Ubisoft has revealed new details on their upcoming ninja Assassin in Assassin’s Creed Shadows, Naoe.
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, creative director Jonathan Dumont said this:
“Naoe’s the fastest Assassin we ever made. She runs super-fast, she has a lot of gadgets to keep her stealth so that she doesn’t have to fight often. We wanted to satisfy that for players that come in for that ninja-Assassin game.”
While Ubisoft has been struggling in getting the fans on their side in promoting Assassin’s Creed Shadows, they have been giving us previews of how its combat works from the start. Recently, they shared extensive previews of the combat system, which takes physics into account. Between Yasuke and Naoe, neither character have the default ‘average’ build of other Assassins, like Ezio. So players can expect that Yasuke will move slower but have more power. Naoe will be quick, and rely on momentum and physics over power for her deadly moves.
Subsquently, each weapon both Assassins can use have different weights and characteristics. But on top of that, both Assassins are trained to the degree that they adopt different stances for each weapon. These are all factors in how each weapon works, giving players a lot to think about to play more effectively. Naoe, in particular, gets to use tools like grappling hooks, kunai, smoke bombs, and an heirloom weapon from her father, the Hidden Blade.
Dumont explained that each weapon evokes some of Naoe’s backstory to her mind, saying:
“The Hidden Blade is given by her father, and we’re going to learn a little bit more what that means.”
And yes, Dumont confirmed that Naoe has that Naruto run, as popularized by Naruto manga creator Masashi Kishimoto. Dumont said:
“We do have a run on top of buildings that has a little bit of a wink-wink to it.”
An even earlier preview that Ubisoft may have modified further demonstrates Naoe’s acrobatic movement skills. Naoe can use that grappling hook like Spider-Man, and she can flip, spin, and tumble to travel across rooftops as quickly as she can. We don’t know how much tweaking Ubisoft has made to this system, but we may have already seen a little bit of how her Naruto-style run would look like.
We imagine Ubisoft is also planning a big preview to demonstrate Naoe’s stealth gameplay as well, since that is really where they can make Naoe’s abilities shine. But they may be saving that for a bigger presentation in the leadup to Assassin’s Creed Shadows’ release.
