With its almost four minutes of duration, the Assassin’s Creed Shadows trailer offers a lot of details on the protagonists, the story and the world of the new episode set in Feudal Japan. There is so much irony in the fire that we could stay here talking about it until tomorrow, but we would like to shine the spotlight on these three details.
Historical figures who actually existed
The Assassin’s Creed saga is famous for mixing reality and fantasy and Shadows is certainly no exception. In the trailer of the new episode it is possible to see some people who really existed. Did you notice them?
The first is obviously Yasuke , one of the two protagonists, an African samurai who arrived in Japan together with the Portuguese in 1579 and then ended up in the service of Oda Nobunaga. Yasuke boasts a real record, being the first protagonist of an Assassin’s Creed based on a real person .
Among the other historical figures that can be seen in the trailer are the aforementioned Oda Nobunaga , a very famous leader who led a series of military campaigns that led him to conquer much of Japan, and Fujibayashi Nagato , one of the most famous ninja of Iga, as well as considered one of the three great jonin together with Hattori Hanzo and Momochi Sandayu.
In Shadows Fujibayashi Nagato is the father of the ninja Naoe, the other playable character (in this case fictional) together with Yasuke.
The province of Iga attacked by Nobunaga Oda’s samurai
Ubisoft Quebec has confirmed that the Assassin’s Creed Shadows map is approximately the same size as that of Origins and reproduces the central part of Japan. Among the regions included is that of Iga , which can be admired in this frame of the trailer.
Historically, Iga is remembered as a region populated by Ninjas. In fact, Fujibayashi Nagato and his daughter Naoe, one of the two playable protagonists, live in this place. At a certain point in the trailer it is possible to see the province of Iga being attacked by Oda Nobunaga’s samurai, whose goal is to unify Japan (is he a Templar?).
According to Japanese history books, this attack took place in 1581 by as many as 60 thousand samurai, who surrounded the region from six distinct directions and ended up destroying the Ninja, nullifying their political influence and assassinating Fujibayashi Nagato. In the trailer, we see that among Oda’s samurai there is also Yasuke, who at a certain point meets Naoe’s gaze.
The two protagonists therefore belong to two opposing factions , but the film suggests that in one way or another they will end up collaborating.
We are the shadows that serve the light
In the last part of the trailer it is possible to hear a phrase that gives meaning to the title of Assassin’s Creed Shadows and connects to the entire history of the Assassins. Let’s talk about the scene which sees the protagonists Yasuke and Naoe on the trail of a “prey” who, although there are still no certainties about it, could be the warlord Toyotomi Hidenaga.
Regardless of the identity of this poor unfortunate, we can hear Yasuke begin the sentence “We are the Shadows…” and Naoe finish it by pronouncing “…who serve the light” (). ..that serves the light”) , all while a Japanese rearrangement of the series’ main theme song plays in the background.
Words that fans of Assassin’s Creed know very well, being recurring among members of the creed as well as part of the initiation of every Assassin : “Nothing is real, everything is permissible. We act in the shadows to serve the light, we are Assassins” .