de Sable]], [[VideoGame/AssassinsCreedII Rodrigo Borgia]], [[VideoGame/AssassinsCreedIII Haytham Kenway]] and [[VideoGame/AssassinsCreedIIILiberation Madeline de l'Isle]]. While Haytham is [[AmbiguouslyEvil ambiguous]] enough to qualify for a [[TokenGoodTeammate pass]], the Rodrigo Borgia one is remarkable for its self-delusion in calling him a "[[AGodAmI progressive]], [[DirtyOldMan bon-vivant]] [[DracoInLeatherPants who cared about]] [[OffingTheOffspring family]] [[ParentalIncest values]]". They even praise him as a man of faith when the ''Assassin's Creed'' version of Rodrigo Borgia was an atheist. It's even more surprising given that the modern-Templars are said to view the Borgia's reign over the Templars as OldShame, considering how he and his underlings abandoned all of the Templar principles.

* TropicalIslandAdventure: This game is set all across the Caribbean, including the Cayman Islands, Cuba, Jamaica, and the Bahamas, as well as São Tomé and Príncipe.

* TropicalIslandAdventure: This game is set all across the Caribbean, including the Cayman Islands, Cuba, Jamaica, and the Bahamas.

** Edward Kenway himself qualifies, as per Darby [=McDevitt=], for most of the game he only cares for money and fame solely so he could have the "good life" and is willing to sacrifice his marriage, his few friendships and risk the lives of his own crew for his obsessions. The game is a long, drawn-out HeelRealization for him.

* AndTheAdventureContinues: The last scene before the credits has Ah Tabai inform Edward that [[spoiler: Woodes Rogers is NotQuiteDead.]] Cue Edward sailing off to London, [[spoiler: his young daughter, Jenny, in tow.]]
* AndYourRewardIsClothes: ''Black Flag'' is unique for the number and range of alternative costumes. Edward's Assassin robes can get accessory cloaks and jackets; DLC provides more classical pirate outfits like Henry Morgan's Redingote, the Edward the Legend outfit, and Stede Bonnet's gentleman's outfit; you can unlock outfits like the Templar Armour and the Mayan Armour through side quests; and you can craft various hunter outfits. Buying a certain number of prior ''Franchise/AssassinsCreed'' installments on [=XBox=] Live, PSN, or Steam, also unlocks the previous series protagonists' outfits.

* TropicalIslandAdventure: This game is set all across the Caribbean, including the Cayman Islands, Cuba, Jamaica and the Bahamas.

** In naval combat, all hostile actions against the ''Jackdaw'' cease the instant you initiate a boarding maneuver, meaning that you can, should you choose, fully repair your vessel in the middle of a pitched fight, then resume fighting the enemy ships who have apparently been sitting at anchor, patiently waiting for you to finish. The ''Jackdaw'' is also immune to damage while in port, or indeed any time you are not at the helm.

* AsTheGoodBookSays: Edward's memorably terse elegy to [[spoiler: Thatch]], "He drinks damnation," sounds like badass pirate lingo, but traces its roots to the King James translation of the New Testament, 1 Corinthians: "For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself."[[note]]The original Biblical context of this verse concerns those who partake of the Lord's Supper without fully understanding its significance or taking it seriously.[[/note]]

** Earlier games had Templars actively involved in local politics and doing their best to KickTheDog and making the place they are in a WretchedHive, in addition to their usual lust after some {{Magitek}}. In ''Black Flag'', the Templars are the most sympathetic and least evil of the Assassin's Creed games thus far with none of them getting any KickTheDog moment and with them performing their governmental appointments with general competence. This is reinforced by the fact that Edward Kenway's [[spoiler:ArchEnemy for the game ''isn't'' even a Templar, though the FinalBoss of the game is the Templar Grandmaster, Governor Laureano de Torres]]. Of course, this is discussed in the game itself when Edward and Anne Bonny talk about why they should stop [[spoiler: Governor Torres from getting hold of the Observatory]]. Once he gets hold of it, The Templars never have to KickTheDog anymore to get what they want and simply be TheManBehindTheMan.

** Speaking of ships, the pirate ships here are all far grander than any they had in real life. Rather than pitched engagements between huge men of war, Blackbeard and Black Bart both met their ends, glorious as they were, in sloops against similarly armed sloops. Bart did, however, have a small fleet of four ships, making him somewhat grander than other pirates of his day. What made pirates fearsome wasn't that they piloted huge ships of war, but that they had more guns and, more importantely, far more ''men'' than any merchant they came across. Also, the law was nowhere near equipped to handle them, so the merchants had no choice but to submit meekly to their predation.

* FollowTheLeader: Although the franchise in question is made by Creator/{{Ubisoft}}, the upgrade to [[AuraVision Eagle Vision]] in this game over other ones makes it capable of "marking" targets to easily follow them through walls with Eagle Vision off, almost identically to the "Mark and Execute" function of ''VideoGame/SplinterCellConviction'', barring the ability to call in a barrage of {{One Hit Kill}}s (which was included back in ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedIIILiberation''). [[note]]This feature was ''itself'' lifted from yet another Ubi game, ''VideoGame/RainbowSixVegas'', the director of which went on to direct ''Conviction''.[[/note]]

* ArtificialBrilliance: As with preceding games in this series, guards will search nearby hiding spots if they lose sight of you, and will frequently cover each other when doing so, guaranteeing that you'll be spotted if you attempt a stealth assassination. If grenadiers suspect that you're hiding in a haystack or a patch of foliage, they'll toss a grenade in there rather than endangering themselves by going in after you. If there's an alarm bell nearby, a guard will attempt to ring it when alerted. After a grenade is tossed, all enemies immediately back away from the blast radius.

It was released on October 29, 2013 on the UsefulNotes/PlayStation3, UsefulNotes/{{Xbox 360}}, and UsefulNotes/WiiU platforms, and was later released for the UsefulNotes/PlayStation4 and UsefulNotes/XboxOne on November 15th and 22nd[[note]]as a launch title for both[[/note]] respectively. A PC version came out on November 19th. A version for the UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch came out on December 6, 2019 alongside ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedRogue'' as part of ''The Rebel Collection.'' It also has a non-canon manga adaptation.