Assassin's Creed Shadows dev thinks prioritising one protagonist won't mean "missing out"

Creative director Jonathan Dumont says Assassin's Creed Shadows players won't be "missing out" if they prefer playing as one of the game's two protagonists.

Heidi Nicholas

Published 11 Feb 2025

Assassin's Creed Shadows dev Jonathan Dumont discussed the game's dual protagonists and how players who favor one over the other won't be "missing out". That's good news for those of you who think you might prefer chasing down the Assassin's Creed Shadows achievements mostly as one of the two main characters.

Favoring one of Assassin's Creed Shadow's two protagonists apparently doesn't mean "missing out on things too much"

Assassin's Creed Shadows lets players swap between dual protagonists Naoe and Yasuke
Naoe favors stealth while Yasuke is better suited to all-out combat
Creative director Jonathan Dumont discussed how players are free to "play it as you want"

If you prefer stealth to engaging in open combat, or vice versa, you might already have decided who you'd like to play as more when Assassin's Creed Shadows arrives next month. Luckily, if you're worried about skipping content pertaining to the other protagonist, creative director Jonathan Dumont has emphasised that you're free to swap without worrying about missing things "too much."

Speaking to Screen Rant, Dumont says, "We're not imposing players to try to split the time. So if you prefer one character for any reason, you can play maybe — I don't know, I'm not going to put a percentage on it — but quite a bit of the game using one of them."

Dumont emphasises that you're free to "switch for gameplay reasons" or if you prefer one protagonist, but that you're not "missing out. That’s more, 'all right, have fun with the game, just play it as you want'."

Naoe and Yasuke "get individual introductions and then they get their own questline also," Dumont continues. "So that one is, let's say Naoe, a personal questline cannot be played by Yasuke and those are two distinct things. But the core of the game can be pick your character and the game adapts."

In our Assassin's Creed Shadows preview, I found that I preferred Naoe's stealth capabilities, but it was also refreshing to switch to Yasuke to more easily handle enemies. I appreciated the clear distinction in playstyles, and while I'm still curious to see whether their relative disadvantages (such as Yasuke moving more slowly and with less climbing ability) will prove to be an issue, this apparent freedom to switch characters will no doubt help. What do you think? Let us know in the comments!

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Written by Heidi Nicholas

Heidi tends to lean towards indie games, RPGs, and open-world games on Xbox, and when not playing Disney Dreamlight Valley, happily installs every new wholesome game that appears on Xbox Game Pass, before diving back into favorites like The Witcher 3. She's looking forward to Age of Mythology Retold, Everwild, Fable, and Avowed on the Xbox horizon. Heidi graduated with an MA in English Literature before joining the TrueAchievements team.