Assassin's Creed Game Lead Explains Why You'll Wait Longer For Next Installment

With one of the longest incubation periods of any Assassin's Creed titles, the next one called Assassin's Creed Shadows will only be released when the Ubisoft development team feels like they've struck the "right balance." At four years since its announcement, the November-bound title, if done right (and assuming Ubisoft's promises hold up), Shadows could be the proper revival the series sorely needs.

Although Assassin's Creed Shadows is set to be released November of this year, Ubisoft is insistent on getting things right in terms of authenticity and quality. Shadows brings a major departure to the series in that it shifts the venue and storyline from what so far has been Middle Eastern and Western settings to feudal Japan. The team wants to make sure that small things in Japanese architecture, food, monuments, culture, etc, are represented correctly.

According to Karl Onnée, lead producer on Shadows, the dev team isn't just striving to create proper immersion into the culture and historical backdrop, but also to increase the game's appeal to a wider international audience, particularly the Japanese gaming community. Onnée clarifies that "we are making sure we respect things, because that is something very important to Japanese people." He adds that by doing their due diligence in researching and respecting the culture, players WILL take notice, "we want to build something that when they see and play it, they will recognise their own country."

The additional baking time also means that Onnée and his team can fine tune combat mechanics (which have honestly been rather bland in recent titles like Mirage and Valhalla) and tightened the trademark AC stealth play. It IS called Shadows, after all. Otherwise, it's promising to see Ubisoft being serious this time. It's been awhile since we've seen something as tight and well-done as Assassin's Creed 2 or Blackflag.

Not much information is available about the storyline for Assassin's Creed Shadows beyond some early gameplay demos and that the game will involve two protagonists—Naoe, a good old assassin, and Yasuke, a samurai. We can at least hope that the dual protagonist feature is done with more intention and care than the rather uncommitted one in Odyssey.