Assassin’s Creed Shadows, the next game in Ubisoft’s long-running action-adventure series, is scheduled to launch November 15, just a little over a year after Assassin’s Creed Mirage. And as confirmed by the new cinematic reveal trailer, you can play Shadows three days earlier if you’re paying $18 a month for Ubisoft Plus’ Premium Plan.
Though the trailer does not confirm it, it seems like Shadows will feature two playable protagonists: Yasuke and an unnamed Japanese woman. As we see both characters working together, the implication is that you’ll play as both of them, either quickly switching between the two within the same mission or switching after big story beats–the latter, of which, has big Assassin’s Creed Syndicate vibes. And that would track, seeing as Ubisoft Quebec, the studio that helmed development of Syndicate (the best Assassin’s Creed game), is the developer lead for Shadows.
Initially codenamed Project Red, Shadows was already confirmed to take place in feudal Japan, but the cinematic trailer narrows the when even further to the Edo period, which occurred between 1603 and 1868 and saw Japan united under the Tokugawa shogunate. The trailer features one of the presumably two playable protagonists talking about “unification,” which points to Edo. The other possible main character is Yasuke, an African samurai who served during the end of the Sengoku period–the period that directly preceded Edo. So it seems like Shadows takes place during the early years of the Edo period.
Regardless of how the protagonist-switching works, it seems like playing as Yasuke offers a more action-oriented combat experience similar to Assassin’s Creed Odyssey and Valhalla while the Japanese woman is geared more toward the social stealth gameplay of Assassin’s Creed Unity and Syndicate. This further suggests that you’ll play as both characters, rather than pick one or the other at the start and stick with them for the full story (like Kassandra and Alexios in Odyssey, who are gameplay mirrors of each other). The conclusion of the trailer also sees both characters reference the Creed of the Assassin Brotherhood, which indicates that they both are inducted into the order and are subsequently both important.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows is scheduled to launch for Xbox Series X|S, PS5, PC, and Mac.