Gamers have wanted to play Assassin’s Creed in Japan for over a decade.

Shadows finally delivers that experience, but is it worth the wait?

After playing six hours of the game, our answer is YES.

Fortunately,Assassins Creed Shadowsmay just be worth the years-long wait.

In many respects, its the most ambitiousACgame yet.

Naoe views things from the perspective of commoners and working-class people.

At its heart, its a story about community, associate narrative director Brooke Davies tells Denof Geek.

Its about rebuilding after loss with chosen family.

[The research process] was so inspiring and exciting for us, Davies says.

We immersed ourselves in Japanese history every day.

We built new graphics technologies for this game as we were developing the game itself.

Its not just that the game looks pretty or realistic.

Its that the high fidelity of the environments makes the game world more engaging to explore.

We want players to discover things on their own just by moving around.

The little side quests you do find in the open world arent mere distractions or bits of busy work.

Naoe can happen upon animals doing different cute animal things (like cuddling!)

that she can then paint.

Series veterans will be able to pick up and play, no problem.

The first thing to understand is that Yasuke and Naoe play completely differently.

Seriously, this is as asymmetrical as it gets.

Its not that Yasukes a tank.

Parkour is definitely within his skillset, but its not his wheelhouse.

Hes slow but powerful, especially compared to Naoe.

Naoe is the most nimble, agile assassin in the entire franchise thus far.

Shes quick, elusive, and can get herself out of trouble in a snap.

Itll probably be curtains.

And get thisenemies can look up now, too!

So the old trick of losing guards by simply skittering up onto a rooftop doesnt work anymore.

Theyll sniff you out and corner you if youre not precise.

During production, we had moments where we had to balance things between Naoe and Yasuke, Benoit recalls.

At first, Naoe was super good at everything.

She could stealth and was super good at fights, and Yasuke had missing something.

They feel very different from each other, but its all very balanced.

Its more engaging and strategic than previous titles and feels almost akin to IO InteractivesHitmangames.

An Homage to Japanese Cinema

From what weve experienced so far,Shadowsis a joy to play.

The performances here are seriously brilliant.

Its a strange musical tapestry that doesnt seem like it should work, but it totally does.

It takes a village to bring these moments from script to screen, Davies says.

We were fortunate to work with a great cinematic design team and amazing performers.

The actors really embodied their roles, and our music really heightens the emotion.

[Each of our teams] comes together to confirm these key emotional moments are felt by the player.

Like any great piece of Japanese cinema,Shadowsaims to tell a story with a profound message.

I hope players feel like theyre part of that story.

Assassins Creed Shadows is out on March 20 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC.