Assassin's Creed Shadows Review - Kinda Funny Gamescast

Summary

Kinda Funny Gamescast: Assassin's Creed Shadows Review - Detailed Summary

Episode Title: Assassin's Creed Shadows Review - Kinda Funny Gamescast
Release Date: March 18, 2025
Hosts: Tim Gettys, Greg “GameOverGreggy” Miller, Blessing Adeoye, and Andy Cortez
Guest: Tegan AKA Lightweight Gaming

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Introduction

The episode begins with a brief exchange between hosts Greg Miller and Blessing Adio Yea Junior, welcoming Tegan AKA Lightweight Gaming back to the show. Light-hearted conversations about Greg's new peacoat set a casual tone as they segue into the main topic: reviewing "Assassin's Creed Shadows".

Notable Quote:

Greg Miller ([00:38]) – “Yo, what's up? Welcome to the kind of Funny Games cast for Tuesday, March 18, 2025.”

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Overview of Assassin's Creed Shadows

Greg introduces "Assassin's Creed Shadows," highlighting its setting in feudal Japan where players embody both shinobi assassins and legendary samurai. The game promises an expansive open world amidst chaos, offering a blend of stealth and action.

Notable Quote:

Greg Miller ([06:31]) – “Experience an epic action adventure story set in feudal Japan, become a lethal shinobi assassin and powerful legendary samurai as you explore a beautiful open world in a time of chaos.”

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Overall Impressions and Scoring

The hosts share their initial impressions of the game. Ryan Reynolds expresses strong enthusiasm, having dedicated 70 hours to the game and nearing platinum completion. Blessing rates the game a 7.5 out of 10, acknowledging both its strengths and areas needing improvement.

Notable Quotes:

Ryan Reynolds ([07:02]) – “Yes, it does. Yes, it does.”

Blessing Adio Yea Junior ([07:51]) – “I think Assassin's Creed Shadows is a 7.5. Good. I had a good time with it.”

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Story and Narrative

The panel discusses the story's strengths and weaknesses. While characters like Yasuke and Naoe receive praise for their development and interactions, the overall narrative suffers from unclear main storylines and an abrupt ending that leaves key plot points unresolved.

Notable Quotes:

Ryan Reynolds ([17:53]) – “I fell in love with Yasuke and Naoe. I couldn't put it down.”

Blessing Adio Yea Junior ([14:56]) – “It feels so much like Assassin's Creed, like, 'this is Assassin's Creed,' which is not a bad thing…”

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Characters

The hosts commend the depth and development of main characters Yasuke and Naoe. Their interactions add emotional weight and engagement to the narrative, enhancing the overall gaming experience.

Notable Quote:

Ryan Reynolds ([30:07]) – “I really loved Yasuke and Naoe. They interacted so well together.”

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Gameplay and Mechanics

Discussions focus on the dual protagonists and the balance between stealth and combat. While Ryan appreciates the variety and strategic choices, Tegan criticizes the traversal mechanics and repetitive side tasks that hinder immersive exploration.

Notable Quotes:

Tegan AKA Lightweight Gaming ([20:08]) – “I think it's good, just not good enough for me.”

Ryan Reynolds ([26:00]) – “I loved how they blended the stealth and the action.”

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Open World Design and Exploration

The panel critiques the open-world design for its linearity and lack of engaging exploration. Unlike more fluid systems in games like "Ghost of Tsushima," "Assassin's Creed Shadows" is seen as too restrictive, limiting player freedom and spontaneity.

Notable Quotes:

Blessing Adio Yea Junior ([24:00]) – “Exploration feels so linear... Doesn't captivate like other open worlds.”

Tegan AKA Lightweight Gaming ([26:08]) – “The traversal didn't feel effortless. It was conflicted experience.”

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Technical Performance

Technical issues such as frame rate drops and occasional crashes are discussed. Greg mentions experiencing frame rate drops when customizing the hideout, which detracts from the overall experience.

Notable Quotes:

Ryan Reynolds ([54:54]) – “Adjusting the hideout caused frame drops on base PlayStation.”

Blessing Adio Yea Junior ([55:21]) – “It feels like a solid 25 frames per second.”

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Comparison to Other Games

A significant portion of the discussion compares "Assassin's Creed Shadows" to "Ghost of Tsushima." While both games are set in similar historical periods, the hosts note that "Shadows" maintains the traditional Assassin’s Creed style, which may not appeal to fans seeking the more immersive and stylistically distinct experience of "Ghost."

Notable Quotes:

Ryan Reynolds ([50:04]) – “If you want something that's really fun in terms of just being an assassin or juggernaut samurai, and you are an Assassin's Creed fan, go with Assassin's Creed Shadows. I think there's a place for both.”

Tegan AKA Lightweight Gaming ([52:56]) – “Assassin's Creed Shadows dips their toe into it, but never does it in a style like Ghost.”

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Ranking of Assassin's Creed Games

Blessing presents a ranking of the Assassin’s Creed series, placing "Syndicate" at the top, followed by "Valhalla" and the original "Assassin's Creed." "Assassin's Creed Shadows" is positioned in the middle of the list, recognized as a solid entry but not the franchise pinnacle.

Notable Quotes:

Blessing Adio Yea Junior ([60:17]) – “[Shadows] sits kind of in that middle spot. I don't think it's a bad game. A lot of the middle is very solid.”

Ryan Reynolds ([61:13]) – “But it's still our solid mid-list Assassin's Creeds.”

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Conclusions and Final Thoughts

The hosts conclude with a balanced view of "Assassin's Creed Shadows." They acknowledge its enjoyable elements, such as character interactions and certain gameplay mechanics, while also pointing out flaws like constrained exploration and narrative inconsistencies. There is anticipation for future DLCs to address unresolved storylines.

Notable Quotes:

Greg Miller ([62:44]) – “I'll pick it up... give it a few more tries and see if it sticks with me.”

Blessing Adio Yea Junior ([61:17]) – “It's an interesting one. I don't think it's a bad game. I think a lot of the middle is very solid.”

Ryan Reynolds ([63:09]) – “If you like Assassin's Creed, go with Assassin's Creed Shadows. But I feel like there's a place for both Ghost and Assassin's Creed.”

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Final Remarks

"Assassin's Creed Shadows" receives a mixed to positive review on the Kinda Funny Gamescast. The game is praised for its rich setting and character development but critiqued for its linear exploration and narrative execution. The hosts recommend it to fans of the series who appreciate its unique elements while noting it may not satisfy those seeking a more open and stylistically immersive experience like "Ghost of Tsushima."

Notable Closing Quote:

Ryan Reynolds ([63:09]) – “If you like Assassin's Creed, go with Assassin's Creed Shadows. But I feel like there's a place for both Ghost and Assassin's Creed.”

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This summary captures the key points, discussions, insights, and conclusions from the podcast episode, integrating notable quotes with proper speaker attribution and timestamps. It is structured with clear sections for ease of reading and comprehension, providing a comprehensive overview for those who haven't listened to the episode.

Transcript

[Ryan Reynolds]

Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile with a message for everyone paying big wireless way too much. Please, for the love of everything good in this world, stop with Mint. You can get premium wireless for just $15 a month. Of course, if you enjoy overpaying, no judgments. But that's weird. Okay, one judgment anyway. Give it a try. @mintmobile.com Switch upfront payment of $45 for.

[Blessing Adio Yea Junior]

3 month plan equivalent to $15 per month. Required intro rate first 3 months only, then full price plan options available, taxes and fees extra.

[Ryan Reynolds]

See full [e-mail] foreign.

[Greg Miller]

Yo, what's up? Welcome to the kind of Funny Games cats for Tuesday, March 18, 2025. I'm one of your hosts, Blessing. Adio Yea Junior. Joining me is WWE legend Greg Miller.

[Tegan AKA Lightweight Gaming]

That's right, Blessing, how are you? Good to see you. This coat, if you're an audio listener, stop what you're doing, pull over to the side of the road, turn on the YouTube video because this man's got a peacoat and he's fucking crushing it.

[Blessing Adio Yea Junior]

I appreciate it.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah, I took a page out of Malcolm Moore's and went to the thrift store. Let me tell you, they got good stuff there.

[Blessing Adio Yea Junior]

Yeah, they got good stuff.

[Tegan AKA Lightweight Gaming]

How much is set you back, if you don't mind me asking?

[Greg Miller]

I mean, probably like 30 bucks.

[Tegan AKA Lightweight Gaming]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Greg Miller]

Feels good. I like it. Also joining us, of course is the CEO, Junior Bear Courtney.

[Blessing Adio Yea Junior]

Very hungover, very excited for you. I'm not even going to like hide it. I am so fudgeing hungover, y'all.

[Greg Miller]

I'm very excited. From the mix, from the Min Max meet Min Max meetup.

[Blessing Adio Yea Junior]

Hanging out, hanging out with the homies. Met the homie Charlie for the first time last night. Part of the Nas Nasty Boys. You know the Nasty Boys, you know, like all of them.

