Assassin’s Creed Shadows Players Won’t Be ‘Missing Out’ If They Largely Ignore One Protagonist

Ubisoft has assured that Assassin’s Creed Shadows players who largely ignore one of the dual protagonists won’t be “missing out.”

Creative director Jonathan Dumont told Screen Rant said Assassin’s Creed Shadows won’t force players to play as both the stealthy Naoe and the brutish Yasuke in equal measure when it arrives March 20, nor will it lock off certain parts of the game to those who prefer one over the other.

“I don’t think you’re missing out on things too much,” Dumont said. “I think it’s more on your preference to [say], ‘Okay, I’ll see how the game will adapt a little bit to the character if you choose one over the other.’

“They get individual introductions and then they get their own questline also. Let’s say [for] Naoe, a personal questline cannot be played by Yasuke and those are two distinct things. But the core of the game can be pick your character and the game adapts.”

Naoe has a play style reminiscent of the original Assassin’s Creed games or, ironically, the most recent Assassin’s Creed Mirage, which prioritises stealth and encourages full combat only as a last resort.

This is a stark difference to Yasuke who emulates the more aggressive elements of the role-playing game Assassin’s Creed entries, meaning Origins, Odyssey, and Valhalla. He charges head on into battle instead of sticking to the shadows like Naoe.

“We’re not imposing players try to split the time,” Dumont said. “If you prefer one character for any reason, you can play maybe, I don’t know, I’m not going to put a percentage, but quite a bit of the game using one of them.

“But if you want to balance it out… I play quite a bit balanced out and what happens is, I play with one for three, four, five hours, and then I switch, and then I just play two, three hours. Usually I play stealth and then I [say], ‘All right, let me destroy some camps and stuff all right for a while.’ And then I just change like that.”

A lot rests on the shoulders of Assassin’s Creed Shadows as not only the long-awaited Japan-set entry and the first full Assassin’s Creed since 2020, but a struggling Ubisoft needs it to perform well following recent flops and investor frustration.

It’s not enjoyed a particularly positive promotional period so far, however, with the development team having to apologize on separate occasions for inaccuracies in Assassin’s Creed Shadows’ depictions of Japan and using a historical recreation group’s flag without permission.

Yet another controversy came as collectible figure maker PureArts removed an Assassin’s Creed Shadows statue from sale over its “insensitive” design, and combined with the two delays, fans are growing increasingly impatient as a result.

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