First reported by , citing featuring a clip from a PureArts livestream that has seemingly been deleted (I couldn't find it in any o🧔f the store's YouTube or Twitch vods), PureArts staff members suggested there's something going on with Black Flag protagonist Edward.

Addressing viewers asking why Edward hadn't yet been featured in the store's new Animus Assassin's Creed line, PureArts staff said: "Assassin's Creed fans out there, you should be aware that there is somet𓃲hing going on with Edward."

At this point, the stream's co-host asks, "Has that been announcedꦗ?"

Our apparently unwitting leaker replies: "I think so. I'm prett𓃲y sure I saw rumors about it. No, I definitely saw an ꦚarticle about it."

"There's going to be something going on with Edward," t💦hey add, "and our PVC 1/8 scale statue will reflect that accordingly."

PureArts does notably have , but they're made of polyresin, not PVC. They're al🍌so 1/4 scale, not 1/8. The store specifically calls out PVC as a material when it's used, which supports♛ the claim that PVC Edward is still to come.

This is certainly short of jumping on the table and shouting 'Black Flag remake confirmed,' but it's probably the firmest leak we've gotten. The fact thatℱ this stream has – again, as far as I can tell – vanished from PureArts' channels also suggests that somebody from Ubisoft may have given them a ring to say it had not, in fact, been announced.

Ubisoft said last year that rema💖kes of "older Assassin's Creed games" are✨ in the works, and plenty of folks a💟ssumed (or hoped) that Black Flag would be high on the list of candidates, if not the very top. At this point, you don't need a crystal ball to guess that we might be in for a swashbuckling surprise announcement.

Here are all the confirmed 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:upcoming Assassin's Creed games.

According to , Raymond, who founded Haven Studios in partnership with PlayStation in 2021, has left the company, but Sony hasn't provided staff a💃 reason for her departure. Bloomberg's report claims that she left "several weܫeks after an external test of Haven's first game," amid internal concerns about how the game was being received.

That game was 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Fairgames, a Payday-style shooter that's thought to have been one part of PlayStation's oft-maligned live-service push. That push hit an abrupt halt with澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询: the high-profile 🌜failure of Concord last year, even though several projects remained in the works. It does look as though Sony is gradually changing course away from that strategy, but it was a🌱lmost certainly hoping that those still iꦑn development made it to launch.

In September 2024, reports suggested 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Sony was feeling go♉od about Fairgam🅷es - internal conversation was said to be ᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚ"very positive." Whether those reports were inaccurate or external and internal expectations weren't aligned isn't clear, but what remains readily apparent is that Raymond's departure will be a significant blow to the studio.

From the lofty heights of helping to create the original Assassin's Creed at Ubisoft, Raymond's career has failed to yield much in more recent years. Before her four years at Haveꦯn Studios, Raymond was employed at Stadia, Google's failed game-streaming service, which was discontinued after a little over three years in 2023.

Remember happier times with our list of the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best Assassin's Creed games.

CEO Yves Guillemot acknowledged "mixed dynamics across our portfolio, amid intense industry competition" in the company's . The company is reporting net bookings "slightly below" its objective, and while it'd be easy to point at 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:disappointing 🍸Stಞar Wars Outlaws sales as the prime culprit, Ubisoft says t🦩he downturn is "m🌼ainly reflecting lower than expected partnerships, notably due to a timing impact."

"Aware of the challenges ahead, we took decisive steps to continue strengthening the company’s future," Guillemot said. "The launch of Assassin’s Creed Shadows was a defining moment. It reaffirmed the power of the Assassin’s Creed brand, with a highly favorable community response from long-time fans and new p♑layers alike."

Ubisoft reported in March that Shadows marked the second-biggest launch in Assassin's Creed histor🔥y, behind only Valhalla – which released in the midst of the Covid pandemic that had the world desperate for games to get lost in. In today's release, the company makes is explicit about Shadows having "clearly outperformed Assassin's Creed O📖dyssey."

Shortly after the release of Shadows, Ubisoft announced the creation of a new subsidiary backeꦑd by Tecent that will "spearhead development" on new Assassin's Creed, Far Cry, and Rainbow Six games. Think of it as a sort of seqܫuel to Ubisoft that'll take over the company's biggest games.

In today's statement, Guillemot said that this is a "major step" in what's set to be a "profound transformation" for the company. "Focused on accelerating the growth of three of our most iconic IPs," he continued, "this new subsidiary will play a pivotal role in building evergreen, billion-euro brand ecosystems. We are progressing steadily toward the closing of the transaction by year-end, a key milestone that wi♎ll fully deleverage the Company and position us for sustainable, long-term growth."

Notably, the company also plans to "provide additional development time to some of our biggest productions." In other words, the Shadows delay worked out, so other big games are getting delayed, too. The only question is which 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:upcoming Ubisoft games are going to be affected.

There's plenty more ahead on the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Assassin's Creed Shadows roadmap.

Shadows 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:beꦕat the Steam launch for Valhalla within a day, but ultimately trailed behind the viking rendition of Assassin's Creed overall. Ubisoft called Valhalla's launch 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:a "perfect storm we ma⛦y never see again," and its new report affirms that Shadows generated "the ꦜsecond-highest Day 1 sales revenue 𒀰in franchise history—second only to Assassin’s Creed® Valhalla."

To date, consum𒉰er spending for Shadows exceeds Odyssey, long held up as the epitome of what modern Assassin's Creed games have become (though some fans swear by Origins), "with the player count also outperforming."

"Players have logged 160 million hours in Assassin’s Crꩲeed Shadows, underscoring its engaging gameplay and the enduring appeal of the franchise," Ubisoft adds.

Later in the report, Ubisoft reflects on its decision to delay Assassin's Creed Shadows in the fi✱na🥃l stretch despite t🐟he fiscal hopes riding on ꧑it. "This decision has already been beneficial to the quality of Assassin’s Creed Shadows," the company believes.

As our own Andrew Brown put it: 𒉰If Assassin's Creed Shadows' delay means lessons have been learned from Star Wars Outlaws, I say: l🦋et Ubisoft cook.

Ubisoft says the team mostly 🍨focused on polish in the final stages, though there 🤪were "a couple bits of narrative here and the🦂re."

Through all of this business lingo, it's important to remember that Shadows is a good game, too. Our 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Assassin's Creed Shadows review prai💮sed "more confidence, texture, and purpose" than we've seen from Ubisoft in years, and the game's Steam reviews are holding at a "very positive" 80%. (Funnily enough, Assassin's Creed Odyssey is beating Shadows on Metacritic by a few points.)

澳洲幸运5开奖号码෴历史查询:The most recent Assassin'🦹s Creed Shadows update snuck in some parkour improvements ahea🗹d of a larger update coming later.

The broader 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Assassin's Creed Shadows roadmap includes a special collaboration, new story and difficulty additions, and a lot more still to come.

Last week's Assassin's Creed Shadows update, version 1.0.4, added a new free story pack and made a plethora of bug fixes, but one thing its didn't mention was the ch✅anges made to its parkour mechanics. Some significant differences have been spotted by content creator Ropotopolous, who shares a video demonstrating new parkour animations, improved object targeting, and ejects that "are definitely GA𝐆INING HEIGHT." You can see it in action below.

On Twitter, the official Assassin's Creed account has responded to this, confirming that, yes, some alterations have been made ahead of the dedicated parkour update detailed in 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Assassin's Creed Shadows' roadmap.

"Our parkour devs just couldn't wait and added a subtle increase for consi🍌stently maintaining vertical height when free running," . "More ejects and tweaks coming with the next update!"

Ubisoft explains this a little further in a comment left on Ropotopolous's YouTube video, calling the changes "subtle but important tweaks to𒆙 how parkour prioritization works." It adds: "This lays the groundwork for our upcoming height-gaining side and back ejects update later this month."

There's lots more in the Assassin's Creed Shadows roadmap to look forward to, from photo mode updates to new difficulty options, promising to keep the stealthy RPG fresh long after its March release. Its Claws of Awaji expansion is also set to launch at some point this year, which will take place after the base game's ending in an eerie new location.

Be sure to check out our 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Assassin's Creed Shadows review to see why we think it's one of the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best Assassin's Creed games.

The game's first expansion, Claws of Awaji, was previously teased without a release date, and well, we still don't have a release date, but we know it's coming "later this year." We still don't have a price either, but Ubisoft says it'll be free for everyone who prꦓe-ordered the game. The DLC continues the story following Shadows' epilogue scene and opens up the island of Awaji as a new explorable area. It'll also add new enemies, abilities, and the new bow staff weapon exclusive to Naoe.

The newly unveiled 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Assassin's Creed Shadows roadmap also includes new "story drops" that will be free for everyone, and those will add new abilities, new allies, new activities, and cutsceღne๊s that'll help flavor the backstories for characters that "perhaps need a little more screen time," according to associate game director Simon Lemay-Comtois.

The ﷽first new story expansion is titled The Works of Luis Frois, and it focuses on the titular historical Jesuit scho🀅lar. That drops in early May, so ostensibly in just a few days, and will include a new quest.

Ongoing title updates based on community feedback are also part of the roadmap, with the first coming in l🗹ate May with updates to the parkour system, including height-gaining back and side eject jumps and a new vertical ledge jump that'll let you jump onto low-hanging awnings instead of just awkwardly bumping your head against them when you jump.

Photo mode is also getting a big update in May with new filters, features, character poses, facial exp🎃ressions, and a new way to add ambient music while you're snapping shots of feudal Japan.

The second community-driven, free story update will focus on immersion, with new customization options that'll allow you 𝄹to toggle visual effects like glinting light on weapജons in combat, assassination filters, ability features, and that little outline around your character in stealth sequences.

This June update will also include a new quest, new ally, and new difficulty settings while expanding the alarm system to the open world and letting you toggle on and off your headgear 🅰in cutscenes.

That's not all, more planned future content that'll be free for everyone includes a New Game Plus mode, more com𝓰munity feedback updates and story cont🥃ent, "special collaborations," codex updates, new animus content, and new rewards. And then there's some paid content in the works as well, including store drops and more DLC.

Fighting through high-level regions to get Naoe to date night has been my favorite Assassin's Creed Shadows moment yet.

In a video posted to the official Assassin's Creed Twitter account, Shadows' community 🍌developer Dan says: "It's been thrilling to see millions of you enjoying the game. Launch is onღly the beginning. Now it's time to turn our eyes towards the future and reveal a little more about our post-launch plans."

The video🦄 then cuts to a clip of a dev working on something, as Naoe gracefully climbs a wall on their screen, before another pushes the camera away and says, "It's not ready, it's not ready." What are they cooking?

The current 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Assassin's Creed Shadows roadmap only has one planned DLC on it, Claws of Awaji, which will feature dual protagonists Naoe and Yasuke trapped on a mysterious island. It's due out later this 🐻year, so hopefully wꦰe get a release date April 30 when more of the roadmap is revealed.

Ubisoft has also said it's going to be 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:listening to your feedback when it considers what to add to the🌊 game next. One such feature is New Game+, which isn't in the game yet but could be added if enough of you want it.

I hope it does get added, because I want to do a 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:canon mode playthrough first and then another where I get all the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Assassin's Creed Shadows romances I wan🌺t, and it'd be nice not to have to hunt down the best weapons again.

In the meantime, check out some of the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best RPGs you can play right now.

Mat Piscatella, an executive director and video game industry analyst at Circana, posts on that "Assassin's Creed: Shadows debuted as the best-selling game of March, ranking 2nd [year-to-date]." It amassed more than 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:two million players just a few days after launch, so this result isn't surprising.

Ubisoft already mentioned that Shadows garnered the second-highest revenue of any game in the series for the company, only behind Valhalla. It also noted that Valhalla's success was "澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:a perfect storm we may never see again."

It came out during the COVID lockdowns when people were spending a lot more on video games, and waꦐs released across two console generations, whereas Sh✱adows is only available on current-gen hardware.

Ubisoft has struck a business deal with Tencent that will see 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:a $4.3 billion subsidiary "spearhead development" on new Assassin's Creed, Far Cry, and Rainbow Six games. What that means exactly isn't entirely clear, but after a series of missteps like "澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:softer than expected" sales for 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Star Wars Outlaws and 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:the closure of XDefiant and its San Franci🐬sco studio, Ubisoft needs wins, and Shadow☂s has been a huge one.

Overall, spending on games is down, t𓆏hough,🎃 so in a year already filled with layoffs, more could be on the horizon.

For now, check out all the upcoming 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:video game release dates of 2025. Maybe one of them will dethrone Monster Hunter.

Ubisoft's huge open-world stabathon was also a 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:huge success when it came out earlier this year, and a potential PEGI leak suggests that it'll aim for a🌄n even bigger crowd on Nintendo's new console.

On showing off the 'most searched games,' Assassin's Creed Shadows' box lists that it's available on four different platforms: PC, PS5, Xbox Series X, and the Nintendo Switch 2. At the time of writing, Ubisoft hasn't officially said a word about Assassin's Creed Shadows becoming an 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:upcoming Switch 2 game.

Maybe this was all a big blunder on🌌 PEGI's end - for what it's worth, the game's own page doesn't mention the Switch 2 at all. But since Ubisoft is porting Star Wars Outlaws to the handheld-console and the publisher previously made a sizeable push on the Wii U, of all things (anyone remember Zombi U?), it wouldn't be too outlandish t♏o think it would also squeeze its newest blockbuster on the platform.

Meanwhile, the Switch 2 port of Star Wars Outlaws just received a release date at 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Star Wars Celebration Japan: Septe෴mber 4, while other players can enjoy its story-based expansion on May 14.

Assassins Creed Shadows is getting similar support from the publisher, too. The dev team are currently "actively looking" to put out an even hard﷽er difficulty option, alongside new patches and at least one expansion-sized 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:DLC for Assassin's Creed Shadows called Claws of Awaji, coming sometime later in 2025ꦡ.

The new Assassin's Creed Shadows patch is out now and has made selling items way more tedious

Assassin's Creed Shadows has done pretty well, being the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best-selling game in the US since it was released back in February 2025 (and second best-selling in 2025 overall, behind 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Monster Hunter Wilds). However, it hasn't been without issues, with the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:game's previous patch fixing problems like♊ the 30fps cap in hid꧃eouts and some NPCs just refusing to die.

Thi🉐s time around, Shadows' patch is mainly focused on improving the game's overall stability.

Assassin's Creed Shadows Title Update 1.0.3 is out now and wil🗹l be anywhere from 0.40GB to 11GB, depending on which platform you're playing on. In terms of gamepla🅠y changes, there's one pretty negative one.

The says, "We have temporarily deactivated the multi-sell feature in shops due to some unexpected issues. We ꦗappreciate your patience as we are working to fix the issue and bring the feature back in an upcoming patch." Meanwhile, the only other gameplay change is a fix to a problem where players were unable to call allies.