[Tegan AKA Lightweight Gaming]

It's better we don't know. It's better we don't know what that means.

[Blessing Adio Yea Junior]

You know, hanging out with the homie Janet as well and meeting Sarah for the first time and all that stuff. So yeah, it was a fun time. But yeah, it was.

[Tegan AKA Lightweight Gaming]

Review this for 2 hours and you're all set.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah. I love that you feel this way during the biggest bear review of the year.

[Blessing Adio Yea Junior]

Of course we're talking about probably right.

[Greg Miller]

Assassin's Creed Shadows, unless they somehow stealth released for some reason, this is going.

[Tegan AKA Lightweight Gaming]

To be like his Jordan flu game. You know what I mean? He's going to come out so hard on this one.

[Greg Miller]

He's going to put up so many threes. Also joining us, we have special guest Tegan AKA Lightweight Gaming returning to the show.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Tegan, so happy to be back. Thank you.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah, of course you've been on I believe PSLW and X cast in the past, is that correct?

[Ryan Reynolds]

Yes. Yep.

[Greg Miller]

And you're here to talk about some Assassin's Creed shadows. What's your history with Assassin's Creed?

[Ryan Reynolds]

So I am a big Assassin's Creed fan. Origins is my favorite, which I don't know how a lot of people feel about that, but I feel very strongly. We built our honeymoon around the locations for Brotherhood and two so Hell yeah.

[Greg Miller]

Hell yeah.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Another one that's one of my favorites that people don't typically like. So I'm going to get a lot of flack and I'm prepared. But Unity and Syndicate are some of my other favorites as well. So I feel like I bring slightly different take which I'm excited for. We'll see.

[Greg Miller]

Awesome. Well I'm excited to talk to you and this panel to talk. I just got lost my sense hangover.

[Blessing Adio Yea Junior]

Is like waving over here.

[Greg Miller]

I'm also slightly hungover from last night as well cuz yeah I did the Min Max meetup and then I went to the mix where I had two more glasses of wine and I always try to limit myself at one glass of wine cuz wine hits different for me nowadays. It's messed up.

[Blessing Adio Yea Junior]

Now that you're 30.

[Greg Miller]

Now that I'm 30.

[Tegan AKA Lightweight Gaming]

That'll do. That'll do.

[Greg Miller]

It's different. I'll turn it but let's talk about Assassin's Creed because remember this is the kind of funny games cast. Each and every weekday we get together and talk about the biggest reviews, previews and topics in video games live on YouTube, Twitch and on podcast services around the globe. If you love what we do, support us with the kind of Funny membership on Patreon, YouTube, Spotify or Apple podcasts to get all of our shows ad free, watch us record them live and get a daily exclusive show for a chance to be a part of the show. Some of your thoughts and opinions as YouTube super chats as we go. Housekeeping for you. We're in 11 person business all about live talk shows. KGD right before this was about PlayStation's big new games that they're working on. After this is the kind of funny podcast and after that is a nuzlocke girdle stream with Nick, Roger and Joey that it's just.

[Blessing Adio Yea Junior]

It's just Nuzlocke. It is just a nuzlocke Nuzlocke with.

[Greg Miller]

Nick and is it just Nick, Joey.

[Tegan AKA Lightweight Gaming]

Also on the ropes, I believe out there.

[Greg Miller]

I'll.

[Blessing Adio Yea Junior]

I'll be. I'll be on the ones and twos. Hungover being there as emotional support for Nick as he is lost without both Andy and.

[Tegan AKA Lightweight Gaming]

Well, he's never played a Pokemon before and we just tossed him in. He's only been playing.

[Greg Miller]

He doesn't know the types. Why did I ever matter, huh?

[Blessing Adio Yea Junior]

You're leaving too.

[Greg Miller]

I know, but you said he's lost out. Nick and Andy, Mike and Andy. But yes. Is. Is this like a situation where he's just grinding or is he actually going to try to make progress?

[Blessing Adio Yea Junior]

Find out. We'll find out.

[Tegan AKA Lightweight Gaming]

Here's the thing. Nick doesn't even know, okay? He'll sit down and play for an hour and then he'll decide what he's trying to accomplish.

[Blessing Adio Yea Junior]

Will we go back to them all?

[Tegan AKA Lightweight Gaming]

Probably My favorite was the the subreddit today thread of Just like he's wasting so much money. Why is he spending money like this in the game?

[Greg Miller]

I I do love seeing the Right regard slappy the the most backseat gaming threads I've ever seen my life where people just are watching Nick and they're like I thing I can't just keep letting this slide.

[Blessing Adio Yea Junior]

I mean I can only imagine how painful it is to watch a 40 plus year old man play a game.

[Greg Miller]

For 12 year olds and lose half the party in the process. Because I did catch the last stream. At least the last part of the last stream. And let me tell you, if you haven't been watching the Nuzlocke, you got to check out the Nuzlocke.

[Tegan AKA Lightweight Gaming]

Good stuff.

[Greg Miller]

If you're a kind of funny member, you can get today's Greg Way, which.

[Tegan AKA Lightweight Gaming]

Is I'm going to do it on the way to GDC this morning. I had a rough morning so came in, didn't have it ready to give.

[Greg Miller]

Check that out when it goes up later. Of course, thank you to our Patreon producers, Delaney Twining, Carl Jacobs and Omega Buster. Today we're brought to you by Shady Rays, Meundies and Factor, but we'll tell you about that later. For now, let's start with topic of the show. Assassin's Creed Shadows, a game that was supposed to come out last November, got delayed into this year, got delayed into February, and then got delayed again into March. Finally it is coming out. Finally, people at this panel have played it, are ready to talk about it to give a quick synopsis. Of course people know what Assassin's Creed is. People know what Assassin's Creed Shadow is. But to set the stage, I'm pulling from the steam description here. Experience an epic action adventure story set in feudal Japan, become a lethal shinobi assassin and powerful legendary samurai as you explore a beautiful open world in a time of chaos. Barrett, you are the Assassin's Creed guy.

[Tegan AKA Lightweight Gaming]

Here at Kinda Funny, he is the animus.

[Greg Miller]

I'm not gonna start with you.

[Tegan AKA Lightweight Gaming]

Oh, all right.

[Greg Miller]

I wanna save you for last. I wanna. I wanna. I wanna let this marinate for a second. Greg.

[Tegan AKA Lightweight Gaming]

Hi.

[Greg Miller]

I'm not gonna start with you either, Tegan. I'm starting with you. Of course. Now, Assassin's Creed Shadows has had a lot of hype going into it, I'd say, for the simple fact that it's the Assassin's Creed that everybody's been asking for, takes place in feudal Japan, lets you do samurai shit. Tegan, for you, does Assassin's Creed Shadows live up to the hype of, you know, what we've been building towards with it?

[Ryan Reynolds]

Well, I just checked and I'm 70 hours in and two trophies away from the platinum, so I'm going to say yes. Yes, it does.

[Greg Miller]

Wow. Now, for you, as an Assassin's Creed fan, like, what are your overall thoughts here about it?

[Ryan Reynolds]

Overall, this is my second favorite, just under Origins. Obviously, it is not a perfect game. I have things that I would like to point out that I would like to have improved on it, but overall, I absolutely loved it. I loved some of the characters and their storylines and I couldn't put it down. Hence the reason I have 70 hours in it.

[Greg Miller]

Oh, yeah. Now, on the kind of funny scale, of course, we work off of a 20 point scale, technically a 19 point.

[Blessing Adio Yea Junior]

Scale, but, you know, I think a 0.5 can exist.

[Tegan AKA Lightweight Gaming]

I agree.

[Blessing Adio Yea Junior]

But what about Gollum?

[Greg Miller]

What about a 10.5?

[Blessing Adio Yea Junior]

No, that's. No, stop that. That's insane.

[Greg Miller]

So we have the kind of funny scale, which you can see if you're watching the video version here, right, where 10 is masterpiece, 9 is amazing, 8 is great, 7 is good, and so on and so forth. What would you give Assassin's Creed Shadow out of 10?

[Ryan Reynolds]

I would give this a 9 out of 10 for myself. I think it was an amazing game that I was. It lived up to the hype that I had for sure.

[Greg Miller]

Oh, yeah. Greg Miller.

[Tegan AKA Lightweight Gaming]

Hi.

[Greg Miller]

What do you think about Assassin's Creed Shadows?

[Tegan AKA Lightweight Gaming]

What a big question. Blessing. Thank you for asking it. You know, we did. We've been through the ringer with Assassin's Creed Shadows. Right. I went and saw it at SGF when they did the presentation alongside outlaws, I liked what I saw. They talked a lot about how this is going to be a very modern Assassin's Creed. They had a whole bunch of new ideas. Then you jump to Barrett and I doing the hands on preview, which was what, four hours, six hours, whatever. They let us play that day.

[Blessing Adio Yea Junior]

Yeah.

