Assassin's Creed Shadows

=== Setting ===

Assassin's Creed Shadows is set in feudal Japan, specifically starting in 1579 during the Azuchi-Momoyama period. This era marks the final stage of the Sengoku period, a time of intense civil war in Japan. The game features the historical figure Oda Nobunaga at the height of his power, following his victory over the Takeda clan using arquebus firearms. Key historical events include Nobunaga's assault on the Iga province in 1581, a significant battle involving the Iga ikki, known for their ninjutsu arts. Like previous Assassin's Creed titles, characters based on historical figures are present in the game, including the samurai Yasuke, one of the two playable characters, missionaries Luís Fróis and Alessandro Valignano, samurai Hattori Hanzo, Akechi Mitsuhide, and Ise Sadaoki, the sōhei Kyōnyo, merchants Imai Sōkun and Imai Sōkyū, and tea master Sen no Rikyū, among others.
The game world covers the Kansai region of central Japan, including locations like Kyoto, Kobe, Osaka, and the Iga province, with historically-accurate castles such as Takeda and Fukuchiyama, along with detailed historical landmarks and strongholds designed as intricate dungeons. This setting reflects the urbanization of Japan at the time, featuring bustling ports, samurai districts, and ornate architecture, all significant for parkour and exploration in the game. The influence of Portuguese traders and Jesuit missionaries, who introduced Christianity and new technologies like cannons and long guns to Japan, also plays a role in shaping the game's environment and narrative.

