Since the earliest reveals of Assassin’s Creed Shadows to way after the game launched, there have been plenty of talk about the choice of the two playable characters. As is the way of the internet, there’s more meaningless political chatter than actual criticism. Among them though, the choice of Yasuke being one of the playable characters rather than an NPC quest giver or exposition character is one of the more contentious ones, and not because of the colour of his skin.
From the get go, the folks at Ubisoft says that it’s important for Assassin’s Creed Shadows that Yasuke be made a playable character because it allows for an outside perspective. While I can’t speak for specific individuals as to whether they were truthful or whether they were given a corporate script to follow, I can say as a player of the game, it’s so that a series-long bigger picture plot can be contrived into the game. Consider this the spoiler warning for the latter story parts of the game, which will will be discussed somewhat later.
As an Assassin’s Creed title, Shadows is more of the same, but with the expected improvements and refinements. But despite said improvements, it still retains the very formulaic flavour that permeates all of Ubisoft, including other franchises such as the likes from the Tom Clancy universe. So if you like that sort of map marker clearing routine, this is the game for you. But if you prefer a story with an evenly-paced narrative, the open-world freedom of quest sequences will lock you out of it, until near the end when all of the plot points converge.
In terms of general gameplay, it’s pretty obvious that Naoe is the main character of the game, and the one you’re supposed to be playing as for the vast majority of the game. She is the one with mechanics that most gamers associate with the series, like parkour and Eagle Vision, so naturally she’s the one you use to clear map markers like Viewpoints and most collectibles.
She’s not incapable in direct combat either, as even when you’re overwhelmed, smoke bombs give you ample breathing room, and even a short window for a few cheeky assassinations, further thinning the horde. And as you progress, level up, and unlock more skills, these only make direct combat encounters easier, to say nothing of the more fluid exploration.
One massive improvement in exploration and parkour in general – and probably a necessary addition considering the period-accurate Japanese architecture – is the grappling hook. It allows for better vertical movement, and at times, can save a botched jump. The weapons available to Naoe also allow for her to approach assassinations with a lot more flexibility, including doing so from range without a throwing weapon.
Yasuke, on the other hand, is the obvious crutch character for when you foresee only direct combat encounters. You’re unlikely to get defeated unless facing a foe you’re severely underleveled against, and even then with enough skill it’s not an insurmountable wall.
You have a very large variety of weapons – melee options include the katana, the kanabo and the naginata, while for ranged you have the bow and the teppo, or arquebus. The ranged ones are pretty straightforward, but while the melee ones each get three active skills for you to choose from, you only get one stance each. Making things worse, you can only equip any combination of two at a time, so if you want melee variety in the heat of combat, you have no range options until you pause the game and swap one of them out.
Another trade-off to playing Yasuke is that parkour is so limited that it may as well be an impossibility. To make sure he sees some play outside of forced story bits, some puzzles for collectibles in Assassin’s Creed Shadows are made so that they can only be solved by his brute strength. Overall, I still think that it’s nice that the two characters play completely differently from each other, but as a result, there’s the obvious divide between the canonical character and the crutch character, with Yasuke being completely ignorable for most of the game.
Overall though, the one gripe I have with the gameplay of Assassin’s Creed Shadows is the fact that it’s walking the line between a more classic experience with the RPG-heavy ones in recent memory. Think Syndicate and older, as well as Mirage, as opposed to the RPG trilogy that is Origins, Odyssey and Valhalla. The good news is that, if you dislike one, there is less of that and more of the other. But on the flip side, everyone gets what’s ultimately a compromise. This results in a game that’s both for everyone and for no one at the same time, depending on your perspective.
Moving on to graphics, one thing that Ubisoft games tend to get right more often than wrong is in this department, and Assassin’s Creed Shadows is just another example of that. There are not disastrous bugs as well the likes of which some titles may have seen in their earlier days, like fellow AC game Unity, or Ghost Recon Breakpoint to name a more recent example. And while the game keeps the more realistic but limited biome range, the cycling seasons and weather changes things up enough to keep things from becoming stale visually, and actually forces a slight gameplay adjustment in winter specifically.
Optimisation is also pretty good, allowing my system running a 3070 and outputing to a 1080p TV to get pretty consistent 120fps. Per the in-game fps counter anyway, as my TV only goes up to 60Hz. Things have only improved since then, as there have been a couple of patches since launch.
Oh, except the lipsync and facial expressions of the two playable characters, especially in cutscenes and when you have immersive mode turned on. It looks like they were done with AI, and as such, the character model sometimes struggle to move according to the spoken syllable. Every change in emotion is depicted in their most intense possible expression with voices not matching the intensity at times, which make the characters look bipolar. This is especially the case with Naoe, which we’ll get to in a bit.
Adding to all that is the audio. While it has its own share of pretty forgettable tracks, there are a handful that will stick to the back of your head. Of these, it’s a coin toss between them being just that good that they are memorable, or that they occur often enough within the game that you passively remember them instead. One example of the latter is the almost ambient music that plays when you are sneaking through restricted areas, with a close second more than likely being the combat music because you got spotted.
