Dante Hatcher-Wilson
Staff Writer
April 16, 2025
***Rated M for Mature***
“Assassin’s Creed: Shadows” (Rated M) is the 14th open-world video game in the series of Assassin’s Creed. The game takes place in Feudal Japan, under the rule of Oda Nobunaga.
Assassin’s Creed games are always based on some historical figure or event. The years the game takes place is between 1579 through 1582. The two main characters you play as are Fujibayashi Naoe and Yasuke. Naoe is a fictional woman from Iga and when her home was destroyed by and her father was killed by Nobunaga’s forces she sought out answers and revenge. Her father needed her to protect a box with a mysterious item in it.It was taken from them, and now she must get it back. Yasuke served under Nobunaga, meaning he and Naoe were against each other; however, their personal goals align with each other and they become allies.
Yasuke is a real life historical figure, as he was the first black samurai as well as the first foreign samurai. When playing Shadows, you can notice the contrast of play styles between Yasuke and Naoe. Naoe is short, slim, quiet and fast. These characteristics make her a formidable assassin. For gameplay, this means that she is very good at stealth because she can slip in and out of combat after stealth assassinations. Yasuke, however, is very bad at assassinations and stealth. He is over six foot and he is big and muscular, meaning he can be spotted very easily. Yasuke cannot climb certain things that Naoe can because of his size nor can he do things as quickly as her.
When it comes to combat, Yasuke is better than Naoe because his strength allows him to fight aggressively which ends his battle quicker. When in combat with Naoe, it takes her longer to finish her fights because she’s not as strong as Yasuke but, some of her weapons allow her to attack groups of enemies. Both of the characters have their own armor sets that add extra skills to their power levels and strength, which is very important to progress smoothly through the game so you can keep up with enemies.
One of the most defining features of this game is the progression system. Whenever you level up, which is done by completing quests, you gain skill points. You use those skill points to unlock new abilities and reduce cooldown times. The game is made with realistic animation, making the game look closer to real life. The water flows as if it were real, the wind blowing through trees, and even the season changes are realistic.
Overall, I would give this game a 5/5. The storyline is amazing and progresses smoothly and there’s so much details and Easter eggs to previous games in it.