Ubisoft has yet to share its plans for future Assassin’s Creed games beyond Assassin’s Creed Shadows, but that title’s dual-protagonist setup with Yasuke and Naoe may not be the last time players get to have multiple characters to choose from.
“I think the learning for us is that, yes, we could do more dual-protagonist games in the future–if we have a good reason to do it narratively and for the setting,” said Assassin’s Creed Shadows associate director Simon Lemay-Comtois while speaking with GamesRadar.
Yasuke and Noae weren’t the first dual protagonists in an Assassin’s Creed game. Twins Jacob and Evie were featured in Assassin’s Creed Syndicate. Shadows had more pronounced differences between its two heroes than Syndicate did. Yasuke was built for physical confrontations while Naoe was refined for stealth. Lemay-Comtois acknowledged those differences and some of the backlash the team faced because of Yasuke’s inclusion.
“Dual protagonists can be divisive along very strange lines, right? It’s not just a, ‘Well, I prefer a war, therefore I prefer Yasuke,'” said Lemay-Comtois. “Some people just don’t like one character over the other, and they don’t like to spend time with one. It was true with Evie and Jacob, but with Naoe and Yasuke it’s more divisive. And we knew this. We knew going into it, but I think it can split our fan base a little too.”
For future titles, Lemay-Comtois called out parkour as something will be given a greater focus. He acknowledged that parkour hasn’t been a priority in past Assassin’s Creed games before adding, “We’re trying to rectify that in post launch with Shadows and push that narrative internally to say, ‘parkour matters.’ Let’s really push parkour forward.”
Lemay-Comtois recently confirmed that Shadows will not get a second DLC expansion like most of its predecessors. Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot also stated that Shadows was pushed back because of the backlash against the game. The company has acknowledged that Shadows and the back catalog of Assassin’s Creed over-performed in the last fiscal quarter.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows players are currently able to access a free Attack on Titan-inspired mission, but only through December 22.