REVIEW: Assassin's Creed Shadows is an epic of betrayal and revenge set in feudal Japan 1b2ts

Since the release of Assassin's Creed Mirage In 2023, Ubisoft decided to “streamline” the main games in its most successful franchise, making the maps smaller, the RPG elements more compact, and the experience – as a whole – more concise. This tactic worked to create a game closer to the series’ origins, but fans still wanted a more robust title with a different theme. 5b5zl

Our new adventure takes us straight to feudal Japan to relive the lives of ninja naoe and the samurai Yasuke in the epic Assassin's Creed Shadows. With refined gameplay, an engaging story and stunning settings, the land of the Rising Sun has never been better represented in the gaming world.

This review is spoiler-free and was produced thanks to a digital code for Assassin's Creed Shadows for PS5 provided by Ubisoft Brazil.

History 1q2o4l

As the RPG elements became more elaborate in the games in the series, the story became a practically secondary element. From the incredible revenge saga of Ezio em Assassin's Creed II, the series did not have a well-crafted script or even such engaging characters. The moment the player stealthily attacks the first enemy with naoe, or strikes his opponent with the first sword blow with Yasuke, the characters already have a special place in your heart.

This is the first time that Ubisoft has decided to use a real historical figure as one of its protagonists. Although biographical information about Yasuke, the first samurai of African origin in Japan, is scarce, the team of developers and artists did a great job of recreating a strong character, with clear ideas and unwavering courage. The ninja (shinobi) Naoe, on the other hand, brings together all the elements that have built strong characters in the series, such as perseverance, talent and a thirst for revenge that allows her to face enemies twice her size without fear.

Both Yasuke and Naoe's stories fit perfectly into the context of feudal Japan, in which the fragmented country was dominated by clans fighting for power, such as the family of the great daimô (lord). Oda Nobunaga. Add to this the fact that the Portuguese and other European peoples were beginning to discover and trade with Japanese lands, and you have a population made insecure by civil war and foreign invaders that creates a powder keg ready to explode.

While there's no groundbreaking narrative plot, it's a welcome change that Ubisoft decided to forgo the modern-day segment of the game for a bit and focus on the Assassin-Templar war in feudal Japan. Since current events have often been criticized for breaking immersion and having shallow characters, it's a much wiser decision to just follow Yasuke and Naoe's memories.

Even so, the “narrative trees” are still present in the form in which the player can choose some dialogues from both Yasuke and Naoe that will influence their destinies and those who cross their path. Considering which characters you can trust and which ones may betray you later, it is important to choose your words wisely. This becomes more evident when you need to complete missions to gain allies, because depending on your answers, the character may decide to the League of Assassins or simply ignore your requests.

Gameplay 4e3s42

Shadows knows how to combine the simplicity of combat in The Mirage, with the possibilities of combos and weapons found in Valhalla. Both Yasuke and Naoe have different weapons at their disposal. While Yasuke can handle a samurai sword (katana), a keppo (rifle) and a nagitama (spear), Naoe can handle a smaller ninja sword, a kusarigama (a sickle with a chain and weight on the end) and a tanto (dagger) combined with his hidden blade. Yasuke also has two more weapons that are unlocked as the story progresses and that help in combat against stronger and larger enemies: a heavy wooden staff (kanabo) and a bow and arrow.

It is possible to improve at blacksmiths and obtain special skills for each of these direct combat weapons. In addition, both fighters have long-range weapons to deal with their enemies: bow and arrow for Yasuke, and kunais (small knives) and shuriken (ninja stars) for Naoe. In a much more coherent and streamlined way compared to the gigantic skill tree of Assassin's Creed Valhalla, now each character has a tree dedicated to one of their weapons or their specific skills, with mastery points that can be acquired by completing missions or leveling up. The tip here is to focus on the special moves of weapons that consume adrenaline, as they can help you in difficult combats or save you in risky situations.

Although the game gives you complete freedom to play as either Yasuke or Naoe at any time, it is clear that all the attention is focused on the young shinobi, since she has greater mobility and is able to use her stealth skills to enter and exit fortresses without being seen. Because of his size and strength, using Yasuke is more recommended to face stronger enemies, since it is funny to see the way the almost 2-meter tall samurai tries to jump over walls or balance on rooftops.

While maintaining many of the combat mechanics consolidated in previous games from the “RPG era” of Assassin's Creed, Shadows adds some new elements such as combinations of enemy blows that need to be blocked or dodged to break their defenses, and also opponents with different combat styles – which makes each fight unique and more exciting. Even if you, like me, are a fan of stealth and prefer to dispatch your opponents with the hidden blade and avoid combat, be aware that many large or higher level enemies cannot be eliminated this way and, in addition to frustrating your surprise attack, they can alert your companions and put you in a real trap!

One of the new features of Shadows is its hideout, which can be modeled as if you were building a park in the classic Roller Coaster Tycoon, adding special buildings, decorations and even pets. What's the advantage? The more elements and upgrades in your hideout, the better your league of assassins and you will be equipped for the fight.

