Assassin’s Creed Shadows has become an important moment for Ubisoft as the studio uses it to rethink the franchise’s direction.
Associate director Simon Lemay-Comtois repeatedly highlights two things: parkour needs to reclaim its place at the heart of the series, and multiple protagonists remain on the table when they add something meaningful to the plot.
Shadows and everything surrounding it has essentially become the model for where Assassin’s Creed goes next.
How Did Shadows Reinvent the Dual-Protagonist Formula?
Shadows changes the dual-character approach by giving Naoe and Yasuke deeper roles, unlike Syndicate where Jacob and Evie mostly differed in cosmetics and a few abilities.
Shadows takes the idea to another level by dividing its gameplay between two extremes.
Naoe is quick and exact, built for stealth and classic assassin moves while Yasuke brings a heavier, strength-based playstyle reminiscent of Eivor or Kassandra.
Lemay-Comtois acknowledges that this choice is bound to divide players.
Some people favor quiet approaches while others prefer fighting head-on, and certain reactions to Yasuke had nothing to do with how he plays which Ubisoft pointed to as rooted in intolerance.
Even so, the team doesn’t regret the choice. They’ve made it clear that if a future game is stronger with dual protagonists, they won’t hesitate to use the idea again.
What Does Shadows Reveal About the Future of Parkour?
Shadows also showed that Assassin’s Creed needed to update its movement because parkour lost importance as the series focused on RPG systems, larger maps and heavier combat.
The freerunning spirit that shaped the early games faded over time, and Ubisoft is now working to bring it back.
Shadows includes more expressive traversal, especially through Naoe’s acrobatics and grappling mechanics, which draw inspiration from older assassin fantasies and even 80s ninja cinema.
Lemay-Comtois repeatedly stresses that future studios working on the franchise should treat parkour as its own design pillar, not something buried beneath other systems.
His remarks sound like a subtle nudge to Ubisoft Montreal and the groups working on Hexe to keep the agility and vertical play front and center.
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