There Is No Good Reason To Play As Yasuke In Assassin's Creed Shadows

By 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Jade King

Published Mar 21, 2025

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Video games are all about power fantasy. Putting us in the shoes of heroes who are capable of epic feats th🌃at reality simply can’t offer up. Unstoppable warriors that can take down huge armies, end up in the arms of a gorgeous lover, or travel across the galaxy embarking upon unrivalled adventures. But the medium also understands the importance of balಞance.

Even if you have all the power in the world, it’s difficult to care about characters or what they are going through if there isn’t a struggle for the player to empathise with, both narratively and mechanically. You can put me on a battlefield with the coolest weapons and abilities ever, but if this means I can mow down enemies without breaking a sweat, why should I care? That’s a defining problem with Yasuke in 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Assassin’s Creed Shadows.

Yasuke Is Too Powerful For His Own Good

You first play as Yasuke during the game’s introduction, where you meet Oda Nobunaga for the first time before being swiftly recruited into his Shogunate. We then fast-forward onto a battlefield where our hero slices down countless bandits without breaking a sweat. He feels good toꦆ play as he kicks enemies into burning rice fields and beheads foes with his sword like a knife through warm butter. Yasuke is a force to be reckoned with, which explains why the game then takes him away from us for the better part of ten hours.

Assassin’s Creed Shadows starts off slowly as you are given control of Naoe across the small yet prosperous region of Settsu to befriend new allies, establish a hideout, and find out what exactly it is you’re fighting for. It’s an effecti🍸ve introduction that allows the player to go pretty much anywhere on the world map, but then promptly punishes them for daring to take on its high-level areas. You want to stay within your homestead to learn mechanics, try out pieces of new equipment, and master the art of the shinobi. And, for the most part, it feels great.

Yasuke wearing his armor at night in Assassin's Creed Shadows.

By the time🉐 Yasuke is made playable for good and introduced alongside new systems, like the poorly explained wanted levels, it feels like Shadows has started to hit its 🍌stride. This decision still doesn’t sit right with me, and I’m hoping the ship rights itself.

Naoe can only take a handful of hits in combat before meeting her death, but she is still so capable with swords, daggers, and other weapons that you can e🦂merge victoriou♛s in most encounters with a good understanding of parrying and dodging. Impatience will spell your doom, but this attitude gradually programs you to be more considerate about combat and the fights you decide to get into. It emphasises stealth as your main course of action, but you also aren’t punished for getting into a scrap.

She’s the most well-rounded character I’ve ever played in an Assassin’s Creed game before, and then Yasuke comes alo🦩ng to ruin everything.

So I Never Want To Play As The Unstoppable Samurai

Yasuke and Naoe in Assassin's Creed Shadows.

Don’t mistake this criticism for a slight on Yasuke’s character writing, however, since he’s not only better acted than Naoe, but has a more interesting narrative journey that goes beyond a thirst for vengeance and explores him being a stranger in a strange land, trying to find an actual purpose to carry on now his master has been taken away from him. Unfortunately, the game doesn’t take enough time to flesh this out once Yasuke becomes a 🉐part of your team.

He ruined Naoe’s life by enabling the death of her father at the start of the narrative, but this is brushed over immediately and the two are then drinking together like best pals. Assassin’s Creed settles into its usual cadence of micro-stories that follow specific targets instead of the better option of telling a cohesive story 🥂made up of worthwhile character arcs, meaning there isn’t a good enough reason to care about Yasuke’s plight before it’s too late. Sticking with just one character and pouring everything into their perspective would have worked best, even if I can understand what Ubisoft was going for with this dual approach. But even 💛then, it fails to stick the landing.

Like I mentioned, Yasuke is powerful. It’s like throwing a Terminator into 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Animal Crossing as it tears your entire island populace to shreds. All the nuances I mentioned earlier about the importance of dodging, parrying, and being cꦓareful about the encounters you take on doesn’t matter anymore, because Yasuke is powerful enough to tank the majority of offense 🅠thrown at him. Yes, not pressing a single button or being overwhelmed by dozens of bad guys at once is going to offer up some resistance, but the fact I have to make this clear isn’t good.

Yasuke also has different loadout and weapons, each with their own properti﷽es, and the game soꦍrt of leaves you to figure out their roles all on your arm. The same goes for his new side activities and interactions.

Assassin's Creed Shadows Naoe Yasuke Sunset Silhoutte

Yasuke might be more powerful than Naoe in combat, but he is demonstrably worse in a lot of other areas. He struggles to parkour up the majority of buildings and surfaces, while a big frame means going prone or being stealthy when you need to be isn’t possible either. Not to mention his leap of faith involves him dive-bombing into hay without a hint of grace, which is funny at first, but starts to become annoying when it makes the game actively less fun. This means you are often lef𓄧t with one option - pull out your katana and start slicing.

I thought Ubisoft wanted to introduce two characters who were evenly matched, yet manage to excel in individ🐓ual areas, but Yasuke falls short in so many compared to Naoe and makes the enjoyable parts of combat a cakewalk. It means that, aside from missions designed just for him or major narrative milestones, I’ve avoided playing him at all costs. I wish this wasn’t the case, but after 20 hours, Assassin’s Shadows is yet to offer any alternative.