S4 M1: The Prince's Banquet

Sequence 04, Memory 01 -- The Prince's Banquet

Yusuf is waiting for you on top of the ruins - and he quickly fills you in on the risk and rewards for this next mission.  Yusuf wants to protect the Prince while you?  You want to interrogate him about the other key... Your mission is to protect the Ottoman Royal Family to gain their trust -- and to get 100% Synchronization on this one you just have to beat Yusuf to the palace!

FRUSTRATION WARNING: This is one of the best examples of how genuinely bad the controls can be in this game.  Normally you can take your time and hit jumps just right but when you are forced to race a trio of scripted NPC's who do not encounter ANY of the bad control issues that you must face, it makes for a very frustrating mission.  While I hesitate to call this grief code, it is clear that this mission was intended to take you many attempts in order to unlock 100% Synchronization, as it really relies more on luck than any other factor for getting it.

My best advice to you is this: you only have to beat Yusuf, not the other pair, and trying to focus on his position while you race is distracting, so instead of racing Yusuf, you should race the environment, trying to do the best that you can that way and this should be a little less frustrating.  Also remember that you do not have to obtain 100% Synchronization in the main play-through.  You can simply complete the mission and then come back later to 100% any of the missions you did not do that in.

Saving the Prince from the Templar Attack

-- At the Palace --

Once you reach the Palace you will be on the upper walls looking down at some minstrels.  Wait a minute... They look familiar... I remember these guys!  They are the bastards from Assassin's Creed II that would run up to you and block your path while they sang!  Oh, it is time for some payback!  What do you say we go down there and beat the shit out of them?  Seriously.  No, really, that is our mission, so you know, we have to.  Yeah...

Once you knock them out pick one up and follow your gay friends (gay being happy) and plop them into the Hay Wagon because we are going to take their clothes later so consider it your personal minstrel storage unit.  Now follow the markers to the second set and do the same.  The third set is a little tricky because you are more exposed to patrols, and it is much easier to get caught.

You can use the flower bushes for cover to avoid the patrols, and then scale the wall to take out the final set.  Man, that felt good.  These guys needed a beating.  Stash the last set of them on the marker for a CS in which you put on their silly suits and then use Eagle Vision to scan the crowd and mark the targets.

When you get to the gate the Guards refuse to let you pass -- so you need to play the Lute three times in order to distract them and get in.  Once inside use Eagle Vision to scan the crowds lit by the light columns and, when you have ID'd a target, move to the marker and play the lute to distract the Guards while your crew takes them out.

Rinse and repeat then follow Yusuf to the next area to do several more.  Are you listening to the songs that Ezio is playing and singing?  He is singing about some of the targets and Templars that he killed in Assassin's Creed II and Brotherhood!  The question is... Is it still an Easter Egg if he butchers the songs?  I especially like it when he sang about throwing the final enemy off of the castle in Brotherhood -- "and see where he might land!" 

After you ID the final Templar things go sideways -- as soon as the CS plays run quickly towards the Prince and kill the Templar Assassin that is about to kill him.  Try to do it before he kills the Prince, right?

After that you get another CS, and are invited to discourse with the Prince -- so you go change and then  the mission ends.  Hopefully you scored 100% Synchronization but if not you can always replay it later...