Assassin's Creed Shadows: Claws of Awaji Hands-On Preview

At the end of Assassin's Creed Shadows, players will be left with several questions surrounding Naoe, her mother, and the Regalia (among other fine details). Those questions will be answered with the upcoming release of its Claws of Awaji DLC, though it remains to be seen how satisfying those answers are exactly. Game Rant recently visited Ubisoft Bordeaux where we got to spend a few hours checking out the new DLC and its content.

For the uninitiated, Assassin's Creed Shadows' Claws of Awaji DLC sees Naoe and Yasuke set out for the island of Awaji in pursuit of Naoe's mother and an important treasure. Awaji, however, is tightly controlled by the Senzoku Ippa, or bandit clan. This pits the players against a new faction of villains unrelated to the Shinbakufu, and the Senzoku Ippa have one strength they did not have: they're working together. Whereas the Shinbakufu was a fractured organization, the Senzoku Ippa will bear the full weight of their powers against Naoe and Yasuke. During our time with the game, we got more than one glance at the Senzoku Ippa, played through the opening mission, had plenty of fun with the new Bo Staff weapon, and explored the island a little.

Senzoku Ippa

One of my favorite details about Assassin's Creed Shadows is that it humanized some members of the Shinbakufu, so unlike the past few games, they weren't simply targets who were identified and then taken out. In fact, some members of the Shinbakufu could be spared by Naoe and Yasuke. This "fully-realized character" treatment of the opposition continues with the Senzoku Ippa. There are four members of the Senzoku Ippa, and during my brief time with the game, I was exposed to three of them. One major change in Claws of Awaji is that the island is one complete region with four figureheads to take out, whereas there was one target (more or less) per region in the base game.

This unified foe changes the dynamic of the story and moment-to-moment gameplay a lot, as they are effectively a counterintelligence operation. More than once, I was attacked by innocent bystanders who worked for them, and coming face-to-face with them is deadly. Their leader is a charming woman named Yukari who, because of the base game, becomes the de facto leader of Templars. She is followed by a general who is a full Templar, and they have a lowercase assassin named Nowaki working with them. Together, the three are deadly. Yukari's ability to manipulate and set traps ensnares Naoe, for example. The general leverages the full strength of his army against Yasuke, and Nowaki is hailed as the best assassin on the island—a title Naoe will seek to take from her.

I'm also quite glad to see how Yasuke is involved in Claws of Awaji. As fans know, his tale in Assassin's Creed Shadows' base game revolves around the Templars, and they remain his hook as he arrives on the island. Claws of Awaji does feel more like it's Naoe's story, since it didn't really receive a proper conclusion in the base game, but it doesn't feel like Yasuke is forgotten either. The two have obviously grown close by this point, and the DLC does a great job of leveraging that.

I may be getting a little ahead of myself here, but Ubisoft Bordeaux also let us play the boss fight against Nowaki. It feels more like a traditional Assassin vs. Assassin boss fight than you might expect, as the two find themselves fighting to the death in a swamp.

Nowaki has prepared for this fight, creating decoys of herself and being deadly as a sniper. Players will have to make their way to her repeatedly, without drawing attention to themselves, to finally get the kill. Even a single sound will alert Nowaki, who doesn't miss her shots, not really. That factoid adds a lot of tension to the fight because she will quickly reduce a player's HP every time they expose themselves. The shots can be dodged but the window to do so is small, and she will shoot through rocks and trees to hit the player. On the one hand, that never feels good; on the other hand, it's a punishing fight and ultimate stealth skill check. That's certainly welcomed.

Narrative + Opening Mission

Without going into spoiler territory, I will say that the narrative communicates the power of the Senzoku Ippa effectively. They are immediately established as the threat and remain at the fore of the story, at least of what I played. Each beat circled around them, as they circled around us. It is pretty straightforward as a narrative, but more than once, I was surprised by the developments I saw. The narrative wasn't even the focus for a good chunk of what I played, but the glimpses were a lot of fun. Indeed, the Senzoku Ippa feels like a full-blown Assassin's Creed faction, and it'll be interesting to see how the narrative reaches its conclusion.

