Ubisoft Quebec's Luc Plante explains.
While Assassin’s Creed Odyssey’s choice between Alexios or Kassandra let players identify with their preferred protagonist, it led to canon issues within Valhalla as only one of the interchangeable pair could continue on. Calling Alexios and Kassandra a “conundrum”, Ubisoft Quebec’s Luc Plante explained how that situation has been solved in Assassin’s Creed Shadows.
“With Alexios or Kassandra — when we look at those protagonists both in gameplay and narratively — they’re a mercenary in Greece,” Plante, a level design director who’s worked on Shadows, Odyssey, Syndicate, and Rogue, said. “They’re a Swiss army knife; they can do everything.
“There’s a saying, though: ‘jack of all trades, master of none’,” he countered.
“This is why we’ve separated our dual protagonists and solved the conundrum,” Plante continued, “as this was too big to put on one character. We have a strong samurai fantasy, and a strong shinobi fantasy. That allows us, both narratively- and gameplay-wise, to make them shine through it. You can see their duality in their dialogue as they’ve grown up different.”
Plante said that Shadows’ protagonists Naoe and Yasuke “are two different entities, with different backgrounds”, and that “allows us to go deeper into character arcs”.
“They have different points of view as well — in the beginning, they’re not in it for the same reasons,” he said. “After that, they join and have a common goal, but they are two separate entities.”
Quebec’s new Canon mode will also put to rest questions about what Shadows‘ official narrative actually is.
“Canon mode was a feature that was requested by fans,” Plante explained. “This time around, if you want to just enjoy the story and not bother with all those choices and consequences, we offer this opportunity for you to experience the story as we see it.”
Expect Assassin’s Creed Shadows from 20 March 2025 on Windows PC via Steam, Ubisoft Connect, and Epic Games Store alongside Mac, Amazon Luna, Xbox Series S, Xbox Series X, and PS5. We previewed the title here.
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Assassin's Creed Shadows20 March 2025PC PS5 Xbox Series S & X
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