Don't Take the Skyrim Approach in Assassin's Creed Shadows

From Assassin’s Creed 1 to Assassin’s Creed Shadows, the method in which the franchise’s many protagonists traversed their worlds has remained an integral and important part of each Assassin’s Creed game. While the signature wall climbing and roof parkour maneuvers have been relatively consistent over the series' near 18-year-long existence, most games have introduced various changes to traversal. Assassin’s Creed 2 allowed players to swim, Assassin’s Creed Revelations introduced the hook blade and parachutes, and Assassin’s Creed 3 introduced ship faring, to name a few changes. However, Assassin’s Creed Shadows has made one method of traversal a bit more difficult compared to recent Assassin’s Creed games: climbing steep slopes akin to The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim.

Assassin’s Creed Shadows Tricky Landscape Explained

Ever since Assassin’s Creed Origins began the trend of the series featuring a vast open-world, traversal throughout each games’ settings has been relatively barrier-free. As soon as players began Origins and Odyssey, they could practically travel throughout the entirety of Egypt and Greece on camel or horseback without roadblocks similar to Skyrim. When cliffsides or structures were encountered, Bayek, Alexios, and Kassandra could easily climb any and all surfaces. Evior and Basim’s travel capabilities were a bit limited until they completed Valhalla and Mirage’s prologue, but the two ninth century protagonists were still easily able to climb most surfaces. This is not the case with Shadows’ leads, however.

Unlike their Hidden Ones predecessors, Fujibayashi Naoe and Yasuke cannot easily climb any and all surfaces. Naoe, for instance, cannot climb traditional Japanese castles and towers without ledges or the help of her grappling hook. Yasuke, meanwhile, climbs precariously on walls, walks slowly atop buildings, and is even unable to claim high ledges that the more nimble Naoe would be able to jump to. In a way, Naoe and Yasuke have skilled but limited movement capabilities similar to older Assassin's Creed protagonists such as their fellow 16th century counterpart Ezio Auditore. Both central characters in Shadows have additional difficulties traversing thick Japanese forests and mountains.

How to Maneuver Assassin’s Creed Forests and Mountains

As soon as players are freely able to move around the wide landscape of central Japan as Naoe, they can attempt to explore the entire region and reach every viewpoint in Assassin’s Creed Shadows but traversing every forest and mountain can be difficult. Thick groups of trees, bushes, and bamboo will prevent players from quickly cutting through the area on horseback. Furthermore, mountains and steep hills are surrounded by slippery slopes that will cause Naoe and Yasuke to immediately fall, forcing players to find a clear path up to the peaks. Players can attempt to glitch through the slopes or along mountainous rivers, but it will often prove fruitless compared to Skyrim’s tricky mountain climbing on horseback.

If players get lost looking for a specific location in Assassin’s Creed Shadows, they can toggle on the pathfinder feature to create a line highlighting the best path to that location.

Potential Traversal Roadblocks in Assassin’s Creed: Codename Hexe

Assassin’s Creed Shadows’ world is designed for players to follow specific paths with a bit of room for players to still craft their own journey through the eyes of Naoe and Yasuke. The changes to how the protagonists traverse the world could be perceived as a way to feature more realism or highlight certain views and landmarks of Sengoku period Japan. Ubisoft Quebec may have additionally designed Shadows’ landscapes this way to prevent players from entering high-leveled areas too early or to have them discover new areas as Naoe and Yasuke progress their main narrative. No matter the exact origins of Shadows’ traversal changes, these movement alterations may inform fans of how players might be able to explore the world of the upcoming Assassin's Creed: Codename Hexe.

Initially announced at 2022’s Ubisoft Forward event alongside Assassin’s Creed Shadows, then known as Assassin's Creed: Codename Red, Assassin's Creed: Codename Hexe is the next mainline entry in the series currently being developed by Ubisoft Montreal. Little is officially known about Hexe, but Bloomberg News did report that the game is expected to be set in the Holy Roman Empire, revolving around witch trials. While Hexe’s release schedule may have been pushed back by Shadows’ delays, the game may share a similar world gameplay structure to the Japan-focused game, just as Odyssey shared many elements of Origins. Hexe’s protagonist may have similar difficulty traversing the Holy Roman Empire’s natural environment, similar to Naoe and Yasuke.