[Tegan AKA Lightweight Gaming]

And Barrett and I both came back like, yeah, it's Assassin's Creed. It's. It's. It's Assassin's Creed, which is not a bad thing. It's just. It's Assassin's Creed. I am going to abstain from giving a score on Assassin's Creed Shadows.

[Blessing Adio Yea Junior]

Coward.

[Tegan AKA Lightweight Gaming]

I'm. Well, hear me out. Right? I'm 13 hours in. My take on this is using the colloquial words here, not using an adjective to actually assign a score because I don't think I've played enough to do that. Assassin's Creed Shadows is a good game. I just don't think it's good enough as I. I think it might just be that I'm officially burned out on the Assassin's Creed formula. There's a lot of reviews up. They're all. Not all positive. There's many positive reviews up. Right. We're seeing a lot of. It's an 82 on Metacritic right now. Something that resonated with me was Dual Shockers, which is the most negative one I've seen so far. It's a 5.5 out of 10 scroll all the way back at the top. The writer is Ethan Krieger. Ethan's closing remarks. Right. His final outro here as he gets ready to give his verdict that I'm scrolling back because it's a very long review. Good job, Ethan, writing so much. But he goes. Assassin's Creed Shadow is a bloated collection of uninspired quests that quickly turn into a repetitive, boring grind. I'm on the other side of where Tegan is, where I. Every time I put down Assassin's Creed Shadows, I wasn't excited to pick it back up. I was excited to play something else or do. I didn't I commit to what I'm reviewing or playing. Right. And I had a week with this game based on how schedule shook out. But then it's also GDC week. And yet my thing about it was there's a very definitive point of I won't be picking this game back up. It's gonna get uninstalled when I get back to my PlayStations. But there's a point last night where I was Playing and it's like, okay, I was running around playing this as Greg Miller plays open world games.

[Blessing Adio Yea Junior]

Cool.

[Tegan AKA Lightweight Gaming]

Well, I am. They have it back broken up into zones where it's like, this is, you know, the. Your. The. The level you should be or what the level the enemies are going to be here, the ones that are too crazy or red. Right. And if I could, I was running to every one of those synchronization points and setting it off and having my towers and ready to go and blah, blah, blah. And last night, there was a thing where it's like, all right, cool. You got to go talk to this person. And I said, all right. And I threw open the map, and that quest was all the way across the open world. And I had. It's well beyond where I was with my points. And I looked at it and I'm like. Like, I am not looking forward to the horseback ride all the way over there. I've already, in 13 hours, had my fill of synchronization points. I've had my fill of going into the enemy camps and all right, I got to find five of these leaders to take out to then get the chest to do this. I'm like, I just don't want to do that. And that was the thing for me. It's like, there's nothing wrong with this game from my limited time with it, to say, like, it's broken. It's this. It's that Combat is enjoyable. The world is gorgeous. They're doing a lot of fun things in there. I'm not vibing with the story. I think it's. There is very much like, this is Assassin's Creed put into feudal Japan. Like, these are the. Like, I know this mechanic from the other ones I've played. I know what I'm doing, and I got to go discover this guy. And there's good and bad to all that, but it was just the thing of, like, I saw that last night. I'm like, no, I'm good. I'm not craving this. I'm full.

[Greg Miller]

Wow. Barrett, I'm going to throw to you, but before I do, I want to talk. You played a little about me. Yeah.

[Blessing Adio Yea Junior]

Yeah.

[Greg Miller]

So originally, I wasn't going to be on this review, but then the other day at work, I looked you, Barrett, I was like, man, y'all. Y'all are gatekeeping a little bit about this. Y'all were gatekeeping. Because the. The deal with me in Assassin's Creed is that I have never been an Assassin's Creed person. I remember back when I was in college, my friends James and Stevie, they loved Assassin's Creed. They'll talk about the Assassin's Creed lore. They would talk about what's the name of homeboy? That was, like, in the modern day. That was going, Desmond, come on.

[Tegan AKA Lightweight Gaming]

Never forget Desmond.

[Greg Miller]

They'll talk about, like, the modern day story and, like, the theories around it. And they were hyped into Assassin's Creed. So much so that it infected me a little bit of, oh, I. I should. I should check this out. I should play this game. So I borrowed Assassin's Creed one from James. Played all the way through it, struggled through it. Not that was hard, but more so just that I wasn't loving it, right? I was kind of bored going through it, finished it. And they were like, all right. But Assassin's Creed 2 is, like, where it gets good. You should check it out. Yeah. And I started playing, and I was, oh, it's a me, Mario. I like that joke. And then, like, I started. I got further into it, and I just couldn't do it. Like, Assassin's Creed just wasn't working for me. I tried dipping into Black Flag when that came out. And there's something about the Assassin's Creed franchise. There's. I mean, there's a deeper discussion we could have about it because it is, I think, that Ubisoft open world formula, the kind of like, check, check, not checkpoint, checkbox, thank you, checkbox nature of it. That doesn't necessarily resonate with me. So I've been out of the Assassin's Creed game forever, essentially. And, you know, ever since Ghost of Tsushima, I've been in the mind of, like, maybe I'll check out this Feudal Japan one. Because I do like the setting. I do like that direction for an open world. That seems like it'd be fun in the Assassin's Creed world. And a few nights ago, I'm hanging out, I hanging out with my friend Avery, right? And we're looking for a game to play, and we're trying to figure out, like, all right, I'll play this game for you. It's like a Tough Souls kind of thing. I don't know if that's gonna be enjoyable, like, for you to watch, for us to play together. She starts playing lost records, and it's like, all right, I don't know if I'm feeling this. And I tell her, I'm like, I got Assassin's Creed downloaded for the record. Avery also has a review code. I'm not breaking embargo.

[Tegan AKA Lightweight Gaming]

Sure you aren't. What albums does Avery work for?

[Greg Miller]

But, you know, we're like, okay, you broke out the NDA sign this first. But she's like, oh, yeah, I played the prologue. Like, you should check out the prologue, see what's up. So I start playing through and I get to the end of the prologue. Probably takes me about an hour and a half to get there. And I was shocked by how into it I was. The world is beautiful, the game is beautiful, the combat. Early on I was like, oh, I can kind of. I'm kind of feeling this. I kind of like where this is going, the intro of it. Like, you're like, learning a little bit about Yasuke's character, learning a little bit about now his character, and kind of like getting a feel for the world. It reminded me of watching Shogun back when that came out on Hulu. Of course, not that it's like one for one of like, the seriousness of Shogun and like, how grounded that show is, but there's something there in terms of setting and world that has already.

[Tegan AKA Lightweight Gaming]

Grabbed me to where the premise is really good. I think from that prologue where it starts. That's what you came away from the preview with Mito.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah. And so right now I'm in a place where I'm excited to play more. Not saying that I'm going to stick with it forever, but this is the most excited I am to play an Assassin's Creed. Now, Barrett, for you, as somebody who has played all the Assassin's Creed Creeds.

[Tegan AKA Lightweight Gaming]

Ranked and reviewed them for, kind of funny I said, I, you know, old habits.

[Blessing Adio Yea Junior]

Maybe we'll get an update on that later.

[Greg Miller]

Assassin's Creed Shadows. What does it do for you?

[Blessing Adio Yea Junior]

It's interesting, right? Like, we, it's. We haven't just been waiting for this game for six months with its delay. We've been waiting for Assassin's Creed Shadows for a decade at this point. Right? Like in the fervor of Assassin's Creed when it was at its popularity peak with like Black Flag and like the. The PS3 Xbox 360 generation, fans have been begging for Feudal Japan Assassins Creed. And I think after a decade long wait, I really wish they made the game back then. And I. I feel like the anticipation for this game reached a level that I don't know if it was ever going to live up to what we've built up in our heads as fans. I think very often Shadows is a game that doesn't know what it wants to be in terms of gameplay, in terms of exploration. I think A lot of mechanics are singular good ideas, but then will conflict with other things that kind of take away from the exploration of the world in terms of playing around with gameplay mechanics, taking out castles, camps, all that stuff. And in terms of story, I think there's a lot of promise there, but I don't think it fully lives up to what it sells. The very first, like, two hours. And I only finally got very invested in it in the last five hours of the game. And then the game ended. It was like, oh, man, this is what the entire story should have been as an Assassin's Creed fan. And I think it's just very interesting that the promise of Feudal Japan, Assassin's Creed, it was like, I want to see that world and that lore of Assassin's Creed injected into this. This kind of era. Right. And I think the game spends so much time trying to shy away from that, and I feel like it pulls its punches a lot. And so with all that, I. I think Assassin's Creed shadows is a 7.5. Good. I had a good time with it. I don't think it's a bad game. I just think it has a lot of interesting and confusing choices made that kind of get in the way of the fun a lot of the times. And yeah, as far as, like, the open world stuff, of the open world Assassin's Creeds, I think it's the weakest of the modern Assassin's Creed games. So, yeah. Overall thoughts.

[Greg Miller]

Wow.

[Blessing Adio Yea Junior]

I'm gonna stop myself there because now I feel like I'm just, like, talking.

