The journey to Assassin's Creed Shadows release hour has been a long one – the three years since its mysterious announcement as Codename Red has been full of delays, exciting teases, behind the scenes turbulence, and, sometimes, bigoted controversy – but Ubisoft waited until the very last day to drop the game's best trailer yet.
The brilliant new Shadow Warriors trailer sees two live action actors putting on Yasuke and Naoe's armor to partake in some really silly and adorably cringey fight scenes somewhere that's definitely not Feudal Japan. Enjoy it down below.
It's of course an homage to Japan's Tokusatsu genre, which usually involves heavy practical effects in live-action genre fare. Think Godzilla, Ultraman, or Super Sentai where the practical effects are the star of the show and the emphasis wasn't so much on things looking 'real' as they were on things looking entertaining as hell. Western shows like the Power Rangers, of course, also aped the same style.
Ubisoft definitely got the memo here – Naoe and Yasuke seem to have modern-day day jobs before suiting up in a flash of smoke. So '70s. And the icing on the cake is the theme tune sung by Taro Kobayashi, who was also notably the voice behind Kamen Riders Amazon's opening song. (Another popular Tokusatsu show.) Chef's kiss.
"You just got back from school, gathered your friends, grabbed a snack, and turned on the TV," the trailer's description reads, knowing this'll inspire tons of nostalgia from the right crowd. "It's time for your favorite show... but this time, the adventure takes you to Feudal Japan!"
Thankfully, the game seems to be on par with its fancy marketing. Our Assassin's Creed Shadows review called it "a titan in the same leagues as series staples Assassin's Creed 2 and Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag – and Ubisoft's best RPG to date." And early looks at its base-building has me desperate to fill my hideout with adorable monkeys.
