Composers Joe Henson and Alexis Smith, known collectively as The Flight, are responsible for the epic, breathtaking score you can hear in the recently released Ubisoft video game Assassin's Creed Shadows.
Having previously worked on Assassin's Creed Odyssey, they return to the long-running video game series to deliver a score that blends modern soundscapes with traditional Japanese instruments. In the process, they enrich the 16th-century Japan setting, fusing past and present to enhance the emotional depth of the game's narrative.
No strangers to video games, Joe and Alexis' credits include critically acclaimed titles Alien: Isolation and Horizon: Zero Dawn. They've also ventured into television with projects like Lockwood & Co. and Drugsland.
We recently got to speak to The Flight about their approach to Assassin's Creed Shadows. During our conversation, we learned how they created a unique sound for 16th-century Japan, the work that went into the themes for the game's two leads, and how key instruments helped shape their approach.
They also reveal a hidden Easter Egg which pays homage to the franchise's past and reflect on some of their favourite memories from working on Assassin's Creed Shadows. You can read the full interview below.
I think one of the reasons that the AC franchise has been so long lasting is that the games all have a different feeling, dictated by both the geographical setting and the time period involved. Odyssey and Shadows are quite an extreme example of this, Odyssey much, much further back in history, and set in the sun-soaked paradise of the Aegean, whilst Shadows is much more recent, and has a much darker, tragic story. Of course, our score must mirror the story, so we had to take a very different approach.
Not between the two settings or time periods, no. But they are both chapters in the game series that is Assassin’s Creed, and Assassin’s Creed is at it’s heart a science-fiction adventure. So, we used this in both our scores, to blend the modern with the historical, just like the over-arching story.
Our goal on Shadows, and what we were tasked with by Ubisoft, was to create a contemporary score, influenced by Japanese traditional instruments of the time period. We did a lot of research into these instruments and found Japanese players here in London who were masters of them. We then used what we learnt and recorded and fused it with the way we compose. Independently of us, Ubisoft also recorded some Japanese musicians playing traditional music for use in diegetic situations, a busker in a marketplace, or the players in a theatre.
The Tsuchibue, the clay flute that Naoe and her father play, was a very important instrument for us, and one that we wrote Naoe’s theme on. It is also fiendishly difficult, and Joe spent a lot of time practising! Recording live Koto with Keiko Kitamura was exciting, as until that point we had been using a virtual instrument to create the demo parts, and it wasn’t until we saw the real thing in action, with someone who is an expert playing it, that we realised how versatile it could be.
The first pieces we wrote for Shadows were what we like to call ‘story suites’ for each of the main characters, Naoe and Yasuke. These were five-minute-long pieces exploring their themes, instrumental palettes, and ‘feel’, with a structure based on each of their overall story in the game. Naoe and Yasuke both have very different backgrounds and paths, and we wanted to highlight their differences in these pieces, giving us starting points for other instrumental pieces we would compose later. You can hear versions of these pieces on the soundtrack album: ‘The Fujibayashi Legacy’ and ‘Rise of Yasuke.'
We’re both very proud of Naoe’s stealth music. Stealth is a very important aspect of her playing character, and so we wanted to create something special. We worked with a Japanese vocalist to create a kind of ‘inner monologue’ feeling using short, whispered phrases and layered vocal effects. Also great to hear is the way the multi-layered interactive music system works in the open world, depending on what the player is doing. These pieces are quite a challenge to create, much harder than the non-interactive cinematics or scripted moments, and the only time we really get to hear them how they are supposed to be heard is once they are in the game engine.
In the prologue, as (spoiler alert!) Naoe’s father is dying, he tells her about the hidden blade. As he does so, you will hear an echo of the iconic series’ melody, ‘Ezio’s Theme.'
Yeah, sure, there are lots of great franchises and worlds out there that would be fun to work on, but it is also exciting to work on something completely new, to be able to create a sound from the ground up.
We took inspiration from a lot of different sources for this game, not only Samurai movies, but other Japanese cinema and music, as well as the things that they have influenced in the west, such as hip-hop. As a composer, I think it is really important to keep searching out new things, to keep widening what you listen to and watch.
All the great people we worked with. From our own team here in London, to the audio department at Ubisoft Quebec and the folks at Ubisoft Music, scoring a AAA game is most definitely a team sport.