Plot

In 1581, the African slave Diogo arrives in Kyoto alongside a delegation of Jesuit priests, who seek to negotiate with daimyo Oda Nobunaga for the safe passage of their missionaries throughout Japan. Nobunaga grants the request on the condition that Diogo be transferred into his service. Diogo, renamed Yasuke, begins training to become a samurai and, six months later, accompanies Nobunaga on his invasion of Iga Province to exterminate the shinobi of the Iga ikki. During the battle, the young shinobi Fujibayashi Naoe is tasked by her father Nagato to take his Hidden Blade and recover a box hidden in a nearby kofun, which she must protect at all costs. However, Naoe is ambushed by a masked samurai, who injures her and takes the box. Nagato rescues her and, after recovering, Naoe tracks down the masked samurai, assassinates him, and recovers the box. As she escapes, Naoe is shot and cornered by the masked samurai's comrades, who again seize the box. Nagato comes to her aid, but is mortally wounded by the masked men, who leave with the box; with his dying breath, Nagato instructs Naoe to "follow the blade."
After recovering from her wounds, Naoe, seeking revenge on her father's killers and aiming to recover the stolen box, visits Tomiko, an old family friend. Tomiko grants Naoe usage of her homestead as a base to gather supplies and allies, and directs her to Sakai. There, Naoe finds leads to the whereabouts of two of the masked killers, and assassinates them both. She is then approached by Akechi Mitsuhide, who identifies Oda Nobunaga as the leader of the group, called the Shinbakufu, and enlists Naoe's help to eliminate him. Naoe infiltrates the Honnō-ji Temple and confronts Nobunaga, who reveals that Mitsuhide lied to her and that he is not part of the Shinbakufu. With Mitsuhide's army closing in, Nobunaga elects to commit seppuku with Yasuke's help while Naoe escapes.
Now a rōnin, Yasuke, seeking a new purpose, approaches Naoe and asks to join her. He reveals that, during the invasion of Iga, he fought and killed the Iga ikki's leader, Momochi Sandayu, who also wielded a Hidden Blade and urged him to help Naoe if he found her. Naoe initially refuses to forgive Yasuke for partaking in Nobunaga's assault on Iga, but is told by her young ally Junjiro that the masked samurai she had killed was his father. With Junjiro having learned to forgive Naoe for her actions, Naoe agrees to give Yasuke a chance to make amends.
Working together, the pair track down and eliminate more of the Shinbakufu, and in the process meet Nobunaga's former retainer, Tokugawa Ieyasu, and Hattori Hanzō, an erstwhile member of the Iga ikki. Hanzō warns Naoe to forget about the box, claiming that both her father and her mother, Tsuyu, died protecting it. However, seeing that Naoe will not back down, Hanzō instructs her to head to a kofun in Settsu to learn the truth about her parents. There, Naoe finds an Assassin hideout and journal, revealing that Emperor Go-Nara had tasked the Assassins to build a new Brotherhood in Japan, with Tsuyu being one of the Assassins given the task. Deciding to continue the Assassins' mission, Naoe, Yasuke, Tomiko, and Junjiro form the Kakushiba ikki (the "League of the Hidden Blade").
As Naoe and Yasuke build up their league with new recruits, they deal with the remaining Shinbakufu until only Mitsuhide and the group's mysterious leader remain. At the Battle of Yamazaki, Naoe and Yasuke join Hashiba Hideyoshi's army in besieging Shōryūji Castle, where Mitsuhide has taken refuge. After mortally wounding him, Mitsuhide identifies the leader of the Shinbakufu as former shōgun Ashikaga Yoshiaki, who sought to regain his power after being dethroned by Oda Nobunaga. With Mitsuhide dead, Hideyoshi claims victory and promises to reform Japan as Nobunaga's successor, to which Naoe warns him to keep his promise. Afterwards, she and Yasuke confront Yoshiaki, who offers to trade both the stolen box and information for his life. He reveals that the box is one of three, each containing one of the Imperial Regalia of Japan, and that an Assassin matching Tsuyu's description was spotted in Yamato. He also reveals that the Templar Order—which Yasuke has history with—supported the Shinbakufu, and that the Templar Kimura Kei is recruiting new members to the Order's cause in Kii.
Sparing Yoshiaki's life, Naoe and Yasuke split up to investigate their new leads. Naoe travels to Yamato, where she recalls the story Nagato had told her about Tsuyu. Many years prior, the Assassins, under Tsuyu's leadership, safeguarded the Imperial Regalia until they were massacred by the Shinbakufu. Tsuyu managed to protect one of the regalia and gave it to Nagato while she left to search for the rest, but never returned. Naoe finds the Assassins' intended hiding place for the regalia and returns her box, fulfilling her promise to her father. Hanzō then arrives and returns the second box, which Ieyasu recovered from the Templars. He admits that he had betrayed the Assassins out of jealousy at Tsuyu choosing Nagato over him, and sold the regalia's location to the Shinbakufu. Naoe ultimately forgives Hanzō and offers him a chance to correct his mistake by helping her find Tsuyu, who they both believe is still alive.
Meanwhile, Yasuke tracks down and eliminates both Kimura Kei and Duarte de Melo, the Portuguese Templar and slaver he had previously served. He then confronts Nuno Caro, the leader of the Templar Order in Japan, who had killed Yasuke's mother years prior after suspecting her of being a spy; Yasuke was nearly killed as well, but escaped thanks to a distraction from an Assassin. As Yasuke kills Caro, he proclaims his new identity as a member of the Kakushiba ikki, and declares war on the Templars.

Claws of Awaji

Hanzō contacts Naoe after finding a lead about Tsuyu's possible location on Awaji Island, which is firmly ruled by the Sanzoku Ippa, a group of outlaws affiliated with the Templars. Naoe locates and reunites with her mother, who has been held captive for years by Kimura Yukari, daughter of Kimura Kei, in an attempt to learn the whereabouts of the final Imperial Regalia, which Tsuyu had stolen and hidden from the Templars. However, Naoe is captured by Yukari, who reveals that she lured her to Awaji in the hopes that threatening her life would finally make Tsuyu reveal the regalia's location. Learning of Naoe's predicament, Yasuke mounts a rescue mission and frees both Naoe and Tsuyu, though the latter is wounded during their escape.
In no condition to fight, Tsuyu reluctantly tells Naoe and Yasuke of the regalia's hiding place so they can retrieve it. However, the Sanzoku Ippa ambush the pair and steal the regalia while Naoe and Yasuke are saved by a timely distraction from Hanzō. In order to reach Yukari and recover the regalia, Naoe and Yasuke then decide to weaken the Sanzoku Ippa's grip over Awaji by eliminating Yukari's three lieutenants: Imagawa Tomeji, Nowaki, and Yasuhira. This inspires the people of Awaji to revolt against the Sanzoku Ippa's oppression, allowing Naoe, Yasuke, and Hanzō to lead an assault on Yukari's stronghold at Iwaya Castle while Tsuyu recovers the regalia.
Yasuke confronts and duels Yukari, who reprimands Yasuke's former service to Oda Nobunaga and his newfound allegiance to the Kakushiba ikki, claiming that he is following the path imposed by others instead of forging his own destiny. Yasuke ultimately kills Yukari, while Naoe rescues Tsuyu after she is attacked by Yukari's soldiers during her escape with the regalia. As the two reconcile, Tsuyu accepts that her days as a warrior have passed and decides to instead become the mother Naoe never had. After being re-joined by Yasuke, the trio decide to return the Imperial Regalia to the Emperor, before Tsuyu leaves for Iga and encourages Naoe to spend time with Yasuke and Junjiro, her new family.