Most importantly, Ubisoft Bordeaux knew that it needed to come out swinging with the opening of the Claws of Awaji DLC. The first main mission, once on the island of Awaji, leverages the full capabilities of Naoe and Yasuke, but that's really just the first step. The base game had several missions that saw players split between Naoe and Yasuke, and those missions essentially asked the player: "Do you want to proceed from B to C on Yasuke's path or Naoe's path?" Once on those paths, the two didn't really need each other to push forward; that wasn't the case here. Ubisoft Bordeaux told me that not every mission was this complicated, but the first main one sees the splits between Yasuke and Naoe sometimes being mandated, sometimes being chosen, as they fight side by side. They are not walking two different paths; they are, essentially, walking one.

That might not seem like a big deal, but this style of choreography makes the initial mission feel different from any in the base game. It's certainly a strong hook for the DLC as well, as the opening immediately sets the tone that Naoe and Yasuke need to walk the same path to overcome the forces opposing them. First impressions matter, and Assassin's Creed Shadows' Claws of Awaji DLC makes a damn strong impression.

The Bo Staff

One of the shiny new features in Claws of Awaji is the introduction of the Bo Staff—a new weapon for Naoe. Truth be told, it might already be my favorite weapon in the game. Parkour in Assassin's Creed Shadows isn't really revolutionary, but where it shines is the way that it naturally emphasizes Naoe's athleticism and agility. Her movements make parkour more fun than if it were just any other Assassin, and the Bo Staff does the same thing: it emphasizes her agility as an acrobat. "An extension of your body" is a common phrase used with this kind of weapon, and Naoe fully realizes that. Using it, she is flipping, jumping, leaping, extending, and doing everything to make it from one enemy to another swiftly. Her abilities with it are absolutely brutal, and my favorite of the bunch sees her reach with the weapon extended for even more of this flow.

It is also more involved than other weapons in Assassin's Creed Shadows. Coming with it is a unique posture system where Naoe can adopt a high strike, a neutral strike, or a low strike, and each of these has a different effect on enemies. It can be a lot to remember in the throes of combat, adding slightly to the cognitive load of the player, but the exchange is worth it. If players don't use it, it's a lot of fun; if players do use these strikes, they are effective against a ton of enemies. Of course, this is an Assassin's Creed game, and combat is just one part of that formula.

What may have surprised me most is how effective the Bo Staff is in assassination. At one point, I snuck up on a group of three enemies who were positioned in a slightly wide triangle formation. I fully expected to assassinate one and then have to engage the other two in combat. Nope. Naoe is so quick with the Bo Staff that she is able to set up quick assassinations in a successive set of button presses, effectively giving me a triple assassination on this small group of enemies. It feels SO good to perform.

Exploring the Island of Awaji

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I also took some time to explore the island. Typically, my first goal in any region is to hit all the viewpoints first, and at a guess, it would probably just take two hours or so to do that here. That's if players are not engaging in other points of interest. Awaji is sizable but not too big; at the same time, it's very similar to the main island of Japan but not too similar. Developers wanted the island to carry more tension than the base game, and there are certainly places where this is obvious. Getting attacked by presumably innocent NPCs strikes the right chord, while a few areas in the game become more haunted and claustrophobic in design. There are also traps all over the island, which are sometimes super obvious and other times more subtle. As a whole, I wouldn't say it carries this tension everywhere, but the island itself knows how to create moments of tension.

For those curious, I would say that Awaji is just different enough to be something new in the base game. The emphasis on the seaside beaches, the more claustrophobic designs in some areas, and the use of traps all ensure that the activities here are just different enough. It walks a fine line, and overall, it walks that line rather well.

First Impressions

After a few hours with Claws of Awaji, it feels like the DLC is creative with the Assassin's Creed Shadows open-world formula. It doesn't revolutionize it or anything like that, but it is a creative stab with a lot of strong, unique moments. The narrative and gameplay may be the defining factor of this DLC, but Awaji isn't going to be forgotten so easily either.

Assassin's Creed Shadows' Claws of Awaji DLC releases September 16 for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X. Game Rant was provided travel and lodging for the purposes of this preview.