Assassin's Creed Shadows canon mode doesn't include romance because it's too "personal": "It was better to not make it canon"

Love may not be dead, but it certainly isn't canon – not according to the Assassin's Creed Shadows developers at Ubisoft.

During a recent Reddit AMA, a dev named Luc explained to fans that romance is completely left out of Shadows' canon mode because Ubisoft didn't think it made sense. "It is something that is so personal," Luc said.

"We felt, for an AC RPG game, it was better to not make [romance] canon and let each player define their own canon for this," Luc continued. In Shadows' non-canon mode – which allows players more flexibility in choosing dialogue and quest outcomes – protagonists Yasuke and Naoe both have two substantial love interests, and more options for innocent flirting.

But the candy hearts and roses are missing from Shadows' canon, which doesn't exactly align with how narrative director Brooke Davies characterizes Shadows in a different Reddit AMA at the end of 2024. There, she promised fans "Naoe and Yasuke can choose who to recruit as allies and who to connect with as friends and lovers, either for a short, sweet time, or longer term."

In hindsight, Davies' emphasis on choice makes me think she was referencing the game's non-canon mode all along, but it's disappointing that Ubisoft pivoted so sharply from Odyssey's many, inherently canonical sexcapades.

I should clarify – it's disappointing, but not surprising. After Odyssey, some Assassin's Creed players complained about being supposedly forced into love. Now, Shadows' fans think the game's sexless downgrade might be those other guys' fault. One player on Reddit summarizes this sentiment in a response to Luc, saying, "There are plenty of romance stories in AC franchise, and if this was scrapped only because of backlash from Odyssey, it is wrong decision."

Assassin's Creed has gone a bit off the rails, but Ubisoft says it hasn't forgotten about the whole Assassins versus Templars thing, with a "deep dive" on the conflict coming "in the near future."