Story Drops

Sometime after forming the Kakushiba ikki, Naoe and Yasuke meet Rufino, a Portuguese translator and old friend of Tomiko's, who enlists their help to recover documents from a ship off Sakai's coast. The trio recovers the documents, revealed to be assassination contracts issued by the Templars, who seek to eliminate several local community leaders and replace them with their own allies. Naoe and Yasuke assassinate the Templar killers before they can eliminate their targets, but discover that Rufino used to work for the Templars and unknowingly helped them gather their information. While confronting Rufino and his friend Ermigo, the group is attacked by the Templar Gaspar and his men, who murder Ermigo when he attempts to defend Rufino. Naoe, Yasuke, and Rufino kill Gaspar, and the latter accepts to join the Kakushiba ikki to continue fighting against the Templars.
Later, Naoe and Yasuke come across a strange door in Wakasa and meet two wandering outlaws, Kane and Kinu. In exchange for allowing them to join the Kakushiba ikki, they provide Naoe and Yasuke with a trinket and a map to the locations of several glyphs across Japan. After interacting with all the glyphs, the pair use the trinket to open the door, revealing it was the entrance to an Isu vault found by Kassandra, who used it as a repository of weapons and artifacts. Naoe and Yasuke take several treasures from the vault and decide to leave it for the time being.
Eventually, in retaliation for Naoe and Yasuke's meddling with their plans, the Templars send their feared Black Cross inquisitor, Sir Eamon Hathaway, to eliminate the pair, as well as search for an Isu site known as the "Observatory", believed to be located somewhere in Japan. Naoe and Yasuke meet Hathaway, who reveals that he holds no grudge against them and promises to leave them alone so long as they do not interfere with his search. Refusing his offer, the pair track down Yang, a Chinese ship captain who brought Hathaway to Japan, and attempt to interrogate him, but Yang is killed by Hathaway's protégé and fellow Black Cross, Nirmala of Java. While Naoe goes to search the wreck of Yang's ship for more information on the Templars' mission, Yasuke is confronted by Hathaway and Nirmala, who overwhelm and mortally wound him. Overcoming his inner darkness by holding onto his cherished memories of his loved ones, Yasuke survives his wounds and is left to recover while Naoe and Rufino leave to stop the Templars after realizing they are searching for the vault in Wakasa.
Arriving at the vault, Naoe and Rufino witness Hathaway destroy a statue of Kassandra to reveal the true entrance to the Isu vault, which Kassandra had attempted to conceal from the Templars. The pair follow Hathaway and Nirmala inside, where Naoe fights Nirmala while Hathaway investigates the vault's contents, discovering it is not the Observatory as he had assumed. After Naoe is defeated, she is rescued by Rufino and a newly arrived Yasuke, allowing the group to gain the upper hand, kill Nirmala, and mortally wound Hathaway. With his dying breath, Hathaway explains that the vault contains one of the "pillars that hold up the world" and questions Yasuke's ability to recover from mortal wounds so quickly. Naoe retrieves a crystal cube dropped by Hathaway and, at Yasuke's urging, decides to leave the vault without discovering its functionality. As they depart, Yasuke breaks the vault's key to ensure its contents will remain hidden, and Naoe ponders contacting the Assassins to give them the crystal cube, ultimately deciding to do so when the time is right.