Outside of that, it's pretty much just technical stuff. Stuttering issues🐼 on PC, crashes during the game's prologue and when applying the Claw of Dragon skin to weapons, and fixes to an audio loss issue.

Meanwhile, PS5 is getting special treatment, as Ubisoft is targeting crashes on the regular PS5, with HDR and PSSR bugs on PS5 Pro also being addressed, which hopefully makes peopl🍷e feel better about their $700 console.

Assassin's Creed Shadows is the closest we've been to Ezio's timeline since Revelations, and that could be huge for Codename Hexe.

This comes from , who cites data available through April 5 via Circana's retail tracking service. Year to date, the only game Assassin's Creed Shadows currently trails is Capcom's wildly successful action-RPG 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Monster Hunter Wilds, which has been 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询🐭:breaking sales records left and right.

Ubisoft's latest o꧋pen-world behemoth has been a success by pretty much every measurable factor, including player and critic reviews. 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:GamesRadar's 4-out-of-5-star review reads:

"There's an examination of Ubisoft's formula here, a lunge toward the texture that's reshaped RPGs in recent years, but the studio's morei𝕴sh open world formula is still there. Not every idea comes together neatly, and two phenomenal protagonists feel wasted on a lackluster story, but this is a titan in the same leagues as series staples Assassin's Creed 2 and Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag – and Ubisoft's best RPG to date."

Assassin's Creed Shadows also boasts a "generally favorable❀" with a respectable score of 81 at the time of writing. Meanwhile, 80% of its 16,000 are positive, ranking overall reviews 🍷as "very positive."

Although it's off to a great start, as with any huge game released these days, Assassin's Creed Shadows is being continually updated to improve performance and quality of life, with the most recent patch fixing a number of mi🦂nor gri꧒evances including tedious dismantling and the hideout FPS cap.

Assassin's Creed Shadows is the closest we've been to Ezio's timeline since Revelations, and that could be huge for Codename Hexe.

Beyond the backlash from some gamers questioning the inclusion of protagonist Yasuke and whether he was actually a samurai in real life (澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:he was), the fact that you could originally destroy objects in Shadows' shrines turned a lot of heads. Back at the game's launch, Japan's prime minister, Shigeru Ishiba, even responded to a question about this from a Japanese politician () who was concerned that "allowing players to attack and destroy real-world locations in the game without permission could encourage similar behavior in real life." Ishiba noted that, in real life, "defacing a shrine is out of the question – it is an insult to the nation itself," and said that "respecting the culture and religion of a country is fundamental, and we must make it clear that we ꦉwill not simply accept acts that disre🌳gard them."

Speaking to at this week's BAFTA Games Awards (below), Tsunoda was asked if she thought Ubisoft had done a good job with Shadows in the end, after some concerns surrounding the authenticity of its setting (previously, there were also complaints following the reveal trailer which showed inaccurately shaped tatami mats, for example). Tsunoda says that for her, "as a🅺 Japanese Naoe, I'm satisfied with my job, with what I was able to portray." However, she notes: "You know, as Japanese, we grow up with the whole shrine, and the sacred mirrors, and all of that, and I saw in the video games that those are destroyable. So those things just [do] not happen. It's like, just watching that kind of hurts my heart a little bit."

She continues: "You're able to do some things in the games that would☂ just never, ever, ever you will be able to do in Japan, and those do hurt me. It's not authentic to be able to do something like that."

It's definitely worth noting, however, that Ubisoft previously released a day-one patch for Shadows which made tables and shelves in shrines indestructible, and also reduced the amount of blood shown in them by removing depictions of blood entirely if you attack unarmed civilians. Therefore, the le꧋vel of destruction you can cause in shrines has been greatly limited since the game's officia♉l launch.

Be sure to check out our 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Assassin's Creed Shadows review to see why it ranks so highly on our list of the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best Assassin's Creed games.

Isn't it ironic that the non-assassin protagonist in 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Assassin's Creed Shadows is what makes the game feel most connected to its franchဣise? It's a question I asked myself roughly 15 hours ago, in gameplay time, when a familiar name cropped up again for the first time since 2015's Assassin's Creed Syndicate.

The Templars are finally mentioned again in Ubisoft's latest, and their closest connection isn't to young shinobi warrior Naoe, but former slave-turned-samurai Yasuke. The revelation had me scooting closer to my screen, mouth agape, as a far more compelling story than Naoe's quest for "The Box" started to emerge: that of Templars, slave traders, and Yasuke's path of vengeance. As Ubisoft makes moves toward a 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:new modern storyline for the series, the terminology here speaks to Assassin's Creed Shadows' return to more recent history – and that makes me ever more excited for what 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Codename Hexe might bring next.

Ordering the ancients

I've known for some time that Assassin's Creed Shadows is set in 1576, but I never dwelled too much on it. It goes without saying that Japan's Sengoku period is a departure from the ancient settings of Greece, Egypt, and Viking Britain, consequently making Shadows feel recognizably more modern than the last three RPG entries in Assassin🌺's Creed. The existence of advanced weaponry like the bullet-spitting teppo is evidence enough that we're only 450 years ahead this time around. But it's only when I considered the Assassin's Creed timeline itself that I realized just how close it brings us to Ezio, and why suddenly hearing the word "Templar" for the first time sinꩲce 2015 feels all the more indicative of an exciting new pivot.

The Ezio Trilogy ended in 2012 with Assassin's Creed Revelations. Set in Constantinople in 1512, that means there are only 60 years separating Shadows from one of the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best Assassin's Creed games ever – and the hero who made many of us fall in love with them in the first place. The closest we'd come to Ezio's timeline since its ending was Black Flag, which is set more than 200 years after Revelations in 1715. Plenty of other notable assassins have made their mark on the series over the years since, but Ezio's journey seemed to push the series further by building up that warring sentiment between the Assassins and Templars to dramatic heights. To me, I see it as the most "active" point in the lore, so I consider it the effecꦑtive "middle" of the official timeline.

Bookending it, we have 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Assassin's Creed Origins – the earliest point, marking the birth of the first Brotherhood in ancient Egypt – versus the bustling metropolis of 1860s London in Assassin's Creed Syndicate. It creates a notable split, separating out the games rooted in ancient historical settings from more recent ones on the t🌠imeline. Perhaps the biggest identifying factor when considering which game fits where are the different naming conventions used to describe the Templars, Assassins, and their nascent feud in ancient times.

What's in a name?

For the past eight years, ever since Origins followed up Syndicate by going centuries back in time, we haven't had Templars and Assassins, but the Order of the Ancients and the Hidden Ones. Shadows is a sign that Ubisoft is done🔴 with all the exposition. Ubisoft is no longer laying the foundati💮ons of the Creed and Templars, but actively showing their establishment across the globe while filling in the gaps left between Revelations and Black Flag.

In truth, I'd have liked to see more of the Templars woven throughout Assassin's Creed Shadows. Told in short yet tight bursts, the Templar storyline reveals their ties not only to The Shinbakufu but Yasuke himself. Not much of a light is shone on this incredibly important arc, the first hint of Templars in AC since 2015, and I chalk that down to the game's 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:non-linear mission design. The player learns of their existence in Japan (and Yasuke's heartbreaking connection to them) 𒀰while pursuing The Performer, meaning some might not even encounter the Templars until the very end of Act 2. I was immediately gripped by the intrigue of Yasu💯ke's personal arc once the Templars finally got involved, revealing a dark, webbed plot, tendrils gripping all corners of the globe...

This setup gives me hope for Hexe to follow suit and return to more recent history, as has already been hinted at in its 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:rumored Witch Trials setting. Whether it turns out to be the Salem Witch Trials of the 1690s or the earlier European Witch Trials of the previous century, Ubisoft has a chance to build out that inter-game connective tissue even further. I'd welcome the prospect of returning to a world featuring the more insidious, sophisticatedly structured Templar Order that we might recognize more closely from Assassin's Creed's stealth-action heyday, ushering in a new age of the Creed RPG where the RPG element isn't always synonymous with ancient history – as Sܫhadows has proven for itself.

Codename Hexe is one of the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:upcoming Assassin's Creed games we currently know of

Right after finally unlocking Yasuke to join Naoe's quest about 11 hours in, I find myself near a viewpoint I want to grab in The Warlands. It's in Myoyoji Temple. I climb in. Boy, those enemies are high level. Before I know it, I'm battling my way through them to trigger a quest – the Ox – while vastly underleveled. Yasuke is getting one shot. Blades clashing, this becomes a bit 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Dark Souls, every parry needing to bꦡe on♉ point, every dodge creating viable spacing. It's perhaps the most fun I have with Yasuke's combat. Sure, I could bump up combat difficulty but the point isn't that it's tough, it's fun because I accidentally ended up in this situation, and I can choose to persevere here or, indeed, scarper (I clear the mission, then wait a while to come back for the Ox's head).

Date night

The open world RPG Assassin's Creed games have been a bit more open-ended since they shifted into the genre with 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Assassin's Creed Origins. Bayek's quest for vengeance felt truly sprawling, the targets he was hunting scattered all over the hefty map of Egypt. But Assassin's Creed Shadows is where the series begins to feel more comfortable with adding that flexibility directly into the mechanics. And I don't just mean how Naoe has so many stealth t꧅ools at her disposal for clearing eachಌ of the creatively designed castles.

After meeting Gennojo – a potential companion to recruit to my cause – I was♑ definitely put off by how annoyingly incapable he i🦩s of keeping it in his pants. Rebuffing him constantly, even ribbing him a bit, his quest ended with him turning down my offer to join forces and walking away. It makes sense narratively, but it means that for the tens and tens of hours that followed I simply didn't have access to his abilities. Later, someone told me they had the same thing happen with Yaya.

Which meant, as a relationship between Naoe and elite teppo sniper badass Katsuhime blossomed, when a series of choices prompts me to rush to her aid lest she gets killed – I believe it. This is a game willing to rip that connection from Naoe away both narratively 💜and mechanically. No mercy.

After saving her, Naoe ends up invited on a cute date to potentially seal the deal – one of 澳洲幸运5开奖号码♏历史查询:Assassin's Creed Shadows romance options. The only thing standing in Naoe's way? Miles and miles of unexplored Japan. The quest says it begins in northwestern Waka🍒sa, at Jogu shrine. A high level region of the map I've not set foot in by this point.

For Naoe, though, an Igan shinobi who has seen bloody battles and slayed an innumerable number of enemies – this isn't going to stop her from securi♚ng a sizzling temple date for the ages. Where my earlier excursion to Myoyoji Temple with Yasuke was a pleasant, challenging surprise, Naoe's journey to love is one I decide to unde🎉rtake willingly and immediately. She's not about to wait around, but instead sprint whole-heartedly across the continent.

What results is one of my favorite sequences of play in Assassin's Creed Shadows. Simply making my way from one part of the map to the other, and getting involved in all sorts of little missions and combat encounters along the way. I come upon brand new castle types like nothing else I've seen, I meet yet another potential new companio๊n in poisoner Oni-Yuri, I take on enemies much higher level than myself from the shadows. I even steal a boat in order to make my final approach to the temple across the bay, cleaving through ๊water. (I also realize, hey, perhaps I could have gone via the coast the whole way).

The quest itself is a sweet affair, and it's nice to see Naoe and Katsuhime able to loosen up and forget the violence of the Sengoku period for just a short while before they both need to return to their ultimate mission. But as they say, it's the journey, not just the destination – and the ability for those detours and routes to be just as meaningful as the missions that lie at either end is the true strength of 🌄a great open world. In its best moments, Assassin's Creed Shadows understands this well.

We really enjoyed the game, saying it has "more confidence, texture, and purpose than we've seen since Assassin's Creed pivoted into RPG territory" in our 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Assassin's Creed Shadows review

GamesRadar+: Are we right in thinking this is your first video game role? How did that come to be, and what was the experience like?

Masumi: Yes, this is my firܫst video game, my first voice over – all of that. How it came to be? I think I'll talk about the audition process. It came to me quite a while ago – almost three and a half years ago? It was a while back! When I got the material, I connected to this character right away. At the time, she had a code name [...] but I understood that it was in Japan, and she was a warrior, and I connected with her very much. But I didn't hear a call back for that audition, and I was really bummed about it, because I felt like, 'Oh, this is mine. I understand this character so much!'

Then maybe a year or six months or something like that went by, and I got the same audition again with the same scene. At the time, I felt very happy with what I turned in the first time. So I said, 'Hey, if🌱 you guys didn't like what I turned in the first time, then maybe I'm not the person'. So I didꦗn't do the second audition. But then after that, a few months after, I got a call back for the project, and I was really surprised, because I thought I lost my chance with it.

Then the callback was with a whole lot of people in the room. It was over a Zoom obviously, but there were maybe 12 or 13 people in total. I have never had that m🉐any people in a room. And there was a tech issue in the beginning on my end, and I was just freaking out, but not trying to look like I was freaking out!

The whole audition was about an hour and a half. It was also one of the♚ longest auditions I've had. They really had me do [the performance] all🐷 kinds of ways. And I was just after that praying that, you know, it went well.

I have this moment where I hear that I got the audition on my Instagram. I couldn't tell the project name at the time, but I'm in my PJs, and my hair is all crazy, and I'm just like, fist pumping forever because I couldn't believe that I got this role, I always wanted ဣto play a video game character! [...] Yeah, it was a dream come true really.

GR+: So you said you always wanted to play a video game character?

Masumi: I think I was very attracted to that. It's a fantasy fictional world where you can imagine life that is not here, and you have all these possibilities [and the] potential to do all these different things that you can't do in real life! I don't play video games, however. 💯[laughs] But I always wanted to explore that skill set, explore what it's like to work on a project like that, because I've only done movies and TV and music. [Games are] a very different medium. That was really my innocent curiosity.

GR+: Yeah, games as a medium – there's so much to it. Not just in terms of the length of the character's journey, but also the amount of time someone interfaces with it, maybe taking 40 or 80 hours compared to a movie that's maybe closer to two hours. How did you approach Naoe dealing with that volume of character?

Masumi: That's a really great question. Than🗹k you for asking that, because I didn't realize that it was going to be long like that! I think a movie takes sometimes like three months, right? I don't know what I was thinking – I just never had that experience of working on something for like two years, 🍒and I really didn't understand how that would make me feel when I initially started. But I would say it was challenging and rewarding at the same time. Naoe is living through the Sengoku period, which is already a hefty period [with] intense emotions. Every story is very gut wrenching and heartbreaking and it takes a lot to be in a character like that so often – it was a challenge for me. But it was also rewarding, because I got to really explore this character.

GR+: How did you find going from acting in live action to a digital performance? How was it tackling motion capture?

Masumi: The cinematic scenes w🧔ere all motion capture. And there were some challenges with doing mo-cap because it was my first time, and you have to wear this gear, and you can't act the same way – as in, you don't have the leverage of having the scene there, the props there, you have to imagine it. [...] But I really approached it like it was a movie. I created Naoe how I would create a movie character – just very full and honꦚest and a whole human being as much as I can. Especially because there was so much intense emotion I had to really find Naoe's voice and find her honest emotions, or else I couldn't play these really intense stories.

