The assassin series "Assassin's Creed" is approaching adulthood, but despite almost annual releases, the series has never depicted Japan - until now.
Every time, we've asked ourselves "are we doing Japan now?", but got the answer "no, now it's Greece, Nordic mythology, or Baghdad", says Simon Lemay-Comtois at Ubsioft Québec.
I don't think there's a good reason why it's taken so long. But I'm glad we waited, because now we have the technology and hardware to do a really impressive Japan, he says.
Two main roles
The wait has, however, allowed others to realize their ninja and samurai fantasies in recent years. "Sekiro" (2019), "Ghost of Tsushima" (2020), and last year's "Rise of the Ronin" are just a few examples.
Simon Lemay-Comtois believes that "Assassin's Creed Shadows" has its justification in the dual main characters, which players can freely switch between during the story.
It's about showing two sides of the coin. We're talking about shinobi and samurai, both in terms of gameplay and the story, how these two archetypes were involved in the historical events in Japan during this period.
"Shadows" takes place in feudal Japan at the end of the 1500s, and the protagonists are the ninja Naoe and the African samurai Yasuke. Naoe sneaks in the shadows, while Yasuke's gameplay is about mastering the combat system.
Like "Forrest Gump"
As usual in the series, the developers have taken help from both in-house and external historians. It's always a delicate process, with small disagreements between those who advocate for accuracy and those who prioritize what feels fun, according to Simon Lemay-Comtois
It's always a delicate process. But the story is historical fiction. We do like "Forrest Gump", where we take historical figures and add our own, to show what could have happened behind the scenes.
The "Assassin's Creed" series has occasionally received criticism for being too big.
We were very aware this time of holding back, of instead of size, betting more on depth than we've done before. That said, the map is quite large, says Simon Lemay-Comtois.
The "Assassin's Creed" series is a game series from developer Ubisoft. The games revolve around assassins of the Assassin Order, where the main opponent is the Templar Order. The games take place at various important historical times and places.
The first game was released in 2007, and since then, 13 more games in the main series have been added.
The games initially focused on assassinations and fighting enemies, but also on the freedom to climb and move freely over large areas, in a parkour-like way. In recent years, the focus has shifted to action role-playing games with elements of stealth in large, open game worlds.
The latest game "Shadows" is a mix of the old and new school of games, with the introduction of two playable protagonists.
"Shadows" will be released on October 20 to PS5, Xbox Series, PC, Mac, and Luna, and later to iPad.
