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Assassin’s Creed Shadowsis finally here as another entry to the RPG-era of the franchise. Fans of the classic games have long called for a return to the mechanics of the Pre-Origins era where the story was focused, cinematic, and linear. Where the world was built to make parkour, stealth, and combat all feel intertwined. Where assassinations, the key thing that makes an assassin an assassin, mattered.
While Assassin’s Creed Shadows is an RPG-era Assassin’s Creed title with the same RPG mechanics and design philosophies asOrigins,Odyssey, andValhalla, Ubisoft added numerous options to tweak the experience and make the game reminiscent of the classic era. While you’re able to’t get rid of every single RPG element, here is everything you can tweak.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows: Ginkakuji Temple Guide
Part of the Yamashiro region, find all Lost Pages in Assassin’s Creed Shadow’s Ginkakuji Temple.
Putting Assassinations Back in Assassin’s Creed
Since Origins, Ubisoft has diluted the effectiveness of the Hidden Blade, probably the most iconic item in the franchise. Both Origins and Odyssey forced players to level up their blade’s effectiveness, a mechanic carried into Valhalla and Shadows. However, in Valhalla, Ubisoft introduced the Guaranteed Assassination feature, restoring the classic era’s one-hit assassinations. This feature is available in Shadows.
To access it, you’ll need to open the Settings Menu and work your way down the Gameplay tab. Select the second option, ‘Difficulty Tuning.’ In that menu you’ll find Guaranteed Assassination as the third and final option. Turn it on and one-hit assassinations are back.
A Focused Narrative
Assassin’s Creed stories pre-Odyssey were focused, linear, and cinematic affairs with defined characters, relationships, and dialogue. Assassin’s Creed Odyssey changed that by allowing players to make changes to the characters’ personalities, define the pacing of the narrative, and play with the canon. To remedy this, Ubisoft has added in the Canon mode, which removes all dialogue choices and provides a linear narrative.
To access Canon Mode you will need to start a new game. Do note, this option can NOT be changed once you start the game. Turn it on, start your game, and you’ll get an Assassin’s Creed story similar to the classic era.
A Map of Icons
The newer RPG-era titles replaced the memefied sea of icons (who can forgetAssassin’s Creed Unity’smap) with exploration, giving players a greater feeling of discovery. For those who want a classic experience and lots of icons on their map, you can turn on Guided Exploration.
When starting the game, you can turn this on or off. Unlike Canon Mode, this feature can be toggled on and off at any point in the Gameplay tab.
Making Naoe and Yaskue Viable
Assassin’s Creed Syndicateis the only other Assassin’s Creed game featuring two protagonists, Jacob and Evie Frye. Like Naoe and Yaskue, one specialized in stealth (Evie) and the other in combat (Jacob). However, both were still viable to use in any scenario. In its default settings, neither Naoe or Yaskue can effectively utilize what they weren’t programmed for. There is a way to tweak this.
Under difficulty tuning in the Gameplay tab (or at the start of your playthrough), you can alter the combat or stealth difficulty:
Of all the alterations to make Assassin’s Creed Shadows more like the classic games, this is the most tricky. Lowering the Combat Difficulty might make combat encounters with Yaskue too easy. The same is true for stealth with Naoe. We recommend playing around with the settings and tackling a castle to fine tune the experience.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows: Iwashimizu Hachiman Shrine Guide
Part of the Yamashiro region, find all Shrines in Assassin’s Creed Shadow’s Iwashimizu Hachiman Shrine.