GR+: As well as time going forward there's a lot of flashbacks with Naoe too, so she goes from fairly young to growing up quite a bit. How did you approach playing her across such a span of years in the story?

Masumi: Yeah, she starts out as a young teenager, and she 🌊has to mature quickly because of the circumstances. And that was something that we talked about with my 🎃voiceover director and the team in general – about how we shift her tone of voice and her attitude throughout the journey. I hope that you guys will be able to spot that – it was some finessing to do. Also, the writing was so great that it made everything much, much easier, but a lot of collaboration and going back and forth with the ideas.

GR+: There are a lot of emotional high points and low points and lots of intensity in the story. Thinking specifically of the long scene where Naoe is remembering everything her father told her from early on – how was it to record such an emotionally big moment for the game?

Masumi: Well, there's so many emotionally big moments in this game. I would say that's something that I really like to immerse myself in as an actor in general. I really like to go deep into the emotions and play these kinds of intense scenes. The challenging part was to be on it for a long time, like two years, and always expecting these emotions. I really immersed myself as much as I could throughout, and being in a good relationship with all the actors that I got to work with – amazing, amazing actors that I got to work with – that really helped too. Because they were such great actors t🦹hat it really made the acting feel seamless, like it was actually happening although it was in a mo-cap scene [...] I really felt I was lucky that I got to work with great actors.

GR+: Building off of working with great actors, did you get much opportunity to act across from the actor who plays Yasuke, Tongayi Chirisa in many scenes? How was that?

Masumi: It was amazing. It was really amazing. I mean, Tongayi is an amazing human being, an amazing actor. It was really fun to spend time with him and to shoot together. I wish there were more. He's one of my really close friends now, and he lives in LA, I live in LA, you know, so we will probably hold a little launch party at my house, and I'll invite him. But it was honestly a gi𝔉ft to be able to work with him. I can't say enough how amazing it was to be able to work with him.

GR+: It's interesting with Yasuke and Naoe in particular because they share so many big moments together, so many tense and violent moments like the one with Oda Nobunaga. But then also, compared to some others in the series, lots of cool downtime moments as well – drinking sake, or looking at the clouds, out to sea. How did you find balancing those two modes?

Masumi: I mean those light moments are a gift in such a tumultuous story. [There was] so much loss and suffering all the time, naturally, because we're talking about the Sengoku period [...] When we get to have those light moments, it's such a gift and a breather: 'Oh, we get to just like, have these moments of just connection human to human'. It felt very easy, because we are really good fri♔ends. It just makes everything so much easier when you have a great connection with your acting partner.

GR+: It's great how both of the characters have their own perspectives and backgrounds they bring to the story moments, including sometimes things like dialogue choices for both. Some moments, for instance, where Yasuke might consider sparing someone but Naoe doesn't want to or vice versa. For Naoe, where do you think that comes from with those choices?

Masumi: I think Naoe is such a great assassin because of the sufferings and the vulnerable feelings that she has. This whole story she's going through the journey of becoming a great assassin, yet also dealing with her internal war, right? I think it was really interesting to understand why she wanted to kill, or why she didn't want to kill, why she needed to become a great assassin? Why was she a great assassin? All these 'whys' that fueled her action. It was really interesting to immerse myself in it so that it made sense why she was so strong, or mad🤡e sense why she wanted to kill when, for example, Yasuke didn't want to kill. There was always a reason that fueled these choices and to really reflect on her 'whys'. Naoe's 'whys' made it more tangible for me.

GR+: With the historical aspect, how did you approach being in the Sengoku era?

Masumi: The writing helped so much. I mean, you obviously know about the Sengoku period as a Japanese [person], you know the history. But the characters that they brought to life [with] the actors, that made everything so much more real, especially because the writers wrote the characters to have so many layers. It wasn't just a character from history, it was a human being with all different layers and motivations – it wasn't one stroke of color, if you look at it from a different way, you just see so many different colors about these characters. That made it so interesting for me because I'm not really big on history, but reading the stories and going through th💟is made this period so much more interesting for me. To answer your question, it was really the writing that helped me to connect with this time period in such a layered way.

GR+: Naoe acts against a lot of historical figures in Assassin's Creed Shadows. Did you know much about them going in?

Masumi: Yeah. As a Japanese [person], most of these people are very famous characters, so you know about it, but I feel like I know about them now, you know what I mean? [laughs] I knew of these famous people, and now it was like, wow, I'm really seeing a human being now from these different an🐻gles. That's really cool for me – part of the really cool thing that I took away from working on this project.

GR+: Now you actually do know Oda Nobunaga personally!

Masumi: I do know! Yeah, exactly.

GR+: You said you don't really play many video games, but I was wondering if you were that aware of Assassin's Creed before the project, or if you knew people who were aware of Assassin's Creed?

Masumi: I was not aware of Assassin's Creed, but yes, [laughs] I knew people that were aware of Assassin's Creed. That was a contrasted experience of, like, 'you know Assassin's Creed?' It was like, 'Yeah, I🐓 know Assassin's Creed!' 'Really? Okay...' Yeah, finding out about it was really cool. But I didn't want that to become too much of a thing for me, because I wanted to focus on being able to do an authentic job for this character, and I didn't want that to become a pressure in any way.

GR+: It's such an interesting series with how it constantly does these different time periods and spotlights these different character stories. So you approached the role of Naoe as kind of a clean slate then, without really worrying too much about the stories that have come before?

Masumi: Right exactly, [and] I didn't do a lot of research into what the other female protagonists were like in the video games – I did do a little bit of it, but I didn't want that to influence how I understood Naoe, or how I would portray her at all. I wanted to be completely from my [own] knowledge of being Japanese and the culture, and just being as honest to Naoe as I possibly can. I'm really proud that I🐼 got to do that. I feel like the development team and the creative team helped me to stay, you know, not in༒fluenced by anything else, but really making Naoe a unique identity within Assassin's Creed.

GR+: At least with where the game stands at release, Naoe's future is a bit open ended. Where would you like to see it go, and would you be open to returning to do more Naoe in the future?

Masumi: Yes – I mean, I always love happy endings for everything, so I would really hope that Naoe gets her happy ending piece, right? That's something that I would love to see, and we'll see, you know, what would happen. If there is more, then I would love to play her, because Naoe, to me, she is me. I put so much of my soul in her. So yeah, I would love to come back and play more if there is an o🧜pportunity to do that.

Assassin's Creed Shadows' dual heroes has been an "opportunity" to enhance immersion in the feudal Japan story: "You get a chance to compare their two perspectives on a situation"

Patch 1.0.2 launches across all platforms on April 8 at 7am PT / 10am ET / 3pm BST, and it'll be a✃ 10-20GB download depending on your platf෴orm of choice. The include some notable bug fixes, including improvements to the consistency of double assassinations and a fix for "an issue where an NPC does not die after being killed by a finisher or assassination," which is probably the most notable bug I've come across in my 40 hours in Shadows.

But here's the important part, in Ubisoft's own words: "We know you've been hard at work exploring every corner of Feudal Japan, and that means you've filled your pockets with 🍰resources and loot. To help you save time when trading with merchants, we've added the option to tag and sell/dismantle multiple items in shops, or when dismantling gear at the Forge in the H൲ideout."

I've straight-up stopped selling and dismantling gear because the process is too tedious to deal with, so that fix is perhaps overdue. You'll also have the opt𒉰ion to now reset Mastery Nodes – not just skill trees as a whole – for more granular respecs, and you'll be able to pop into the Investigation Board menu a bit more quiᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚckly by just holding down the options/start/hamburger/whatever the hell consoles want you to call it button for an extra second.

The other improvements catching my eye here are performance-based, and that includes the removal of the hideout frame rate cap. The expandable home base was previously locked to 30 FPS no matter🥂 what performance mode you're using, and moving between the hideout and the open worldဣ could be pretty jarring as a result. The update also introduces PSSR support on PS5 Pro, which should hopefully make performance even better.

Assassin's Creed Shadows launched in a much better state than Ubisoft's last big open-world game, but as with Star Wars Outlaws I've got a little b▨it of envy for players who've waited and will soon be getting a better experience from the jump. At least these updates are happening, and I'm still l🐼ooking forward to seeing how they're implementeꦕd in game.

"The toughest thing is pacing": Assassin's Creed Shadows head weighs in on why the game ends like that, the "difficult" nature of its story, and what's next for the series.

Whose Guy Is This Anyway?

For a game that largely lets its players loose in an open world of targets to pick and choose from, there are certain hidden costs incurred when you stray from a given order in Assassin's Creed Shadows. I soon discover that the Twisted Tree whoopsie was down to its baked-in connection to The Fool's main mission chain, and perhaps if I'd been more heavily pushed to pursue that target earlier on, I wouldn't have had this p🌳roblem.

If The Twisted Tree had been a one-off, I'd perhap♍s blame myself instead of the game. But even after completing that entire target board having never met the quest-giver, the same happens again for the Godai Shinobi and Butterfly Collector questlines. Each time one of these accidental assassinations takes place, Naoe or Yasuke says something to insinuate their existing knowledge of the matter – or even predetermined intent on killing them, which is simply not true. "It looks like this story runs deeper," the duo might say gravely, or even something more targeted at the person specifically. Naturally, it confounds me. This spea💦ks to a broader problem at play, largely the fault of Assassin's Creed Shadows' push for more open world exploration. Instead of a meticulous series of events, I'm free to select the order in which I approach my targets. But at the same time, each group of targets is involved in often fairly insular storylines, and by being free to hop across the map and pursue multiple at once, I quickly lose my grasp of those threads.

There is one occasion where a target board seemed to overlap meaningfully with my hunt for the Shinbakufu, and that's the Pirate Alliance. Exploring the coastal village of Tsuruga, northwest Wakasa, I come across two major finds: a p🤡oster calling for aid in ridding the area of pirates, and a young girl called Oni-Yuri, who stands accused of poisoning some soldiers.

Connecting the dots

I decide to help the obviously guilty Oni-Yuri first, her saccharine sweet demeanor absolutely dripping with sarcasm. She's just a kid, after all – even if her pirate father went by the nickname The Poisoner, we can trust her as part of our ikki… right? The ultimate evidence against her, though, comes when I finally check out the poster and unlock the Pirate Alliance target board on myℱ Objective list. One such target? Oni-Yuri herself, ringed in gold as a marker of being spared in my earlier exploits.

After deciding to leave this target board and pursue ꩵother leads, I get embroiled in some other provincial drama and totally forget about the pirates. That is, until a certain biwa master elsewhere in Wakasa reveals himself to be the nameless hand behind the poster I'd found in Tsuruga. I meet the wise old musician during The Performer's mission sequence, and only by completing the target board will he agree to help Naoe and Yasuke take down the Shinbakufu. That's what I love about the Pirate Alliance chain: it has two ins, one you can find naturally while exploring the map, and the other handed to you as part of the main story arc. Add Oni-Yuri's existence as a recruitable ally to the mix, and you have a target board with threefold relevance and plenty of context regardless of how you find it. For me, the layers of narrative importance make it all the more compulsive, so much so that I actually focus on clearing the whole Pirate Alliance board in one go rather than dotting between various missions.

The same, sadly, cannot be said of some other Assassin's Creed Shadows organizations. The Twisted Tree and Yamabushi Imposters storylines feel like the biggest casualties of its open world, "walk around and find out" framing. I had the latter sitting as an "unknown organization" on my objective board for tens of hours before finding the quest-giver, while Yasuke hunting do♊wn his deceased lord's enemies in The Betrayers feels far more♛ natural and targeted.

Ultimately, The Pirate Alliance is a hint of what Shadows would have done well to mirror in other organizations: ♌non-linear pursuit of a specific group that still has overlap with main missions, keeping the stories tightly woven together in an interconnected web of corruption. I'm yet to finish my Feudal Japan adventure, so I'm hoping for some more meaningful overlaps soon – even if I only have three Shinbakufu targets left…

For more from the AC publisher, here's every 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:upcoming Ubisoft game we know of right now

It's a departure from the style of past Assassin's Creed games, which have traditionally been more linear and offered clearer signposting through busy UI. Speaking to GamesRadar+, creative director Jonathan Dumont explains that Ubisoft Quebec saw its role in 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Assassin's Creed Shadows' open wor🌊ld structure as "gu🎐iding – and less telling".

"We've really felt that, from t🦹he exploration point of view, we wanted to change it up a little bit and [make players] feel that you're a little bit more part of the journey," says Dumont. "I think the result is fun."

Warning: this feature contains spoilers for the ending of Assassin's Creed Shadows

End of the road?

Based on how much of m𒁃y time in Assassin's Creed Shadows has been spent wandering, I'm inclined to agree. With branches of the main quest and a wealth of side activities spread all over the map, you can find meaningful adventure by hopping on your horse and exploring. You don't 🉐need to have an objective for setting out, but purpose is easy enough to find on the road.

The only downside – to me, at least – is that Assassin's Creed Shadows never quite brings all of those scattered stories back into one linear track in th⛄e same way the game's story opens with. I was expecting a little more of a cinematic conclusion, a joining of Yasuke and Naoe's personal quests, and was a little surprised when the credits rolled after wrapping up one of Naoe's personal quests. It's a rather open ending, feeling less conclusive and more like a setup for something larger: Naoe discovers her mother is still alive and pledges to find her, while Yasuke's own story ends after killing the Templar who murdered his mother.

"It was important to say that our characters' story continues – or their lives continue – and it's not just 'the end' and we clos♊e the curtain," says Dumont, discussing the forward-facing finale. "We do want to have more stories with them, through post-launch as well as our DLC, so there's a part of that story that continues there."

"But, you know," he laughs, "it's hard to end such a long story [with the intention of it being] open-ended, or at least give you an opportunity to keep playing after that, without w🌄rapping it too hard. I think it hits the curiosity – that you want to know what happens to the characters – while still completing a good portion of what they set out to do in the early-game. Hopefully, people enjoy that, but I understand that it's difficult to pace with the open world, and having those open-ended quests, the more autonomy-driven narrative in the second half of the game."

From an outside perspective, hooking one cohesive story through a broad group of ma🤡in quests sounds like a nightmare. Not only that, but for t𝓡he vast majority of these quests, players can switch between two very distinct characters at will. "It's challenging," admits Dumont, laughing at the understatement.

"I think the toughest thing is pacing," he explains. "Honestly, it's not necessarily the non-linear [elements]. There are difficulties with that – there are things you need to complete in a certain order to have a go🔯od narrative [...] but I think pacing is the difficult part, because you're accustomed to following a certain beat, and then could go a fairly long stretch without having the two characters come back together, or you could be doing different things in the open world."