[Greg Miller]

So I want to throw back to Tegan because now that we've gotten the overall thoughts, I want to get into the specific elements of this. I want to talk about story, I guess, to start off right, because I think a lot of people go to the Assassin's Creed games to, you know, get to know the characters, get to get into the quests and enjoy the stories of the quests and do all these different things. Right. Tegan, on the narrative level, like, did you enjoy the story of Assassin's Creed Shadows? What did that do for you?

[Ryan Reynolds]

I did. I will say it took me a while to get into it, so I totally see where Greg is coming from with, like, the first, I would say, act one, I really loved Naoe's character, but you were pretty much locked into one character for almost the entire first act. And while I liked her character, I wanted to also play as the other one. I wanted to see what that other character is all about. I wanted to see the story. So I Don't think I really started falling in love with the story until Act 2. The end of Act 1, there's a big crescendo moment that really solidified. Like, okay, I'm invested. I want to know where this is going. I want to keep playing this. And it did have those big story beats that absolutely caught my attention and absolutely made me want to keep playing. I think part of the downfall and part of the criticism I do have for it is there the golden path, like the main storyline is not necessarily clear. There was one point towards the end where I still hadn't rolled credits, but I felt like I should. And I was like, I don't know what I need to do in order to roll credits. And typically, I'm not necessarily one who's playing a game just to try to roll credits, but with a review, you know, I wanted to try to beat it so that I could talk. And I wasn't exactly sure, okay, what's main story, what side content? What do I actually need to do? So I think I do have some positives about that, but that also took away from the story a bit because some of those storylines weren't the strongest. So I think the main story really does shine, especially at one point. It does a little offshoot of a main story for Yasuke, an offshoot of a main story for Naoe, and those two in particular, especially Yasuke's really, really, really amazing stories. I teared up at one point with Yasuke's story and got, like, goosebumps all over my body, and I was so excited. But because there isn't necessarily that clear golden path with the story, sometimes it gets a little muddled, and then you're like, wait, is this actually as good as I think it is? And then you realize, oh, no, I've been doing side content. Maybe that's why I don't like it as much. Let me go back to this main thing and get back on this main path. But it does get a little confusing sometimes about what you actually need to do as part of that main story.

[Greg Miller]

I want to bring in a super chat. I want to throw this one at Greg. Seth Sanders writes in and says, if I'm not tired of the UiSoft formula, will I like it, you think?

[Tegan AKA Lightweight Gaming]

Again, I'm not saying it's a 4.5 or something like that, right? If I. I'm saying it's good, just not good enough for me, which does, without doing it, put me in the sevens range. So, yeah, I think you would. Again, it strikes Me so much jumping in and playing this. I was immediately like, oh, man. Like, this is doing what Rise of Ronin did for me in a way where it is like, cool. This is just checklist. Go over there, do that. I just think the traversal was more fun in Rise of Ronin. Do we ever get a wingsuit in this like we did in Assassin's Creed 2, right?

[Blessing Adio Yea Junior]

Yeah.

[Tegan AKA Lightweight Gaming]

No, I think that was like, the biggest thing where I'd get up to these high points and sink. And then I'd be like, man, I wish this is Rise of Ronin where I could just jump off and go over there. Because, like, I can't. I gotta slowly go back down, then find the thing.

[Greg Miller]

Jump Demon hacker super chats and says, Assassin's Creed Shadows or Rise of the Ronin.

[Tegan AKA Lightweight Gaming]

I mean, let's be frank. I mean, this is a better game. Like, I enjoyed Rise of Ronin for what it was. You go back and watch that. And I think this is an interesting one where if you go back and watch that. P.S. i love you. I think where we reviewed Rise of Ronin, I'm. I was like, I like, slop, give me slop. Give me the checklist. Give me the things to do. It's the fact that I think the open world segment of Rise of the Ronin flowed better than this one does. Yes. My problem here is going up. Sink the point. All right, cool. Now I slowly come back down. Okay, now I need to get out of. There was points of, you know, you get into these giant encampments and you got to find the five bosses or whatever. And I could not. I asked you one point. I was playing at the couch. I'm like, am I missing? Is there a power up or a special? Like, I can't find this last guy. I've been running around and it left. And I found him finally, and I killed him. And then it was like, okay, cool. Now I got to get out of here. So I go over the wall and I come back down and I jump into the water and I swim out of the water. All right, where can I actually climb up this? All right, climb up here, get to the top. There's another moat. Jump in the water, come back down. Like, this isn't cool. And I can't fast travel out of it because it's an enemy encampment, so it's still red. These are. Is this nitpicky? Too negative about games? No, I'm telling you what broke the traversal cycle for me where it didn't feel effortless, like, I never had this problem In Rise of the Ronin. I never had this problem in Ghost. I didn't have this problem in Odyssey. Like, I adore Odyssey as even Valhalla, which was too big of a game, I felt, and went on too long. I have so many positive remember remembrances, positive memories. Jesus Christ of Valhalla. Even though I never rolled credits, but I put, like, 55 hours into it.

[Blessing Adio Yea Junior]

Yeah, this game, like Assassin's Creed games are all about, especially these modern ones, all about exploration. And this game does so much to make exploration not interesting or not captivating. A lot of like, there's so many goddamn sync points in this game, and every time you go up to one, you look around and it's just the. It's just question marks. And then, like, that's fine. It's like, okay, there's a sense of mystery. Like, there's a thing to do over there. Or maybe not. Maybe it's just a town and that's just what the question mark is. But then, like, the landscape, none of it is naturally, like, interesting. Like, oh, there's like, a. A thing here that would want me to, like, draw me, you know, like the. What is it, the Bethesda rule of three or whatever. There's always, like, three things that you can see, like, walking around that, like, interest you and engage you into going and exploring. This game doesn't really have that. They really leaned into making Japan feel very realistic to, like, this part of Japan. A lot of mountains, a lot of just, like, trees to look at and stuff. And I think with that, it just leaning so heavy into that, I think gets in the way of what modern Assassin's Creed games did so well, which is exploring around, getting lost and, you know, constantly finding something that you're engaged with and the things that you are finding throughout. There's a lot of just, like, rinse and repeat activities that after a couple of times, you're like, you know, one or two times of, like, praying at shrines, buying these shrines, or, you know, finding these lost pages.

[Tegan AKA Lightweight Gaming]

Find these scrolls, Barrett.

[Blessing Adio Yea Junior]

Let's find these lost pages that aren't interesting collectibles. God forbid they have, like, historical facts on them or, like, lore or anything. Nah, they're just lost pages, nothing more.

[Tegan AKA Lightweight Gaming]

To jump back in here. This was again where I was like, oh, man, this isn't going to be one for me. Where it was these things when I got there and I saw the. I got to go all the way over there and I saw the question marks in the untamed map. It wasn't that Excitement of I can't wait to get to that sync point and see what's there. It was like, I know what's going to be there. It's going to be a burned out house that I climb up and look around like, okay, cool. And again, that's not bad. I think if. I don't know, I don't. I don't. Because I still love open world games. I still love checklists. I don't think this is the indictment of that. It's just that I didn't think it was fun to go from point A.

[Greg Miller]

To point B. Tegan.

[Ryan Reynolds]

I will say going off of that, the other thing is too. It gives you an option where it will give you like the line on the ground to follow if you select where you want to go. And you absolutely needed that because this is the first AC game in a long time where you couldn't just go off roading. Um, anytime I tried. Like, there was one time I almost had like a Skyrim moment because I ended up sliding down a hill because you can't climb anything that's not meant to be climbed. So I started sliding down this hill that I thought I could climb, got stuck in a bush and then started glitching out. And then all of a sudden I flung in the air like I had gotten hit by a giant in Skyrim. And I thought that was the funniest thing. But after that moment I was like, okay, I really cannot be going off roading and climbing up these hills. You really have to follow the designated paths, which again, I feel like I'm saying a lot of negative things, but I really did love this game. I have more positives, I promise. No, you're doing great. But you really do have to follow that line and go where that line wants you to go because the foliage is so dense. Like Barrett said, they made it look very realistic and feel very realistic from this region of Japan, like for the topography. But that makes it really impossible to go off roading. Which. One of the things that I really liked about Valhalla Odyssey Origins was that you could kind of go wherever the heck you wanted to go. Exactly. You couldn't really do that here.

[Blessing Adio Yea Junior]

Yeah, right there with you.

[Tegan AKA Lightweight Gaming]

The amount of times I'm running up and sliding and falling down and then.

[Blessing Adio Yea Junior]

It was exploration feels so linear. And that being in an open world game, I think it's just. That's what I talked about in the beginning. I feel like it's so conflicting with.

[Tegan AKA Lightweight Gaming]

And it's this weird choice. I feel of all Right, cool. I'm right there with you, Tegan. Of like, okay, cool. I've learned my lesson. I can't just climb over the mountain, which sucks, but I want to get to the thing. I throw down the line, which already then feels too handholdy for me. But then I'm like, all right, I've gone that far. I then let go of the sticks and I'm like, oh, it's not auto follow. Like the horse isn't going to go on its own. Like so many games do that where you can hold. But I actually have to. Just now I'm just pushing the horse along the white line. I'm like, this sucks even more.

