Assassin’s Creed Shadows has been in the gaming news and has been highly speculated about for a while now. Between Ubisoft controversies and game delays causing conflict between fans of the franchise, it seems that every headline of the game is filled with drama. However, the newest update about Shadows is actually helpful and an interesting insight into the upcoming Creed title. Here’s what we know so far.
Customized Gameplay in Assassin’s Creed Shadows
As many fans know, the newest addition to the Creed franchise will have dual protagonists, allowing you to play two different characters. People have been curious about this aspect of the game because although we have seen dual protagonists in the Creed franchise before, with Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate, we haven’t seen it done this way. In Syndicate, the two protagonists are twins: Evie and Jacob Frye. While they had different goals, their stories were intertwined. Regarding the main protagonists of Assassin’s Creed Shadows, Yasuke and Naoe are not only different but supposedly start as enemies.
During an interview with ScreenRant, the director of Assassin’s Creed Shadows, Jonathan Dumont, talked a bit about the dynamic we get to see as players. Each protagonist has a different fighting style and weapons. Yasuke’s fighting style is geared more towards hand-to-hand combat and brute strength, while Naoe, the shinobi, is geared more towards stealth and nimble weaponry.
During the interview, Dumont spoke about players choosing which character they want to play and whether or not they would be missing out on something if they chose one or the other. “So, I don’t think you’re missing out on things too much,” he said, “I think it’s more on your preference to [say], ‘okay, I’ll see how the game will adapt to a little bit to the character if you choose one over the other.'” Dumont continued by confirming that each character would get their own story/quest, which the other could not play.
“They get individual introductions and then they get their own questline also. So, that one is, let’s say Naoe, a personal questline that cannot be played by Yasuke and those are two distinct things.” He then says that you can pick whatever character you want for most of the game, “maining,” either Naoe or Yasuke. Still, their quests related to their stories in Assassin’s Creed Shadows can only be played with the respective characters. This is similar to Syndicate, where you could switch between Evie and Jacob at will, but there were specific quests that only one or the other could fulfill based on their personal beliefs and goals.
Dumont on Creed Being Set in Japan
Jonathan Dumont also spoke on Assassin’s Creed Shadows being set in Japan after years of fan requests. One of the best parts about the Creed franchise is the different locations the games take us to. From London to Egypt, the Caribbean, and Italy, the game’s scenery has always been gorgeous and one of the selling points for fans. Many have been asking Ubisoft to expand their locations to other parts of the world, and there has long been an outcry for them to make a game set in Japan.
Dumont spoke a bit about that during his interview with ScreenRant, saying, “For sure, the fans were requesting it, but we wanted to make it as well. So we go through the normal, I would say, research process early. And so, very early on, the first couple of people that are on the team are part of our research. Quite a bit of research went into this one, from our local historians and house historians to specialists, to just a little bit everywhere in the world, coming from Japan as well. And then you make choices on what you’re going to be telling as a story.”
He also spoke about the research process that goes into making a Creed game in the context of actual history and the history/lore of the game. “We landed on the Azuchi-Momoyama era because it was such a pivotal moment for Japanese history and then the world is kind of in flux, so it’s an interesting place for an Assassin’s Creed story. So there’s always the fictional Assassin’s Creed Templar assassins.” He also stated that Ubisoft tries to take a “humble approach” to building a game like this concerning the history and culture of the region.
Recently, Ubisoft has gotten into hot water with fans over their cultural insensitivity to Shadows. Still, it seems like they have the foundations of good intentions when it comes to the development of Assassin’s Creed Shadows. Fans highly anticipate the new installment, which is set to come out on March 20.
