Assassin’s Creed Shadows overview

Alongside its traditional tea ceremonies, renga poetry, and Sumi-e brush painting, Assassin’s Creed Shadows frequently alludes to the Sakura festival, an annual cherry blossom celebration in Japan. The brief appearance of falling petals each year, lasting just a week or two, symbolizes the transient nature of beauty and life itself. This notion reinforces the idea, particularly during feudal periods, that one should cherish the moment while it lasts. You must survive the invasion of a single warring daimyo, but another may not be far behind.

Assassin’s Creed Shadows retains that same sense of modernity through one of its key enhancements to the series’ gameplay—the innovative way you explore and engage with its world. Shadows’ rendition of Japan could very well be Ubisoft’s most impressive open world to date, designed to be navigated in a more organic manner. Missions no longer prompt you to a specific location by default, and Ubisoft has grounded your eagle drone. Instead, you receive hints and can hone your search by signaling your map using scouts, then left to utilize Shadows’ new Seek mechanic—essentially Eagle Vision, but adapted for quests and treasure hunts. All the while, Shadows continuously entices you to stray from the main path—to discover something else along the way or witness events happening in the game’s universe that you might not notice at first glance.

Simultaneously, Shadows itself is anything but a momentary enchantment. It represents yet another ambitious and generous undertaking from the talented Quebec team that spearheaded the creation of the Ancient Greece-themed Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, and akin to that game’s trio of main storylines, Shadows demands dozens of hours to fully reveal the extent of what it has in store. Its dual protagonists, each with their own backstories and motivations, are introduced separately and in their own time. Moreover, after traversing Japan for some time, it isn’t until near the end of Shadows’ core narrative—over 50 hours in—that both characters’ internal journeys reach their respective climaxes, and new story threads come to light.

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Shadows opens with a strong and nearly exceptional focus on Naoe, a young girl from the rebellious province of Iga, whose father—a participant in the Ikko-ikki uprising—endeavors to protect their home from the invading daimyo Oda Nobunaga. Naoe’s story, like much of Shadows, is deeply rooted in Japan’s real-life history—implying significant spoilers await anyone who looks on Wikipedia. While there are still many elements woven around actual events—Naoe wields an Assassin’s Hidden Blade passed down from her mother—it is striking how directly Shadows addresses its historical context. Gone are the days of playful in-universe lore explanations from Shaun Hastings or the mythological bosses that suited Odyssey’s open world. The mentions of the Assassins are largely relegated to interactions with a handful of relics or whispers of an organization from a distant land.

During the first 10 hours of Shadows, Naoe’s personal narrative becomes the focal point, allowing the game to deliver a more concentrated introduction and enabling it to strike many poignant emotional chords. While the overarching plot echoes themes from other games in the series, the impact of these events on Naoe feels intensified due to a blend of performances, cinematography, and Shadows’ willingness to include several quieter moments amid the tension. A sequence of flashback missions that detail Naoe’s life before the invasion can be accessed almost at will, enriching what essentially serves as an extended prologue and introduction to Shadows’ significant systems.

Aside from a brief 20-minute segment at the game’s beginnings, Shadows’ co-protagonist Yasuke remains largely unplayable and off-screen till the climax of the prologue—a fact that initially comes as a surprise, given the much-hyped ability to play the majority of Shadows as either shinobi or samurai. However, as with many aspects in Shadows, this becomes a more natural progression over time—and after many hours with him—it feels like less of an oversight.

Yasuke begins on the opposite side of Naoe, a crucial part of the same invasion of Iga that she and her father attempt to thwart. The resulting conflict between the two, and the reasons for their eventual alliance, are handled rather succinctly to avoid prolonging the initial segment of the game. Yasuke’s slow introduction does initially leave him feeling more like a secondary character, but this sensation diminishes as more about his motivations and backstory is revealed, allowing you to expertly switch between both characters to take advantage of their gameplay strengths and weaknesses.

Assassin’s Creed has previously allowed players to control non-Assassin characters—recently, Valhalla’s Eivor was never a full member of the Brotherhood, nor was the fan-favorite pirate Edward Kenway—but the franchise has never featured a protagonist like Yasuke. After 10 hours as the nimble Naoe, this fully-trained samurai feels almost like a powerhouse, capable of enduring and inflicting far more damage than his shinobi counterpart, giving the impression at first that he’s an Assassin’s Creed cheat code. However, Yasuke’s power comes with the trade-off of being considerably slower and less agile on his feet—something crucial in a game designed around fast-paced parkour and stealth. Yasuke struggles with climbing and cannot synchronize with certain viewpoints; he is also more easily spotted by nearby guards. Naoe, in contrast, is the fastest playable character in the franchise to date, exceptionally agile with her grappling hook for leaping across gaps or scaling pagodas.

I found myself frequently alternating between the two characters, enjoying the varied playstyles to keep the experience fresh. Most of the game can be played as either character, aside from specific personal quests, and both can utilize the strengths of the other: Yasuke can employ stealth, including Shadows’ new inclined movement option, just as Naoe can charge forward.

headfirst into substantial confrontations without eliminating any specific target initially. Certainly, Shadows’ emphasis on stealth greatly benefits both characters thanks to its lighting system, which brightens its environment with torches, candles, and lanterns that can also be extinguished to aid your sneaking efforts. Additionally, nighttime missions offer a clear advantage.

This is as fitting a moment as any to commend Shadows’ more engaging and destructible environment, which features a variety of objects – fruit stalls, shoji paper doors, bamboo plants – that you can slice through or use to eliminate adversaries, often splattering blood in sweeping arcs. The evolution of Assassin’s Creed’s old Anvil engine for Shadows is remarkable, leading to instances where you may simply need to pause and absorb your surroundings: water droplets trickling down a tiled roof and pinging off Yasuke’s helmet on a rainy day, swirling gusts of wind sweeping up autumn leaves or winter snow from the streets, or the small details such as a heron near a pond feasting on its lunch.

Yasuke’s own narrative unfolds slowly, but he finally appears in the game when you reconnect with some of his former allies from his time serving Oda Nobunaga. Shadows’ ability to weave through different moments in its own timeline ensures that this later segment still provides an intriguing summary of Yasuke’s life in Japan so far while avoiding dwelling on his past, keeping the game’s focus on events affecting the country. A great deal has been discussed online regarding Yasuke’s presence in Shadows – a contentious topic that Ubisoft ultimately addressed with an impassioned statement from Assassin’s Creed leader Marc-Alexis Cot?? at the end of last year. Certainly, Yasuke’s unique perspective as someone whose life and situation are intimately linked to the pursuit Naoe is after – in a way perhaps no other character in Japan could relate to – only enhances the rationale for his inclusion.

For the majority of Shadows’ mid-game – its central 40 hours, following a 10-hour prologue – key missions involve Naoe and Yasuke collaborating, albeit often with one being hidden from view. Shadows encourages you to engage with both characters as much as possible, and frequently, the two will rendezvous to provide opportunities for seamless transitions between them. However, you’ll also have chances to witness the duo discuss the current situation, usually after their latest significant objective has been dealt with.

During this phase, Naoe and Yasuke are free to roam across the entire game world to investigate the Shinbakufu, a masked group of powerful individuals involved in the Igan invasion, who have stolen a mysterious artifact. It is here that Shadows’ primary gameplay loop takes hold, with the pair traveling from location to location, assisting locals, and frequently dismantling the local puppeteer hiding within a grand castle. As is common in recent Assassin’s Creed adventures, much of this involves conquering forts and encampments, collecting superior gear, and expanding your stockpile of resources and stat components along the way.

Naoe and Yasuke each possess a variety of