[Blessing Adio Yea Junior]

Yeah. Which I think, correct me if I'm wrong, I think you could do auto like pathing.

[Ryan Reynolds]

I thought so too, because I was like, my muscle memory tried to turn it on and then my horse just stopped moving. And I was like, wait, why? Why am I not following this path? Like, I want to eat my snack.

[Tegan AKA Lightweight Gaming]

Yeah, exactly, right? I'm like, all right, cool. Make it cinematic and go. Because again, the world's beautiful. But like, no.

[Greg Miller]

And Tegan, I do want to hear more some of your positives. Right. I think you came out of this sounding like the person who's like the most, you know, high on Assassin's Creed Shadows. What are some of the things you like the most about the game?

[Ryan Reynolds]

I really, I loved the characters. I know I had mentioned the main story was really good, but I really, I fell in love with Yasuke and Naoe. I loved how they interacted with each other. I thought the world itself was absolutely beautiful. And where I differ with Barret and Greg, I found going to those question marks, I really enjoyed doing that because I felt like it actually had purpose to it for me. Yes, it was disappointing you couldn't read those pages. I thought, okay, if you're going to have me collect pages, at least put something short on there. Like, hey, this shrine you worship Buddha at or something, you know, like something. Something small. And they did have that in other capacities. But if, again, if you're gonna make me collect those sheets, give me a little something. But they did lead to things like knowledge points, which you need if you wanna unlock the next tier of the skill tree. They did lead to with there's this one little meditation spot that leads to a minigame which gets really frickin hard, by the way. I felt like such a moron for some of them. I was like, I cannot do this. It took me way too long. But those sometimes Led to little flashback side quests which I thought were really cool. And sometimes just like a little haiku or a little anecdote or something like that. But I still found enjoyment out of those. So I liked going to the question marks. But I do agree it was a pain in the ass to get to them sometimes because you really just had to follow. And then there's one trophy where it's like, get to the highest point of the map. And I was overthinking it and I was trying to find the mountain that was going to be the highest and you can't off road. So I was like, how the hell am I supposed to get up there? And I totally overthought it. It was much simpler than it needed than I was making it. But so I thought they improved the exploration from Valhalla. One of my things with Valhalla, it was too bloated. There was too many things that didn't do anything for me. And with this, if I was finding stuff, I could use it to upgrade my camp or I could use it to upgrade my armor, my. My skill points for my abilities and that sort of thing. So I thought that they really trimmed that down. And then I like how it. They blended the stealth and the action. I. I loved Syndicate with the two characters, but there reason to switch between the characters. Like, I wanted to play as Evie, so I just played as Evie. There was no reason for me to switch who I wanted to play with this. There absolutely is a time and a place to play as each character depending on how you want to tackle something. And I think they did really good job in my opinion of having situations where, you know, okay, Naoe's definitely gonna be better for this. Okay, Yasuke is definitely gonna be better for this. And you can choose how you wanted to play it. And I thought it was really interesting. I was quickly like scanning through some reviews before I went live here, and some people were like, oh, no, just do Naoe. It was just. You can tell it's Taylor for Naoe. And I was like, that's interesting because I felt like that was tailored towards Yasuke. So I think it really depends on how you want to play it. And those two characters felt so different. So I actually was taking time to say, okay, do I want to play as Naoe here or do I want to be more head on approach here? What am I actually going to lead to? Because if I fail at stealth, then I'm going to get my butt kicked with Naowe. So do I want to just go and swords blazing, if you will. So all of those things, I think they definitely improved on. And I'm gonna stop talking because I feel like I've been talking too long now.

[Greg Miller]

No, I mean, I'm gonna. I'm gonna throw back to you in a second because I do want to.

[Tegan AKA Lightweight Gaming]

You're not off the hook. Yeah.

[Greg Miller]

I do want to ask about like, you know, the now way and yasi aspect of it and you know, you, I know you met, you mentioned that you really like Syndicate. I know. Barrett, your favorite is Syndicate.

[Blessing Adio Yea Junior]

Syndicate is the factually the best one.

[Greg Miller]

Yes.

[Tegan AKA Lightweight Gaming]

What's your favorite?

[Blessing Adio Yea Junior]

Syndicate.

[Greg Miller]

Okay.

[Blessing Adio Yea Junior]

But it's also factually the best one.

[Greg Miller]

Factually the best one. So I do have questions about the dual protagonist thing. Right. That it has in common.

[Blessing Adio Yea Junior]

Syndicate.

[Tegan AKA Lightweight Gaming]

That's my man.

[Greg Miller]

But before we get there, I want to tell you about patreon.com kind of funny and YouTube.com kind of funny games where you can go and get the kind of funny membership which allows you to get shows ad free. And speaking of ads, let us tell you about our sponsors.

[E]

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[Greg Miller]

And Rebecca and Barrett, I want you to know that you shook the world when you said that Syndicate is actually the best I saw chat erupting Sarus801 writes in and says says Assassin's Creed. Brotherhood is factually the best AC game. Syndicate was good but does not have the sauce from the SEO trilogy.

[Blessing Adio Yea Junior]

Syndicate is the better version of Brotherhood.

[Tegan AKA Lightweight Gaming]

Wow.

[Blessing Adio Yea Junior]

That's crazy.

[Greg Miller]

He's not wrong. He's not wrong.

[Blessing Adio Yea Junior]

It's almost as good as Odyssey. Here's the thing. It's like we have a factually correct ranking that we'll get to later. We'll get to and we can show you guys.

[Greg Miller]

One rogue employee put it together.

[Tegan AKA Lightweight Gaming]

You know what I mean?

[Blessing Adio Yea Junior]

One rogue employee who played all of them back to back over the course of a year.

[Tegan AKA Lightweight Gaming]

That's why we call him CEO Junior.

[Greg Miller]

He did the signing science. He did the science. Everybody, I have been fascinated. I think everybody's been interested in. All right, dual protagonist. We're going back to the syndicate thing. You're gonna have now you're gonna have Yasuke. They play very differently. Does that work?

[Blessing Adio Yea Junior]

Yes, I, I really, I, I think it's very weird. Like we were saying earlier that there's a long time where you don't get to play as Yasuke. And I think that's a very weird decision to introduce him and then be like, oh, you like that? You. You're not gonna be able to play as him for 12 hours. It's like, okay, cool. But in a gameplay sense, when you get to finally play as him again, there is this like level of power fantasy that comes along with Yasuke where you know, when you get caught as now a and you have are forced into fights, like even a two on one can be a little bit like of a rough time if you get like one kind of thing wrong in terms of dodging. Yeah. Or someone's got armor and stuff like that. And then to play as the Oscar and you're, you're messing up like six, seven dudes all at once. It, it feels good. It feels really fun to play as. And I, I, I do agree is that I think the a lot of level design or castle design camp design stuff feels well designed for both of them if you want to play as one or the other. I was spending a lot of time in the last like 10 hours kind of like deciding to play as Yasuke in camps because I like, you know, Assassin's Creed. I like playing stealthy. I like doing all that stuff and mastering all of that. But I was like, okay, I'm gonna do this on purpose. And yeah, playing as him, there's a different type of exhilaration in terms of just like messing dudes up and then also not being able to have like the, Was it the Eagle site or whatever? Like, you don't get to tag people the same way. And so there's like a, there's a fun level of just like, oh, who's around the corner type of thing. Like, is it going to be five dudes? Is it going to be a solo dude? Is it going to be a big dude? You know, And I think that stuff is fun.

[Tegan AKA Lightweight Gaming]

I have a question based on the one, the only, the Don, Imran Khan, who was popping off on Blue sky today talking about this. He said Because I. I've. When I. I have unlocked Yasuke. I got through Act 1. I did all that. But it was that thing of then anytime the choice popped up, my. I'm committed. I'm now a. You know, I mean, I've come this far. I've leveled it up. I know what I'm doing. I enjoy the gameplay again. Like, I. It'll never not be fun to hide in a bush. Whistle stabs me in the face. Come through, you know. But Imran put this out there and I don't. I want to know from both you and Lightweight. Of course, the addition of Yasuke makes the game more fun in terms of battles, but also undercuts now his gameplay. Why would I sneak around an enemy camp picking off guards one by one when Yasuke can literally run in, kick people across the camp? 20 minute sections become one minute, which kind of sucks.

[Blessing Adio Yea Junior]

I thi. My rebuttal to that is like, they're. To me, at least they're both fun. So it's just like whatever you're in the mood for. Like, if you want to like, slowly and methodically take people down. Like, I don't think having the option to do the other way, it takes away from that. I think that it just gives you the option. Because here's the other thing is that realistically, you could kind of do that in the other games too. Like An Odyssey and Valhalla. It felt like, especially like the two sides that Yasuke Nowe kind of represent in terms of these modern Assassin's Creed games were boiled down to one character in the last couple of games. So you could go into a camp and just start messing people up if you wanted to. They've just designed it in a way to like, if you're gonna go into a camp, you're locked into one. And so I. I personally, I find that a bit more interesting than having both accessible to you at all times.