Graphics and Bugs 6p3j39

It is inevitable to make a graphical comparison between Assassin's Creed Shadows and Ghost of Tsushima, since both have similar themes (despite being separated chronologically by about 350 years in Japanese history). While Tsushima Focusing on an art direction more in line with the beauty of Japanese landscapes and countryside, Shadows treats cities, villages and all the elements around them with more care, focusing on the fidelity of the historical reconstruction. In addition, the development team focused on realism in the interactions of the characters in the environment, such as the snow that sticks to the characters' clothes, or how their movement on different types of ground can affect detection by enemies.

But this in no way detracts from the beauty of the game's visuals, since the rustling of leaves in the wind or the sound of bamboo swaying are so real that they make you feel like you're directly on Japanese soil. In addition, an iterative cycle of seasons that allows for a constant change of scenery and a much smaller map than that seen in previous games allows the player to appreciate the different visuals of feudal Japan recreated in every detail. Not to mention how each season influences the gameplay, with frozen lakes in winter and bushes full of leaves in spring and summer to hide from opponents.

However, as beautiful as this experience may be, it is not without its flaws. At the time of writing this review, the game is in its pre-launch version without any updates or bug fixes from the opening day. Therefore, it was not uncommon to encounter some small glitches and instabilities. One example is the long loading times in some of the campaign, which could take around 10 to 15 seconds – something that is not very optimized for the speeds of the PS5 SSD.

Speaking of PS5, Assassin's Creed Shadows makes three gameplay modes available on the base PS5:

• Performance: 2160p resolution upscale, 60 FPS, selective Ray Tracing
• Balanced: 2160p resolution upscale, 40 FPS (for 120Hz displays), standard Ray Tracing
• Loyalty: 2160p resolution upscale, 30 FPS, default Ray Tracing

As this is an enhanced title for the PS5 Pro, the big difference is the Ray Tracing that is enabled by default in performance and balanced modes and can be extended to increase and improve the reflective effects of light in fidelity mode. Although I noticed a significant difference in lighting and textures in fidelity mode (with FPS remaining above 30, but below 60), for the production of this analysis I preferred to prioritize the frame rate per second during gameplay, remaining in performance mode.

Since Assassin's Creed Origins it was possible to climb any surface, something unprecedented in the series that had always been inspired by games Prince of Persia with climbing points. This change is due to the geography of the explored locations, since they had few buildings to be used as points (something especially evident in Valhalla).

However, in Shadows this mechanic has been changed in a strange way. While parkour has been improved to show more natural and fluid movements, it is now no longer possible to climb any surface. Since Naoe is the only character capable of making long climbs, she needs specific points to be able to climb, otherwise she has to resort to her grappling hook to hang or swing.

Furthermore, the dense vegetation of the Japanese lands makes it very difficult for players to see the lands outside of the paths and trails. On several occasions, I found myself surrounded by bushes and trees without being able to see what was in front of me. The recommendation in this case is that these elements become transparent at short distances to facilitate the player's mobility.

Price and availability 3j3on

Assassin's Creed Shadows can be purchased digitally at Steam, at Xbox and PS Store (for PS5) by R$349,00 in the standard edition and the digital deluxe edition (with extra cosmetic items and additional mastery points) for R$449,00.

System Requirements 33314q

Specification	Minima	Recommended
Operational system	Windows 10	Windows 10
Processor	Intel Core i7-10700K @ 3.8 GHz or higher OR AMD Ryzen 5 3600 @ 3.6 GHz or higher	Intel Core i7-12700K @ 3.6 GHz or higher OR AMD Ryzen 7 7700 @ 3.8 GHz or higher
Memory	16 GB of RAM	32 GB of RAM
Video card	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER 8GB OR AMD Radeon RX 6600 8GB OR Intel Arc A580	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080Ti 12GB OR AMD Radeon RX 7700XT 12GB
Storage	120 GB available space (SSD required)	120 GB available space (SSD required)
Other remarks	Hardware Ray Tracing GPU required Graphics preset: Low Resolution: 1080p (Native) Target FPS: 60	Hardware Ray Tracing GPU required Graphics preset: High Resolution: 1440p (Native) Target FPS: 60

Conclusion a5r1x

So, do we finally have an Assassin's Creed game that's actually good? The answer is a resounding yes! With charismatic characters, an engaging story, and a jaw-dropping recreation of feudal Japan with stunning scenery, Assassin's Creed Shadows finally manages to put the franchise back on track. With a few minor bugs and technical flaws that can easily be fixed in future updates, Ubisoft and its team of developers are to be congratulated for creating an experience that perfectly balances a well-constructed narrative with exciting gameplay, just like the first titles in the series did.

Whether you're a longtime fan of the series, or a lover of Japanese history and culture (or even both), don't miss out on the opportunity to check out this incredible adventure and live the memories as the samurai Yasuke or the ninja Naoe, in one of the best games of 2025.

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reviewed by Tiago Rodrigues in 18 / 03 / 2025