Assassin’s Creed Shadows is better as a solo protagonist game

I’m close to 60 hours into my playthrough of Assassin’s Creed Shadows and I refuse to play Yasuke. It didn’t take me 26 hours to unlock him, but even still, I’ve spent so much time investing in Naoe that Yasuke is effectively unplayable to me. I dread the story missions where I’m forced to play him. This is a ninja game to me, not a samurai game.

It doesn’t help that you spend so much time with Naoe from the start. Once you get used to being a ninja crawling through bushes and lurking on rooftops, it’s really hard to go back to the more traditional Assassin’s Creed hero that is Yasuke. His style is exactly what I haven’t liked about the series since Assassin’s Creed 3. He can sneak around and climb walls, but he’s built to brawl. The problem is that combat in Assassin’s Creed Shadows is pretty clunky.

With Naoe, the point is to avoid directly clashing with enemies, and that works in the game’s favor. Ubisoft has wall-climbing and traversal mastered at this point, so castles turn into 3D puzzles when you play stealthily. When I prepare to clean out a base, I plan out my route based on what’s in front of me: Bushes are checkpoints to stop and observe patrolling guards, dark rooms are possible escape locations, and rooftops are perches to pinpoint my targets. And all of this shifts based on the time of day and how visible I’ll be while crawling around.

Stealth in Assassin’s Creed Shadows is all about execution and adapting to whatever happens when you inevitably screw up. It’s actually fun when things go wrong because you have to play to Naoe’s strengths as a tiny ninja who isn’t equipped to take on multiple enemies swinging at her — well, as long as you’re not using the weapon that breaks the game. As soon as you’re caught, everything in the environment can be your lifeline against a squad of samurai hunting for you.

All of this nicely complements how beautifully rendered the world is. Assassin’s Creed Shadows is one of the best-looking games I’ve ever played, and it’s not all for show. Naoe has to rely on the world itself to succeed. There’s nothing better than piercing your sword through shoji to assassinate an enemy and see sunlight pour into the room. It’s a risk that can get you caught, but it’s also an impressive example of how the hyperrealistic graphics have a material effect on how you interact with the world.

Yasuke is encouraged to ignore all of that to pulverize enemies head-on. It can be a nice break from tiptoeing around, but it flattens Assassin’s Creed Shadows into a mediocre action game. Melee combat is spammy and weightless and only seems to be a good way to save yourself some time clearing out a castle. It just isn’t satisfying to me to ram my way through a series of enemies until I get to a treasure chest. There’s no real strategy to it because he’s made to bull rush through every encounter.

Naoe, however, is exactly what I like about stealth games. I’m patient, but not so patient that I can endure slowly picking off every enemy on the way to my objective. So I simply don’t, and push myself to keep moving and adapting to what happens on the fly. This adds a layer of tension that fighting as Yasuke lacks as you balance not getting caught while trying to squeeze your way straight toward your target.

I like Yasuke as a character, and his friendship with Naoe is endearing, but I find the power fantasy of playing a tank rather empty in a game that is set up for a much slower, methodical approach. All I ever want to do is play the ninja revenge story that no other Assassin’s Creed has given me.