Assassin's Creed Shadows will allow players to switch between two characters throughout the game, but its creative director says "quite a bit of [Shadows]" can be played with just one character. While Assassin's Creed Shadows will see the franchise step foot into feudal Japan for the very first time, it isn't the first entry to feature dual protagonists, as Assassin's Creed Syndicate previously allowed fans to switch between the Frye twins, Evie and Jacob, throughout the game.
The Assassin's Creed series has had an odd relationship with dual protagonists in recent years. While Syndicate was the first Assassin's Creed game to allow players to switch between two characters at any moment, Ubisoft would later go on to revert that feature in Odyssey and Valhalla. Both titles, which strayed from the series' usual action-adventure tropes and more into the RPG genre, forced players to choose between a male and female protagonist. Although the character's gender had no real impact on the story, Ubisoft did dictate which gender was lore accurate. In Valhalla, for example, the female version of Eivor is considered to be canon in the game's story. Assassin's Creed Shadows looks to be once again spicing up the dual protagonist feature, with both Naoe and Yasuke not only having two completely different playstyles and skills, but romance options that are restricted to each character. Even though these two characters appear to be tied intricately into the game's story, Assassin's Creed Shadows' creative director Jonathan Dumont says that players won't be missing out by playing mainly as one character. In a new interview with Screen Rant, Dumont also noted that "quite a bit" of the game can be played solely with either Yasuke or Naoe, meaning that players don't have to switch between the two regularly if they don't want to. When asked if players will miss out on anything if they choose to play as one character more than the other, Dumont said, "So I don't think you're missing out on things too much. I think it's more on your preference to [say], 'Okay, I'll see how the game will adapt a little bit to the character if you choose one over the other.'" The creative director went on to explain that Assassin's Creed Shadows has individual introductions for Yasuke and Naoe, with both also receiving their own questline. "So that one is, let's say Naoe, a personal questline cannot be played by Yasuke and those are two distinct things. But the core of the game can be pick your character and the game adapts," Dumont explained.
I guess you can switch for gameplay reasons, you can switch if you think that you like one of the other [protagonists] better, but I don't think you're missing out.
Shadows' creative director said that Ubisoft doesn't want players to have to "split the time" between the two protagonists, so if fans prefer playing as Yasuke over Naoe, or vice versa, "quite a bit of the game" can be played with just one of them. Dumont wouldn't say an exact percentage for how much of the game can be played with one character, but did discuss how he enjoys switching between the two every few hours due to the distinct differences in gameplay style. Naoe, who is a ninja with a heavy focus on stealth, will play drastically differently from Yasuke, who is more of a brute-force samurai.
After being delayed multiple times, Assassin's Creed Shadows will now be released on March 20. The highly anticipated next entry in the Assassin's Creed series was originally supposed to launch in November 2024 but was pushed back to February 14. The game was then hit with another delay just one month before its planned release date, this time pushing Shadows back by another month to give the team more time to "refine and polish."