When Assassin's Creed Origins came out eight years ago, it revolutionized the formula. But it was also a massive departure from its stealthier roots, with a more pointed focus on action-oriented combat. Assassin's Creed Shadows feels like the closest the series has gotten to marrying both halves of its identity, perhaps in the most interesting way yet.
Naoe plays a lot like your classic Assassin's Creed. She's nimble and swift, effortlessly flipping off ledges. In open combat, she's fragile and falls after just a few hits. And as you'd expect, she can scale any wall, manmade or otherwise.
Yasuke, on the other hand, leans way more into the action of the more recent games, doubling down on combat. He's tanky, and his finishing blows are violently satisfying. However, he can't really climb much—and that changes the game more than I thought it would.
Assassin's Creed Shadows - Verticality Isn't a Given Anymore
Assassin's Creed Shadows is the 13th mainline entry in this long-running series, which means it's had nearly two decades to cement one thing in me: Up is always an option. It was one of the first games to feature dynamic climbing in a 3D open world, a core part of the series' identity.
It's so intrinsic, in fact, that I didn't think about it until I played as Yasuke. He's big and beefy, much like Connor from Assassin's Creed III. However, he can't move like Connor; he feels like a tank.
When he sprints into walls or fences, he smashes right through them. His attacks look and feel absolutely deadly; he sells every gruesome decapitation animation. His special attacks just have a lot of oomph and muscle to them.
But he can't parkour.

This felt the most apparent to me during the last mission of my play session, which had a series of checkpoints where I could choose between Yasuke and Naoe. I did the final approach with Yasuke, which led to what felt like a claustrophobic mini dungeon.
He climbed ladders—not random walls—inside Himeji Castle, tearing down enemies on each floor. It reminded me of dungeons from the Yakuza series, but make no mistake: This is still an Assassin's Creed game.
I didn't have the freedom to step outside and scale the tower. When he fast travels to a viewpoint, he doesn't perch—he's about to fall off, like Sonic the Hedgehog on a ledge. Then he blunders onto the haystack, screaming for dear life.
I specify "fast travels" because he can't climb up those towers himself. The quintessential, belabored Assassin's Creed mechanic, climbing towers, is rendered impossible for Yasuke.

Assassin's Creed Shadows - Two Protagonists, One Story
Yasuke represents a real mood shift for the series. He's so drastically different from Naoe that it makes me rethink how I approach each mission.
It seems like most missions' narratives will play out similarly regardless of your character. However, how you accomplish them is dictated by your actions.
For example, there was a mission where I had to confront some thugs who were pretending to make a deal with a merchant. As Naoe, I instinctively climbed a nearby rooftop, assassinated a few from the air, and dealt with the rest in quick combat.
As Yasuke, though, I decided to approach them head on—what did I have to fear? And I found that they don't attack on sight. Instead, I could talk to them. The dialog still led to a fight, and overall, the result was the same.
In retrospect, I'm sure I could've done the same thing as Naoe, but the drastic change in mindset really stuck with me. My journey and thought process felt meaningfully different between them.
That final mission of the preview, where I fought through Himeji Castle, featured multiple checkpoints where I could swap between the heroes. I was told that there was a Yasuke-specific segment, which I played, that led to a mini boss fight. On the other hand, picking Naoe would've led to a segment specific to her playstyle.
I imagine for big story missions, those sorts of pronounced differences would be more apparent, but for run-of-the-mill open-world fare, it likely just comes down to which character you prefer playing.
You can swap between them any time in the open world as long as you're not in combat, though for most of my time exploring, I imagine myself sticking to Naoe. While Yasuke's lack of parkour is fascinating for quest design, it handicaps him severely for anything not accessible by horseback.

A worry I have with the dual protagonist system, though, is loot management. I found myself pretty over the amount of loot I gathered in Odyssey, and in my nearly 4 hours with Shadows, I already picked up a handful of items. Having to manage two sets of equipment does feel like it could get cumbersome across dozens of hours.
On top of that, each character gets multiple weapons. Naoe has the katana, kusarigama, and tanto, with tools like kunai and smoke bombs too. Yasuke gets the long katana, kanabo, naginata, a bow, and a musket. It's a lot of options, but also a lot to keep track of when each item has different rarities, special effects, and damage numbers.

