Assassin’s Creed Shadows: Japan’s Overgrown Mess

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Ever since its beginning, fans of Assassin’s Creed have eagerly awaited the series’ exploration of Japan due to the Assassins’ close resemblance to ninjas. In the latest installment, Assassin’s Creed Shadows, players can finally experience both a hidden blade and a katana in feudal Japan. However, it’s regrettably one of the least compelling settings that Assassin’s Creed has presented so far.

The game, Shadows, fails to impress due to its overabundance of trees and lack of proper layout in 16th century Japan. While the time period does limit some complexity, the excessive use of tall wooden plants makes navigation a challenge, often obscuring characters like Naoe amidst the greenery. This is especially true when she’s sliding down steep slopes that are hard to spot. Unfortunately, it’s not just Naoe who suffers; Yasuke and the horse find it difficult to navigate this challenging terrain effectively.

When you zoom out, the density becomes an issue as it diminishes the viewing angles. Scaling one of the numerous vantage points to take part in the traditional pastime of observing the camera sweep through the scenery seems pointless because a large portion of the horizon is typically just trees. Instead, the goal of all that climbing should be an impressive and technically superior display, not a monotonous, uninspired landscape design.

The challenge of concealing everything within foliage is a complex issue with multiple aspects. First, it makes it hard to see many structures hidden nearby, and second, it significantly reduces the areas that can be explored. In the games Elden Ring and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, the player has the freedom to choose what appears interesting. As explained by director Hidemaro Fujibayashi at CEDEC 2017 (translated by Matt Walker from Camouflaj), the studio employed the “Triangle Rule” to encourage exploration. By designing triangular mountains and rocks that hide portions of the world, but gradually reveal more as players start climbing or move around their base, they create a continuous source of surprises that guide players through their natural curiosity.

As a dedicated gamer, I can’t help but feel exhilarated when I reflect on the impact The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild had on Elden Ring. The mastermind behind Elden Ring, Hidetaka Miyazaki, has openly acknowledged this influential game and frequently discussed how FromSoftware’s 2022 sensation was meticulously crafted to foster exploration.

In an effort to prioritize player freedom above all else, the team behind Elden Ring aimed to create a world where I, as the player, could truly roam free. Miyazaki emphasized that I should be able to venture over and delve into intriguing landmarks scattered throughout the Lands Between.

The glowing Erdtrees undoubtedly serve as the most striking example of this design philosophy, but the entire world is adorned with distinctive buildings that invite exploration. These captivating worlds are deliberately designed to pique my curiosity and lead me on a journey of discovery.

In contrast, Shadows is the complete opposite, making it challenging to discern anything hidden within the foliage. Similar to other games developed by Ubisoft, Shadows uses question mark icons to signal areas of interest for players to explore. Mostly, there’s little incentive to venture into any area not explicitly flagged as significant; many unmarked locations lack even a modest treasure chest containing a mediocre helmet and some rags as a paltry compensation.

Jonathan Dumont, the creative director, emphasized that the game’s design aims to have players observing the world rather than sticking to a predefined path marked by symbols. However, it is essential to note that despite this approach, the game still fits into the category often criticized as an “Ubisoft open-world game.” This categorization, though, does not accurately represent the essence of true exploration. True exploration in games involves navigating between key locations while occasionally diverging from the main path and not relying solely on the map in the pause menu to find specific destinations such as the castle west of the rice paddies in Izumi Settsu. This game encourages players to engage with the world during gameplay, unlike other games that encourage players to consult the map frequently.

In simpler terms, the design of this game’s world seems old-fashioned and unrealistic, hindering players from truly experiencing the setting as if they were in a real place. It lacks the element of discovery or surprise, and instead feels more like a fake representation of a genuine location. The views aren’t particularly stunning, and iconic Japanese landmarks are sparsely distributed across an excessively vast landscape. If we were to visualize areas of activity as a heat map, most of the world would appear cold and blue, with only a few thin red lines connecting question mark icons to other question mark icons.

The game developer, Ubisoft, indicates that many areas in their open-world game are difficult to traverse due to steep mountains. They advise players to stick to roads, suggesting that most of the map may not be designed for exploration. With the latest update, players can effortlessly reach objectives with a single button press, making the game even more straightforward.

Navigating through the world in ‘Shadows’ Feudal Japan feels either careless or dull, and this isn’t improved by how lifeless the environment seems and how limited your interaction with it is. Journeys between Ubisoft-marked points of interest are almost completely devoid of interesting features. The animals serve little purpose other than decoration as they mostly just run away. Players can only draw specific animals at designated times, as decided by Ubisoft; a more natural, player-controlled drawing system is not an option.

In simpler terms, the game lacks events or complex interactions that make the world feel alive, such as foraging for items or hunting animals. There’s no crafting or weapon degradation to encourage exploration like in games such as Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom. The motivation for players to engage with the environment comes from a mix of personal enjoyment (intrinsic motivation) and rewards (extrinsic motivation).

As a gamer, I’ve found myself feeling a tad disappointed with the latest installment of Shadows. The quests, mainly focusing on assassinations and castle conquests, are quite limited compared to previous entries, and the interaction with surroundings feels shallow – like searching for lost scrolls in a temple or activating a few shrines. This seems more hollow than before, and it’s disheartening considering the rich evolution we’ve seen in this genre. Ubisoft has certainly toned down the icon barrage from past games, but it feels like they haven’t replaced it with anything substantial. Games such as Horizon Forbidden West and Ghost of Tsushima have demonstrated that a checklist game can still hold value, yet it’s challenging to appreciate when executed in this manner after so many years since the genre has progressed.

In the past, Alex Hutchinson, the creative director of Assassin’s Creed 3, remarked that Japan could be considered a dull setting for players. Later, he explained that this wasn’t an indictment of Japan itself, but rather the unique charm of the series lay in exploring less familiar eras and locations. However, Hutchinson’s observation was later validated in a different way. In Assassin’s Creed Shadows, Ubisoft failed to create an engaging world in Japan by omitting vibrant details and filling it with excessive hills that were hard to navigate and overly dense forests. Although it could be picturesque, the experience of traversing it was monotonous. The Assassin’s Creed series deserves more and so does Japan.

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2025-04-10 18:22