The shinobi moves like silk on the night wind, perched atop a temple roof overlooking a heavily guarded castle. Below, over twenty guards patrol in predictable patterns, unaware of the death that watches from above. I scan the courtyard, planning my approach with methodical precision. My hidden blade thirsts for blood, but patience will be my true weapon tonight. This is Shadows at its finest moment – when it finally remembers what the franchise was always meant to be.
After almost two decades and one more than dozen mainline titles, Assassin's Creed has arrived in a setting that feels almost preordained: feudal Japan. The irony isn't lost on anyone – a franchise built around flashy assassinations has taken until now to explore the land synonymous with ninjas and samurai. Set during the tumultuous Sengoku period of the late 16th century, Shadows captures an era of profound transformation, where traditional Japanese society confronted the first waves of Western influence amidst internal power struggles that would reshape the nation.
What emerges is the most cohesive, beautiful, and satisfying Assassin's Creed experience in years—one that balances stealth and combat in a way that finally feels true to the franchise's origins.
Two shadows, one fate
Shadows embraces the dual protagonist system that was last seen a decade ago in Assassin's Creed Syndicate, but elevates it with two genuinely compelling characters — Naoe and Yasuke — whose stories intertwine with profound emotional depth.
You begin as Naoe, a young female shinobi from Iga province, whose life is upended when her village is destroyed and her father murdered by a shadowy cabal of masked figures. Her quest for vengeance propels her across Japan, eventually crossing paths with Yasuke – a former enslaved man who became the first Black samurai in Japanese history, serving under Oda Nobunaga himself.
The narrative excels at exploring themes of belonging and identity. Naoe is fierce and deadly but must learn to exist beyond her singular focus on revenge. In one mission, she participates in a traditional tea ceremony (chanoyu), where her every decision – from gift selection to cup placement – reflects her status as an outsider trying to navigate unfamiliar cultural waters. Meanwhile, Yasuke's journey from outsider to Oda Nobunga’s trusted is equally compelling, as he navigates the dual nature of being both respected for his martial prowess and still viewed as a foreigner.
What truly impresses is how the game world itself reinforces these themes through NPC reactions. Naoe blends seamlessly into crowds, largely ignored as she gathers intelligence. Contrast this with Yasuke, whose powerful presence elicits bows and whispers of reverence from villagers as he passes. Swapping between characters in the same location reveals fundamentally different experiences of Japan – a brilliant touch that breathes life into the setting beyond what we've seen in previous entries.
The narrative's restraint is also refreshing. Unlike some recent Assassin's Creed titles that veered into mythological bombast, Shadows maintains a grounded tone that feels more naturalistic and respectful of its historical setting. The approach to period authenticity is admirable, particularly when playing in "immersive mode.”
Shadows’ doesn't shy away from the darker aspects of the period. The exploitation of peasants by feudal lords, religious persecution, and the early effects of European colonialism in Asia,have been approached with a maturity that has sometimes been lacking in previous entries, avoiding both heavy-handed moralizing and glib dismissal of historical injustice. So, you know you live a complex world where the characters must navigate competing values and imperfect choices.
Blades in the dark, steel in the light
10 hours in, and this is when Shadows’ turns the gears, finally living up to its name, Assassin’s Creed. Naoe and Yasuke have a totally distinct approach to combat, and while you see that in the first 10 hours, afterwards is when it starts becoming more apparent, as you can now choose between the two — one is textbook assassin with exemplary stealth (something that was missing from the last few titles) and the other is the powerful samurai who believes taking enemies head to head.
With a hidden blade and grappling hook, she moves like "dark silk on a night wind," capable of taking out multiple targets butalso vulnerable if discovered. Exciting, isn’t it? Ubisoft has let go of the drone-like eagle companion that was seen in the recent entries, but given Naoe is a shin obi, she has her own “eagle vision,” which is limited but comes in handy when tagging enemies and planning approaches. The environment itself becomes part of your toolkit as Naeo, with multiple infiltration paths into heavily guarded locations. She can climb trees, slip through cracks in walls, or enter via aqueducts.
One particularly satisfying sequence might see you using a poison bomb to incapacitate several guards, slowing time to throw kunai at distant enemies, before executing a double assassination on your primary targets – all within seconds. So, while she can be lethal, direct confrontation often proves fatal as she lacks survivability against multiple opponents.
This is where Yasuke comes in. Having a totally contrasting playstyle, emphasizing powerful combat with naginatas, long katanas, and teppo firearms. His finishers exhibit a surprising brutality, with decapitations and impalements that rival Mortal Kombat in their goriness. Yet even as the "bruiser" option, Yasuke can't simply charge through every encounter. Without Naoe's eagle vision, players must move methodically, and while he can more easily recover from detection, charging headlong into combat rarely ends well.
