After taking a genetic lineage test, Noa Kim is told that he has won a paid trip to Macau. Once he arrives, he is kidnapped, hooked into some kind of computer system, and awakens in 1725 as Edward Kenway, a British pirate with extraordinary physical skills in this collected volume of the webtoon series.

Assassin's Creed: Forgotten Temple has art by Tabii and a story by ARC. English translation is done by Amy Cho, and lettering by Brandon Bovia. Published by Viz Media (November 18, 2025). Rated T+.

Erica Friedman
Rating:

I was surprised to find that this manga had a plot at all, to be honest, since I assumed it would just jump into the game-world story, but no, I was glad to meet protagonist Noa Kim, a young man with as few clues as I to what was happening.

But I had the advantage of Noa, knowing as I do that Assassin's Creed is a game that features characters from a historical-ish setting, with mad parkour skills (to paraphrase Noa) who will be running up walls, jumping off things, and fighting ninjas in 18th-century Macau. So all the running and fighting and random cultures clashing doesn't feel that anachronistic.

The art overuses blurriness combined with motion lines to indicate action, which gives the many chase scenes a feel of being incompletely rendered. Because the art looks both computer-drawn and unfinished, there's a sense of sloppiness in both story and art that made it hard to care about the Edward Kenway storyline. I frequently wished to have more of what was happening with Noa in the “real” world, while Edward's dialogue murdered British English along with random attackers. When Noa enforces his own will on the scenario, things get more interesting once again.

At last, we are let into the secret of the scenario. A descendant of the Shimazu ninjas is looking for an item mentioned in the past, and with Noa's ancestor's memories, he will be able to recover it. Noa fights back, demanding the right to try to change things, which finally opens the historical story up completely. As the volume ends, we are set to see “Noa” use his modern knowledge to save a village from cholera and “Edward” to recover the item that the Shimazu Clan needs in the modern world to do whatever it is that they want to do.

I don't really know who this manga is for. Gamers who played Assassin's Creed and wanted to kick back with a story they don't play themselves? It's not a bad thing in and of itself, but it's hard to care too much about. A lot of sound and fury and very little of it gripping enough to keep my attention.

Jean-Karlo Lemus
Rating:

Man, definitely don't read this if you have a bee in your bonnet about “historical accuracy!”

A compilation of a Korean webcomic based on the Assassin's Creed games, Forgotten Temple gives us a mixed-race Korean man, Noa Kim, as our hapless hostage of the Templars. The Templars hook him up to the Animus to delve into his genetic memory to track down the possible location of an ancient temple hiding an ancient relic. Wouldn't you know, Noa Kim's ancestor was James Kenway, the fictional pirate-cum-Assassin you might remember best from Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag.

What follows is a pretty boilerplate historical fiction story interspersed with some high-tech-looking message boxes regarding the Animus system's Synchronization. Kenway's friendship with pirate John Young is fun and lighthearted, and I could honestly read an entire story about these two blond bozos hyukking it up across Southeast Asia. (Incidentally, I think they're implying this John Young was John Young, 1st Baron Lisgar, but it's not obvious.)

The conflict between the Templars running the Animus system and Noa's resistance is glossed over quite quickly; there isn't much time given to who the Templars or Assassins are or why they're at war or why they want these ancient relics so much. There's drama in the form of Noa's rebellion within the Animus system, possibly putting his memories at risk, but it all feels a bit obvious. The cute Japanese scientist overseeing his synchronization even pulls off the old “It's not like I care about you or anything!” bit. Noa's history of discrimination for being mixed-race is lightly touched upon (and honestly, the most interesting thing about him), but much like the modern-day bits in actual Assassin's Creed games, it all interrupts the far more interesting tales of Kenway and Young. I give the story credit for perfectly re-creating the flow and feel of the games, down to Kenway detouring during his search for the titular temple to find sugar and salt to help a village deal with a cholera outbreak. But I feel like anyone familiar with Assassin's Creed will find the story too generic an entry to stand out.

The artwork is in that weird “webtoon” zone where it's technically proficient, but not very memorable. But I guess that makes it the perfect match for the story. Read it, and you too will understand why this temple was forgotten. Mild recommendation.