Dumont points to some of the smaller moments in the game, in which we get to see Naoe and Yasuke's relationship deepen, as efforts to combat that potential disconnect. The pair can discuss their past over a drinking session which ends with Naoe waking up on a r🍸oof, for example, or their hopes and dreams during a scenic spot of cloudgazing. These are linear, activating only after the player has passed certain milestones, and Dumont says they bring a "certain order" to match Assassin's Creed Shadows' less linear elements.

Given how uniquely this all sits in comparison to even the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best Assassin's Creed games, the shots that Assassin's Creed Shadows takes feel bold – the sort of risks you would perhaps expect smaller studios (with vastly smaller production costs and expectations) to take. It's Ubisoft at its most ambitious, though Dumont says the company "often" takes some risks in the series. But it begs the question: now that Assassin's Creed's most in-demand setting has been realized – with a surprising amount of innovation we've seen from other RPGs – where does Ubisoft go from there?

"There's quite a [few] other settings that are interesting,"🤪 says Dumont, picking his words carefully to avoid sparking speculation. "We can look at the base that we have with Shadows and take a look at where it could go from the RPG side, for sure. But I think the setting does shape a lot more than we think."

Assassin's Creed Shadows was originally envisioned without Yasuke, but Ubisoft wanted the full feudal fantasy: "We were sort of making a stealth tank, and it didn't quite work"

I'm roleplaying Naoe and Yasuke very differently. Yasuke is my loyal himbo, frequently smashing through bamboo fencing and barrelling into NPCs completely by accident before stopping to pet a kitten. Naoe, on the other hand, is a bit of an ice queen. I take every opportunity I can to be short🅘 with everyone I meet, blinkered by an unwavering pull toward vengeance. But here's the snag – Assassin's Creed Shadows is trying to teach Naoe that blind brutality is not always necessary, and theဣ first recruitable ally I meet is proof of that hidden morality lesson starting to emerge.

Yaya the yoyo

I don't mean to be 📖mean (well, maybe I do) but I never felt too strongly about Yaya. The warrior monk is a one-woman tank, sure, but her whole ethos of forgiveness seems to jar against mine. She sees her justice as righteous, free from the bonds of rage-induced violence. My Naoe sees it as weak.

I have no idea what transpires when playing 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:🦄Assassin's Creed Shadows' canon mode, but to let myself be strayed from Naoe's cause simply because "big lady wants me to be nicer" just does not make 🐻sense to me this early on. It's why I had Naoe command Yaya's erra🤡nt brother to murder one of Lord Nobunaga's samurai, despite her pleas to show mercy and the very clear on-screen warning that this would impact my relationship with her, after assassinating Wada Koretaka. Yaya's personal questline, Stray Dogs, follows shortly after, and it almost feels like she is trying to condescendingly berate me for my actions through it.

It's an example of didactic storytelling – I accompany Yaya on a series of visits to members of her group who have acted dishonorably, and help her decide what to do with them. One such defiant troop had fled into a nearby temple in fear of being reprimanded by Yaya, and when I convince h🙈im to leave with me, the warrior monk herself is waiting. After giving him a (very powerful, undoubtedly painful) clip around the ear in a fit of fury, she calms herself and turns to me. Should he be punished, or forgiven? Punished, I say with confidence, only for Yaya to forgive him anyway. The same goes for the next unfortunate soul💝 on our list – one of Yaya's brethren has attacked a nearby village, and instead of making an example of him as I suggest, she chooses kindness again.

Warring conscience

Ultimately, by refusing to play a part in Yaya's series of teachable moments, she refuses my offer to join Naoe's ikki and stand against the corruptive forces that have caused so much death in the region. The moment, though easy to foresee, still surprised me. It's the first time in the history of the franchise that I've seemed to lose access to an ally by simply standing for the whole purpose of playing the game. The bare bones of the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best Assassin's Creed games are about two things: taking down bad, Templar-shaped people, and exacting vengeance upon those who wrong us. Yet here stands Shadows, boldly trying to convince me that violence is not the way in a game that♎ has historically been a🦩ll about violence.

The interesting thing is that after unlocking Yasuke and experiencing more of his own storyline, I'm starting to see Yaya's point. There is a difference between blind slaughter and precise justice. Perhaps foregoing all mercy would make us nothing better than the Shinbakufu after all? Between Yasuke's entrenched loyalty, tinged with a tendency to punish oathbreakers, an🥀d Naoe's pain hardening her spirit, I'm intrigued to see how Shadow's somewhat hidden "morality system" works out for them both. You can't teach an old dog new tricks, sure, but maybe a fledgling shinobi and masterless samurai have more to learn besides.

Here are all the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:upcoming Assassin's Creed games we know of right now

The game features a number of flashback sequences to help players learn more about🍸 Naoe and Yasuke. Naoe's missions have her remembering what happened in her homeland, while Yasuke's flashbꦓacks show some of his life before he arrived in Japan. When speaking to GamesRadar+, Assassin's Creed Shadows' creative director, Jonathan Dumont, revealed some more inspiration behind these scenes.

When asked how Ubisoft decided to tell a lot of Naoe and Yasuke's story through flashback sequences, Dumont told us, "I think it comes from watching a lot of anime." and explained that anime series' are "masters of exposing background character stories through flashbacks to expose 🍎miꦉssing pieces of character motivations."

Dumont didn't just take a page out of anime's book for the storytelling method for the sake of it; the director explained that it was also used to help out with the game's pacing. Dumont said, "It also helps to have a faster action pacing and then slow down at key moments to learn about characters." Interestingly, Dumont also revealed that 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Yasuke wasn't originally planned to be in the game, but the team wanted to include samurai tropes. Rather than kill the shinobi fantasy by making Naoe have access to tank-l𒀰ike abilities, Ubisoft settled on its dual protagonists.

Dumont also told GamesRadar+ that the game's use of yellow paint came about due to players struggling in playtests for Assassin's Creed Shadows.

If you've been extremely online within the gaming community over the last few years, you've no doubt been forced to see the澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询: endless debates whenever a 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:game reveals it has yellow paint. For those blissfully unaware (I envy you so much), a lot of AAA releases use random splashes of yellow paint to help players know where the critical path is, as opposed to something like 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:God of War: Ragnarok, where NPCs can't stop telling yo⛄u every two seconds.

The latest game to take part in what people overreacting online call an unforgivable crime is 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Assassin's Creed Shadows (which had its yellow paint use praised by ﷽GamesRadar+ games editor Oscar ൩Taylor-Kent). GamesRadar+ had the chance to talk to Assassin's Creed Shadows' creative director, Jonathan Dumont, and asked about the team's approach to using the dreaded yellow paint and how Ubisoft balaওnced guidance and keeping immersion in its world. Dumont revealed that it actually wasn't included in the game originally an🍸d came about after playtesting.

Dumont told us, "Well, we didn’t have it until players were really struggling in playtests to find their path when engaging in hidden trails activity." Considering how in-depth the world of Assassin's Creed Shadows seems to be (as someone who hasn't been invested in the series since 4, the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码�🎃�历史查询:weather effects have impressed me enough to consider picking Shadows ꦐup), it caused a bit of an issue for some players. Dumont said, "The env🌳ironment is lush and full, and giving a bit of guidance was needed."

No matter how yoᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚu feel about yellow paint, it is clear that it works as a benefit for some players, so I don't really think it's the end of the world if it's included in games. In a perfect world it can be an in-game toggle so we don't have to talk about this tired debate for much longer.

Dumont also told us that Assassin's Creed Shadows originally didn't have Yasuke as a playable character, but the samurai was added because turning Naoe into a "stealth tank" was "diluting the fantasy of the shinobi."

The dual protagonist system is my favorite feature in 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Assassin's Creed Shadows – yes, eve📖n more than petting the tanuki – and for good reason. By playing off Naoe and Yasuke's weaknesses, Ubisoft Quebec makes you put more thought into how you approach every facet of its world; from assassinating optional targets to clambering up viewpoints. But as synonymous as the two lead characters now are with Assassin's Creed Shadows, creative director Jonathan Dumont reveals it wasn't originally part of the game's plan.

Doubling up

At a mechanical level, dual protagonists allow Ubisoft Quebec to lean into the past and present of Assassin's Creed. Playing Naoe delivers the most dedicated stealth experience the series has seen since 2009's Assassin's Creed 2 – largely because she's very fragile in a fight – while Yasuke is more in line with the action-RPG combat of Assassin's Creed Origins onward, albeit with all pretense of stealth abandoned. From a thematic perspective, two main characters also represent both sides of the iconic feudal fantasy, offering a chance to feature both samurai and shinobi equally.

Both of these upshots influenced Ubisoft Quebec's decision to go with two protagonists, which Dumont says wasn't always the plan. "When we started early on, we only had a shinobi – it's Assassin's Creed Japan, it's probably going to be a shinobi," he says, laughing. "But the more we were playing with the character – we were in the conception phase – we were like 'OK, we could do this with the character, there's things on the𝕴 samurai side'. We were sort of making a stealth tank, but it didn't quite work. It was diluting the fantasy of the shinobi."

"This is where we said OK, but if we separated that into two characters ♉– not just two sets for one character, but clearly two characters – it would also give us a different point of view for the game, a different voice, and allow you to have a dynamic between two characters ﷺfor narrative [purposes]," explains Dumont. "It gave us a more complex job, but it also gave us a charming feel to the game, and that was something we really felt was a great direction."

The de🐠cision to create a second character was made "toward the end of the conception phase," and allowed Ubisoft Quebec to expand the scope of its feudal RPG. "It became clear, before going into production, that we'd probably do a story with two characters," says Dumont. "The archetypes were coming out of the conception phase anyway – they were splitting, but it was happening naturally. So we decided to add a samura⭕i."

"We'd already talked about Yasuke quite a bit –♓ we thought he was a very interesting historical figure, that was very mysterious. We don't know what happened to him, there are a lot of gaps. It also allowed us to tell the Portuguese, the Japan story – a little bit East meets💎 West – as he's stuck in the middle of that. We thought he was a great character for that, to have a view on both places."

From there, Ubisoft Quebec had two distinct identities to design around. "Every time we wo⛦uld put something on one of the characters, we would measure it against the archetype," explains Dumont. "A shinobi would do this, a samurai would do that – and then it was OK to not do everything with one character."

Besides the dramatic differences in combat, the player's skills being divested across two charact🦂ers allowed Ubisoft Quebec to have more fun at a smaller level. Yasuke is the most obvious example – he is, to put it politely, rubbish at parkour. His leaps of faith have none of the grace of his predecessors, and if you try to walk along a tightrope as the samurai, they'll often snap and send him sprawling back down ♐to earth. We discuss the differences, and Dumont grins. "The team embraced that," he says. "They did an amazing job with it."

Assassin's Creed Shadows boss is confident Ubisoft has a place in moꦆdern RPGs, even as the industry's goalposts shift: "When we wer🌠e working on Odyssey, it was Breath of the Wild"

Speaking in a 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:recent interview with GamesRadar+ on the new game, Dumont explains that Ubisoft wanted to try some things differently "from the outset" with Shadows – including its introduction of the unique dual protagonist system with Naoe and Yasuke. "Those are things we started doing four years ago, and we didn't change our focus," describes tᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤✤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚhe creative director. "These [come from] looking at how Assassin's Creed is played."

Dumont continues: "Usually we want to make some changes, or try different things so our players get something new – and they feel it's not just the setting, but we're improving the formula or gameplay aspects." According to the lead, this all boils down to the "natural progression" of Assassin's Creed. Featuring both Naoe and Yasuke rather than just one or the other is "really cool for renewing the experience" for longtime f🍬ans.

"If you have a clear favorite, that's awesome," says Dumont. "But offering [two protagonists] even just as a pacebreaker, or you want to try something else, or for replay value? I think that's a cool thing Shadows does better than what we've done in the past in Assassin's Creed." This checks out – after all, our own 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Assassin's Creed Shadows review praises the action RPG for how its "two protagonists provide the b♏est of🍬 both worlds for Assassin's Creed fans."

The dual protagonist system isn't the only new feature to make its way into the Assassin's Creed series, either. Dumont also references the clue-driven exploration changes, along with Shadows' larger focus on stealth, as examples. As a longtime fan of the games myself, I'm personally most excited about its inclusion of things like the so-called 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:"Canon Mode" that aims to offer a more linear story-driven experience for fans to play through.

Hungry for more? Here are some of the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best Assassin's Creed games you can give a go after Shadows.

With the dual successes of 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2's challenging adventure and Avowed's tighter scope fresh on my mind, it feels like there are two growing approaches to RPGs – one in which developers are growing increasingly confident in cutting players loose in their worlds, and another catering to the those who crave tighter, more digestible games. 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Assassin's Creed Shadows dabbles in both philosophies, so I caught up with its cr꧂eative director, Jonathan Du♚mont, to learn where Ubisoft Quebec plants its flag.

Between two worlds

Combat in Assassin's Creed Shadows is as slick as you would expect from a finely-polished AAA release, and navigation tools like the pathfinder system offer guidance through its world for those who need it. Butඣ there's also pushback, a willingness to make players engage with Shadows' world at a deeper level. Quest markers have largely been replaced with clues, which point to a general area you should be looking for your objective. You💛 can utilize scouts to narrow your search down further, but these are a limited resource and still require paying attention to clues to ensure they're dispatched to the right place.

Similarly, Assassin's Creed Shadows' world never rolls over for one protagonist. Naoe can sneak and climb anywhere, but is easily overwhelmed in combat. Yasuke, on the other hand, cannot parkour to save his life – but charge him into a heavily-defended castle, and in 10 minutes he'll be the only one left standing. To me, it feels like Assassin's Creeꦰd Shadows is more in tune with those aforementioned games that push players to take initiative. It begs the question: when it comes to RPGs, are the goalposts – play🍸ers' wants and expectations – changing?

"It does move," says Dumont. "I remember when we were working on Odyssey, it was Breath of the Wild: that was the open world. There are quite a bit of… I would not say trends, but evolu🍸tions."

But where is Shadows' place within those shifts? "People want to play different things, and you could say Shadows has a little bit of that," he adds, pointing to the game's 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:far less forgiving Expert Mode. "We're tryi♉ng to offer that [challenge] as well, but we are still Assassin's Creed. People come to visit these beautiful historical settings as well, and to get compelling stories true to the game and those archetypes. I guess our place is the🅷re."

Just as Elden Ring and Baldur's Gate 3 are unique in their own ways, explains Dumont, so is Assassin's Creed Shadows. "All of those games do something different – they're not copies – so I do think we do have our space there. We look at what's fun, and what people like,🍎 but knowing our fans will𒊎 also [want it to be] an Assassin's Creed game as well."

Something new, something borrowed

It's a good point – for as much as Assassin's Creed Shadows pushes the series' boat out, it must remain familiar to the series'🌱 formula. I ask Dumont how he finds the balance between keeping things recognizable and aligning with the genre's shifting trends."With trends – our project started four years ago," he laughs. "So you discover them as you go."

