The Real Wabi-Sabi in Assassin's Creed Shadows' Open World

Feudal Japan—and the country's culture in general—has been idolized and romanticized for decades, including during the early days of Assassin's Creed. Ubisoft is finally answering the fans' longtime call with Assassin's Creed Shadows, which brings Japan's landscape to life in painstaking detail, for better and for worse.

Across the nine regions in this game, I've traversed across roughly half of them, and there's an abundance of viewpoints to synchronize and take in the breathtaking scenery. And when the seasons change, the landscape meaningfully shifts in mood and tone, in ways reminiscent of an Akira Kurosawa film.

There's incredible attention to detail in the environment here, as to be expected in an Assassin's Creed game. But in some ways, unfortunately, that detail undermines the overall experience.

Assassin's Creed Shadows' Open World Has a Mountain of Pathfinding Problems

Geographically speaking, Japan is incredibly mountainous and hilly. Modern-day Japan has tunnels for the shinkansen to go through, but back in the late 1500s, when this game is set, you either climb up or go around the mountains.

In a game like Assassin's Creed Shadows, you're running from waypoint to waypoint. Some you'll see for yourself from atop a viewpoint, others you'll find on the world map using your scouts. More often than not though, running straight toward the marker doesn't work well.

To make it to your goal in a straight line, you'll probably have to spend a couple minutes climbing mountains, finding the exact right slopes to run up. If it's too steep, you'll slide back down—more so if you're playing as the heavy tank Yasuke. Your horse has an even worse time with slopes, especially when there's lots of bushes around, so it's not worth bothering.

Coming down the mountain isn't as bad, as long as you're mindful of fall damage. What doesn't help though, is the amount of foliage that assaults the camera from every angle. It's difficult to parse out where you're going, and it feels like wrestling instead of running.

Of course, this probably isn't the intended way to play; after all, we don't have gravity-defying Skyrim horses. Instead, there's a setting that turns on a wayfinder, and an in-game line directs you to your destination via pre-defined paths through the mountains. 

Following this line guarantees you'll get to your destination smoothly, but it also sort of defeats the purpose of an open world. It's a classic dilemma the genre's faced for as long as Grand Theft Auto has been popular.

Random Not-So-Random

What makes things extra difficult here, though, is that exploring the not-so-beaten path often feels frustrating because of the mountainous terrain. 

This didn't really feel like a big problem until I hit a certain area of the map where fast travel points were sparse. The quests here also had me running back and forth, and without fast travel, I had to wrestle with slopes until I just gave up and relinquished control to the wayfinder.

This made me realize that Assassin's Creed Shadows and its seemingly "random" moments feel less magical and serendipitous.

For example, early on in my time with the game, I'd run into random people on the road who needed help. Some were threatened by bandits, others had their wagons break down. One guy was in debt, so I handed him some money.

None of these were quest markers or side quests, and they made the world feel more lived in. It reminded me a bit of Red Dead Redemption 2 in how it brought the world to life.

But then I did a main quest later in the game, where these same sorts of "random" events happened as a direct reaction to a story event. They were also dotted along the wayfinding path to my next destination.

Suddenly, the magic felt gone; despite being a big open world, I couldn't help but feel like the "intended" way to experience Assassin's Creed Shadows is on rails. And the joy of breaking out of that cage is constantly hampered by the map's own geometry.

Beauty Within Imperfections

It's a shame that traversing the map freely has so many roadblocks, because ironically, the hills and valleys have a naturally striking appeal. After climbing to the top of a viewpoint and scanning around, it's hard not to take a screenshot of what's in front of you.

Mountains of treetops give way to pagodas and temples, while majestic castles overlook a sea of lush greenery. When the seasons change, it makes the world feel alive. Fast traveling from fall's warm hues to a blank canvas of fresh snow never gets old.

Overall, Ubisoft has done a great job capturing the natural beauty of Japan in Assassin's Creed Shadows. But that beauty is also ironically responsible for making exploration more of a chore.

It's a continuation and exacerbation of a problem I've had with the current Assassin's Creed formula that started with Origins. The fastest way to get to your destination is usually by horse, which feels like an overall passive experience. But at least in previous games, it wasn't too hard to go off the beaten path and meander.

In Shadows, though, that passive experience feels more required than ever. It feels like the game might as well play itself sometimes.

TechRaptor received code for Assassin's Creed Shadows courtesy of Ubisoft.