Fighting through high-level regions to get Naoe to date night has been my favorite Assassin's Creed Shadows moment yet

The beauty of a good open world is how it can transcend the traditional structure of a video game. Assassin's Creed Shadows, at times, leans into this in a way that manages to excite me a lot more than its predecessors. In Sonic I run from left to right to finish a stage. In Metropolis Street Racer (okay turn me to dust) I blitz past the finish line of each track. A good open world has missions, sure, but it's sometimes what occurs in those in-between moments that can be the most exciting.

Right after finally unlocking Yasuke to join Naoe's quest about 11 hours in, I find myself near a viewpoint I want to grab in The Warlands. It's in Myoyoji Temple. I climb in. Boy, those enemies are high level. Before I know it, I'm battling my way through them to trigger a quest – the Ox – while vastly underleveled. Yasuke is getting one shot. Blades clashing, this becomes a bit Dark Souls, every parry needing to be on point, every dodge creating viable spacing. It's perhaps the most fun I have with Yasuke's combat. Sure, I could bump up combat difficulty but the point isn't that it's tough, it's fun because I accidentally ended up in this situation, and I can choose to persevere here or, indeed, scarper (I clear the mission, then wait a while to come back for the Ox's head).

Date night

The open world RPG Assassin's Creed games have been a bit more open-ended since they shifted into the genre with Assassin's Creed Origins. Bayek's quest for vengeance felt truly sprawling, the targets he was hunting scattered all over the hefty map of Egypt. But Assassin's Creed Shadows is where the series begins to feel more comfortable with adding that flexibility directly into the mechanics. And I don't just mean how Naoe has so many stealth tools at her disposal for clearing each of the creatively designed castles.

After meeting Gennojo – a potential companion to recruit to my cause – I was definitely put off by how annoyingly incapable he is of keeping it in his pants. Rebuffing him constantly, even ribbing him a bit, his quest ended with him turning down my offer to join forces and walking away. It makes sense narratively, but it means that for the tens and tens of hours that followed I simply didn't have access to his abilities. Later, someone told me they had the same thing happen with Yaya.

Which meant, as a relationship between Naoe and elite teppo sniper badass Katsuhime blossomed, when a series of choices prompts me to rush to her aid lest she gets killed – I believe it. This is a game willing to rip that connection from Naoe away both narratively and mechanically. No mercy.

After saving her, Naoe ends up invited on a cute date to potentially seal the deal – one of Assassin's Creed Shadows romance options. The only thing standing in Naoe's way? Miles and miles of unexplored Japan. The quest says it begins in northwestern Wakasa, at Jogu shrine. A high level region of the map I've not set foot in by this point.

For Naoe, though, an Igan shinobi who has seen bloody battles and slayed an innumerable number of enemies – this isn't going to stop her from securing a sizzling temple date for the ages. Where my earlier excursion to Myoyoji Temple with Yasuke was a pleasant, challenging surprise, Naoe's journey to love is one I decide to undertake willingly and immediately. She's not about to wait around, but instead sprint whole-heartedly across the continent.

What results is one of my favorite sequences of play in Assassin's Creed Shadows. Simply making my way from one part of the map to the other, and getting involved in all sorts of little missions and combat encounters along the way. I come upon brand new castle types like nothing else I've seen, I meet yet another potential new companion in poisoner Oni-Yuri, I take on enemies much higher level than myself from the shadows. I even steal a boat in order to make my final approach to the temple across the bay, cleaving through water. (I also realize, hey, perhaps I could have gone via the coast the whole way).

The quest itself is a sweet affair, and it's nice to see Naoe and Katsuhime able to loosen up and forget the violence of the Sengoku period for just a short while before they both need to return to their ultimate mission. But as they say, it's the journey, not just the destination – and the ability for those detours and routes to be just as meaningful as the missions that lie at either end is the true strength of a great open world. In its best moments, Assassin's Creed Shadows understands this well.

We really enjoyed the game, saying it has "more confidence, texture, and purpose than we've seen since Assassin's Creed pivoted into RPG territory" in our Assassin's Creed Shadows review