Still, there were things Ubisoft Quebec wanted to try differently "from the outset". Dumont lists the clue-driven exploration changes, along with Shadows' dual protagonist system and larger focus on stealth, as examples. "Those are things we started doing four years ago, and we didn't change our focus," he says. "These [come from] looking at how Assassin's Creed is played. Usually we want to make some changes, or try different things so our players get something new – and they🅠 feel it's not just the setting, but we're improving the formula or gameplay aspects."

Dumont describes the approach as a "natural progression" of the series, and as an example, points to the game's dual protagonists. Naoe and Yasuke, he says, are "really cool for renewing the experience" withoutᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚ imposi🧸ng on the game too much. "If you have a clear favorite, that's awesome. But offering [two protagonists] even just as a pace-breaker, or you want to try something else, or for replay value? I think that's a cool thing Shadows does better than what we've done in the past in Assassin's Creed."

Having lashed praise on the dual protagonists in our 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Assassin's Creed Shadows review, I'm inclined to agree. Just as Avowed and Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 launching a week apart proved that t𝔉here's room for a wealth of experiences in the RPG genre – be they hard or straightforward, guided or utterly spra⛄wling – Assassin's Creed Shadows demonstrates that there is space for even a longer-standing series to thrive within an ever-changing genre.

"People will be doing trendy stuff – or they're going to try – and they're also going to try to do what they want," says Dumont. "But I don'tಞ think it's a reaction to other games. It's more like we felt this was good for our game, and made Assassin's Creed Shadows better."

Check out our 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Assassi🐟n's Creed Shadows coverage hub to see even more interviews from the team at Ubisoft 🍌Quebec

In a clip posted to the , user Bagel_Beans showed off some new tech to make assassination even more convenient, allowing you to instantly take down the likes of the powerful Samurai Daisho enemies. By simply grabbing an enemy, haviꦉng him wander over to the nearest pond or lake, and knocking them out, you will instantly kill the enemy, meaning yo💮u don't need to worry about that pesky combat.

Funnily enough, this isn't the only stealth game with this tech. In 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Metal Gear Solid 5, if you drop an enemy into water or even ask one to get down in a stream, they will end up drowning. Of course, there's an easier way to get one-hit kills in Assassin's Creed Shadows, as Ubisoft has included a 'guaranteed assassination'🐷 toggle in the game's options, allowing you to relive the pre-RPG days of the series.

If you're looking for some tech in Assassin's Creed Shadows, be sure to check out our list of 10 Assassin's Creed Shadows tips we wish we'd known before we started playing.

Speaking to GamesRadar+ at the 2025 Game Developer's Conference, Assas🎃sin's Creed Shadows creative director Jonathon Dumont said the team is "always listening and monitoring what players are doing" to fix bugs and makes other changes to their massive Feudal Japan era open world.

On෴e point of contention seems to have꧂ been the game's difficulty - or the lack thereof for some sickos - as he then goes on to mention how the developers are "actively looking at" potentially "making even a tougher setting for difficulty for some of our players." Dumont even taunts Assassin's Creed Shadows' most hardcore ninjas: "How challenging do you want it? But we're looking at these things and monitoring what people say about the game."

Right now, Assassin's Creed Shadows already lets you pick between easy, normal, and expert difficulty options for combat and stealth. Bumping up the stealth sections makes enemies more alert, meaning you can't just run around on rooftops expecting enemies to not look up, so I dr♎ead to th🐷ink about how much tougher Ubisoft can make it.

For now, it seems the team is dedicated on working on the "constructive feedback" fans have given so far. "Obviously, we can't do everything, but there are things that we're going to be actioning on, and just for the next updates, there are quite a bit of bug fixes and l🀅ittle feature enhancement stuff that is coming in," Dumont explained. "I can't just make a list. There's quite a bit of it. So the team is always working to improve the game, and hopefully, people will be able to see the difference when they're playing Shadows in the upcoming months."

Assassin's Creed Shadows' delays were mostly used to polish the RPG, creative director confirms, not for deeper changes brought about by Star Wars Outlaws reaction

When asked if there were any deeper changes to Assassin's Creed Shadows based on the reception to Star Wars Outlaws, Dumont said, "Not really. We were basically trying to make the most polished game that we [can]" adding, "our game was there, so just making sure that we don't have bugs and that the experience is clean for people." Due to the dynamic weather system (which is 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:extremely impressive to Ubisof🌸t's credit), Dumont also mentioned that "there's a lot ofꦯ things that we needed to take a lꦇook at."

Although even if the majority of delay time was dedicated to polishing what was there, Ubisoft did add "a couple bits of narrative here and ther💖e." When the team was playing the game following the delay, there was a realization that "this is a place where we could reinforce the relationship" which resulted in the scene where Yasuke and Naoe are gazing into the clouds and speaking about their futures. "We had a few already, and people love those things. So alright, let's try to get a little bit more in there."

But even when the game was delayed so close to launch, it actual🐷ly didn't bother Dumont and the Assassin's Creed Shadows team too much, as they sai🔥d, "It's kind of cool also that we were close to launch, and then we get this extra time to do the things that typically you're doing at the end."

Speaking of Assassin's Creed, Ubisoft has teamed up with Tencent to create a subsidiary to spearhead development on new Assassin's Creed, Far Cry, and Rainbow Six games.

The Igan Sunset is a tanto that you can get from a legendary chest in the game's starting area, Izumi Settsu. With it, Naoe can slow down time by performing an Escape Strike. This is a very early ability you can unlock in the tanto skill tree that allows you to do a quick attack and then dodge back. Just press the quick or strong attack button f🗹ollowe🀅d by the dodge button, and you'll slash, then leap backward.

Normally, the Escape Strike creates a little distance, but with the Igan Sunset eq🍃uipped, time is slowed for enemie🅺s, but Naoe moves at her normal speed, meaning foes have no time to raise their weapons to block your next attacks.

This effect turns Naoe into the fastest, most deadly assassin since Basim and his ability to seemingly teleport straight to multiple enemies and kill them in a lighting-fast chain. In Assassin's Creed Mirage, it's meant to be a glitch in the Animus caused by how fast he is, not an actual teleport, and now Naoe can sort of do the same thing. This proves she really would 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:win in a fight against Yasuke.

To get the tanto, states you simply go to the legendary chest in t♌he Izumi Settsu region. It's located in Tozuku’s Lair, a small enemy camﷺp just north of your hideout, close to the Katano Foothills viewpoint.

Over on Reddit, people are already calling this ab🅘ility "." You can also spam it infinitely, which calls "insane" and adds, "I haven’t even been hit once since I found it." You'd better use it now because Ubisoft will undoubtedly want to balance this by giving it a cooldown or something.

While you're here, check out our list of the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best Assassin's Creed games in the series.

"With the creation of a dedicated subsidiary that will spearhead development for three of our largest franchises and the onboarding of Tencent as a minority investor," Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot🤪 says in a , "we are crystalizing the value of our assets, strengthening our balance sheet, and creating the best condi💦tions for these franchises’ long-term growth and success."

Tওhe new subsidiary will "include the teams developing the Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six, Assassin’s Creed and Far Cry franchises based in Montréal, Quebec, Sherbrooke, Saguenay, Barcelona, and Sofia as well as the back-catalog and any new games currently under development or to be developed." This su♐bsidiary will get a "worldwide, exclusive, irrevocable, perpetual" license for the three IPs, for which it will return royalties to its parent company. The transaction is expected to be finalized by the end of the year.

Tencent already had a 10%꧅ stake in Ubisoft proper prior to its investment in this new entity. The company says the new subsidiary will "remain exclusively control🉐led and consolidated by Ubisoft."

Rumors of this move 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:started cir🐽culating earlier💮 in the month, following speculation around some 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:other ty﷽pe of buyout going b🌠ack to 2024. Ubisoft didn't directly comment on those reports, confirming only that it was "exploring different options" for its 🧸fi𝐆nancial future.

Those rumors came after a string of high-profile disappointments in 2024, from Skull & Bones' final escape out of its decade-long development hell to the launch and shutdown of XDefiant and "softer tha💦n expected" sales for Star Wars Outlaws. Factors like these led to repeated "polish" delays for 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Assassin's Creed Shadows, which launched last week to near-rec🌼or🅠d success for the venerable franchise.

Getting Assassin's Creed Shadows on PS5 and Xbox Series X was all about adding "dynamism" to the open world, but the devs seem most proud about the trees.

Assassin's Creed Shadows Belly of the Beast papers location

T🍒he papers you need to retrieve for the Assassin's Creed Shadows Belly of the Beast ꦺquest are in the main building of an estate in the center of Kyoto between Nijo Castle and Honnoji Temple. It's also on the west side of the Nanban Temple.

There are a lot of samurai and servants in this estate, so you'll want to keep a low profile aꦐnd avoid combat to get in and out easily. Thankfully, there's a safe and simple route you can take to 🌼retrieve these AC Shadows Belly of the Beast papers:

1. Climb up the exterior of the east wall of the estate and jump to the roof of the small storage building next to the soldier training ground.
2. Run and jump to the roof of the large main building straight ahead and look for the roof trapdoor on the other side.

3. Climb down through the roof trapdoor and then through the hole in the floor to reach ground level.
4. Open the shoji double doors to reveal a small desk with the papers. One samurai patrols this area and reads the papers so kill or avoid him as you grab the papers.

5. Go back the way you came and exit the estate.

With the papers in hand, you can run back to Ise Sadaoki by the bridge in south Kyoto where you initially met him. That will complete the AC Shadows Belly of the Beast, moving you onto the Temple of the Horseman quest which is almost the end of Act 1 and sees you 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询🐈:switch characters in Assassin's Creed Shadows and unlock Yasuke.

It's unlikely that you'll set off any alarms in this quest, but it's good to know how to remove Wanted status in Assassin's Creed Shadows. Additionally, if you've completed the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Assassin's Creed Shadows Yaya quest and have a Dojo, you could call on her to help if things get dangerous.

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

The official Assassin's Creed Twitter account writes that Shadows has the "second highest day one sales revenue in Assassin's Creed history," which is huge news for the company and exactly the win it needed. It's had studio closures, 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:XDefiant shutting down, and 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:a disappointing Star Wars Outlaws launch in the last 🅠year or🎶 so, so a lot of developers have probably breathed a sigh of relief.

It's also been the biggest game for Ubisoft on 🦹the PlayStation Store, meaning more digital copies of it have been shifted than any other Ubisoft game in the company's history. A✃ll those sales have translated to over 40 million hours played in just the first week, so that'll only go up.

The only game Shadows is trailing behind is 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Valhalla, but an internal Ubisoft memo states it was "澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:a perfect storm we may never see again," so it's not banking on getting another hit like that. That came out across two console generations and when we were all cooped up at home during lockdowns, whereas Shadows has only launched on current-gen consoles. The devs are 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:proud of their technical work though.

While you're here, check out our ranking of the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best Assassin's Creed games in the series. My favorites are 2 and Black Flag.

Assassin's Creed Shadows kill the executioner location

To kill the executioner in AC Shadows for The Killing Field quest, you first need to find him in Nanatsumatsu, directly west of Amagasaki in the Nakayama Peak region, which is in western Izumi Settsu – the map above will save you having to use any 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Assassin's Creed Shadows scouts. It's a small camp full of samurai soldiers with Shindo Hiroshii, the executioner you n📖eed to kill, in the middle.

Sneak into the camp, either by finding one of the gaps in the fence or climbing up one of the huts, then use the bushes and hay bale on the perimeter to stay hidden. Before moving in to kill the executioner, you'll definitely want to assassinate at least some of the soldiers surrounding him first. Whistle to lure and assassinate them and use your kunai to take the𒈔m out from afar. There's also the trench in the middle of the camp which you can sneakily crawl through and use to get close to the target.

Assassinating the executioner won't kill him but will slice off about two-thirds of his health, making the fight significantly easier. Then focus on parrying and dodging to make him vulnerable to weak point attacks that will destroy his armor and shred his health.💦 As soon as you kill the executioner, you'll automatically collect a letter and will complete the Assassin's Creed Shadows The Killing Field quest. If there are any living tied-up prisoners left, you can free them, though doing so doesn't get you any extra rewards or benefits (but it's a nice thing to do!)

If you haven't already, you can now complete the Stolen Faith quest, which starts with you having to 澳洲幸运5开奖🍸号码历史查询:find Mitsumune in Assassin🌌's Creed Shadows, who is thankfully not far from Nanatsumatsu at all. Finally, this questline to assassinate Wada Koretake culminates in the Assassin's Creed Shadows justice must be served choiℱce, which can affect how you 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:recruit Yaya in Assassin'ಞs Creed Shadows.

While you're wandering Izumi Settsu, make sure you keep an eye out for the Assassin's Creed Shadows Butterfly Collector and any origami butterflies they've hidden around Osaka. Nanatsumatsu is also right next to the Assassin's Creed Shadows Nishinomiya Shrine.

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

🅺ꦏAll Assassin's Creed Shadows Origami Butterfly locations

The 10 origami butterflies in Assassin's Creed Shadows are all hidden on trees across Osaka town, seven𓆉 of which are normal, colored butterflies for the Butterfly Collector, while three of them are white origami butterflies containing secret messages that will help you unmask those involved in the kidnapp𒀰ing gang and where they are (more on that further down).

The map above and descriptions below should guide you to each butterfly location, but I also recommend using th🍌e Observe mechanic by holding L2/LT and searching for blue dots to mark their precise locations. Here’s where you need to look for all 10 AC Shadows origami butterflies:

1. Purple Butterfly: On the riverbank roughly west of Nishinomaru Garden.
2. Green Butterfly: In someone's garden on the east side of town.
3. Yellow Butterfly: Roughly north of the town's gear vendor.
4. Red Butterfly: North of the Temple of Osaka.
5. Blue Butterfly: Behind the prayer shrine just outside the west entrance to the Temple of Osaka.
6. Orange Butterfly: On the riverbank roughly east of the Fishermen's District.
7. Pink Butterfly: Just beyond the bridge southwest of the Fishermen's District.
8. White Butterfly 1: On the riverbank northwest of the Temple of Osaka.
9. White Butterfly 2: On the riverbank roughly south of the Osaka Kakurega
10. White Butterfly 3: Next to the central canal bridge.

All Assassin's Creed Shadows Butterfly Collector targets

Now that you've got all the origami butterflies for the Butterfly Collector in AC Shadows, you can go about easily rescuing all the kidnapped children and start eliminating everyone involved in the gang. Each kill will bag you 1 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:🐬Assassin's Creed Shadows Mastery Points, some mon, and a gear item. Here's how ဣt✨o kill all the Butterfly Collector targets:

Mucho location

1. Find and assassinate her on the island west of Osaka on the south end of Kojo Ruins and assassinate her. Follow the sake merchant's son into town to reunite him with his father.
2. Speak with the Osaka paper merchant to learn that the leader of the kidnapping ring lives in Nishinomaru Garden.

