Ubisoft has finally unveiled Assassin’s Creed Shadows in all of its slashy, stealthy glory, and the new PS5 and Xbox game looks like it could be exactly what the daimyo ordered. On top of our first glance at the game’s two protagonists, Naoe and Yasuke, in the Assassin’s Creed Shadows trailer, Ubisoft has also offered up a deeper dive into who they are, and how they’ll play out when Shadows arrives on Friday, November 15, 2024.
The trailer opens with a message-carrying samurai running through a forest, chased by a faceless ninja. It’s quickly revealed that this shinobi is one of the upcoming RPG game’s two protagonists, Naoe. We also get to see legendary real-life samurai Yasuke, the other character we’ll get to embody, brutally dismantling pretty much anyone in his path – seriously, the dude is a unit.
Though Yasuke doesn’t make use of a hidden blade, at the very end of the trailer we get a lovely close-up of Naoe’s angled blade, which she holds like a kunai knife – very on-theme, Ubi. You can check it out below.
The main narrative beat is very much enemies to comrades, as we can see Yasuke razing Naoe’s village to the ground before the pair eventually come to an accord to “discover their common destiny, as they usher in a new era for Japan.”
That is, according to an accompanying primer on the pair that dropped at the same time. As this is the real Yasuke we’re seeing brought to life in Ubi’s next open-world game, it should come as no surprise that Shadows takes place during 16th Century Japan’s Azuchi-Momoyama period – the period when Oda Nobunaga sought to unify the country’s warring states.
By the looks and sounds of things, both Yasuke and Naoe will have very distinct fighting styles, with the former being more of a tough slugger while the latter relies on the stealthy skills she’s learned from her father. Personally, I can’t wait to see how far Ubi manages to push this distinction through skill trees and other systems.
Earlier this week, Ubi revealed that Assassin’s Creed Codename Red’s name had been finalized as ‘Assassin’s Creed Shadows.’ At the time, the waiting room for the premiere trailer was opened, with fans flocking to YouTube as anticipation began to build. However, as eagle-eyed fans quickly noticed, a very special date – the Assassin’s Creed Shadows release date, to be precise – was nestled away in the video description for the trailer. That date, November 15, has now been confirmed by today’s kickass new trailer.
Alongside all of this reveal goodness, Ubisoft has set pre-orders live over on its digital storefront. You can check out what’s in store for each edition here.
For more of the latest on the best PS5 games and best Xbox games in the realm of RPGs, check out the news that Square Enix is preparing a new Yoko Taro game that could very well be the NieR Automata follow-up we’ve been hoping for. Be sure to drop us a follow on Google News before you go – there’ll be plenty more Assassin’s Creed Shadows news and opinions to come as we head towards launch.