Assassin's Creed Shadows lead admits Valhalla was a "monster game" even at the start, and became unwieldy with all the DLC piled on: "It was getting more messy"

Ah, sweet vindication. Assassin's Creed Shadows Claws of Awaji DLC lead Simon Arsenault has admitted 2020's Assassin's Creed Valhalla was just too damn much, basically.

I've been an Assassin's Creed fan since 2010's Brotherhood, but as I've gotten older I've found it harder and harder to find time to actually complete any of the series' games, especially with updates and DLC. Assassin's Creed Valhalla is the perfect example of a game I'd love to have finished, but whose systems are spread out over too many missions, and thus remains in my library at about 60% completion. It is what it is.

Thankfully, Arsenault seems to agree that there's such a thing as Too Much Content.

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"It was getting more messy," says Arsenault, speaking with GamesRadar+. "If you played [Valhalla] at release, it was good, but the more you waited, all the expansions and free content was piling on. At one point it became a monster game. It was already a monster, but it became a way bigger monster game by the end."

According to Arsenault, this issue is "alleviated" somewhat with Assassin's Creed Shadows' DLC, if only by virtue of the fact that it's made by a much smaller team than the main game. Arsenault's team in Bordeaux is separate from the studio proper in Quebec, which resulted in a "design by constraints" approach.

"When you start a main game and you're doing something big, of course, you have a lot of resources, a lot of people," Arsenault says. "You can go very far. For this, we had a limited time, even though we got a lot more than we expected at the beginning, but it was limited so we had to focus. And how do you focus? You keep the scope as clear as possible."

Claws of Awaji, out on all platforms September 16, whisks players off to the titular island of Awaji for an additional 10 hours of content on top of the roughly 35- to 40-hour main quest. In addition to the new storyline, you'll have access to new skills, new abilities, and new gear, including the new Bo staff for Naoe.

Claws of Awaji is an ambitious expansion that hides a little too much of its shine behind Assassin's Creed Shadows' familiarity