Richo location

1. Go to the burnt-out well in the north part of Osaka and listen to the two gardeners talking about a woman coming from a bamboo grove.
2. Head to the bamboo grove northeast of Noda Village, which is just north of Osaka Castle. You'll find Richo at the grove and can assassinate her.
3. Finally, escort the girl back to her mother and you'll also get the Trinket and Amulet of Childlike Bravery in return.

Shucho location

1. Find the escaped child near a stable southwest of the Fishermen's District – she's very close to where the pink origami butterfly was.
2. Find and assassinate Shucho as she wanders around the Fishermen's District.
3. Find the girl's diary page in a secret hideout in the middle of town, southwest of the gear vendor.

Kacho location

1. Sneak into Nishinomaru Garden on the west side of Osaka Castle. It's a restricted area, so avoid gaining 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历🧔史查询:Assassin's Creed Shadows Wantꦐed status.
2. Head to the northern end of the garden to find a small, enclosed area with lots of butterflies flying around.
3. Speak to Kacho then kill her in a boss fight.

Assassin's♕ Creed Shadows Butterfly Collecto🌸r choices

With all 10 origami butterflies found, all the children safe and sound, and all four targets dead, return to the gamemaker woman in Katano to confront her about her role in this kidnapping ring, leading you🌠 into three dialogue choices to end the AC Shadows Butterfly Collector questline:

• "What you did was wrong" or "Kacho was to blame": Your response here doesn't matter as the conversation is the same, with the woman revealing that Kacho took her as a baby, so she never knew her own name.
• Choose a name for the woman: The woman appreciates whichever name you give her, so choose any of them.
• Kill or spare the Butterfly Collector woman:
  • "You must pay for your actions" (kill her): You must assassinate the woman, getting you the Ebisu's Gamble common bow, 225 Mon, and 1 Mastery Point.
  • "You must start anew" (spare her): You leave the woman alive and get an uncommon version of the Ebisu's Gamble bow, 225 Mon, 5000 XP, and the Butterfly of Benevolence trinket/amulet for both Naoe and Yasuke.

Sparing the gamemaker to end the Butterfly Collector quest is the best option thanks to its marginally superior rewards (and avoidance of unnecessary bloodshed). While you miss out on a Mastery Point, the amount of XP gained will contribute nicely towards your next level🐭, effectively getting you a Mastery Point anyway, and this is also the only way to get the Butterfly of Benevolence trinket, even if it isn't great.

There are also a few 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Assassin's Creed Shadows Kabukimono targets to assassinate in and around Osaka, and you'll eventually need to visit the Assassin's Creed Shadows Noshinomiya Shrine for that quest too.

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"When you start with a new generation, you always feel like you're unshackled, in a way," Pier🍌re Fortin, brand and pipeline technology director, tells us. "But then you're developing, and you introduce new systems, and you find new barrierꦏs at some point. But with Shadows, I think we've really tried to push the world dynamism to a new level."

In Shadows, the seasꩵons change as the story progresses, and weather effects differ dynamically. Beaches become waterlogged, and the grou𓃲nd becomes muddy when it rains. Fortin is very proud of the trees, though.

"Now in AC Shadows, we leverage the new power of those new consoles and this new hardware to implement a fully physically-based animation for our trees, so they react and move with the wind with a thread simulation that drives that nicely. So we really went with that vision of having something much more dynamic, because that's what we felt was new-gen – adding more movement on-screen, ♔more dynamism."

I'm a big fan of game worlds that somehow feel real. Deus Ex was good at that for its time, and Red Dead Rede𝄹mption 2 is a marvel, considering it's only on last-gen consoles. We asked Fortin what was most challenging in Shadows.

"The complexity of the world was something at some point," Fortin remembers. "We have four seasons, we ꦦhave two prota𒆙gonists, we have a world that's pretty big, we have dynamic time of day. And on top of that we have weather."

Ensuring all three of these systems worked well concurrently was a challenge on a performance level, as the developers had to make sure current-gen consoles could support these effects while still delivering high performance. We all love pretty, dynamic games but don't wantꦓ to play them at 20fps.

"I'm pretty happy with what we've been able to achieve there," says Fortin. "No matter the circumstances, we have a good experience that is on par with the performance target we had. To me that's been our biggest challenge. Technically speaking, also size. Just putting all of that data into the disc is a challenge by itself. We don't want to force one terabyte of data on the players. We put a lot of effort into having clever compression techniques to make sure that we're ok, that we fit within our desired SSD spa⛦ce. As soon as we have new hardware, we're pretty good at maximizing it, and reaching those new limits, but it's through clever optimization techniques that I think we go beyond them."

I don't need most games to have realistic tree movement and multiple seasons, but I'll always support it when big companies use their resources to push the technology that powers video games, just like PlayerUnknown Productions is doing with 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Prologue: Go Wayback.

For now, take a look at the past and check out our ranking of the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best Assassin's Creed games. Our 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Assassin's Creed Shadows review had some high praise, where do you think it lands on our list?

"I understand not liking a game. I understand hating a game. I understand hating a game cuz you feel it stands against everything you believe in – but I don't unde🐭rstand hating things just because some dude told you to," Michael Douse writes. "Don't let people moneti๊ze your passion. Be your own dude!"

Douse ꦇsays he respects "negative energy" like anger but wants people to "make sure it's your own, and make sure you harness that energy into something positive and meaningful. There's nothing wrong with demanding more, but do it oꦛn your own terms, not for somebody else."

He makes a very good point that can be applied to many things – it's always important to form your opinion rather than just going along with what others say. Things can quickly get out of hand otherwise. One of the most prevalent topics of discourse surrounding Shadows relates to one of the RPG's two protagonists, Yasuke. While Yasuke was, in real life, a Black samurai who 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:served under Oda Nobunaga, some have debated the historical accuracy of his identity and questioned why he's included in Shadows, to the point that the series' executive producer, Marc-Alexis Côté, previously spoke out against "attacks driven by intolerance" against the game's teams while stating that "Yasuke's presence in Japanese history is fact," too.

Back to Douse's thread, Larian's publishing director also responds to one user saying that "AC Shadows is not even bad,💛" pointing to people "talking without even playing it." Douse explains that "there's a giant conflation happening because the Big Product Market *is* failing to resonate with the masses, but the economics of games and scale don't properly allow mass market resonance to coexist with the integrity of high level creative ownership." Essentially, he continues, while "every big AAA game could be better," this introduces a certain amount of risk that can complicate financial inves♈tment. "The fear of alienating the masses is far higher than the fear of alienating the core," he adds.

Douse acknowledges that this is "a paradox," and also "the reason most AAA games land in the 70s and 80s" when it comes to their average scores. This doesn't mean "developers deserve hatred," he adds, noting: "It is pure🌳 economics and nothing more." He sum💙s up the situation noting that the "entire conversation is danced around as political or cultural but it's wholly the balance of economics and artistic integrity; the most violent tight-rope in entertainment business."

In Shadows' case, while it's not been able to escape the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:"noise online" from some, it seems that Ubisoft is overall pleased with how the launch has gone, having recently 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:thanked fans for their support and s💧aying that "the reception has been nothing but heart꧋warming for the team."

We had a lot of positive things to say about Ubisoft's latest RPG in our 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Assassin's Creed Shadows review, and it's also now sitting high up our list of the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best Assassin's Creed games.

To best serve 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Assassin's Creed Shadows, that sometimes means being aware of the history of Japan's Sengoku period and tဣhe country's own legacy of adapting it, and knowing when to put their own mark on it – often mixing the two. Whether that's using cinematic techniques that add impact to moments of action, to a soundtrack that includes Japanese psych rock group Teke:Teke and a collaboration between composers Thunderdrum and the 🧸Tanzanian-born vocalist Tiggs Da Author.

Turn it up

"I think one of the great things about working on a project like Assassin's Creed is we don't have to tell the traditional Japanese story," says Nibbelin. "It's not a feudal Japanese movie where everything has to be very grounded, because the way Assassin's Creed looks at history is very unique. We do so in🦩 its own specific way, which means bringi🗹ng in a little modern elements to it. We kind of get to play with the formula."

Inspiration was tak🐻en "not just from Japanese movies, but also a little bit from Tarantino, and this idea of bringing some edge to our game – what can we do to make our moments truly memorable and unique in a way that only Assassin's Creed can do?" Musical choices, says Nibbelin, and choosing the right time for a needledrop, is a part of that. "The audio team, they really knocked it out of the park," says Nibbelin. Picking the right moments to use them is "a very careful balance," he adds. "We sort of have to craft the launch pad, if you will, so that we can bring the player into a moment where it doesn't feel contrived or out of the blue or just distracting."

The same balance has to be found with moments of community and violence, especially when it comes to each main target kill that ends Assassin's Cre𝓰ed Sh🦂adows' main chapters – each kill is followed by a moment to reflect. Traditionally Assassin's Creed games have taken you out of the moment for an extended dialogue with your victim for narrative reasons. But that's 𝕴not the case here as much. "For the game we wanted to play, and the game we wanted to build, I think we wanted to approach it with maybe a diegetic approach," says Nibbelin.

Instead, the idea that Assassin's Creed Shadows is still taking place within the Animus is explored in different ways. "For example, the black and white treatments," says Nibbelin. When Naoe or Yasuke kill an assassination target, a filter over the screen casts colours in monochrome, with the red spray𓆏 of blood the only punchy color. "And the zip cam when you spot a target," he adds. "Again, a little bit of a Tarantino flavor that we wanted to put in there." The goal has been to make the Animus' presence felt more as a "larger system at work [...] that's helping guide the player and present the world" rather than taking🍌 complete control away and removing players from the immersion of the world for extended periods.

Quentin Tarantino movies aren't the only influence the team has drawn from. "💎There's a tremendous amount of Japanese influence," says Nibbelin. "When we started doing our early production research, it was actually during COVID, and so we would have remote viewing sessions of movies where designers would be watching like Sekigahara, I think we did Ninja Scroll, and lots of Kurosawa."

This allowed the team to bask in everything from "traditional Japanese cinematics methods [and] interesting framing" but also culture. "I think it was something we definitely embraced as much as we could," says Nibbelin. "I know there was a scene from Sekigahara that is very influential for how the game opens, and the first scene you have with Oda Nobunaga." The goal was to "play wi﷽th the formula", blending feudal Japan epics with an "Assassin's Creed influence" to create something as unique as they could.

I ask if there's one film Nibbelin would recommend watching to get the most out of Assassin's Creed Shadows. "Sekigahara was a really influential one," Nibbelin reitera🏅tes. Directed by Masato Harada, it's a 2017 period mov🅺ie set during the battle of Sekigahara that brought the Sengoku era to an end, but, importantly, as well as the conflict itself, the political machinations that built up to it.

"I think one of the things that excites me about Assassin's Creed Shadows is how much we get to show you a little taste of political intrigue," says Nibbelin. "It's not just a wild west, samurai [goes] to a village, and leaves again. There's a massive web of political elements and intrigue and people that you've seen in history, and now you're finding out more about them that suddenly unfolds as you play the game. I think it'🦄s almost like you're watching an episode of Shogun, you get a chance to feel all these forces back and forth."

Striking back

With dual protagonists Yasuke and Naoe, even though you play as both during the prologue, the former samurai is absent for quite some time afterwar💙ds. In my own playthrough, it wasn't until around 12 hours I got to play as him again, and for some others on the team, 20 hours (after the pܫrologue, Japan is your oyster to explore).

"One of the challenges that we faced with this type of game was how to deliver all the content we had, especially knowing we had so many memories that we had to deliver as well," says Nibbelin when I ask about Yasuke's early absence and balancing the back and forth between both characters from a structural perspective "For us, it's definitely a balancing factor with where can we show you these memories without it feeling like you're just sit🅰ting back and watching a movie, [while] at the same time being engaged compelled with your character journey."

Allowing Naoe to take ♔center stage early contributes to this balance. "I will say that the time away from Yasuke was definitely meant to build this expectation about who Yasuke was to the player and maybe how you felt about Naoe. So there was an intention here," says Nibbelin. "We wanted to build it a certain way so🐭 that his arrival would really be a nice, punchy moment and, hopefully, an emotional high for the player – that they can finally make it back to the action in a way with him that they hadn't for a long time."

From an emotional flow angle with the narrative, threading the needle to bring plays in wasn't easy. "Taking player choice and open world into consideration, we were trying as much as we could to help structure that in a way that th🅺e player never really felt like the🦂y were just stuck in the doldrums for too long or feeling disconnected from the characters," says Nibbelin.

The opening hours, Nibbelin admits, can get pretty heavy. "At the same time, we want to balance that with some really empowering mom🐽ents," he says of the scene where Yasuke returns as a playable character. "You've been through all this trauma, you've seen plans go wrong. I think it's one of the lowest points of the game. We want the player to suddenly feel an awesome moment where they could just be badass. [...] For us, it was a chance to see the player just come out of that darkness for a moment: 'Okay, now I can get back into this and have some fun with it.'"

A game as big as Assassin's Creed Shadows is a massive technical achievement, and it just so happens we have an exclusive interview all about it. "We don't want to force one terabyte of data on the players": Assassin's Creed Shadows' tech director on the clever tricks Ubisoft uses to "go beyond" current-gen.

How to stop being Wanted in Assassin's Creed Shadows

If you have the Wanted status in Assassin's Creed Shadows and a region is on high alert, guards and other enemies will attack you on sight, which can get pretty dangerous if you're carꦚeless. Thankfully, th🐓ere are several options available to you when it comes to clearing your Wanted status:

• Wait for a new season. Being Wanted in any region ends with the changing of the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Assassin's Creed Shadows seasons, which acts as a soft reset for the game world. If you can last until the next one, your Wanted status is forgotten about.
• Use Scouts to clear your Wanted status. If you build the Kakurega at your Hideout and upgrade it to level 2, you unlock a new ability you can trigger from your World map - using the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Assassin's Creed Shadows scouts to clear the Wanted status. It costs 2 Scouts to do this per region, and therefore isn't cheap, but it's a helpful advantage in a pinch.
• Change characters. Wanted status only applies to one character, so if Naoe is seen committing a crime, Yasuke can still work within that region without alerting suspicion, and vice versa. If you've reached the point where you're able to 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:switch characte🤡rs in Assassin's Creed Shadows, swapping between them effectively gives you anonymity back. Of course, if they're both spotted committing crimes independently and are Wanted in the same region, this won't help much.

Of course, the best thing you can do is not become Wanted in the first place. When they spot you committing crimes, certain guards will run for a wooden platform on a ladder and ring a bell to raise the alert. If they do that, it triggers the Wanted Status.

The best thing you can do to stop them is to hit the bells with ranged attacks to destroy them, or to just kill any guards with the red and white bell icon above them before they can sound the alert. You're most likely to run into this problem when getting spotted while infiltrating a restricted area, such as castle, so if you're playing as Naoe, stealthily disarming the bells with shurikens should be part of your process. Although, if you're playing as Yasuke, just shooting the bells or stabbing the guards is the more realistic option.

