Assassin’s Creed Shadows Still Hasn’t Made A Good Argument For Why It Has Two Protagonists
The next Assassin’s Creed is once again featuring two playable protagonists. However, instead of having the choice of playing as a man or a woman (like in Odyssey and Valhalla), Assassin’s Creed Shadows takes a page out of Syndicate’s book and sees you play as two separate characters: a shinobi named Naoe and a samurai named Yasuke. Beyond the fact that it seems like Ubisoft is incapable of making an Assassin’s Creed game with a woman as the sole lead, there doesn’t seem to be a good reason as to why Yasuke (a real person from history–a first for a protagonist in the Assassin’s Creed franchise) is also playable. Really, I can’t see any reason as to why Assassin’s Creed is doing two playable protagonists again, especially after seeing 40 minutes of the game in action.
Ubisoft has not done much to explain why Shadows needs two playable protagonists either. In marketing materials, the team has described the decision as its way to deliver both the shinobi and samurai experience, an argument that doesn’t hold much water in a post-Ghost of Tsushima world. But I was willing to hold my judgment until I saw the game in action–perhaps the gameplay differences between Naoe and Yasuke are so large, it makes sense to separate them into two separate characters.
Having finally gotten a chance to see 40 minutes of gameplay at Summer Game Fest, I’m left more confused than ever–Shadows does not look like a game that needed two playable heroes. The preview that I saw began with a short mission in which Yasuke traveled to a village and took care of the samurai ruthlessly ruling over the citizens, only to then meet up with Naoe and discuss the best way for taking out the corrupt official in charge of said samurai. At that point, the demo covered the subsequent mission, but in three different ways. First, I saw Naoe infiltrate the official’s castle under the cover of darkness and stealthily take out guards without raising any alarm. Next, I saw Yasuke go through the same castle but during the day, muscling through guards and breaking down locked doors like a raging bull. And finally, I saw Naoe once again go through the castle but this time during the day and taking a more direct approach that saw her fighting enemies out in the open rather than hiding in the shadows.