"Key designer(s) watch (-> don't delegate)" I think that's essential to not lose any information. Though, I would say it's true if you are able to "read" people. There's what they do in the game and how their body response to the game which is sometimes slightly different from their vocal feedback

app.meettomatch.com/gamecamp2025...

That's my kind of material. Love it!

Some stories use flashbacks to mislead the audience, revealing the protagonist’s perception may not be reliable.
📌 Silent Hill 2 – The player initially believes James is searching for his deceased wife. late-game flashbacks reveal make the entire journey a psychological descent

Flashbacks can highlight how a character has changed or how the world has evolved.
📌 The Godfather Part II (Film) – The movie masterfully contrasts young Vito Corleone’s rise to power with Michael Corleone’s descent into paranoia, using parallel storytelling across timelines.

Flashbacks can show the player something the protagonist doesn’t yet realize, increasing tension.
📌 Bioshock – The iconic "Would You Kindly?" revelation works because earlier flashbacks hinted at the protagonist’s manipulation, but the player didn't recognize them until the twist landed

Flashbacks can be a powerful storytelling tool when used with purpose and restraint. The best implementations serve a clear narrative or emotional function rather than acting as a crutch for exposition.

A good tutorial should be seamless, integrated, and necessary. Ideally, mechanics should be introduced through gameplay rather than via isolated sequences, especially in a franchise that prides itself on immersive historical storytelling.

Instead of reinforcing mastery, this repetition risks frustrating players by making them feel like the game doesn’t trust them to learn. It's BORING.

All of that just to expose the relationship with the father. This to me is terrible writing and design. Where are the so-called narrative designers when you need them?
+ those sequences are super longer compare to what they bring to the table.

Same for the Meditaion. It's an optional element you find in the world. It has a rythm-based input to access the flashbacks sequences. And on the second one you access, you get a tutorial about... the Medidation you already did twice???

In Assassin’s Creed Shadows, this issue is compounded by the redundant tutorials. The player is first taught the combat mechanics & systems during the first minutes, only to be re-taught the same thing in a the first flashback you trigger...

It's been done a hundred time before. It could be a (bad) movie, or a TV show. It takes no advantage of our medium.

It's Japan, there are sevel game elements build around spirituality, why not expositing this relationship through spirituality ? Through second characters ? Gameplay ?

Here it's mainly about exposing the relatioship between the character and her father before the war.

Honest opinion...

BORING.

They are used to show something you're not putting efforts to develop properly, often feeling like a shortcut to deliver exposition rather than integrating it organically into the gameplay or writing.

Both duplicates happen in flashback sequences.

I quite often consider flashbacks lazy storytelling in games and movies.