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YouTuber with a thread showing off some of these small details present in Assassin's Creed Shadows. One of the things Ubisoft was keen to show off about Shadows before launch was its 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:weather tech, and from a look at this thread, it's safe to say t🏅hat that has paid off in the full game. The first clip shown has a timelapse of snow melting in real-time, while another clip shows that the wind in-game has trees and leaves move realistically based on how strong the wind is.

Other cool effects in the thread include sand turning muddy in the r💧ain and blood seeping into the water when a dead body is thrown into it. Even with a game as impressive-looking as Shadows, this realistic weather is undoubtedly the most striking aspect of it.

There are also a few fun gameplay details that Niktek shows off, like how Naoe slides about and loses her balance when she starts sprinting onto a frozen lake. Meanwhile, when doing the series' signature leaps of faith, the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:far less nimble Yasuke has a comedic ওand clumsy fall instead of a nimble swan dive.

Truthfully, I haven't vibed with Assassin's Creed since Black Flag, so Shadows hasn't really been on my radar. However, seeing all of these small details has done more to get me interested in the game than any fancy trailer (although that 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Tokusastu-inspired one did get a pop from me).

If I do end up playing Assassin's Creed Shadows later down the line, maybe I'll play it on the Nintendo 3DS, because that's actually possible thanks to fans.

Assassin's Creed Shadows Yaya choices

To recruit Yaya in Assassin's Creed Shadows there are three choices across two quests you need to respond to correctly to guarantee that she'll join you, as the wrong choices might lead to Yaya refusing to join the League, which means you won't unlock Yaya as one of your 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Assassin's Creed Shadows Allies. These choices all come after 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询ꦬ:finding Mitsumune in Assassin's Creed Shadows, and here's what you need to do:

1. During the quest Heads Will Roll, you need to choose the "Killing them isn't justice" option to side with Yaya. This 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Assassin's Creed Shadows Yaya orꦉ ✱Mitsumune choice sees you deciding the fate of Wada Koretake's remaining loyal soldiers, so siding with her sets you up well for her recruitment quest.
2. Start Yaya's quest, The Stray Dogs. You need to find Yaya south-southwest of Osaka Castle where she'll be beating up some shrine raiders.
3. Choose the "We forgive him" option for the shrine raider decision.
4. Get the kanzashi off Tetsuo in the Church of Takatsuki. It's in northern Izumi Settsu, northeast of the Senri Hills area and north of Katano. Go inside the church and you should find Tetsuo, standing there, so talk to him to advance the quest.

5. Chase Tetsuo. He will eventually get tackled by Yaya, leading into the final choice.
6. Choose the "You need to forgive each other option". While the dialogue is exactly the same even if you tell Yaya to take responsibility, it's best to play the forgiveness card here.

Now that you've got to the recruitment opportunity for Yaya in AC Shadows, say "Let's work together" and she'll join the Kakushiba Ikka, heading to the hideout. That also wraps up her Ally questline as she isn't one of the four 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Assassin's Creed Shadows romance option♓s, so there's nothing beyond this short quest.

Bear in mind that if you choose incorrectly for most of the above choices, Yaya will refuse to join when invited. If this happens, or you say "I wish you well", Naoe parts ways with Yaya and she is never seen again, which means Yaya is permanently locked out of becoming an Ally. Avoid this if you can as Yaya is one of the best Allies in the game. She's likely the first Ally you'll recruit too, which means she'll unlock the Dojo for you, which is one of the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best Assassin's Creed Shado𒁃🌌ws Hideout rooms to build.

Need more help with challenges in Izumi Settsu? If you're stuck at the Assassin's Creed Shadows Nishinomiya Shrine, we've got a guide for all the lost pages, and you might want answers to any 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Assassin's Creed Shadows riddles from random NPC encounters.

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

Let’s get down to it – as my good colleague Andy has already noted in his 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Assassin’s Creed Shadows review, Ubisoft's latest RPG is brilliant. It’s a great ninja-em-up that feels like a m༺odern successor to Tenchu (I’m going to talk about Tenchu as much as I possibly can, it rules), but oh, boy, does it love to crib from K𒁏urosawa.

It doesn’t go anywhere near as far as 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Ghost of Tsushima, which had its own black-and-white 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:optional mode called “Kurosawa mode”. Indeed, i𝔉n terms of visual stylings, Assassin's Creed Shadows owes more to anime than it does to Kurosawa. Yasuke's special long katana attack is a good example of this – all black, white, then splashes of violent red. Other scenes draw from Japanese woodblock art. Perhaps the most ‘Kurosawa’ aspect of the game’s visual stylings comes from the ‘blood jets’ trope, with the game’s slightly overblown blood effects tracing a through line back to Sanjuro. However, the stories are pure Kurosawa.

Both of the game’s protagonists have a mentor snatched away from them early in the game, with a master-pupil relationship getting destroyed. This, in turn, sets each of them on two divergent pathways at once, that of the cycle of violence and the heroic, larger-than-life hero. Both of these seem to run counter to each other, but the game is called Assassin’s Creed, not Heroic Creed, so gratuitous bloodshed is to be expected. The former topic was something that 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice explored as well, with the idea of the Shura, which both protagonists seem somewhat set on becoming, while ไkeeping their personalities heroic enough to remain redeemable.

Familiar sights

I might sound very down on the game. I’m really not – it’s been occupying my thoughts a lot lately, almost as much as 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2. I do believe that games can be more than vehicles for developers to showcase inspiration from other types of media. I want games to be creating more tropes and stylistic choices that can inspire other media. I’m not asking for avant-garde storytelling in the style of 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Mouthwashing – I just want games to recognize that we inter𒊎act with them in different ways than we do oꦫther media like films.

In Roland Barthes’ writing, he argued that the role of the reader was creative, that our interpretation of the work is active, not passive. Essentially, we’re not just mindlessly taking information from our media of choice,🌳 but interpreting it through our own personal lenses, which is a creative 🅠role in itself. We can do this with Kurosawa through his own works, we don’t need the same themes to be repeated through our games as well.

Why not give us a samurai game that’s more about class conflicts, rather than personal ones; or allow us to play as a regular Joe just trying to survive in the era of ? The feudal Japanese era is redolent with opportunities for stories that are, at least in the west, untold, ones that are a lot more interesting than those we’ve been enjoying for decades at this point, through countless films, anime and,ꦏ yep, video♏ games.

Games often have this desire to be filmic, rather than inspired by books – Ken Follett’s The Pillars of th൲e Earth excepted, of course. There’s something in this that’s akin to sibling rivalry, with the younger sibling, games, feeling that they have to blaze the same trail as the longer-running media. This isn’t unique to games, either – consider how much films ape and seek inspiration from books. None of this means that books’ stories can’t be told well by films, or filmic stories by games. But I want games to create a new adjective – gamic. Gamic stories, stories that work particularly well because they’re games, are still quite rare, but they do exist.

As I said, it’s not that I don’t think Assassin's Creed Shadows is good – I actually think it’s the best in the series since Black Flag, and feels remarkably fresh in many ways. J🐭ust not in terms of its story or its visual flair. Our preferred media is still in its infancy, and Shadows st🌱ill feels like it has that youthfully naive nature to it. I can’t wait until a game like it comes along that is able to break free of its inspiration.

Our 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Assassin's Creed Shadows roadmap details what's coming next for Yasuke and Naoe's adventure

Last night, Musk started tweeting out about Assassin's Creed Shadows – specifically, in relation to streamer Hasan Piker, who was streaming the game and had flagged his content as an ad. This prompted Musk to call Piker a "fraud," before adding: "'Sell-out' would be more accurate. Objectively, he is𒁃 promoting a terrible game just for the money."

Ubisoft clearly wasn't going to sit by and watch this happen, the official Assassin's Creed account soon chimed in, asking: "Is that what the guy playing your 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Path of Exile 2 account told you?" With 456k likes and🧸 counting, from comedian and writer Mike Drucker stating that "it turns out the real assassins were the social media managers we met along the way" feels incredibly accurate.

This burn is, of course, a callback to some shenanigans from nearer action RPG Path of Exile 2's early access release. When Musk streamed the game in early January, he played as a high-leveled hardcore character, but PoE fans were quick to point out that certain things didn't seem quite right. , for example, viewers put ✨together a list of "suspicious instances" of Musk doing or saying things that implied he wasn't nearly as proficient at the game as you'd expect for having supposedly made it so far with a hardcore character. Eventually, he rജeportedly admitted to using account-boosting services for Path of Exile 2 and Diablo 4 over DMs with YouTube creator (thanks, ), while stating that he "never claimed" to take full credit for leveling his hardcore PoE2 characters up.

Anyway, this whole interaction has clearly gone in Ubisoft's favor – scrolling through the responses, a number of fans are actually saying that they're buying Shadows now all because of the comeback. "Was gonna wait for a sale but nah y'all have earned this," . The new RPG already had a spectacular start, having passed over two million players in its first days – Ubisoft recently stated that it's "truly overwhelmed by the incredible support and enthusiasm we've received."

Be sure to check out our 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Assassin's Creed Shadows review to see why the new RPG ranks so highly on our list of the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best Assassin's Creed games.

Yes, the thing we've all hoped for has been made possible, as showed off images and video footage of Ubisoft's latest adventure running on the Ni🍷ntendo 3DS. Which shockingly seems to work surprisingly well; the New Nintendo 3DS XL has nearly every button needed to run the game with only the L3 and R3 buttons missing (which have been handily moved to the touch screen).

But this isn't some miracle port like 澳洲幸运5开奖🍷号码历史查询:The Witcher 3 running on Nintendo Switch; sadly, this is a result of the 3DS' extremely active homebrew scene develo♍ping a way to use Sunshine / Moonlight game streaming on the handheld. Moonlight is an open-source version of Nvidia's GameStream protocol, which was used on Nvidia Shield devices. While Sunshine is a host program made for Moonlight.

The Nvidia version was axed a few years ago, but the open-source version is still a popular choice for streaming from your PC. Moonlight is available on the likes of Android, iOS, and PCs, as you may expect, but the community has made versions for the likes of 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Xbox Series X|S, PS Vita, the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Nintendo Switch, and even the Wii U. This 3DS version looks to work just as well, so if you fancy playꦦing the latest AAA games at 🅰a crisp 240p resolution, there's an option out there for you.

A fan of the Dreamcast is also trying to create a version of GTA 3 on the Dreamc🍃ast, which sadly can't save Sega's console, but it🅠's cool to see.

Title Update 1.0.1 is a hotfix for all platforms which, primarily, has "fixed some global issues" according to . On PS5, a photo mode issue has been fixed that "could cause a crash when fetching photos to display on the world map," and on PC, another photo mode fix has corrected an "issue that could cau✨se a crash when taking a photo."

Ubisoft isn't specific about what those "global issues" are, and now I'm deeply curious. Nearly 15 hours into Assassin's Creed Shadows, I've seen only a tiny handful of extremely minor bugs, which is a small miracle in the context of an ope꧙n-world game this big in scope. If you're experiencing issues bigger than I have, though, here'💧s hoping the hotfix corrects them.

Despite how small the patch notes are, the update itself is surprisingly meaty depending on your platform of choice. On Windows PCs it's 7.03GB, on Mac it's 9GB, and on Xbox Series X|S it's 8.88GB. PS5 play🔯ers get off pretty easy here, with a mere 1.41GB download.

The update goes live on March 25 at 11am PT 🍎/ 2pm ET / 6pm GMT, which means it's likely either already up or about to be as you're readiಞng this.

"We really wanted you to live this history": Assassin's Creed Shadows is all about "perspective", says the game's cinematic director.

All prayer locations in the Assassin's Creed Shadows Nishinomiya Shrine

There are three 🔯prayer locations in the Nishinomiya Shrine in AC Shadows, which are shown 🅰on the map below.

1. Start at the top of the Shrine, the steps leading up to the main building. That's the first prayer location.
2. Turn around and walk across the bridge behind you to the little red structure. That's the second prayer location.
3. From there, head southwest to the edge of the Shrine to the next red structure. That's the final place to pray to complete the Shrine.

If you're having trouble at any point, hold down the Left Trigger / L2 to highlight the local points of interest and look for white dots. These mark the nearby shrines you haven't completed, and once you pray at all three you'll get a 🤪澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Assassin's Creed Shadows Knowledꦬge Point to put towards your rank and unlock new skills.

It's worth keeping the location of Nishinomiya Shrine in mind as a whole, as this is a place where you go to at least a couple of times while hunting down all the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Assassin's Creed Shadows Kabukimono l꧋ocations, most notably to leave a message on the noticeboard just outside the shrine entrance. Otherwise, your business in this location should be done.

Want more side quest help in AC Shadows? Find out how to crack open the Assassin's Creed Shadows Makino Kurumazuka Kofun with our dedicated guide!

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission

Assassin's Creed S𒅌hadows "sucked in from the bottom and let out from the mouth" riddle

You can encounter a man who challenges you with a riddle in Assassin's Creed Shadows, provided you agree to wager 50 mon first. The riddle is: "I am sucked in from the bottom and let out from the mouth. What am I?".

The correct answer is tobacco smoke, so pick that option to advance the conversation – if you c🐎hoose incorrectly, you lose your wagered mon and don't get a second guess.

Not expecting you to answer correctly, the man confesses that he needs the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Assassin's Creed Shadows money you wagered to pay off debts, otherwise he'll be sent off for forced labor. If you choose to let him keep the mon, he'll provide you with a world rumor (marks a side quest, legendary chest, or some other activity on your map) or scout intel (refreshes one of your spent 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Assassin's Creed Shadows scouts).

If you say you want your mon back, you'll get 100 mon. That means you'll be only 50 mon richer which isn't much at all, so i✤t's worth letting🍌 the man keep the mon in exchange for information.

Assassin's Cr🐭eed Shadows seashell prov🐲ince question

You can also encounter an older noblewoman who wants to show you something, which turns out to be a nice seashell, but then she asks you which province it's from. It's less of a riddle and mostly a test of your 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Assassin's Creed Shadows map knowledge as the answer is Wakasa – out oꦅf the possible answers you can give, Wa🐷kasa is the only province on the coast.

With the correct answer, you can choose to receive either a world rumor or scout intel as explai⛄ned above. If you get it wrong, you get nothing and don't get a second chance at the answer.

There are plenty more puzzles and challenges in the game, including getting into the Assassin's Creed Shadows Makino Kurumazuka Kofun and finding all the Tennoji Temple lost pages in Assassin's Creed Shadows.

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

Nibbelin explains his role encompasses direction of performance capture, as well as being involved with the cutscenes, "but it's also being in the realization aspect". Like𝔉 in my conﷺversation with technical director Pierre Fortin, many systems in 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Assassin's Creed Shadows come together to share that workload. "How can we drive the story to the rest of the game," says Nibbeli☂n, "in terms of the transitions, the cinematography, the weather, and all the tools that we have to help deliver our storyline to the player?"

