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For the past 18 years, Assassin’s Creed fans have been begging for a game set in Feudal Japan, and that’s finally come to pass with Assassin’s Creed Shadows and its long-awaited interpretation of the age of samurai and shinobi.
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Shadows’ open world, which is set in the Kansai region of Central Japan, is one of its biggest draws for sure. But, just like other games in the series, it’s going to take some time to gain access to. Here’s when you’ll be able to roam freely.
How To Unlock Free Roam
When you first start Assassin’s Creed Shadows, you’ll have to play through a prologue that introduces you to Yasuke and Naoe’s gameplay styles and sets up their story. Yasuke’s section is very linear and short, while Naoe’s gives you a bit more freedom and lasts for a surprisingly long time.
To break out of the set mission structure, you’ll need to beat the prologue’s first few missions and go through a fairly lengthy introduction that should take around two hours. Once you’ve completed the mission called “An Unpayable Debt”, Naeo will be nearly back to full strength and will be able to explore the map at her own pace.
While you can go and explore the world freely at this point, it’s worth following the main story for a bit longer to get a few more unlocks and understand what you need to do next.
That being said, taking a look at the in-game map will reveal that each area of the map has a level attached to it, which shows how powerful the enemies you’ll find there are. You can still go to those areas, but you’re going to be severely under-levelled and in trouble if you get into a fight, so it’s worth sticking to areas you’re capable in for now unless you’re just sightseeing.
How To Unlock And Use Photo Mode
Completing “An Unpayable Debt” doesn’t just unlock the map for you to explore, though, as it’s also when you’ll gain access to Shadows’ Photo Mode. As soon as the mission is over, you’ll be prompted to use the photo mode by pressing L3+R3 at the same time. This will open the mode and, as the name suggests, let you take photos to your heart’s content.
If you’ve played any of the recent Assassin’s Creed games before, this photo mode will no doubt be familiar to you, and it’s relatively easy to get the hang of. There are several menus to get used to that let you apply filters, frames, and stickers, as well as options for zooming, rolling, and focusing. It’s a pretty standard photo mode, but with such a beautiful world, you’re going to want to use it.
You sadly can’t pose or edit Naoe or Yasuke in the Photo Mode, so make sure your characters are lined up nicely before pressing L3+R3.
Beyond taking some great shots of the landscape and environment, Photo Mode doesn’t really have much of a purpose in Shadows. It does mark some of the places you’ve visited on the map if you press A instead of just screenshotting, but it’s mostly just for fun. It being unlocked alongside free roaming does mark your first taste of real freedom, though.
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