Ubisoft
Assassin’s Creed Shadows, a Japanese adventure with thrilling combat and revamped stealth
Will you be the ultimate samurai or a master assassin of the shadows?
Assassin’s Creed Mirage, Ubisoft’s previous entry to the Assassin’s Creed franchise, let players know that they were trying to bring their game back to the foundations that made them so popular back in the Ezio days. While Assassin’s Creed Shadows is not as basic as Mirage, it does have a few things from that and a lot of improvements when compared to the three monstrous open worlds they released before that.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows is set in Japan, and much like in the Japanese language, where a lot of words and characters seem to be the same but mean different things, the game is the same old Assassin’s Creed, but it’s different in many ways.
Let’s start with a bit of historical context
The game takes place during the Sengoku period in Japanese history, a time of civil wars, filled with castle sieges, and of course, samurai warriors. During this period, Japan was on a very violent path towards unification by the iron will of daimyo Oda Nobunaga, who is seen as a demon by many, as well as a savior by others.
At his service lies Yasuke, a samurai from African origin who actually existed. He came to Japan with the Jesuit envoys, was made samurai by the daimyo’s command, and fought alongside him during this violent period.
On the other hand, lies Naoe, an Igan shinobi with a quest for revenge, who will show players the other side of the Japanese warriors. Unlike the samurai powerhouses, shinobi rely on stealth and other tricks to prevail.
OK, let’s hit play
The first thing that appears when you start up Assassin’s Creed Shadows is the Animus Hub, a menu where players can read some context about other Assassin’s Creed games, launch them, and also access other areas, such as the Vault, the Exchange, and the Projects. The latter contains regularly released missions, which lead to rewards in the exchange through keys, and the Vault contains videos and lore about the game.
An awesome feature that I cannot help but mention is the Immersive Mode audio option. This will make characters speak in their native language, and subtitled to whichever language players choose. This makes Portuguese and Japanese characters speak in their own language, and for me, the narrator and other aspects remained in English.
There’s also Canon Mode, for players that are very lore-oriented. This mode makes the dialogue choices for the player, following the canon story. It can only be activated when launching a new game, but I prefer to choose for myself.
Same, but different
As for the gameplay, players will be able to choose between playing with the stealthy Naoe, or the giant overpowering samurai Yasuke. They can be changed almost at any time. I personally used Naoe a lot more because of her agility and stealth, for example, to scout an area and decide if the best approach is to hide and squeeze through, or enter through the front door and beat up everyone with Yasuke.
This is where the differences start with other games. On the one side, the game has revamped stealth mechanics, with the ability to go prone and hide in the shadows -players can even snuff out candles to hide their presence- and on the other, it has the ultimate samurai experience with a really big and strong character that can break down some big doors, so humans are really like butter to him.
When playing with Naoe, players will have to rely on observation to prevail. She has exclusivity on Eagle Vision and heightened senses to spot enemies and targets. She is short and quick, and can climb very easily, but she’s also short on resistance, and can be overwhelmed if enemies surround her.
Yasuke, on the other hand, has more adrenaline to use abilities like a power kick or a front charge with his katana. He can survive against a small army, does a lot more damage than Naoe, and receives less. But he is a clumsy climber, makes a lot of noise, and it is very funny to watch him attempt a leap of faith.
Both can be stealthy, and both can barge in through the front door, but there’s always an easy path if players choose to take it. It’s like playing two games in one. They even use different weapons, with Naoe benefiting from more agile ones like the Tanto and her throwables, while Yasuke destroys enemies with the heavy Kanabo or the loud Teppo.
Smaller world, and better managed
Assassin’s Creed Shadows traverses through 9 Japanese provinces. It’s a smaller world than Valhalla, and while it is an open world, a lot of it is covered in tight, wild forests, so it is better to keep to the roads and go directly to the next place in most cases. This helps to make it feel less overwhelming.
It’s filled with activities like painting animals, meditation, music, history and lore, and random encounters where players can help out some NPCs in exchange for some information, basically.
If players fail to disable the alarms on certain red zones and are found, their character will get a wanted status on that province. They can change character to be able to keep wandering around the province, and the status will eventually go away when the season ends.
And by season, I mean another cool system, which makes the world change through the natural seasons. So there is snow in winter, rain in spring, sunny summers, and colorful autumns.
There are all sorts of places to explore, like parkour trails, or even better: castles. That’s where the money lies, but also a ton of enemies and areas. Castles are a blast to explore and try out the different approaches with Naoe or Yasuke.
Another feature that returns is the hideout, with scouts and kakuregas, that are extensions of the hideout in different settlements. Players are able to customize and build their main hideout with different buildings that are unlocked while playing, as well as ornaments and pets (they are unlocked when players pet them in the world).
Assassin’s Creed Shadows is rich in history and culture, even the music is really immersive and is the perfect company to explore such gorgeous landscapes. It is visually stunning as well, every season brings a ton of beauty to the exploration.
The only bugs I found so far are very rare. One brings back some enemies to live after you end them in their sleep, they suddenly stand up and you have to do your thing again quickly if you don’t want trouble.
And the other one kicked me out of the game, claiming too many civilian deaths while I was just exploring some rooftops minding my business, but previously having killed a target. This happened twice in my whole playthrough, but as far as bugs are concerned I would say that they are not really an issue in this game.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows is certainly one of the best works from Ubisoft in recent years, they seem to have heard the players, and went back to some roots, while improving the game’s mechanics with a bet on a dual-player gameplay that gives players more choices on how they want to go through this adventure in Japan.
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