Spending decades to fight Rodrigo and Cesare Borgia and their henchmen, Ezio is eventually successful in restoring the Assassins to prominence in Italy, and becomes their Mentor in 1503.

While most of the praise focuses on his portrayal and growth throughout the series, as well as the unique chronicling of his entire life, spanning from a cutscene, where he is shown as a baby, to his death in Assassin's Creed: Embers, he has also been noted as one of the most attractive video game characters of all time.

[2] While Altaïr was described as a warrior monk bred for combat and the life of an assassin, Ezio's backstory was consciously designed in sharp contrast to make playing him feel like an "empowering experience".

[1] Unlike Altaïr, Ezio is not born into the Assassin Order and discovers his heritage only in his teens, while his main goal for most of the first game is to seek revenge on those who murdered his family.

He learns new moves and abilities by being taught by friends and allies, unlike a progression tree, to make the players' immersion into the character feel more natural.

[1] The creative director of Assassin's Creed III, Alex Hutchinson, compared Ezio to actor Errol Flynn, as he was designed to be an over-the-top womanizer and braggart.

Ezio, following his father's final advice, finds his Assassin tools and flees the city with his mother and sister to his uncle Mario's estate in Monteriggioni.

[8] While exacting revenge on the Pazzi dynasty, Ezio discovers that more people from outside Florence are involved in the conspiracy that got his father and brothers killed.

As he identifies and assassinates the Templar conspirators, Ezio gains several allies, including Niccolò Machiavelli, Caterina Sforza, and Leonardo da Vinci.

[12] At the start of Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, Monteriggioni is besieged by the Papal Armies led by Cesare Borgia, Rodrigo's son and co-leader of the Templar Order.

After his wounds heal, Ezio and Machiavelli set their plan into motion – to liberate Rome and remove the Borgias from power permanently, as well as retrieve the Apple.

After escaping capture and assassinating the Templar captain, Ezio recovers the journal of Niccolò Polo, which tells of five seals hidden in Constantinople that will open the door to Altaïr's library.

[16] Arriving in Constantinople, Ezio begins his search for the seals, while helping the local Assassins Guild, led by Yusuf Tazim, overthrow Byzantine Templar control.

He then travels to an underground city in Cappadocia, the Templars' base of operations, and assassinates their leader, Manuel Palaiologos, from whom he recovers the final seal.

A returning Sultan Selim I then kills Ahmet and thanks Ezio for saving his son and country, but at the same time orders him to leave the Ottoman Empire.

The woman, Shao Jun, is a member of the vanquished Chinese Assassin Brotherhood and sought Ezio's advice in how to help her people and rebuild her order.

After helping Jun fight off soldiers sent by the Ming Emperor Jiajing, Ezio sees Shao on her way back to China, armed with the wisdom she came seeking, as well as a mysterious box, which he tells her to open only if she loses her way.

Ezio is also featured in Assassin's Creed: Ascendance, an animated short film set during the events of Brotherhood, which sees him meeting with a cloaked Leonardo da Vinci in Rome to gather information about Cesare Borgia.

The market analysis reveals Abstergo was looking into the possibility of using Ezio as the protagonist of a future project, but ultimately decided against it due to his violent and womanizing nature and him "corrupting" people into following the Assassins' flawed ideology.

[21] Despite this, in Assassin's Creed Unity, Abstergo has produced a fictional video game starring Ezio, titled Fear and Loathing in Florence, which can be seen at the start.

His story arc is set in 1509, in-between the events of Brotherhood and Revelations, and follows Ezio as he travels to Venice to recover some of his family's artifacts which have been stolen from Monteriggioni.

In the fighting game, players are encouraged to duel with and kill Ezio in a time-limited special event, active from December 2018 to January 2019.

[48] The character was critically acclaimed by the media and general public alike, with his depiction and transformation, as well as the chronicling of his entire life drawing significant praise.

[49][50][51][52] With the exception of II: Discovery (a Nintendo DS release), all games and films he appears in were re-released as an enhanced bundle, The Ezio Collection, for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, in 2016.

[55] Will Tutle of GameSpy also noted Ezio's growth and contrast to Altaïr as his strongest features, stating that while he was an unlikeable womanizer at first, he was later hoping he would "get his revenge and uncover the truth".

[56] In contrast, GameSpot's Kevin VanOrd called Ezio "terrific" and "instantly likeable", while praising him as a more realized character than Altaïr.

[57] In his review of Revelations, VanOrd lauded the developers for reflecting Ezio's age and weariness throughout the game, as well as highlighting his role as a mentor.