Assassin’s Creed Shadows Creative Director Talks Making the Open-World Setting of Japan – GameRant

Japan has long been one of the Assassin’s Creed franchises most requested settings, and fans will finally get that experience with Assassin’s Creed Shadows. Instead of just playing the role of an Assassin or Shinobi, however, players will step into the shoes of samurai Yasuke and shinobi Naoe. This dual protagonist approach to Assassin’s Creed Shadows lets players see the world of central Japan through two pairs of eyes instead of one, but still at the heart of it is Japan.Game Rant recently spoke with creative director Jonathan Dumont about the creative direction of Shadows, the use of dual protagonists at Ubisoft Quebec, and the open world Japan setting of Assassin’s Creed Shadows. The following transcript has been edited for clarity and brevity. Read Game Rant’s hands-on preview to hear how Assassin’s Creed Shadows honors the pillars of its franchise, its setting, and its gameplay.Q: As a creative director of such a huge game, with tons of mechanics, features, tons of both franchise and real history, what has your normal day-to-day been like for AC Shadows?A: It’s been a little crazy. It was a tough game to build from that perspective because we’re revamping a lot of engine stuff. At the same time, we’re trying to push these concepts a little bit further as well. Having two different character archetypes that work two different ways, trying to have two sides to the stories, while not depicting history as too much of a historical fiction–still being true to the core of it. Then, you know, just having a fully dynamic world and everything.There are many challenges, and your day-to-day is helping people, teams, and finding directions on certain things they’re working on. We have a good team that knows what they’re doing, so this one I’ve done a lot of monitoring and guiding, as well as writing the base story a little bit more. Because it’s such a complex game to build, it’s really wherever I’ve been needed, and I’m always needed somewhere.Q: Historically, every Ubisoft Quebec Assassin’s Creed game has had more than one possible protagonist. Syndicate, Odyssey had that choice, and now Shadows. What’s the main draw for Ubisoft Quebec in having more than one protagonist in an Assassin’s Creed game?A: Good question. I don’t think it’s a must-have for us; it just happens like that. For Syndicate, for the Frye twins, we wanted a certain tone and speed in the dialogue where they’re talking to each other and all that. It was much more for carrying the narrative. For Odyssey, we looked at it and said, “There’s so many RPG aspects to it, so why not pick the character you want to start with?” It felt right. Then we said, “Okay, who could be the bad guy.” If you know, that was that.This time, we were much more driven by the two archetypes. Initially, we were looking at having a character that could do both, but that didn’t fulfill the shinobi or samurai fantasy as much as we wanted. We also wanted to come from a relatable point of view of somebody who comes from the farmlands and everything, so you get a little bit of their day-to-day world, but we also wanted the noble side. It was perfect for two characters, which evolved into the two characters we have now for sure. It’s not a “we need to do that upfront,” but I think as the projects we’ve had evolved, the games have guided us in that direction. We’re also always trying different things as well, so that keeps it fresh for the team. Q: It feels like there are a lot of “franchise firsts” with Shadows. The changing seasons, the choice of whether to kill one of the antagonists or not, the customizable hideout, and having an actual historical character as a protagonist. Was this something you set out to do?A: The franchise tries to renew itself every time that a game comes out, so yes, you’re always looking for elements where you can push things a little differently so that players come into something new every time. I think that Assassin’s Creed does that fairly well as a franchise. We come back with new things, a new setting, new characters, and some new systems.For Shadows, we really wanted a world that felt more alive, which led to the seasons. Japan, as a setting, has four distinct seasons. In Japan, these seasons are more important for people than a lot of places. Some festivals are linked to them and everything, so that felt like a great excuse to do it and the technology was there as well. We were at the point, with this new generation of consoles, that we were able to do a little bit more with that. That’s what we are going for there: an open world that is less of a postcard and more of a dynamic representation. I personally really wanted to be able to stand on a hill somewhere and say, “I’m the first person that’s seeing this in the winter under these specific conditions,” where it’s heavy snow and nighttime. Obviously, other people may see that, but there’s this impression