[Tegan AKA Lightweight Gaming]

That makes sense.

[Blessing Adio Yea Junior]

That's my takeaway.

[Tegan AKA Lightweight Gaming]

So you can, I assume, same for you.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Yeah. It really just came down to what do I feel like doing at this moment? Um, and I also. It depended on the season too, because I thought there were certain seasons that were more fun to stealth in and certain seasons that were more fun to just go in as Yasuke and destroy everything.

[Tegan AKA Lightweight Gaming]

Talk to me about that. What was your favorite season to stealth in?

[Ryan Reynolds]

I. So I thought spring and summer, because you could go in the rivers and you could breathe through a little reed to hide. You had the grasses that were dead in the wintertime, but then on the other hand, winter was really cool too, because there was icicles and things everywhere. So it was more of a challenge because if I was running on the rooftops, they would hear the icicles fall, and all of a sudden, now the AI I will say the AI was pretty smart in this. In comparison to other Assassin's Creed games where if I kept assassinating people from the rooftops, they were starting to check the rooftops, and then they were seeing me all the time, and I was like, what the heck? Why are they seeing me? Why are they looking up? And I was like, oh, well. Because if I was in real life getting murdered from the rooftops, I would also check the rooftops. So I thought the seasons, really, depending on what you liked from the season, would help kind of choose what path you want to take. Also, I thought it was really funny because Yasuke trying to run on ice was hysterical. He would just slip and slide all over the place. But also he could run through snow where Naoe was really slow in the snow. So I think with the different seasons, with the different style of gameplay you want to play, it really is just to give you more options. There isn't one reason, like you have to play as this one or the other. It's what do you want to do and how can I give the player choice in what they want to do and how they want to play this? And I think they really did a great job of if you liked something like Mirage, that was back to the stealth roots, you can do that with Naoe. If you like something like Valhalla and you wanted to just destroy everything as Yasuke. Especially by late game. By late game. My Yasuke in particular was so op. I had this two move set where I could literally just destroy people in two hits if they had armor and one if they they didn't. And it was awesome. And I felt like a God and probably felt like what he would have really felt like in real life if he was towering over all these people. So it really just came down to what do you feel like doing and how do you want to play? And they gave you the option to do that. And I really appreciated that.

[Tegan AKA Lightweight Gaming]

Love that.

[Greg Miller]

I got a super chat from Spilling the Beans, who writes in and says, I'm in agreement with Lightweight's review. Love that you're not punished for sticking with one character in the game. Shadows is my favorite after Brotherhood.

[Tegan AKA Lightweight Gaming]

What up, Beans?

[Greg Miller]

What up, Beans? Hey, Beans. I want to talk about the direction of Assassin's Creed because ever since Origins, it feels like they took a step into making it a bit more open, a bit more bigger of a game, a bit more RPG elements are integrated a bit more. And as we've been going, I've always listened to KHD and I listen to the kinda funny stuff before I worked at kinda funny. And I would hear Greg talk about the bloatedness or I'd hear people in general, honestly talk about, oh man, these games are getting bigger and bigger to the point where it's like you're playing Odyssey and it's, oh man, I put in 80 hours into this thing. When we're talking about Assassin's Creed Shadows, how does this game. Kevin, I think your mics on. How does this game, I guess take the direction of Assassin's Creed? Do you play this one and go, all right, we're headed in the right place or does it feel like we're standing in the same spot with it?

[Blessing Adio Yea Junior]

I. I personally think we're. It's not the same spot and I don't think it's the right place or the wrong place. Like, I think in terms of map size, this is maybe a little bit bigger than Origins, but it's incredibly dense. There's a lot to do within a lot that they put in. Now, granted, is a lot of that stuff very rinse and repeat kind of doing the same stuff over and over again. Yes. And I think in terms of like my biggest hang up with the open world is like the exploration and getting to those things that I think is very hampered. So I think it's a different spot that I don't know if I would want them to kind of repeat after this game. But yeah, it's an interesting one.

[Tegan AKA Lightweight Gaming]

I mean, obviously my take on it as somebody who's tapping out on it would be that I feel like they're. I feel it's a bit lost right now. I think Barrett talking about it being conflicted experience is that my. My push would be I'd want to see them bring this down and not go all killer. No filler. But I would. I mean, like, I think, and I know this sucks to keep comparing these games, but Ghost of Tsushima, right, I felt like was such a great pace between, hey, here's all the stuff you can go do if you want to, but it's also just fun to get to the next thing. And here's the story beating three sections. There you go. That's the game. I would rather see something more condensed like that because again, the sprawl of this game is where I'm looking at it going like, I ain't got 48 hours in me, 70 hours in me to go do this, and I'm not hooked in by the story enough to where I need to see that. I feel like the story starts. That prologue again is strong to set these characters up by the time we get back to Yasuke. As Tegan pointed out, the Act 1 into Act 2 finale there does a really cool thing of, yeah, oh, boom. This is the setup.

[Blessing Adio Yea Junior]

And it's cool. That's like, oh, wow, we're finally here.

[Tegan AKA Lightweight Gaming]

Yeah, that is cool. But it's, again, not cool enough where I'm like, I. I want to. I want to put up with the rest of it, even if. And then I feel like I'd be playing the game wrong. As I've been told and avowed. When I made the blasphemous comment of saying, well, I noticed that, you know, I was getting closer reviews. I started doing just the main stuff, and people ate me, ate me alive. Like, oh, my God, you know, I mean, so I'm playing this game the way I play the games when I feel them, but I'm not feeling in the loop anyways. So then to sit there and be like, well, now I'm just gonna run to every main objective. I'm like, that's gonna suck. Especially because they're far apart. It's not like this one was.

[Blessing Adio Yea Junior]

And it's like, in terms of the other direction, I want to kind of talk about real quick, just because I didn't get to talk about story, you know, I think another interesting one with a lot of these modern Assassin's Creed games Is that they've kind of gone away a little bit from, like, the Assassins, and. But it always felt like there was a point to it, right? Like, Origins is literally the origins of the Assassin's Creed, right? Odyssey. While there wasn't assassins, that was a bit more hinting at the kind of early stages of the Templar order coming together, which was also cool. And there's also, like, some ISU lore in there as well. And while there were assassins in Valhalla, you, Eivor were just kind of homies with them. But then that game also leaned heavy into, like, some deep lore stuff in terms of the. The ones who came before and all this stuff. And I think one of my frustrating. One of my more frustrating points with this game is it feels so disinterested in being an Assassin's Creed game in terms of story for a very long time. And. And I think that Was kind of like one of my biggest hang ups. Was like, damn. Like, the reason people really wanted to see an Assassin's Creed Feudal Japan story was to see the Assassin's Creed world and lore injected in there. And this game spent so much time trying to not do that. And I don't know, there's a whole.

[Tegan AKA Lightweight Gaming]

Thing in the very beginning, you put the blade in the hole and turn it there.

[Blessing Adio Yea Junior]

Yeah, Cool. And then. Yeah. And like I said earlier, like, there's a moment near the end of this game where I was like, okay, cool, we're finally getting somewhere. And I had this moment where I was like, damn, I. There might be like another 10 hours of this game. And then the game ended like an hour later. And I was like, oh, that's where we're ending. Like, we're ending right as we get going, like, as an Assassin's Creed, like, nerd. And who loves that? Like, I was so let down by that. And I think in terms of, like, the personal stories, I think there's a lot of. I really liked Yasuke's, like, premise and like, where he goes. I think so little is done with that, though, throughout the game. I think Yasuke has, like, some really good, like, moments here and there. But in like a game that took me 48 hours to beat, it felt like way too few and far between. And then now is. Is now his story is very much, if you've played an Assassin's Creed, you know, now a story. And so in terms of that, I was also let down a little bit.

[Ryan Reynolds]

And so, yeah, yeah, it definitely took a while to get into the Templar versus the Assassin story. And again, I wasn't even sure if that was part of the main story. Like, if I had to do that or if that was technically side content or like, what I needed to complete versus what I didn't. However, once we did get into it, I really did love it. I love how they wove the Templars in, but there is. It kind of ends randomly on a cliffhanger. And I almost wondered if I did things in the wrong order because the ending I had did feel like a little anticlimactic when I rolled credits. And I almost wish I ended with a different quest that was much more like, whoa, that would have been really cool if I ended there. So I don't know if there's a correct order or not, but I felt like the way I did it, I would have preferred if I had flip flopped a couple quests, but it does feel like, okay, there's going to be a dlc. And we're going to answer a lot of these questions in the dlc.

[Blessing Adio Yea Junior]

Don't get me started.

[Greg Miller]

Don't get me started on the main.

[Blessing Adio Yea Junior]

Awoke something in me.

[Greg Miller]

Don't get me started.