Two paths

With two heroes in Naoe and Yasuke, and the choice to play a majority of missions as either, I ask how Nibbelin and the team thread having essentially two versions of a lot of scenes. "It's an opportunity," says Nibbelin. "We get a chance to kind of flavor our cutscenes with a little bit of each character. I know one of my big keywords for this project is 'perspective', because [we're] not trying to show Japan from a very clinical or an overriding stereotypical view. 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:It's not a documentary. We really wanted you to live this history."

Two protagonists means two perspectives ripe for🌸 players to dive into. "I think the idea of being able to explore both of those and then let the player kind of see how their experience changes between the characters is something that we were really excited to try," says Nibbelin. When you can jump in as Naoe or Yasuke, "between obviously a samurai and a villager from Iga, the reactions of NPCs are going to be different."

But having the both of them also serves a dual narrative and mechanical purpose too. "We also have what we call shared cutscenes and try to booken🅰d a lot of our quests with these, where both characters are involved," says Nibbelin. "You get a chance to compare their two perspectives on a situation. A lot of times, when you're opening up a new big quest series, it's a way of both of them sort of weighing in, and we get to kind of see how they both look at this. And then from there, the player can decide, 'well, which perspective do I kind of relate with here? Which direction do I want to go? It's almost like a little sampler of 'how do you want to take on this quest?'"

Of course, some quests are also specific to either Naoe or Yasuke, as you explore playable flashbacks or undertake more personal missions (be they romance or vengeance). "It's an interesting dichotomy, I think, because of something I was talki🀅ng about with a co-worꦦker not too long ago – about how much agency we have in our game versus trying to tell a rich origin story," says Nibbelin. "That's kind of been one of our challenges for this game. We want to give the player so much agency to go through in the open world and explore, but we have such a compelling origin story for both characters that we want to express, and we want the player to experience."

It's a lot to juggle. Two characters together, apart, sometimes at different moments of their life, and sequences that can play out in different orders. One assassination mission may affect how you think about the next⛦, but what about if you did them the other way around? Or if you'd seen one slice of Yasuke's past before a mission where he's fighting for his future? "It's almost like finding a way to sort of allow the player to witness the pieces of each characteꦏr individually and a sense of where they came from," says Nibbelin, while also "learning as you go, what pain and trauma [they have], how are they crafted to get to this point."

Nobunaga's ambition

With a game as large and varied as Assassin's Creed Shadows, the violence of the Sengoku era isn't this story's only defining element. Some missions are all about building connections. One, for instance, solely focuses on Naoe and Yasuke gazing out to sea. Another has them share sake. Or watch the clouds go by. "The designers were really excited about those scenes," says Nibbelin. "Because it was sort of a chance to kind of let loose with the characters and just enjoy them. And I think for me as a player too, it's𝐆 nice to take a step back from assassinations and basically trying to save the world and just sort of enjoy what's kind of inside my characters minds, and maybe l🦩earn a little bit of something about their past." They're "reflective", he says.

A large part about pulling them off is down to the actors. "I want to give our performers a ton of credit," says Nibbelin when we talk about the characters having to bounce between moments of emotional intensity and quiet across many hours of run time. "Between Tongayi [Chirisa - Yasuke] and Masumi [Naoe], they did such a f💯antastic job of being able to switch gears on a whim. They're consummate actors, both of them," he says. "At the end of the day, the action is important and it's pivotal to our characters. But [we're] not trying to tell a story about death. We're trying to tell you a story about these two people and how they see it. And so for us, it's one thing to look at what they do in the world, but then to think, why do they do it, and where inside of them are they driven to do these things? What is it about their life and what made them that allowed them to want to do these things, the need to do these things and to try to right the wrongs that they see."

Assassin's Creed Shadows, believe it🃏 or not, is all about assassinations. Each chapter comes to a head as Naoe and Yasuke take down a member of the Shinbakufu, a shadowy organization pulling the strings of the warring states – which is also a moment of emotional release. "Working in a universe like feudal Japan, one thing we realized very quickly is it's not a black and white world," says Nibbelin. "What would in one case be, you know, excessive violence and brutality, and another way you look at it's like it's the best and easiest 𝓡means for peace. There's so many ways to look at these situations. So we wanted to explore the idea of having shades of gray as much as possible with our villains and with the people you meet in this world."

Beyond the kill itself, across core missions and optional rings of assassinations, there are opportunities to learn about each individual target and what put them into the position in which they've become your target. For a few, you can even spare them – kill the patriarch of a meddlesome crime family early in one side q🎉uest, for instance, and a couple of the members will finally feel free to leave.

Within main story missions, each kill is followed by a m𝓡oment to reflect – similar to scenes that would take place within a kind of Animus-style kill zone in the classic games in the series. "For us, having moments after💖 the fight where you can reflect on what actually happened here – 'why are we here, and maybe what actions are we really fighting against, and why?' It was important for us to have those," says Nibbelin. "It's not always delivered in the same way that past ACs have done it, and sometimes it's between the two characters. It's Naoe and Yasuke, they have a reflective moment between them."

Ubisoft Quebec wants players to feel empowered to make the decisions 🌳they do, the studio also wants them to think about the decisions they've made, and the ones to come. "We always want to try to address that dilemma a little bit for the player, and kind of let them run with it, maybe in their mind as they do it – like, I kind of agree with this angle or that angle… Or maybe I would have done it a different way, actually, when I think about it," he says.

While Naoe and Yasuke are defined characters, excellently realized by their actors and 🍎the teams that have crafted them into being, it's important to h🔯ave the players meet them halfway. "We just want to present that as a place where we don't lecture them on what we think they should think," says Nibbelin. "We want to let them see all the choices and decide for themselves."

What's the ultimate player expression? A big kick. Forget the hidden blade: if you're not yeeting enemies in Assassin's Creed Shadows, you're missing out!

Seen by , the memo states Shadows is the second-highest day-one sales revenue in the franchise's history, with Valhalla claiming the top spot. However, the same memo notes Valhalla launched in a💝 "perfect storm" thanks to its 2020 release date that coincided with most of us b𝐆eing cooped up at home due to Covid. It also had the benefit of launching across current and last-gen consoles, meaning it had a huge potential player base.

"It was a perfect storm we may never see again," the memo reads. "That's why it's more meaningful to compare Shadows to entries like Origins, Odyssey, and Mirage — games released in more typical cycles. And in that frame, Shadows is already setღting a new bar."

The memo notes that 27% of Shadows' total "activations" were on PC, and Steam "played a major role." Ubisoft used to exclusively sell its games via its own PC launcher, but Shadows' success is "a strong validation of our decision to return to the platform." The game has amassed 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:over two million players in just a few days.

Additionally, "feedback across moderated, verified platforms — those less affected by review bombing — remains incredibly positive," and player engagement, whatever that means, is at "record levels." It's got 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:"very positive" reviews on Steam, and high scores on both PlayStation and Xbox. Our own 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Assassin's Creed Shadows review says it has "More confiden♓ce, texture, and purpose than we've seen since Assassin's Creed pivoted into RPG territory."

So, despite some controversy regarding the ability to desecrate shrines, which has 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:since been patched out, 🎃it seems that Shadows has been a massive success. We'll need to wait until Ubisoft's next fin🐼ancial report to know exactly how well it's done, but things seem positive for now.

If you're hungry for more stealthy stabbing shenanigans, check out our ranking of the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best Assassin's Creed games.

At least, that's how things are looking to me. I'm currently 21-hours deep in Ubisoft Quebec's gorgeous new RPG, and the only signs of modern day storytelling have come from the Animus itself. These moments of direct address, so far only experienced during the game's opening hours and halfway through Act 1, offer a repeated warning: the ancient memories I am experiencing are somewhat fragmented. This is pretty standard fare in any AC game, but the breath of fresh air here is that I'm no longer being asked to care about any of the other modern day protagonists introduced since Assassin's Creed 3. In a way, I am t🌌he main character – and I could really get usedꦺ to it.

I could end up being well o🎉ff the mark about this, but if The Animus Hub means Ubisoft is finally dropping the dead weight of its modern day narrative, it'll confirm something we've known for years. Assassin's Creed has outgrown its roots for the better, and it's time to move on for good.

MC energy

Once upon a time, a modern day storyline was absolutely intrinsic to Assassin's Creed's DNA. I'm talking about the good old days of Altair and Ezio, where black box missions, tighter narrative experiences, and gripping sci-fi-meets-historical worldbuilding edified the up-and-coming Ubisoft series as home of the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best stealth games of its time. But when Assassin's Creed Origins pivoted sharply into RꦬPG terr🧔itory, those days were numbered.

The reality is simple. Assassi🌼n's Creed's modern day storyline should have died with Desmond at the end of Assassin's Creed 3. Desmond was the heart of the series' 21st century narrative, the brevity and linearity of ℱthese early Creed games putting the parallel narratives on equal footing. Jumps between time periods felt fluid and intentional rather than distracting, showing the Animus' "bleeding effect" at work as Desmond adopts traits of his assassin ancestors over time. It comes to a head in Assassin's Creed 3, when a heroic Desmond uses this knowledge to sacrifice himself, save humanity from a catastrophic event, and ultimately bridge that gap between worlds past, present, and non-temporal.

This dramatic finale left Ubisoft with a ꦜweird conundrum. The story of Assassin's Creed is built upon the centuri𝓀es-long adversity between the Templars and the Brotherhood, a bitter war stretching right up to the modern day – but Desmond himself connected those timelines. Was there a future to Assassin's Creed's present day without him?

Yes, there was. Ubisoft has tried all sorts of neat tricks to try and recapture our interest in the series' modern saga, only for each attempt to fall flat. Layla's narrative arc was so unpopular that 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Assassin's Creed Odyssey sought to make it optional, the player able ꦺto complete Kassandra and Alexios' storylines almost completely without interruption. Later,♕ Valhalla went to even greater lengths to do the complete opposite – it tries to tie past to present by turning Norse gods into time-hopping Isu warriors, capable of travelling from 872 AD Viking Britain to 2022 in a flash while trapping Layla in The Grey with our dearly departed Desmond.

More bizarre yet, most of that is unveiled in the game's optional true ending – totally separate from Eivor's journey, and yet key to understanding exactly why any of this matters at any point in time at all. Basim, aka Loki, proved an equally unpopular modern day "hero" in 2023's 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Assassin's Creed Mirage – he's literally the bad guy, after all – and the whole mess left me wondering what could possibly come next. Which is why I could kiss the digitized walls of the Animus Hub for "en🌼hancing, not overshadowing, the hisꦆtorical journey" in Assassin's Creed Sh♓adows with its simple me🍌ta framing.

It might be a one-off reprieve from the time-bending confusion of the last two games, but I'm excited for a modern day Creed scenario that doesn't feel like an afterthought – and isn't trying to replace Desmond, for a change. By situating the modern storyline, whatever it may be, within the Animus itself, Ubisoft has killed two birds with one Piece of Eden. On one hand, the Animus Hub is intended as a "singular entry point" to the franchise, a platform from which past and 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:upcoming Assassin's Creed games can be launched and playꦉed. But we also know that the h🧜ub has some level of interaction with Shadows itself.

Is this a sign that modern day Creed is going full meta, implicating the player in a new narrative surrounding sentient technology, time travel, or some other sci-fi intrigue previously touched upon? Is Juno the one addressing us through the Animus? And will we ever see Desmꩲond and Layla ever again? Honestly, I could do without the latter - but everyꦦthing else? Sign me up.

澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Assassin's Creed Codename Hexe is the next 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:upcoming Ubisoft game set to expand the stealth series

Assassin's Creed Shadows Makino Kurumazuka Kofun entrance puzzle explained

To get inside the Makino Kurumazuka Kofun in AC Shadows, you need to come back as Yasuke, as only he has the ability to open the Kofun and get inside. Once you do so, you need to do the following:

1. Have Yasuke pick up one of the red explosive pots.
2. Carry it down the Kofun steps to the rubble.
3. Move back to a safe distance, and shoot the Pot with a Bow or Teppo.
4. The explosion will destroy the rubble, allowing you to enter.

The fact that this Kofun is locked to Yasuke specifically means that you won't be able to complete it until he's unlocked for you as a character. We don't want to spoil significant details here, but if you want to know when that'll be in the game, we've got a guide on how to switch characteꦺrs in Assassin's Creed Shadows.

Once you're inside, you'll want to stay as Yasuke. While this Kofun isn't really a maze like some of the others, the obstacles you'll come across require the samurai's strength to solve, as outlined in our Assa♊ssin's Creed Shadows Naoe and Yasuke differences.

Make it to the end of the Kofun, and you'll get the Legendary Bow, Blush of the Earth - a powerful bow that extends the Clear Mind duration by five seconds (the ability where time slows while aiming to allow for more precise shots). It's very good for the early game, but it didn't quite make it into our list of the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Assassin's Creed Shadows best we💎apons.

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission

Going back to the original 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Assassin's Creed, the series has been split across the past and modern day eras, with the characters journey into the animus having effects on what's going on in the real world. While the modern segments werജe loved or hated depending on who you ask, they have remained a big part of the series. Although, since the Desmond storyline concluded in Assassin's Creed 3, the modern day sections haven't been quite as prominent the Layla storyline across the three RPG entries did bring it back into the limelight somewhat.

However, despite setting things up for its protagonist in Valhalla, 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Assassin's Creed Mirage didn't feature modern day segments. And now its follow-up, 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Assassin's Creed Shadows, is continuing the trend, proಌmpting fans to ask, where is the modern day?

The Assassin's Creed subreddit is filled with players questioning the lack of a modern setting, with one post simply asking, Without spoiling here, all three characters had significant plot developments at the end of Assassin's Creed Valhalla that weren't explored in Mirage🦩, and that seems to be the case with Shadows (barring any hidden easter eggs still to be found). Although, the top comment in the thread argues it's been even longer since the modern day was meaningful, saying, "Odyssey and Valhalla added new elements, of course, it doesn’t feel that the story has actually moved forward since the mystery temples in Origins."

Another post tiꦫtled said, "With Mirage and now Shadows not having a🦹 Modern Day story that at least gives context to why we're reliving those memories, I'm worried that the series is moving away from one of my favorite aspects of the series. One that gave it a unique identity."

Given that both Mirage and Shadows have been somewhatꦅ of a fresh slate for Ubisoft's series after it took a lengthy break following Valhalla. So there is a chance that the studio has decided that it's less of a priority this time. Or perhaps these titles are a bit of testing💝 the waters to establish a new era before bringing in what would probably have to be a new modern-day protagonist.

Devil May Cry creator Hideki Kamiya talked about the response to Assassin's Creed Shadows, saying, "I felt bad that it was being criticized so much."