Of course, there are times when both are true, and a good example of this is when you tick of a Viewpoint from the map. This is because the track used in Assassin’s Creed Shadows for Viewpoints doesn’t quite use the series’ common motif found in other games. Instead, here you get a small but healthy variety, depending on whether the Viewpoint in question is the top of a pagoda in a temple, the highest point of a castle keep, or simply out randomly in the wilderness. Of these, the temple ones are probably the least impactful, as it’s too similar to the ambient music that plays whenever you enter any Buddhist temple in the game.
As for the characters, the game does have quite the roster of side characters, though most of them don’t really leave that much of an impact or impression. They also don’t have enough screen time, which may be a contributing factor. The main characters on the other hand, obviously get a lot more, but they swing between being stagnant or having very abrupt but convenient character developments. This is especially apparent with Naoe, who is basically teen angst embodied until her very sudden change of heart when she has her first proper conversation with Yasuke.
Yasuke himself is no better, as the seeds of his alliance with Naoe were planted in his very first battlefield assignment by Oda Nobunaga. After the alliance was formalised, Yasuke himself becomes a playable background character, occasionally being Naoe’s foil, like a comedy duo that had its jokes replaced with rage and bloodshed. At risk of sounding like a broken record, it’s all very convenient and contrived, and because the first instances happen so early in the game, it gets old quite fast.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows Spoilers Ahead
Now we get to the story, so consider this your last spoiler warning. Those who have kept up with the online discourse surrounding Assassin’s Creed Shadows may have come across the bits about romance options for both Yasuke and Naoe. I’m going to completely ignore those as they simply serve as situations that players can either self-insert into the situation, role-play the more likely outcomes based on their understanding of the plot, or ignore entirely.
Instead, I’m going to talk about the choice of making Yasuke, an actual historical character, as the playable one rather than the exposition quest giver NPC. As mentioned earlier, the publisher’s people have said that it’s for an outsider perspective. Having played the game, I’m more convinced than ever that it’s just not the case. At the very start of the game Yasuke already speaks fluent Japanese, and is familiar with the complex social structure, including navigating the necessary mannerisms involved in the process, especially where social rank is involved. Six months into his service to Nobunaga, he is familiar with the fighting style of the locals, showing no sign of transitioning from whatever fighting style he may have had before.
Instead, Ubisoft needed a vehicle for the Templar influence to enter Japan, and this is done via the Jesuits, which forcibly puts Yasuke in the spotlight because of his proximity. Without him being the playable character and the proximity that it provides, the Templar presence in Warring States Japan – or at least their appearance in the story – would feel very abrupt. At that point, it’s up to you to decide which is worse, an abrupt story development or a contrived one. I’m not sure if Ubisoft wrote itself into a corner with this overall plot line, but it sure feels that way.
Spoilers End Here
Before I close out the review, let me bring your attention to the codex of Assassin’s Creed Shadows. These are part of the collectibles in the game, which allows you to learn about specific locations and culture associated with Warring States Japan. Ubisoft talks a lot about the historical accuracy of this game, and like with other entries of the series, this is really where you’ll find it. Well, probably, as many smaller details about inaccuracies have made their way onto the internet before the game was even released.
That being said, you’d still stand a better chance at getting accurate information there as opposed to, say, the portrayal of Yasuke and any of his romantic escapades. After all, from historical records, his presence in the game beyond the end of the first act is already historical fiction. Even at the end of the first act, he has supplanted Mori Ranmaru, Nobunaga’s actual aide, in just about every way, in a nearly self-insert fan-fiction sort of way, just in case you need that point driven home.
Conclusion
Assassin’s Creed Shadows is one of the most polished AAA games, and that’s saying something considering some of the stinkers we had in recent memory. It was buttery smooth for the most part while I played the week before the game launched, and with more patches since, it only got better. It’s also the Assassin’s Creed game with arguably the best setting the franchise could ever ask for, finally happening, and that in and of itself can contribute to some bonus points to the way you feel about the game. Although at the same time, Ghost of Tsushima has already scratched that itch five years ago, and with a less-represented – and therefore more interesting – period.
It must also be reiterated that the Ubisoft formula isn’t for everyone. For those who can get into a trance-like state while clearing off map markers, this is more of that. You can easily spend dozens of hours just doing so, especially if you’re like me and like clearing off map markers and side content as much as possible before continuing with story missions. For context, in the 50 or so hours it took me to complete Ghost of Tsushima not counting the Director’s Cut, I had only discovered, never mind cleared, 2/3 of the available map markers, while also going through the second of three acts. But as mentioned, all of this affects the story’s continuity, and if you’re sick of open worlds, or are suffering from choice paralysis due to the freedom that it grants you, then Assassin’s Creed Shadows is not for you either.
Had the formula been modified slightly, locking off parts of the world behind story progress, then it would have led to a more curated, but otherwise smoother journey the way Ghost of Tsushima was. But with the scale of Assassin’s Creed Shadows, the complete freedom to do anything at anytime within it, and the resulting web of plot threads that must be weaved coherently together, the price of that freedom is, dare I say it, a tad too high.
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