The Most Confusing Things About Assassin’s Creed Shadows

Sometimes, realism has to be ignored in video games to make things fun. Still, the way the game works can cause some funny contradictions to real life, creating odd scenarios that don’t make a lot of sense. Assassin’s Creed Shadows is no different here, gamifying life to its rules and having weird results because of it.

From enemy behavior, the passage of seasons, the things you can carry, among others, we’re here mostly to nitpick about these things and wonder about the silliness of it all. Still, no need to take these seriously; as we said, realism and logic are often ignored in games for the sake of our entertainment.

8

The Bells

Now, All Of Japan Knows You’re Here

Bells are not a new thing, neither in real life nor in Assassin’s Creed. Restricted areas have them, and if someone rings them, you’ll get the wanted status. People will know where you are, and there will be specific enemies, known as guardians, who will go after you.

The thing is, this wanted status will stay for a long time. You can clear the whole restricted area, but the status only leaves with the change of seasons – in a few months if we’re using real-life logic. Thus, while it makes sense for the whole area to be aware of you, it stays outside of it, meaning everyone will treat you aggressively until the status is gone. How does everyone know what you did from a single bell ring?

7

The Change Of Seasons

How Much Time Has Passed?

We’re not done talking about the seasons. Their passage here is completely disconnected from the story. They pass over time, with said time being faster if you use fast travel often, and eventually, you can even manually force the season to change from time to time.

However, as mentioned above, the passage of a season means that around three months are passing, and since they’re disconnected from the plot, you can make huge chunks of time go by without completing a single mission. You can start a mission and finish it in an in-game year later. And even though Assassin’s Creed plays loose with historical accuracy, there are only so many years you can skip by without being weird.

6

Trees Have Platforms

Who Put Them There?

Yasuke and not even Naoe are no Connor Kenway, as they can’t climb trees in this game. Still, you’ll find trees with platforms that you can use to climb and stay on top of, allowing you to maneuver through them. Some sections even have yellow paint on them to make the path clear.

“Oh, but there’s an in-game explanation for those!” Well, yes and no. There’s an in-game explanation for the trees from specific locations – the ones that lead you to assassin outposts. However, that doesn’t explain why a tree in a shrine has those things attached to it. And considering some of those are in restricted areas, it’s hard to believe an assassin went there just to put those things on the tree.

5

Naoe’s Weapons Capacity

Why Choose Between Two?

Yasuke, you’re excused from our nitpick here. After all, he carries a lot of heavy weapons or ammo that require him to carry things on his back. As for Naoe, her weapon options are a katana, which she places on her back, a kusarigama, which she places on the side of her waist, and a tanto, which she places on the back of her waist.

None of these are particularly heavy, and the tanto itself is even necessary for performing double assassinations, which makes it imperative to keep it. Thus, why isn’t she walking around with all three equipped?

4

Naoe’s Reverse Grip

That’s Not Helpful

We’re not done with Naoe, as she falls victim to a very peculiar stylistic choice: she wields her katana backward. While that makes her look distinct, a reverse grip on weapons is not a good thing, as it annuls the weapon’s reaching capacity. She needed to move more and get closer to the enemy than she’d need if she wielded her sword correctly.

Hitting things with a reverse grip is so hard, in fact, that some cultures around the world carry the sword this way when they want to be sure they won’t hit things by accident. If she used this grip just when walking around or, at best, quick grip swaps because she saw an opening, that’d be okay, but she clearly uses it during regular combat, including for blocking.

3

The Magic Door

How Does That Work?

Now, we’ll be very vague to avoid spoilers, so all we’ll say here is that there’s a door in a specific part of the game that only opens when a song is played. And not just any song, but a specific one. And yes, the door opens by itself; it’s not a code for someone inside to open it or anything like that.

So, who invented a system that allows a door to open by itself after listening to a song in 16th-century Japan? Are we using Isu artifacts as doorknobs? Because we can’t think of another source of technology to make this happen.

2

Which Fights Are Canon?

Canon Mode Still Has Choices

For those who don’t want their Assassin’s Creed game to have choices, you can turn on canon mode and let the game make all main choices for you, showing you what will be considered the canonical version of the events that unfold.

However, even when canon mode is on, there are still boss encounters where you get to pick which character you’re using, meaning that there are no clear indications of who between Naoe and Yasuke killed some of the targets.

1

Quick Character Swapping

Very Useful, But Still Funny

Before we begin, we’d like to reiterate that we’re just pointing out these things for a fun discussion and not to complain. That said, the fact that you can swap characters at any time is a fun oddity in this game.

Yes, it’s very useful due to how practical it is, but turning the small woman into the big guy or vice versa at any time, with no prompt, no specific place to go where the other is waiting, or not even one of them appearing before the other to say “Don’t worry, I’ll take it from here” or something is a funny thing to think about. It feels more like transforming one character into the other than an actual swap.

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