HomeNewsAssassin’s Creed Shadows
Assassin’s Creed Shadows is both a samurai and a ninja game, as it borrows Syndicate’s dual-character storyAfrican swordsmaster Yasuke will be the series’ first real-life protagonist
African swordsmaster Yasuke will be the series’ first real-life protagonist
Image credit:Ubisoft
Image credit:Ubisoft
After being unceremoniously thrown into the spotlight yesterday with a pre-reveal leak,Assassin’s Creed Shadowshas been given a proper unveiling via a flashy cinematic trailer, confirming bothits leaked November release dateand revealing that we’ll be playing as two protagonists for the first time in the series sinceSyndicatealmost a decade ago. One of those heroes will also be the series’ first playable real-life figure: the African samurai Yasuke.
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Compared to Naoe’s stealthy focus, Yasuke will excel more in direct combat - making his playstyle closer to the action-RPG feel of more recent Assassin’s Creed games or the similarly samurai-focusedGhost of Tsushima.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows: Official World Premiere TrailerWatch on YouTube
Assassin’s Creed Shadows: Official World Premiere Trailer
While we don’t see any actual gameplay in the cinematic trailer - nice as it looks and all -IGNwrangled some more details out of developers Ubisoft, including info on a reworked lighting system that will help Naoe to hide in the - ahem - shadows like Sam Fisher, the grappling hook traversal I mentioned above, which can also be used to assassinate like a deadly Spider-Gwen, and a reworking of the underlying Anvil engine that’ll let Yasuke’s samurai sword cut into objects realistically, which made me think ofMetal Gear Rising: Revengeance’s still-unparalleled melon-slicing tech. There’ll apparently be the chance to engage in some classic Kurosawa-like samurai duels, too.
The world will also be more dynamic, cycling through the seasons in a way that will encourage the player to adapt. One example given was that a pond you might be able to duck under during summer could be frozen over during winter, removing a hiding spot. Another was that grass might be tall enough to sneak through in spring, but vanishes in autumn. The seasons will affect the entirety of Shadows’ map, which was compared to the size ofAssassin’s Creed Originsin its recreation of central Japan.
We’ll see and hear more ahead of Shadows’ November 15th release date sometime next month, according to Ubisoft. As an unabashed liker of Assassin’s Creed, samurai and ninja, though, I’m certainly intrigued.
