Reason why AC doesn't make its way to Japan is because the higher ups don't see it being successful. They made China for Chronicles to "please the fans". Whoop-de-doo.
Same thing for WW1 and WW2.
Engine is a reworked version of Syndicate's. But looks drastically different to Syndicate/Unity.
They took Unity's backlash very, very badly. They've been working on Origins so much to avoid another buggy situation. "Syndicate was about 60% complete when the backlash came to light, so Ubi shoved that one out of the door before we had the break."
No Switch version, releases on PS4, Xbawks One and PC.
Coming out later this year.
Hidden Blade used in the game is a very early version. Requires losing a finger. There's also a bow, a shield, various swords, spears and throwing knives.
Our protagonist (paaast) doesn't have a name at the beginning. Later, other characters start calling him "Shed", after the deity that represents salvation. A big part of the story revolves around saving your people from slavery.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shed_(deity)
The idea of an Ancient Rome game was floating around the office. Ceasar wasn't a Templar, but shared a lot of their ideologies. Senators that killed him were part of the Brotherhood. Status of this idea is unknown.
Skills are done in a talent tree. However, the differences between the skill trees are drastically different and you can only ever have a certain amount of skills active at one point. One tree is Combat, another Stealth and the final one is Movement.
Outfit-wise, there's a few pre-determined outfits (as there has been in every AC game). However, there are different piece of equipment that you can buy that will go over the top of your 'base' appearance. Imagine Unity's equipment variation/customization, but with less pointless fluff.
Character customization is more like Unity than Syndicate.
EDIT: I forgot to add this, sorry people: You can put your hood on and off whenever you want!