Assassin’s Creed Shadows: Claws of Awaji Review – Refinement of Core Ideas

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Assassin’s Creed Shadows is praised for its beautiful recreation of feudal Japan, compelling main characters Yasuke and Naoe, and a captivating story. While the game is quite long – taking 30 to 100 hours to complete – some storylines felt unfinished at the end. The new ‘Claws of Awaji‘ DLC now explores those loose ends, including the plans of the Templars and the history of Naoe’s mother.

The story of *Claws of Awaji* begins with a compelling mystery: Naoe and Yasuke discover that Naoe’s mother, Tsuyu, is not only alive but imprisoned on Awaji Island. They decide to rescue her, believing she holds the key to the ongoing conflict with the Templars and the fate of Japan. This time, they’ll face the Sanzoku Ippa, a powerful organization with a complex structure of leaders, fighters, and spies, all working for the main villain, Yukari, who has her own plans for Awaji Island.

“The story generally has a short runtime, especially when compared to the base game.”

The story in *Claws of Awaji* moves quickly, smoothly leading you through each goal. While the pace occasionally slows down, this is welcome, giving you time to plan your next move and choose which enemy from the Sanzoku Ippa to take on. Like the main story in *Assassin’s Creed Shadows*, you have freedom in choosing your targets and how you approach them. The expansion is relatively short, which contributes to a tighter, more focused experience, cutting out anything unnecessary.

Awaji Island feels like a more polished and focused version of the larger areas in the main game. While it initially seems small, especially when compared to the bigger zones in *Assassin’s Creed Shadows*, the island is surprisingly engaging. Despite its size, Awaji is cleverly designed to make exploration consistently enjoyable and rewarding, preventing the experience from feeling rushed. This is largely achieved through the island’s emphasis on vertical design, offering plenty of opportunities to climb and explore at different heights.

Awaji Island is very hilly and mountainous, filled with peaks, plateaus, and valleys. This makes traveling anywhere a winding adventure, taking you along mountainsides, through rice paddies, and across dense forests. Exploring the island itself can be just as engaging as following the path to your main goal. Be careful though – the roads are often patrolled by ninja or bandits who are eager to ambush you. They also like to set traps that can knock you off your horse if you don’t spot them first.

Claws of Awaji effectively creates a dark and oppressive atmosphere, portraying an island constantly under the thumb of its rulers.

The island is divided into four unique areas – Sumoto, Eshima Coast, Fukura Bay, and Yura – each offering a different feel and style. Because *Claws of Awaji* is designed for players who have already reached the highest level, you won’t be restricted from exploring these zones. Once you’ve finished the initial quests, you’re free to roam the island, collect valuable items, and unlock fast travel points to make getting around even quicker.

Claws of Awaji effectively creates a bleak and oppressive atmosphere for its island setting. Military bases feel stark and functional, resembling fortresses more than the elaborate structures found in the main game. The roads are heavily patrolled with military checkpoints, and soldiers routinely harass the local villagers.

The *Claws of Awaji* expansion introduces a brand-new weapon for Naoe: the Bo staff. But this isn’t just another weapon-it comes with completely new ways to fight that players will learn early in the expansion. The Bo staff is flexible, letting Naoe change her attack style by switching between three different stances: high, neutral, and low.

“The skill tree adds more versatility to the weapon as a whole”

As a player, I’ve found that each of the three fighting stances really shines in different situations. If I want to deal a ton of damage quickly, I go with the high stance and just power through with strong attacks. But when I need some breathing room, the neutral stance is perfect – it knocks enemies back, giving me space. And if I want to control the fight, the low stance is the way to go. It lets me trip up opponents, setting them up for a really powerful attack while they’re down. Plus, learning more about this weapon through the expansion’s story unlocks a whole new skill tree, which is awesome for leveling up and trying out new abilities!

The Bo staff’s skill tree makes it a versatile weapon, enhancing its abilities with moves like rapid attacks, a grappling hook to slam enemies together, and passive upgrades that break enemy defenses and armor. Overall, the Bo staff is a welcome addition to *Assassin’s Creed Shadows*, offering a balanced and adaptable playstyle. While it likely won’t replace your katana, you’ll probably find it useful as a secondary weapon alongside your preferred choice.

The *Claws of Awaji* section of *Assassin’s Creed Shadows* introduces some interesting mission ideas, like large-scale battles early on. Unfortunately, these new ideas aren’t developed further, and most of the expansion feels very similar to the main game in terms of design and structure. Aside from a new weapon, the core gameplay experience doesn’t change much.

Because the downloadable content doesn’t require players to spend time repeatedly leveling up or collecting gear, the story moves at a good pace without feeling drawn out.

I’ve been playing *Assassin’s Creed Shadows* since it came out, and it’s gotten a lot better with all the free updates they’ve released. That really shines through in the *Claws of Awaji* DLC. I was able to max out the graphics on my PC – I’m running an AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D, 32GB of DDR-6000 RAM, and an AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT with 16GB of VRAM – at a resolution of 2560×1440. With FSR 3 set to Quality, I consistently got between 70 and 80 frames per second, and honestly, the game looked great and ran super smooth – no stuttering or anything like that. It was a really solid experience.

The *Assassin’s Creed Shadows: Claws of Awaji* expansion offers a refreshing approach. While the main game is already quite lengthy – potentially deterring players who have already invested a lot of time – this DLC avoids unnecessary grinding for levels or equipment. This keeps the pace moving quickly, and the story itself is focused and well-structured, with natural stopping points for players.

With its perfect length of 10-13 hours for the main story, *Claws of Awaji* feels like a polished improvement over the original game. The new Bo staff is a great addition, giving Naoe more combat options. Considering the base game was already a strong return to form, we happily recommend *Claws of Awaji* to fans. However, if you didn’t enjoy the original, this expansion won’t change your opinion, and you’ll need to finish the main game before you can play it.

This game was reviewed on PC.

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2025-09-16 18:20