Assassin’s Creed is finally heading to Japan. It needs to hit the mark

Assassin’s Creed is one of gaming’s biggest and most prolific franchises, with 13 main games released over the last 18 years. And, throughout that time, many fans of the historical fiction franchise have been asking for one thing; an entry set in feudal Japan. Next month, they’ll get their wish.

But Assassin’s Creed Shadows represents more than just a long-awaited entry. It’s a new era for a franchise that has reinvented itself multiple times but still struggles to strike a balance between attracting new fans and retaining the old ones. And for Ubisoft, it could be a make or break.

The latest Assassin’s Creed is set in Japan, and features a pair of protagonists.

The French publishing group has been impacted by the changing shape of the video game industry, shedding thousands of employees over the last two years as the rising cost and scope of high-end development has led to a period of financial underperformance for the publicly listed company. Its attempts to move into multiplayer and service-based games have fallen mostly flat, and sales of both new games in existing franchises (like Prince of Persia) and licensed games based on movies (like Avatar) have failed to meet Ubisoft’s high expectations.

Players and commentators have pointed to several contributing factors, from Ubisoft’s enormous multi-continent size to its attempts to monetise games with microtransactions and its own proprietary platforms and subscriptions. Assassin’s Creed is seen as its most dependable property, with 2020’s Valhalla pulling in about $US1 billion ($1.6 billion) in revenue in its first year, and Shadows – which will also introduce a new “hub” that connects all recent games in the series – will need to prove that’s still the case.

Having played a preview build of the game for around four hours, a drive to evolve the series is clearly felt. It’s a blend of the parkour-and-assassinations gameplay of the original games with the wide-open RPG design of Odyssey and Valhalla. The designers have clearly been working down a list of common bugbears to address, though I think with mixed success. New systems minimise the number of points that appear on your map directing you straight to objectives, but still ultimately feel like busywork. Yet, the weapons-based character growth system seems exciting, and there’s a great solution to having both sneaking and heavy combat capabilities at your fingertips: dual protagonists.

First is Yasuke, an African man brought to Japan by European Jesuits, based on a real historical figure who became a powerful samurai under clan leader Oda Nobunaga. And then there’s Naoe, a lithe ninja-like warrior displaced when Nobunaga leads a raid on her village. They make for an interesting combination, not only because one is brash and direct in combat while one’s deliberate and sneaky, but also because Naoe’s indigenous Japanese and Yasuke’s a foreigner, one’s in touch with the land and tradition while one’s a trained tool of military might.

Yasuke favours heavy weapons and long-range rifles to take on crowds of enemies, while Naoe can swiftly ascend walls and buildings, wielding thrown weapons and swift blades. Both can be extensively customised by upgrading with “knowledge” points.

So, how will players react to Shadows?

From spartan-kicking assailants off cliffs to assassinating them silently from the trees, and from examining the politics of child hostage swapping to exploring the collision of urbanisation and ornate traditional architecture, it’s safe to say there’s a lot here for series fans to look forward to. Bringing ninjutsu to the Order of Assassins is just inherently cool, not to mention samurai arts, and there’s also the question of how Nobunaga’s quest to unify Japan ties into the series’ ongoing narratives about shadowy organisations and DNA secrets.

That said, a lot has changed since players first expressed interest in a feudal Japan Assassin’s Creed. This particular period – the late Sengoku, an era of civil war, unification and the arrival of foreigners to the island nation – is beautifully recreated here but was also recently seen in games including Rise of the Ronin and Ghost of Tsushima, plus the TV show Shogun.

But Shadows′ level design director Luc Plante, in Australia to preview the game for local media, said the team didn’t consider whether the setting was overexposed; they used the same process they usually use to narrow in on an era.

“A lot of time periods would have made for a great game, but this one was such a pivotal point, with the unification of Japan,” he said.

“We’ve always been pushing for historical events when we’re looking at the setting and which ones had the most impact on that country, so this is why we settled on this particular time.”

The political climate has also changed significantly. While earlier entries in the series were celebrated for their historical settings, the reception to Shadows was dominated by a noisy minority of fans arguing that a female ninja and an African samurai were not accurate representations of the era and were included as the result of woke ideology.

While this may be the kind of criticism that’s best ignored (and a reminder here that evidence supports the existence of Yasuke as well as female warriors, while the armchair historians were far less bothered by the appearance of Atlantis in previous entries or of Leonardo da Vinci selling weapons), any portion of the fan base being upset was likely cause for some stress at Ubisoft, given the must-hit status of the game. For his part, Plante said the series’ approach to history had evolved but remained focused on balancing facts with fun.

“As a game we always need to tweak [history] to make it scalable in terms of game mechanics, in terms of all the constraints,” he said.

“But it’s always been a key pillar for the franchise, and as we can reach more people it’s made us want to be more respectful and more accurate.”

Shadows was originally due to release in November 2024 but has since been delayed twice, likely as a reaction to the mixed reception of last year’s Star Wars Outlaws. Some criticisms of that game – which features a female protagonist – were along similar lines to those taking issue with Naoe, but most were to do with the game’s under-baked systems. The game received several updates, including a total overhaul of its stealth mechanics, but Ubisoft had spent its one chance to make a big first impression.

“As a developer, always more time is more beneficial, so [the delays] were a happy surprise. But I know it creates some questions and some different reactions. From our perspective, it allows us to make sure we have the best experience possible,” Plante said.

“The business has changed, and you have less room for error. That’s why we really need to make sure that we have the best example possible at launch.”

Assassin’s Creed Shadows releases on March 20 for PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S.

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