Assassin’s Creed Shadows’ Canon Mode Would Fit In With One Industry Trend

Posted by By our-little-miss-is-home January 16, 2025 50 Views 8 Min Read
Assassin's Creed Shadows' Canon Mode Would Fit In With One Industry Trend



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Assassin’s Creed Shadows is having a bit of a rough time. Originally set to launch in November 2024, Assassin’s Creed Shadows was delayed just weeks before its release date, with Ubisoft claiming that the delay was to give the developers enough time to polish the game. But about a week ago, Assassin’s Creed Shadows was delayed once more, pushing it from its February 14 release date to March 20, with Ubisoft citing community feedback implementation as the primary reason for its delay.

But in all fairness, Assassin’s Creed Shadows is juggling a lot. For the first time since 2015’s Assassin’s Creed Syndicate, Assassin’s Creed Shadows is offering a dual protagonist narrative, with both characters offering very different playstyles with unique mechanics. That’s on top of AC Shadows‘ open-world, which will presumably be just as jam-packed with content as the last few Assassin’s Creed action-RPG entries. Assassin’s Creed Shadows is also introducing a wealth of new gameplay features to the series, such as the intriguing ‘Canon’ mode, which has the potential to break new ground for the RPG genre, especially in the realm of remakes and remasters.

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Assassin’s Creed Shadows’ Canon Mode Could Break New Ground for Remasters and Remakes

Assassin’s Creed Shadows’ Canon Mode Explained

The Assassin’s Creed franchise has always played a bit fast and loose with its canon. While most of Assassin’s Creed‘s overarching narrative sees players diving into the memories of Assassins who lived long ago, those memories aren’t always treated as fact, with the Animus’ technological nature being a great device to excuse any future retcons or changes to the canon, such as which version of the central protagonist was the ‘true’ one.

But Assassin’s Creed Shadows is taking the series’ canon more seriously than ever before. Confirmed in a Reddit Q&A with the developers back in December, Assassin’s Creed Shadows will contain a ‘Canon’ mode that sees the game making choices for the player based on what the developers deem is the canon story route. Those with the Canon mode enabled will not be able to make decisions when it comes to potential romances or dialogue with allies, giving players a more traditional, “choice free experience.”

Players will still be able to switch protagonists freely when using Assassin’s Creed Shadows‘ Canon mode.

RPG Remakes and Remasters Could Use a Canon Mode to Great Effect

One of the greatest aspects of the RPG genre is its high level of player-freedom, with many games offering players a great deal of choice when it comes to dialogue options, quest outcomes, and the game’s ultimate ending. But things can get a little messy when sequels are eventually introduced.

When a choice-heavy RPG gets a sequel, it can often cause some issues regarding the canonicity of certain events. In order to move the story forward, many RPG sequels will need to confirm whether at least a handful of important decisions were canon, and for those who didn’t choose those story routes in the original game, that retroactive confirmation can feel disappointing, as though they’ve been told their choices didn’t count. This issue is exacerbated when a franchise has multiple entries, all of which contain some choices that are canon and some that are not.

This is where Assassin’s Creed Shadows‘ Canon mode could help the wider RPG genre, particularly when it comes to remakes and remasters of older titles. A Canon mode in a remastered RPG could guide players to make the choices that lead to the ending that’s considered canon, at least in the eyes of the franchise’s subsequent entries.

For example, a Fallout 3 remaster has been rumored for quite some time. Based on the Brotherhood of Steel’s status in Fallout 4, it’s believed that the “good” ending of Fallout 3‘s Broken Steel DLC is the canonical ending. A Fallout 3 remaster could ship with a Canon mode that guides players to make the choices required to achieve this canonical ending. This would allow developers to retroactively clean up some of the lore’s more convoluted or unclear aspects.

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