that I’m living in this moment that will eventually pass, so I thought that was interesting.Then, you know, the team tries to make something different in everything they do. They try to push boundaries a little more, so I think it’s natural when we’re designing a game to look for evolutions of where the franchise was.Q: How do you think this open world differs from Assassin’s Creed Odyssey?A: Time. Time is more important. Night and day have an impact on gameplay. If you play during nighttime, it’s very different from daytime. Naoe is much more powerful; nobody sees her coming. She just destroys a full castle. It’s easier to play as her then. If you play during pure daylight, it’s going to be a little bit tougher. I think the world is more relevant for gameplay and influences the gameplay more.Obviously, we also have to go to many regions and areas to try and depict that world, connecting with the people on what historically was there, so they have this impression of time traveling. That’s the thing that Assassin’s Creed does: create an impression of time traveling.I would say, if you compared the worlds, that our scale ratio is a little different. Things feel bigger in Shadows, and it’s on purpose. When we traveled to Japan, the thing that struck me was the size of those castles. Yes, I saw the maps, I saw the square footage and everything, but when you see it and you’re at the base of that castle, holy crap.Q: Is there something you have seen during your trip to Japan that surprised/amazed you and ended up being in the game? A: Something that I realized when we went to Japan is how steep are the mountains, way more than what we could have imagined by only reading and looking at pictures. When we came back, we implemented some changes to convey the feeling we had in Japan. Those mountains are also super dense, so after exploring Japan and having a look at the lands, we had to make the mountains bigger, denser, and impenetrable.In one of the presentations, someone showed us the mountains in the background and you could actually see one of the castles. That was awesome. I see mountains all the time, but they’re just mountains. I would have never expected to see a castle at that distance. A: It’s funny because, in Greece, Japan, and a lot of places, you can see how things were built before airplanes. I guess, right now, there’s no purpose in building something on top of any mountains because there are airplanes, but they would build on top of mountains and hills. There are a lot of castles and fortresses that, for like 2000 years, would get destroyed and rebuilt in those spots because those were the best spots to protect your people at that time. It’s using the ground to your advantage.Another thing that struck me when we visited is how much more harmonious things are with nature, like how humans create and build things, but it’s more integrated. It doesn’t feel that it’s disrupting nature, so it’s quite interesting when you go to old temples, shrines, or old castles: they’re respectful to the environment. We did a full tour of the central portion of Japan, and we went through the countryside. We’ve been to cities and everything. Every day, I swear every time we got out of the bus or we went to this new place, it was like, “Oh, this is the best place I’ve ever seen.” And then the day after, we had the same feeling. What you saw in the early game, we’ve been there, we’ve been in those spaces, and we’ve tried to reproduce them in the game as well.Assassin’s Creed Mirage is filled with historical elements, but one small, funny detail about soap may just about take the cake.Q: What’s been maybe the silliest, “wierdest,” or just the most interesting thing you’ve learned while researching Japanese history for this game? I’m a big fan of how Assassin’s Creed Mirage approached soap.A: Oh, there’s quite a bit of interesting details that I did not really expect until I saw them. When we go to a new setting, we try to reset what we know about it to go back and learn it, to be humbled and overwhelmed a bit by the setting itself. One thing I did not expect as much is when two clans, because there were a lot of betrayals and stuff like that in the Warring States period, would adopt a hostage situation. Let’s say you and I are at odds. I would have one of my children raised in your castle so that it’s leverage against me if I wanted to attack you. There were many things like that.There’s a book by Luís Fróis, and I do recommend it. It’s one of the missionaries who stayed in Japan, probably got the most acclimated to Japan, and was probably one of the most interested in Japanese culture. He wrote a book about the differences between the two cultures, things that he saw there were foreign to him, in a more observant way. There’s a ton from that book you can learn as well.[END]Success!We want to hear from you! 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Source: https://gamerant.com/assassins-creed-shadows-japan-setting-interview/