Assassin's Creed Shadows - Exploring Feudal Japan
We were restricted to one region of the map in our Shadows preview session, which had a recommended level of 25. The overall game design will let players explore wherever they'd like, but if you're not at a comparable level, you'll run into some difficulty.
I explored the countryside outside of Himeji Castle once I finished the story missions, and the landscape was picturesque and beautiful. The sun and morning fog created a scenic pink-orange sky as I rode through some rice paddies. Any time I perched atop a viewpoint, the land around me unfurled like a rich tapestry.
Say what you will about the franchise, but historically, the series has done a great job at bringing historic places to life, and this small vertical slice I've seen of Feudal Japan has me eager to see more.
Shadows will have seasons—but not like battle passes (as far as I know). After a certain amount of time has passed, spring will give way to summer, and so on. I only experienced spring in my preview, but being able to explore this virtual recreation of Japan in the snow or with cherry blossoms sounds pretty exciting.
Much like Odyssey before it, the mission structure encourages exploration. Instead of specific waypoints, you're given directions (e.g. "it's southeast of this landmark"). If you're in a rush though, you can use a scout to explore a part of the map, and they'll give you a radius to narrow your search down a bit.
Those scouts play into the larger hideout and brotherhood mechanics that I only got a little bit of time to interface with. In game, I could call in an assassin or tank scout to help with a fight. These scouts are upgradeable, too; for example, the assassin could take down an extra target when I called him in.
I could also purchase hideouts across the map to strengthen my network and have spots to restock essentials. In the introductory video of the session, I also saw that you could eventually build out a larger hideout, sort of like build mode in The Sims. I imagine that will take resources, which your scouts can harvest after the passing of every season.
Assassin's Creed Shadows - History Is Written by Ubisoft
Shadows is set during the great unification of Japan in the Sengoku era. Oda Nobunaga shows up, and I wouldn't be surprised if Hideyoshi and Ieyasu appear, too. Meanwhile, Naoe is the fictional insert into the story, acting as the avatar for all the capital-A Assassins lore.
I can't claim to know enough about Japanese history to know how accurate the story will be, nor can I really say which of the characters I met were fictional or historical aside from Nobunaga.
But what I found interesting is that Shadows comes with a "canon" mode. I played it normally, so I could choose dialog choices for Yasuke and Naoe, and by the end of the preview's quest, I could choose to kill or spare a noble. Canon mode would take that choice away and make one for me.
I'm unsure how big of a ramifications his death would have on the larger story (or its potential implications on historical accuracy), but canon mode implies that there's an intended "correct" choice there, in Ubisoft's eyes. Whether it'll tell a good story—regardless of player agency—is yet to be determined.
However, I will say, in the small slice I played, I did find myself paying less and less attention to cutscenes. The voice acting in general just fell flat to me, especially for the two leads. They were stiff, awkward, and lacked charisma.
Maybe things will play out differently in the full game when there's time to build a connection with them. But as of now, I'm a little worried about their ability to carry the whole story, especially if it's even half as long as Odyssey.

Assassin's Creed Shadows Hands-on Preview – Final Thoughts
We're now two months out from Shadows' release on March 20. Granted, it used to be one month away until they delayed it (again). The delays made me raise an eyebrow, considering the larger implications of Ubisoft's current status in the market. I've written a lot about it in our newsletter, if you haven't subscribed already.
But I was pretty impressed with my 4 hours with Yasuke and Naoe. It felt like the best Assassin's Creed game I played in years, and aside from two visual/collision bugs, it ran pretty smoothly, despite being streamed across the internet (worth noting it was still a work-in-progress build, too). The setting is interesting, and the dichotomy between the two characters makes me rethink how to play these games.
However, I also walked away with one other conclusion: On the whole, this still feels like an Assassin's Creed game. I slotted into most of the gameplay loop easily, and while the new additions are nice quality-of-life changes, it still felt like a fairly known quantity—albeit a more refined version of it.
TechRaptor previewed Assassin's Creed Shadows streamed via Ubisoft Connect for 4 hours on PC courtesy of a Ubisoft representative.
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