Assassin’s Creed Shadows game directors Simon Lemay-Comtois and Charles Benoit give more insight and information about the upcoming game. Read on to learn more about what’s to come this November!
Assassin’s Creed Shadows Insiders
Shadows’ Map Is The Size Of Origins’ Map
Assassin’s Creed Shadows’ world map will be roughly similar in size to Assassin’s Creed Origins’ Egypt, said Simon Lemay-Comtois, Ubisoft Quebec’s associate game director in an interview with Video Games Chronicle (VGC). The game was presented during the recent Ubisoft Forward showcase, releasing a 13-minute gameplay walkthrough video featuring the two protagonists, Yasuke and Naoe, exploring the countryside.
He also mentioned that the map’s size is dependent on the period of Japan’s history that Ubisoft wanted to cover. In Shadows’ case, it will take place in 16th century Japan, where the country is walking up a steep path to unification.
"The story that we focus on is mostly on central Japan, so we don’t expand all the way to the entirety of Japan, so therefore we knew we had a rough idea for the territory we wanted to cover," he stated, pointing out an example where Kyoto and Osaka need to be included because of their importance to the story, and that the team needed to build around that general area.
He confesses that it’s a rather tricky thing to develop, but eventually they find their right footing with the cities and castles they wanted represented in the world map, hence the resulting size of the entire play area.
"And then we think about how much of the world [do] we need between those castles so that it becomes credible and feels like an adventure as you move between them, and it doesn’t take a real four days of horseback riding to get from one to the other."
Dual Protagonists, More Story And More Fun
In a separate interview with Dexerto, game director Charles Benoit addresses the formidable scale of the project, especially with dual protagonists with differing playstyles.
One half of the protagonist duo, Yasuke, is actually a real historical figure from Japan’s past. A tall man of African origin who arrived in Japan in 1579 with Jesuit missionaries definitely stood out in a country that had never seen people of his kind. Eventually, he became a retainer of the Lord Oda Nobunaga, a prominent and powerful figure in that time in history. He stayed loyal to Oda until his death at the Honnō-ji Incident. Yet, what happened to him after his master’s death remains unknown.
The missing details in his life and how it was open to a writer’s imagination is what led Ubisoft to choose him as a main character in Shadows.
"[It’s] exactly why we picked this character," Benoit explained. "We know just a few things. We get to learn how this guy came to Japan and why, why Nobunaga was so interested. We know Nobunaga gave him a house, which means he was high in the social class, so that’s super interesting. The blanks we don’t know, it’s just perfect for the story we’re getting to tell."
Naoe, on the other hand, is purely an original and fictional character with roots as the daughter of a real figure in Japanese history, Fujibayashi Nagato. Nagato was the leader of the Iga ninjas in the turbulent 16th century, often serving as the daimyo of the Oomi domain. Therefore, it’s no wonder that Naoe is the more elusive and stealthy out of the two, having grown up in a ninja household.
According to Benoit, this duo of polar opposites creates the perfect dichotomy and "leeway" for the writers to creatively write the plot without having to constantly fact-check.
See The World Of Shadows With Two Perspectives
Shadows will also allow you to play both characters at your leisure while not locked into a mission. You can play either as the preying ninja in the shadows Naoe, or the colossal samurai with immeasurable strength Yasuke.
"At first you need to play a bit of both, learn who they are and why they are aligned. Then you can play both, or just one or the other. It’s your choice," Benoit assured.
In addition to that, if you end up favoring one protagonist over the other, the other will not be left severely under-leveled as level progression and inventories are shared between the two. If you level up with Yasuke and gain skill points for his tree, the same number of skill points will carry on to Naoe, and vice versa.
Source:
Associate Game Director Simon Lemay-Comtois Interview with VGC
Game Director Charles Benoit Interview with Dexerto
