Assassin's Creed Shadows is bigger than Mirage but smaller than Valhalla because Ubisoft only needed to make a small slice of Japan: "We're talking about Origins big"

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Assassin's Creed Shadows focuses on Honshu

Assassin's Creed Shadows screenshot showing female protagonist Naoe
(Image credit: Ubisoft)

Don't expect Assassin's Creed Shadows to be as monstrously large as Valhalla, its art director suggests, because Ubisoft was able to focus on a specific slice of Japan in its next stealthy action RPG. 

Speaking to Play in issue 45 of the magazine, art director Thierry Dansereau reveals that while Shadows features an explorable open world, its size will seemingly strike somewhere in the middle of the colossal Valhalla, which spanned locations in both Norway and England, and the more compact Baghdad adventure Mirage. "We're talking about Origins big," Dansereau says. 

It seems that this has largely been helped by the fact that Ubisoft hasn't recreated the entirety of Japan in the upcoming adventure. Instead, the game focuses on the location of Honshu: "This is where all the events related to Oda Nobunaga are taking place," Dansereau explains. With that in mind, here's hoping that Shadows won't end up feeling overwhelmingly large. 

There's not too much longer to wait before we can see how it all comes together, anyway, as Shadows is set to release on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X|S on November 14. In a separate interview with Eurogamer, Dansereau recently said that while the team is making "creative choices" and aiming to "make the best experience possible for our players," Ubisoft has "paid a lot of attention to stay as respectful as possible to Japanese culture," and worked with studios in Osaka and Tokyo which acted as consultants for the RPG.

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Catherine Lewis
Catherine Lewis
Deputy News Editor

I'm GamesRadar+'s Deputy News Editor, working alongside the rest of the news team to deliver cool gaming stories that we love. After spending more hours than I can count filling The University of Sheffield's student newspaper with Pokemon and indie game content, and picking up a degree in Journalism Studies, I started my career at GAMINGbible where I worked as a journalist for over a year and a half. I then became TechRadar Gaming's news writer, where I sourced stories and wrote about all sorts of intriguing topics. In my spare time, you're sure to find me on my Nintendo Switch or PS5 playing through story-driven RPGs like Xenoblade Chronicles and Persona 5 Royal, nuzlocking old Pokemon games, or going for a Victory Royale in Fortnite.