It’s no secret that Ubisoft has a lot riding on Assassin’s Creed Shadows’ success, and it looks to be going all out to make the game as appealing as it can be when it releases later this month. The latest addition to one of its flagship franchises fulfills a longstanding wishlist for AC fans: the game is set in Feudal Japan – a location that has long been on their wishlists ever since Altair began a crusade against the Templars way back in 2007.
Assassin’s Creed II and its two sequels remain high points in the franchise’s history owing to Ezio Auditore’s charisma and charm. And while Ubisoft attempted to bring something new to like in the subsequent games, the overarching Assassins vs Templars narrative has since come under fire for being too convoluted or simply uninspiring in comparison to what came before it.
It seems that Ubisoft is finally paying heed to all of that feedback, seeking to reverse its fortunes after a recent string of underperforming releases that have made it pin its hopes squarely on Naoe and Yasuke’s shoulders.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows Revisits the Past in More Ways Than One
A cursory glance at all of the promotional material available online for Assassin’s Creed Shadows might not highlight its connections to the games that have preceded it in the franchise’s history. The most obvious is the dual protagonists, taking a leaf from Jacob & Evie Frye in 2016’s Assassin’s Creed Syndicate. The Frye twins’ attempts to destabilize a well-established Templar order in Victorian London allowed Ubisoft to give its players the choice of two different approaches to its sandbox-styled missions with a focus on either combat or stealth.
While Odyssey and Valhalla presented players with the same freedom, they drew flak for being Assassin’s Creed titles that featured Assassins who could very well walk into the nearest enemy camp and brawl their way through it, tearing through grunts and bosses alike with little need to stay out of sight and thin their ranks from the shadows.
Shadows brings these two distinct approaches to the franchise’s tried and tested gameplay loop together, allowing Naoe and Yasuke to emulate the Frye twins from a narrative standpoint while Shadows’ gameplay allows its players to choose how they would like to engage with Ubisoft’s rendition of ancient Japan.
Dual protagonists aside, Shadows also touches upon other strong points in the franchise’s past, its new weather system being a great example. While Assassin’s Creed III’s take on the American Frontier saw Connor bogged down by snow in certain areas of the map at specific times, it never really had an effect on gameplay other than serving as an immersive addition to its massive map.
However, current-gen hardware and a newly updated Anvil engine have allowed Ubisoft to take things up a notch in Shadows, allowing for a landscape that is drastically altered with changing seasons that can act as either a blessing or a curse to the Assassin’s attempts to infiltrate areas as they try and take on the Templar ranks. It’s an important change that could work wonders for Shadows – and Ubisoft – if it is handled correctly.
Looking Back to the Games That Came Before
There are narrative beats that also tie into past Assassin’s Creed titles. Ubisoft is looking to build a more complex relationship between the Assassins and the Templars this time around, with the Shinbakufu serving as the main Templar faction in its latest story. However, their presence in Japan is offset by the region’s other political stalwarts, the samurai being chief among them.
Yasuke’s narrative is certain to see the new Assassin forced to take on his former samurai brethren in some form or the other, questioning his loyalty to the land and his clan as he works with a shinobi to create a better life for Japan’s populace. It is a twist that players have seen before in both Assassin’s Creed Unity and Rogue, which both featured narratives that presented a more nuanced battle of ideologies between the franchise’s biggest rivals.
Japanese politics are also slated to have an effect on the game’s world and story, with the Shadows’ creative director teasing a massive power struggle between various in-game factions that could elevate Odyssey and Valhalla’s Templar Hunting missions. It could very well be that dismantling the Shinbakufu’s ranks would require the support of the open world’s denizens in some form or the other which would be an excellent callback to Brotherhood’s recruiting mechanic that would later feature in Assassin’s Creed Black Flag.
Ubisoft’s resolve to reconnect with its best features in Assassin’s Creed is also evident in its new approach to DLC for Assassin’s Creed Shadows. Its decision to include the Claws of Awaji DLC as a free preorder bonus has been an excellent move by the studio that has allowed its latest title to recapture the pre-release performance of Odyssey.
However, it is the Sanzoku Ippa’s presence in the DLC and their apparent proficiency at using the Assassin’s own tactics against them that is particularly significant. It is a callback to Shay Cormac’s adventure in Assassin’s Creed Rogue which saw the former member of the brotherhood on the run from those he once called friends in a poignant twist on the series’ established narrative formula. Naoe and Yasuke may not be forced to turn on the Brotherhood but are sure to find going from hunters to hunted a tad uncomfortable.
It’s clear that Ubisoft is aiming to make Assassin’s Creed Shadows the definitive Assassin’s Creed experience, leveraging the best of the franchise and the power of current-gen systems to craft an experience that it has since fine-tuned with two delays pushing its November 2024 release.
Time will tell if Assassin’s Creed Shadows is able to recapture the franchise’s former glory while taking Ubisoft in a new direction when the game releases on 20th March 2025 for the PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PC, and Mac.
