The 2 protagonist archetypes developed very early during AC Shadows conception, and while the ninja/assassin protagonist was what it started with, very soon the desire to give gamers a chance to experience the samurai fantasy led to the second protagonist also being part of the game. This was revealed in an interview by Jonathan Dumont, creative director of AC Shadows, to Screenrant. He further added that the AC Syndicate experience of working with Jacob & Evie helped, but in this case (AC Shadows), the devs wanted to give a completely different playstyle to both protagonists, much clearly demarcated than what it was in AC Syndicate.
On doing research, he had this to say about Naoe & Yasuke:
“In the case of Yasuke, when we read about who he was, he was a very intriguing character that not much was known about -“oh, that would make like a cool thing because we don’t know what happened to him.” And from Naoe, it was her father. The father of Naoe is an historical character. So she’s a fictional daughter of a historical character.“
Jonathan further went on to describe the difference between the relationships, and hence the part it plays in the story, as compared to the brother/sister duo in AC Syndicate, and added:
“Here in Shadows, they learn to be together, but it’s a tough time at war in Shadows, so they don’t necessarily start off as friends. So that’s building the relationship is I think it makes for a very interesting story, though.“
He also went on to add that it is quite possible to play 80-90% of the game as just one protagonist, and the game will adapt to that. However, there are personal questlines to each that the other will not be able to play and complete, and also had this to say on how the story may possibly get impacted:
“And there’s going to be a couple of choices here and there that I wonder what happened, what would happen with this character, but I don’t think you’re missing out.“
Assassin’s Creed Shadows releases for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series S/X on Mar 20, and we here are cautiously optimistic about this one. For more, check our article on the most anticipated RPGs for 2025.