The storyline frequently prompts players to choose between characters for specific missions. Then there are also times when one of the two might feel best suited for a scenario over the other. Heavily guarded castle infiltrations might naturally favor Naoe's stealth capabilities, but that doesn’t mean you are locked into her, a discovered Yasuke can also fight his way through opposition that would overwhelm his shinobi counterpart.
But, when I say the Shadows is live up to its name, you just need to look at its approach to assassination set pieces, which I found, particularly impressive, seeing how the combat have been more like button mashing through a situation. Large compounds transform into murderous puzzles where you must create an assassination "Rube Goldberg machine," analyzing patrol patterns and eliminating targets in the correct sequence to avoid detection. Now, you could button-mash the heroics but that’s not going to work out in your favour every time.
What elevates the stealth gameplay is the thoughtful integration allies, which needs to be recruited as you progress, and then can summoned at critical moments. From monks skilled in barehanded combat to unsettling teenage poisoners — they only add on to thetactical options. When they are not fighting by your side, they live in the bases you create throughout the Japan.
But, at the end of the day, it’s an modern day Assassin’s Creed game, and its adherence to the open-world RPG formula that has defined the series since Origins continues to haunt this title as well.
The main quest line feels quite predictable. It goes in a loop —locate intelligence in a region, identify a target, eliminate them, repeat — becoming predictable after the first fifteen hours. Side activities like discovering lost scrolls, praying at shrines, and looting castles alsofollow identical patterns regardless of location. Castle infiltrations, while initially thrilling, become formulaic as players discover each follows essentially the same layout and progression. So, if you've looted one castle, you've essentially looted them all.
I could get past all this, but Ubisoft’s levelling system is something I couldn’t ignore. Griding through the repetitive side quests, even though some are beautful not to discard them, simply to progress the main story, rarely deviate from established gameplay patterns and is the frustrating remnant of the series' RPG evolution.
Brushstrokes of tradition
Whatever criticisms can be leveled at Shadows' gameplay loop, they melt away in the face of its astonishing visual presentation. Simply put, this is one of the most beautiful video games ever created – a living ukiyo-e painting that captures the soul of feudal Japan with breathtaking fidelity.
The architectural detail is impressive, with meticulously recreated castles, temples, and villages based on historical references. Each location feels distinct and authentic, from the imposing stone foundations of Osaka Castle to humble farming villages nestled between mountains. The urban environments particularly shine, with Kyoto's winding streets and multilevel buildings creating countless opportunities for verticality and exploration.
Perhaps most tellingly, this is the first Assassin's Creed in years where I found myself ignoring fast travel options, choosing instead to take the scenic route through the countryside, or navigating the rooftops of Kyoto simply for the joy of movement and discovery.
The seasonal changes – which cycle naturally as you progress through the story – transform familiar locations in stunning ways, from cherry blossoms in spring to crimson maple leaves in autumn.
People, or should I say characters are made with the same mastery. The models exhibit the same attention to detail, particularly in facial animations during cutscenes. Costume design shows similar care, with historically accurate armor, robes, and weapons that reflect social status and regional differences.
When playing in Japanese with subtitles, the subtle expressions and mannerisms feel extraordinarily authentic, capturing the nuances of period-appropriate communication where much remains unsaid. The multilingual script shines has also been brilliantly done. At moments when conversations become delicate diplomatic dances, the tone and word choice matter as much as the dialogue itself.
Shadows largely delivers on this visual promise, especially in the Quality mode, which does limit the visual fidelity at 30 fps but is exactly how you should be experiencing the feudal Japan. Perhaps most impressive is how the game handles transitions between gameplay states. Cutscenes blend seamlessly into gameplay, and fast travel loads so quickly that exploration never feels interrupted.
From darkness, a new dawn
So, back to exactly where we started, Assassin’s Creed Shadows does take you on a captivating journey through feudal Japan that should have been explored years ago, but it does it with a flair that have been missing lately. I wouldn’t say that Shadows is the Assassin’s Creed is but it takes you on the series’ most mature and absorbing outing. For that, Shadows doesn’t really make far reaching changes in the franchise’s formula, but takes what has worked for the franchise the best and make it slightly better — the stealth and spectacle.
Yasuke and Naoe's contrasting yet complementary abilities create a mechanical throughline and when everything clicks—whether executing a perfectly choreographed multi-target assassination as Naoe or cleaving through opposition as Yasuke—Shadows delivers some of the most satisfying moments in the franchise's history. Japan's historical authenticity shines through every temple, castle, and ceremony, with cultural touches that elevate the experience beyond mere backdrop to become a living world worth exploring.
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