[Tegan AKA Lightweight Gaming]

He's off the bench.

[Blessing Adio Yea Junior]

The hangover's gone on this main plot point that is threaded throughout the entire story, and it's not resolved by the end.

[Greg Miller]

I almost.

[Blessing Adio Yea Junior]

Oh, bless. I almost threw my controller. I was so mad. I was like, well, the. Like, we. I hit credits and I'm like, that. That can't be how it ends. And then there's like, you know, sometimes their story, mission after credits. That's kind of how these modern Assassin's Creed games have. Have worked. And I was like, okay, there's still. There's still like, a little bit more. Let's see where it goes. And it ends with very much like, I'm not going to do this thing until I'm ready. And I was so. I. I was angry. I was very upset about, like, yeah, that's cool. Don't make that a major point of the game throughout 40 hours. Then leave it off of, like, DLC when you face.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Yeah, fuck. Because that did feel like the main. That felt like one of the main questions, like, what is going on here? And then that was the one that didn't get answered and all the other one did. So it's like, okay, well, I definitely want to play the DLC because I want to see where the story goes. But I almost wish they had left, like, the Templar story more as the DLC or something so that we could have some answers because we just didn't get any. We just kept asking questions and asking questions. Then we really didn't get anything resolved with the Assassins storyline. I still really had fun with it, and I thought the way they introduced it was really good, but I was definitely sad that it didn't get resolved.

[Greg Miller]

Now I want to address the elephant in the room. All right, as we're talking about Assassin's Creed shadows here, embarrassed, looking around for the elephant. I'll tell you what the elephant is. Its name, Ghost of Tsushima. All right, I've been standing here. There's a green goblin mask that's been speaking to me just like Ghost of Tsushima. Mention it, talk about it. Let's compare it. Let's do all the things. And I've been trying purposely, obviously we've mentioned Ghost of Tsushima already, but I've been purposely not been reading all of the Ghost of Tsushima super chats we've been getting because I don't want this to be about that game. Right. But I am going to bundle them here, right. And put them all in one place. Of course. We got one from Carlos Viegas who writes in and says, valhalla is one of the few games I've 100 completed. I haven't played all AC games and was about to start Ghost of Tsushima. Which should I play? Tundra Boy also writes in and says ninja stuff and Ghosts is kind of mid. How is it here? And then there's one more if I scroll down from Brennan Riley writes in and says, Barrett, you are a scholar and a gentleman. Syndicate is my favorite. Is my second favorite after Black Flag. How does Shadow Story compare to Tsushima? Of course, different questions about Tsushimi here. Starting from the top with the first person, should they play this or should they play Sushima?

[Blessing Adio Yea Junior]

As someone who didn't beat Tsushima, because I was that. That came out around a rough time of like being burnt out on games for me. Yeah, it was right after Last is.

[Greg Miller]

Part two in a Pandemic. So that's fair.

[Blessing Adio Yea Junior]

Yeah, I think I was also working on Assassin's Creed in review at that time too. So doing another open world kind of game around that time was rough. I play Sushima. Get ready for Yota.

[Greg Miller]

I mean, obviously if you're a big Assassin's Creed fan, then like if it's calling you play Assassin's Creed Shadows. But you're asking goes to Sushima.

[Tegan AKA Lightweight Gaming]

But I mean, he's a big Assassin's Creed fan. Lightweight, I guess. I guess from hearing both their perspectives. Which kind of fan are you?

[Blessing Adio Yea Junior]

Like, what are you looking for from it?

[Ryan Reynolds]

You know what I mean?

[Greg Miller]

I mean lightweight. What would you say?

[Ryan Reynolds]

See, this is a tricky one. I will say I obviously, just like everybody else, had the fears that I was going to be comparing this to Ghost over and over and over again. And I really do think they did a good job of distinguishing themselves through the music style. Like, don't even get me started on music was so good. I loved what they did with the music. I thought the art style was great. They have a lot of these moments that felt very Tarantino. So if you're into a Tarantino film, I think there's a lot of this that you'll really like in terms of like the art direction. So I don't. I don't. I don't necessarily feel like you can say, like you can compare them in that way. If you Want something that has, like, an amazing story, go Ghost of Tsushima. If you want something that's really fun in terms of just like being an assassin or being a juggernaut samurai or something like that, and you are an Assassin's Creed fan, go with the Assassin's Creed. But I genuinely feel like there's a place for both, so I'm gonna set the fence here to jump in on.

[Tegan AKA Lightweight Gaming]

It and talk about it. I agree with Tegan talking about the styles being different. My issue is that I think from the 1314 hours I played, right, that Assassin's Creed shadows dips their toe into it, but never does it in terms of a style where it's like that opening prologue, the setup. Like, I texted Barrett that after night one, and I was like, I enjoy this. Like, I am enjoying playing. He's like, I don't know if this is good or bad tech, but I was like, the setup to it feels like a samurai movie of what they do in that prologue, right? And I was like, I'm excited for them to invest in that. And then over that next 10 hours from those first whatever hours, it's one of those, oh, this is still Assassin's Creed. They're still telling it. And cinematically showing everything in the Assassin's Creed way rather than the Ghost way. And there's a moment in the shadows where Naoe. No, it's the Asuke is confronting somebody and the guy is like, fight me like a Sam. Duel me like a samurai. And they're like, that age is fucking over. And the other dudes lift their guns. And I was like, what that immediately did to me was like, like, oh, like it's shot like Assassin's Creed and immediately made me think of Ghost and how dope it was every time you go into a battle and Jin would just go and knock his good. And I was like, I missed that. I wish this chose a style. Tegan referenced it early on, and no spoilers, but I think I'm on the same page. Tegan, tell me if I'm wrong, but there's a mini game in there where you have to hit buttons and they slowly fade away. And it's based on. And as you do it, it fades in to this black and white. It makes it look like a brushstroke painting. And I was like, this is so cool. I wish they did this elsewhere. I wish this was like. I wish I. In Ghost, you feel like you're in a world. You're in this Japanese feudal world, whereas this, I was like, I'm in Assassin's Creed, and that's not bad. It's just not what this was. And I wanted more of that. I wanted the samurai film to it.

[Blessing Adio Yea Junior]

Yeah. And I think in terms of that, too, I think how some of that stuff is told in terms of story is also very frustrating. Like, like we mentioned, there's, like, flashback stuff, and I. I think they did that to avoid the intro being super slow. But there are moments that are held for flashbacks that'll play, like, three minutes after a moment with a character, and you're like, well, if I got the flashback first, that moment that I just had with this character would have been more emotionally, like. Like. Yeah, yeah. And I just think, like, how they kind of roll out, especially Yasuke's story, I thought was just kind of. Of just all over the place and weird. Yeah.

[Greg Miller]

And addressing Tundra Boy's question about the ninja stuff. Right. They didn't enjoy the ninja stuff in Ghosts. How would you say the ninja stuff here is here? I mean, it's Assassin's Creed, so I expect.

[Blessing Adio Yea Junior]

I mean, yeah, that's their bag, so, yeah, it's great. And that's why, like, this is a good game. Like, I once do. You get into the flow of, you know, taking out castles, going around, you know, building your base, which I definitely got lost in, and making my base look cool as hell, which I, of.

[Tegan AKA Lightweight Gaming]

Course, had no interest in. No, thanks.

[Blessing Adio Yea Junior]

You know, it is fun. And, yeah, like, the. The stealthing around being a Shinobi Cross assassin, I think is really fun.

[Greg Miller]

Oh, yeah.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Can we talk about the hideout base building a little bit, please? So I loved it as well. I thought it was so much fun buying different cosmetics and being able to, like, choose what I wanted my buildings to look like, where I wanted to place them. It was a nice progression from Ravensthorpe. So if you enjoyed it with Valhalla, I think you'll really enjoy it here. I also loved that anytime you pet an animal, it unlocked in your camp. So, like, Jerry the King Lawler would have loved my hideout because it was just puppies, puppies everywhere. And I literally had max amount of puppies I could possibly have. But also, you could have, like, an ox. You could have a monkey. You could have a pig. I loved that.

[Greg Miller]

I had turkeys.

[Blessing Adio Yea Junior]

I had deer. It was great.

[Ryan Reynolds]

So, so fun. Like, the customization, great. I felt like improving the buildings actually had passive improvements on my gameplay, but it was so jarring because the frames. And I'm normally not a frame person. I don't normally pay attention to that because that's like, not something that I necessarily care about, but it was jarring. When you went into your hideout, it dropped. I don't even know.

[Blessing Adio Yea Junior]

It feels like a solid 25 frames per second.

[Ryan Reynolds]

It was to the point where I was noticing it, which, you know, it's like, okay, that's. That still needs to be improved on.

[Tegan AKA Lightweight Gaming]

You were playing on a base PlayStation or a Pro or a Slim or what were you?

[Ryan Reynolds]

A. A base PlayStation.

[Tegan AKA Lightweight Gaming]

I did it on Pro and I didn't see any of this.

