"We are hard to beat": 9 months since Assassin's Creed Shadows, its associate director looks back on what makes this RPG the best in series history

It might seem like only yesterday that Assassin's Creed Shadows launched, but when associate game director Simon Lemay-Comtois casually throws out how long it's really been, I feel my eyes widen.

"I'm surprised that nine months in we are hard to beat from a pure visual standpoint, which is a testament to all the work that's gone into the engine," he says of Shadows' striking technical beauty. But then again, high quality is synonymous with Ubisoft Quebec's work at this point.

I'd been desperate to get my hands on Naoe and Yasuke's RPG adventure before I even knew who they were, and it's all down to how much I venerate its developer for having delivered my all-time favorite Assassin's Creed game. Assassin's Creed Syndicate walked so that Shadows could run, Lemay-Comtois agrees, and it's good to feel Jacob and Evie's spirit live on in our latest heroes.

Legacy tour

Maybe I'm biased – OK, I know I must be – but of all Lemay-Comtois' past experiences at Ubisoft from Assassin's Creed Odyssey to Fenyx Rising, the Frye twins' adventures in Victorian London feel the closest to Shadows in terms of its visual DNA.

"The differences between Evie and Jacob were mostly cosmetic," he says of Ubi Quebec's first stab at a dual-protagonist AC game in Syndicate. "It's more like a 'which one do you prefer?' kind of deal. They play very, very similarly, except with very few select skills. And with Odyssey, it's much more of a deep RPG progression [system]. So for Shadows, we wanted to take some of these elements from those two games and tweak it."

Lemay-Comtois notes that one of the most important aspects was making two characters with separate, distinct playstyles. "It's an exercise in contrast, which Syndicate wasn't," he says. "And then go maybe not as deep as Odyssey in terms of RPG [systems], pulling it back a little bit, but deep enough with it to try to find a middle ground where we could still have the RPG fans be happy with it, but then perhaps bring a couple of the old-school fans that are not so much into RPGs, and have them dip their toes a little bit."

With stealth shinobi Naoe "embodying the classic assassin feel" and one-man battering ram Yasuke "much more of a closer character to Eivor or Cassandra" in terms of combat, it seemed that Shadows had both its bases covered. At least, as far as drawing on the expected playstyles and attributes series fans might expect.

Lemay-Comtois himself worked closely on Shadows' dynamic movement, with a focus on Naoe's grappling hook traversal and neat aerial tricks. It's a level of verticality we've yet to experience in any previous Assassin's Creed protagonist, and it may well be setting a blueprint for the next ones to follow suit. "[Yauke and Naoe] have very different physicalities in how they move," he admits. "I think any future assassin that we embody, if they are male, if they're slightly bigger, all these things can and should affect a little bit of how their physicality translates in the world."

Speaking on Shadows specifically, he notes how Naoe's slick shinobi moves were intended for her alone, built in the direction of '80s ninja movies. "So she flips all the time," he shares. "She does all these things. It's very specific to her. I would say the flips are something that is very unique to Naoe, but her agility, you can expect future assassins to still be very agile going forward."

It all speaks to the lasting, rippling effects of what Shadows put forward those earlier this year – and I'd argue that Naoe's fancy footwork might not exist in the way it does in the game today if not for Evie and Jacob's own grappling hooks in Assassin's Creed Syndicate.

Carving a path

One new thing in Assassin's Creed Shadows for the series so far is the mysterious Animus Hub – the new modern-day story framework that will serve as connective tissue between Shadows and all future AC games.

Shadows is currently in its post-launch rollout, with a new DLC already launched and more extra content on the way, but the Animus Hub will be there when Ubi Quebec finally lets go of the reins. So, is the Hub meant to actively replace the modern day storyline for good, or is something deeper at work?

I'm still not too sure. We know that the Animus Hub is less a part of Shadows itself, and more like a bridge connecting it to future titles, but whether that means a new modern day protagonist could follow Layla and Desmond's footsteps is still unclear.

"It's the one thing that will keep going in time," Lemay-Comtois says of how the Animus Hub is set up in the new game, hinting that "things that are set up in Shadows should keep happening in other projects and evolve and move forward. I cannot say much beyond that, but if you think of Shadows as one thing and Animus Hub as another, the Animus Hub is overlooking future games as well. It's not just a Shadows thing."

The studio is still be hard at work on the post-launch phases of Shadows, with the Claws of Awaji DLC already out in the wild, but all projects eventually come to an end. The Québécoise studio might not be at the helm of Assassin's Creed Codename Hexe – which, for the record, I am already deeply obsessed with – but Lemay-Comtois has some sage advice for Ubisoft Montreal as the team gears up for the series' future.

"Pay more attention to parkour in future games as its own pillar," he says is his first big lesson learned, noting how it seemed to take a back seat in other instalments of the RPG Creed games until Shadows. "We're trying to rectify that in post launch with Shadows and push that narrative internally to say, parkour matters," he continues. "Let's really push parkour forward."

His other big takeaway again comes back to Yasuke and Naoe – and Jacob and Evie before them. "Dual protagonists can be divisive along very strange lines, right?" he says. "It's not just a 'well, I prefer a war, therefore I prefer Yasuke.' Some people just don't like one character over the other, and they don't like to spend time with one. It was true with Evie and Jacob, but with Naoe and Yasuke it's more divisive. And we knew this. We knew going into it, but I think it can split our fan base a little too."

But that doesn't mean the studio has any regrets, or is cautioning other Assassin's Creed developers from following suit. "I think the learning for us is that, yes, we could do more dual-protagonist games in the future – if we have a good reason to do it narratively and for the setting," he concludes.

All said, we've come full circle. He mentions a bust of Evie Frye they have looking out over the Ubisoft Quebec office, their guiding light and inspiration, and I can't help but feel a little emotional about it. For all the differences between Syndicate and Shadows, from format to setting to character mechanics, the impact of its protagonists unifies them.

It's a shame to hear that there won't be a second Awaji-sized DLC after all, but Ubisoft Quebec has achieved something special in its push to keep Assassin's Creed fans forever on their toes, testing the bounds of expectations and daring to set new ones. The studio has risen above and cracked down on the toxic discourse that so often derailed conversations around Shadows, and Lemay-Comtois and his team are set to emerge from 2025 with something beautiful to show for it.

Whatever comes next, it's clear that Naoe and Yasuke have changed Assassin's Creed for the better, much like Evie and Jacob before them – and I can't wait to see how far those ripples reach.

All eyes are on the next upcoming Assassin's Creed games, but so far, we only have one confirmed in production.