Ubisoft has fully revealed Assassin's Creed Shadows, the Japanese-set entry in the action role-playing game franchise, including its cinematic trailer, release date, dual protagonists, and more.
The near-four minute trailer, below, introduces players to Ubisoft's take on 1579 Japan alongside Shadows' two protagonists: the stealthy shinobi Naoe and the action-orientated Yasuke, who's a real figure from Japanese history. Shadows is solely single-player, but players can switch between the two characters at will.
Players can explore both of these characters and the ambitious open world of Japan when Shadows launches on November 15, 2024 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and S, PC, and Amazon Luna.
Shadows looks to evolve the open-world RPG genre in myriad ways, such as through a season cycle. This means that, just as days naturally change to nights in video games, the world of Shadows moves from spring to summer, to fall, and to winter.
Each season brings with it new gameplay elements, like underwater entrances being frozen over and inaccessible during the winter, luscious crops providing cover for stealth conquests in the spring, and more.
Light and darkness is another focus of Shadows, as the name suggests, and Ubisoft's new global illumination system provides dynamic gameplay options and affects how enemies perceive Naoe or Yasuke depending on what light or shadow is available.
As for the size of the world, creative director Jonathan Dumont told IGN that Shadows would be roughly the same size as Assassin's Creed Origins, the Egypt-set entry from 2017. It promises myriad evolutions of Ubisoft's past RPG entries though (which also include Odyssey and Valhalla), with players able to go prone, use a grappling hook, accurately cut through practically every prop in the game, and more. You can read about all this in our extensive interview with the development team.
And if that's not enough, check out our analysis and explanation of where and when Shadows is set and 40 key details we've learned about the game. You can also watch our full breakdown of the cinematic trailer to discover all its hidden details, Easter eggs, and more.
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.