[Blessing Adio Yea Junior]

Yeah, I was on. I was on normal PS5. Yeah. Going from, you know, I play in performance, so going from 60 to what feels like sub 30 is very jarring. I do think there's a lot of like backend things that are happening that maybe this. This part of the game wasn't really quite ready for in terms of coming out now, which is just crazy to think because it's been delayed over and over again. But there I definitely had a few crashes working on my base. But it was just so fun, right?

[Ryan Reynolds]

It was so fun. I definitely recommend checking that out in.

[Greg Miller]

The cutscene after the prologue. I like, I picked it up yesterday because I was like, all right, I gotta. I want to play more. You know, Like, I really want to play more of this game. And I started the first cut scene and I crashed. And I was like, sign. I'm gonna go work on game showdown.

[E]

I got things to do, but I'll be back.

[Greg Miller]

Hopefully be back. A couple of quick hits, Quick hit super chats for you. Snugs writes in and says, is there any magic folklore stuff in this one? Of course. That's a spoiler. You don't have to answer.

[Tegan AKA Lightweight Gaming]

I've seen a lot of stuff asking about animus stuff too.

[Blessing Adio Yea Junior]

Animus stuff is a little weird because obviously, you know, rest in peace, Assassin's Creed Infinity. Long live the Animus Hub. That stuff I didn't get as into. There are activities that are animus related that didn't feel. If didn't feel very compelling. And it felt weirdly like live service of like, ah, do this animus thing in the next six days or it'll just earn these points.

[Tegan AKA Lightweight Gaming]

You can unlock this outfit.

[Blessing Adio Yea Junior]

Yeah. So it's. It's very much like that's what the Animus Hub is going to be. That is what it's going to serve as an Assassin's Creed launcher. Even though it's not a launcher, it's. You're downloading shadows and it like is like your main menu and you get the option to launch other games from this game. It's weird. Animus hub. God, I love it. It's so stupid. And then. Sorry, what was the other magic?

[Greg Miller]

Folklore.

[Blessing Adio Yea Junior]

I wish there was much more there. There definitely feels like nods to folklore stuff, but it doesn't lean into it like Valhalla did. And. And I think Valhalla did it in very fun ways.

[Greg Miller]

Flying penguins rights in. Oh, sorry, T. You can go.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Oh, no, that's okay. I was gonna say, I can only think of one actual little side story that kind of dipped its toe into and introduced like a folklore character.

[Blessing Adio Yea Junior]

Yeah.

[Ryan Reynolds]

But other than that, it wasn't a main component by any means.

[Greg Miller]

Got a Super chat from FlyingPang was who writes in and says, is there a Transmog system? How are the microtransactions?

[Blessing Adio Yea Junior]

Transmog is great. You know, something I didn't realize until a couple days ago is that for weapons, for transmogging, you can transmog individual parts of the weapon. Oh, neat. Like Kebabs was saying in the chat, like, it feels very much like the Jedi games in terms of what you can change around for transmogging. And then, yeah, like a lot of cool outfits in this. I found very quickly the outfit that I wanted now way to stay in. So that was, uh, accessible for us for review, which was, uh, great, because I think, like, like, they've been kind of weird about Transmog in the launch of past games. So it was good to have this this time around.

[Tegan AKA Lightweight Gaming]

Yeah. You unlock it shortly after, get going.

[Blessing Adio Yea Junior]

Yep, yep, yep.

[Greg Miller]

And then micro transactions. You're paying for stuff. Blades, playing for hoods.

[Blessing Adio Yea Junior]

Nothing out of the ordinary of Assassin's Creed since Black Flag. Right. You can use. You can pay for, you know, base building stuff, which has kind of been the norm since Black Flag. There's DLC or there's like. Like outfits and stuff that you can buy. Stuff that looks silly and goofy and stuff like that.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Maps that will help you out.

[Blessing Adio Yea Junior]

Yeah, yeah. Stuff like that. That we've seen in the past Assassin's Creed game. They don't shove it in your face, which I do appreciate. Like, I did have to kind of, like, search for that. And so if you want to ignore that stuff, it's very, very.

[Greg Miller]

Let me buy armor from a horse.

[Blessing Adio Yea Junior]

Yes.

[Greg Miller]

All right, let's get real.

[Ryan Reynolds]

They do have, like, those animus moments that you can find in the game. Like, you can find credits in the game almost, and then you can do. Barrett, you had mentioned, like, little animus activities that will give you A different. It's not a Helix credit. It's a different type of credit that will unlock things that do feel micro transaction y but you're finding those in the game so it doesn't feel as bad. But then, yeah, it's exactly the same as the other ones where you can go in and buy the really cool armor set that makes you look like a skeleton if you want or, you know, makes your horse a dragon or something.

[Tegan AKA Lightweight Gaming]

Hell yeah.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah, let's go. It's better than horse armor. We're gonna close out with one more super chat from Volcatcher. Who writes in unless. Barry, you got something? Oh, Barrett, Yeah, yeah, I forgot. I want to listen to your podcast within a podcast.

[Blessing Adio Yea Junior]

What's up, everybody? Welcome back to Assassin's Creed in review. Everybody's favorite POD or in review series relegated to a podcast within a podcast.

[Tegan AKA Lightweight Gaming]

Review AC and review.

[Blessing Adio Yea Junior]

Last time we were here, we reviewed and ranked Assassin's Creed Mirage. So right now the ranking is number one, Syndicate. Number two, Valhalla. Number three, original. That's. Don't show that yet, Kevin. Number four, Black Flag. I told you I was gonna call to it.

[Greg Miller]

I told you.

[Blessing Adio Yea Junior]

Sorry. Number four, Black Flag. Number five, Brotherhood. Number six, Assassin's Creed 2. Number seven, Assassin's Creed Mirage. Number eight, AC, Odyssey. Number nine, Rogue. Number 10, Assassin's Creed 3. Number 11, Revelations. Number 12, Unity. Number 13, Assassin's Creed 1. I took a bit of time yesterday to really think about this game because I have a lot of ups and downs with it. Something that I think is kind of persistent throughout the entire series and after much debate on where kind of in the middle of the list. Kevin, you can now pull it up. I have a syndicate at number eight below. Wait, no. You messed this up, Kevin.

[Greg Miller]

I see what happened here.

[Blessing Adio Yea Junior]

That's great, Kevin.

[Greg Miller]

I like it.

[Tegan AKA Lightweight Gaming]

Kevin. He's on the ropes. Let this man drink his water in his desk.

[Blessing Adio Yea Junior]

Let him end the show. I put Shadows was below Odyssey at number nine, but above Rogue. So, yeah, it sits kind of in that middle spot. I don't think. Again, 7.5. This kind of being more in the middle of the the list. I don't think it's a bad game. I think a lot of the middle of this list is very solid games, very enjoyable experiences.

[Greg Miller]

So, yeah, fair enough. A couple super chats to get us out of here. Jordan Andow writes in and says, for me, this game is the perfect balance between old and new Creed. Is it the Assassin's Creed in Japan I thought we would get after all those years? No, but the franchise has changed. This balance is only in New Creed. This balances, I think the main old and new Creed well, in my opinion. And then we got one from Volkdasher who says this sounds like the Horizon Zero dawn of Open Worlds where it had lots of limitations and didn't feel fun until the second second game improved at all. Shadows had so many games take inspiration from. Sounds like they didn't question mark, question mark, mark. Well, Dash, I don't know if I agree with all your thoughts here, but I respect the swing. Guys, thank you so much for talking with me about Assassin's Creed Shadows and tell me all about your thoughts.

[Tegan AKA Lightweight Gaming]

Are you gonna go back to what's your plan?

[Greg Miller]

I'm gonna pick it up. It's the tough thing of there's a lot of games coming out in March and so right now I have another game that I'm reviewing at the same time that is a bit more my speed. And then also Xenoblade Chronicles X comes out this weekend and I've been telling myself the entire year I'm gonna finally play this, play a Xenoblade game because this one has mechs in it.

[Tegan AKA Lightweight Gaming]

Oh yeah.

[Greg Miller]

So we'll see. But I do want to pick it up, maybe give it a few more tries and see if it sticks with me. We'll see. Tegan, thanks so much for joining us.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Thank you so much for having me back. It's been great.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah. Is there a place where people can find you if they want to check out some of your content?

[Ryan Reynolds]

That would be awesome. If you like gameplay, let's play videos. You can find those at Lightweight Gaming. If you want to watch me watch your favorite movies. That's at Lightweight Reacting. If you want to hear me talk more about video games, you can find me on The Trophy Room PlayStation Podcast.

[Greg Miller]

Hell yeah. Of course, this has been the kind of Funny Games cast each and every weekday we get together and talk about the biggest reviews, previews and topics in video games live on YouTube, Twitch and all podcast services around the globe. If you love what we do, please support us with the kind of Funny membership on Patreon or YouTube to get all of our shows ad free, watch us record them live and get a daily exclusive Show. Catch today's KD on YouTube or podcast services and know that until next time it's been our pleasure to serve.