Ubisoft Details Assassin’s Creed Shadows Combat, Including Wandering Ronin, Katanas, and Hidden Blades

Ubisoft has shared a deep dive into combat in the Feudal Japan-set Assassin’s Creed Shadows, detailing enemies such as wandering ronin and weapons such as katanas and the iconic hidden blade.

A blog post from Ubisoft promised a huge amount of variety in Assassin’s Creed Shadows, which was originally due out in November before being delayed to February 14. “The protagonist you’re playing as and the weapon you’re using dramatically alters combat,” the developer said.

Ubisoft has already outlined the two different characters playable in Assassin’s Creed Shadows, including the stealthy assassin Naoe and savage samurai Yasuke. Putting different weapons in their hands will change the playstyle, though Naoe only has three options while Yasuke has five.

Assassin’s Creed Shadows Weapons

Naoe’s standard weapon is a katana, a slim sword with a good balance of speed, damage output, and defense. Correctly timed attacks stagger enemies and the katana also allows a nasty takedown through folding doors.

When stealth goes wrong and full combat is required, Naoe may prefer to use the Kusarigama, an extendable ball and chain attached to a scythe which can reach enemies a a distance and push back multiple at once. Once some distance is created, players can use the Rush Assassinate attack to close the distance and take down an enemy up to ten metres away.

Finally, for pure stealth approaches, the Tanto and Hidden Blade combo allows for lightning fast stabs, dubbed “the ideal weapon for that strike-and-retreat, death-by-a-thousand-cuts playstyle.” This option unlocks Double Assassinations, the iconic takedown method finally returning in Assassin’s Creed Shadows.

Yasuke’s weapons are fully catered to cutting down enemies in open combat, as his basic weapon is a long katana equally efficient in attack and defense. Also capable of fighting multiple enemies at once is the Naginata, a two metre long pole with blade on the end.

Ubisoft deems the Kanabo the deadliest weapon possessed by Yasuke, however, as this long wooden mace of sorts can break through enemies’ defenses with ease, at the cost of speed and mobility, of course. Yasuke also has two ranged weapons, the long range yumi bow and destructive teppo rifle.

Assassin’s Creed Shadows Enemies

Players will have plenty of opportunities to use these weapons as Assassin’s Creed Shadows features “numerous and varied” enemies. These include outlaws, ashigaru soldiers, ronin, samurai, samurai daisho, and guardians.

Outlaws and ashigaru soldiers are the meekest among them, the former being regular bandits roaming Japan and the latter being standard foot soldiers who are trained in the basics but no more.

Samurai are a harder chalenge. “Superb warriors, well-trained and fierce in combat, samurai can carry a wide variety of weapons, from their trusty katana to the mighty kanabo; they can also wear an impressive selection of armor sets, including some very high level end game ame sets, and employ a surprising number of attacks and counterattacks in a fight,” Ubisoft said.

These offshoot in three different ways too. Ronin are paradoxically described as “masterless samurai” but “in the employ of Naoe and Yasuke’s enemies,” so will wander the land and attack the player on sight. Samurai daisho go the other way, as these enemies are only found in military castles and usually defend some serious loot.

Finally, guardians are an elite group of samurai used as reinforcements when the alarm is raised in any given province. “With their unmistakable white manes and facemasks, Guardians aim to strike fear in their opponents, and offer some of the most difficult combat you’ll find in Assassin’s Creed Shadows,” Ubisoft said.

Assassin’s Creed Shadows Combat

Fans of more modern Assassin’s Creed games will be familiar with the Dark Souls-esque combat returning in Assassin’s Creed Shadows. Players can once again deploy simple light attacks and heavy attacks alongside what’s called a posture attack: essentially a charged version of either basic move.

“Mixing light, heavy and posture attacks is the best way to build up different types of complex combos,” Ubisoft said, and players should look to put enemies in a vulnerable state. This is a short window where devastating damage can be dealt.

Players can once again dodge to avoid incoming attacks, plus deflect and parry with their own weapons. Blocking is a mechanic unique to Yasuke, allowing him “to turtle up behind his weapon and withstand attacks including incoming arrows or kunai.”

Familiar combat actions including flurry attacks, unstoppable actions, and defensive actions are also making a return, alongside typical skills and ability mechanics.

Ubisoft is changing up a handful of practices behind the scenes of Assassin’s Creed Shadows despite bringing back old mechanics. It’s ditching its main paid content model of releasing a Season Pass with two main, paid expansion drops in the year after launch, for example. The faux “early access” period that sees publishers charge players more to play on the actual release date instead of three days later has also been scrapped.

Releasing myriad pieces of downloadable content for free will perhaps bring some Assassin’s Creed fans back on-side in what’s otherwise been a particularly rough pre-launch campaign for Ubisoft.

Issues began as some fans expressed frustration with inaccuracies in the game’s depiction of Japan, leading the development team to issue an apology and say the game is not intended to be a factual representation of history but instead “a compelling, historical fiction.” This despite art director Thierry Dansereau telling IGN that Ubisoft looked to make Shadows as “authentic as possible to match historical events” just two months prior.

Concern was also raised when the developer used a flag from a Japanese historical re-enactment group in artwork for Assassin’s Creed Shadows without permission. Ubisoft apologized for doing so but refused to remove the artwork from the aforementioned and presumably already printed artbook available in the Collector’s Edition. The historical re-enactment group said this was not good enough, but Ubisoft hasn’t publicly acknowledged it since.

Yet another controversy came as collectible figure maker PureArts removed an Assassin’s Creed Shadows statue from sale over its “insensitive” design.

All this comes as fans are already frustrated by the delay to the game, which puts Assassin’s Creed Shadows in more direct competition with PlayStation’s Ghost of Tsushima sequel, Ghost of Yotei. This is also expected in 2025 and is another open-world action adventure game set in Feudal Japan.

Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot maintained confidence, however. “There’s a lot of space for very high-quality games, and those two games can sell very well,” he said in the company’s latest earnings call. “The focus is to really make sure that we deliver a fantastic experience with this dual protagonist approach and two different and complimentary gameplays.”

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.