With Assassin’s Creed Shadows just around the corner, the hot topic right now is one I thought had already been established: Yasuke is not an assassin, which means he gets no fancy assassin tools. As one of Shadows’ double billed protagonists, the tanky samurai to balance out Naoe’s stealthy shinobi skills, my response to this statement was a very matter-of-fact “well, duh.”

Many might question the presence of a non-assassin in a game called Assassin’s Creed. But while it will feel different navigating the world as Yasuke, stripped of creature comfort Creed staples like Eagle Vision, it’s also proof that the publisher is evolving. Ubisoft is offering two distinct RPG fantasies in Shadows, after all, and it’s doing so by doubling down on something that’s been lightly trialled this whole time – whether or not you noticed.

Twinsies

2015’s Assassin’s Creed Syndicate is my favorite of all the best Assassin’s Creed games, and a large part of that is down to its series-first twin dynamic. Jacob and Evie Frye are both assassins in the Victorian London action epic, but their respective skill trees speak to how differently each character plays. Slight and agile Evie is the stealth master, her highest level ability “chameleon” being a character-specific skill that allows her to turn almost invisible in the blink of an eye. Conversely, Jacob’s skills pertain to a stronger display of force. Jacob can still be stealthy if you play your cards right, but as it comes so much easier to his sister, you can safely swap between twins (most of the time) to plan your approach according to your preferred playstyle. In the Jack the Ripper DLC, a fear mechanic gets added to the mix. Brutal Takedowns replace simple assassinations, horrifying on-lookers with violent displays of murder that send them scattering. It’s not too dissimilar, then, to the sound of Yasuke’s own “Brutal Assassinations” in AC Shadows that have you “yell to attract attention just before the kill.”

With Syndicate also developed by Ubisoft Quebec, it’s clear that Shadows is a logical evolution of this twin dynamic as well as that of combat extremes. Much like Jacob, Yasuke can attempt to be stealthy if he so wishes, but each duo is supposed to offer oppositional experiences. The only difference is that Assassin’s Creed Shadows simply calls a spade a spade, removing the gray area between stealth and action as offered in Syndicate. By stripping Yasuke of the assassin shackles altogether, Ubisoft is finally answering a question it’s had on its lips since 2015: what would two refined, evolved combat fantasies look like in one Assassin’s Creed game? And what if there was nothing stealthy about one of them?

You’ve been here before

Syndicate isn’t the only AC game that’s tried to broaden our combat horizons. Ubisoft has been seeding the concept of a non-assassin Assassin’s Creed hero for years now, permitting greater flexibility and choice with each new game.

Assassin’s Creed Valhalla’s largely inconsequential choice between a male or female Eivor is down to nothing but player preference, but broad-shouldered male Eivor could be considered far more awkward when it comes to stealth than his lithe female counterpart – though given how broken stealth was at launch, I still think Valhalla feels best when played as a brash Viking RPG instead. Meanwhile, biological advantage has nothing to do with combat diversity in Assassin’s Creed Odyssey. Both Alexios and Kassandra have access to three skill trees – Hunter, Warrior, or Assassin – to let the player decide how heavily to invest in each playstyle.

I’m comforted in knowing I won’t have to make that agonizing judgement call in Assassin’s Creed Shadows. At the same time, I’m prepared to be much more careful with Naoe than I am with my current Kassandra, who can easily waste a whole Spartan stronghold as a one-woman armored stealth-tank. Shadows looks set to not only demand we think smarter not harder about our combat approach, but consider each character’s strengths and weaknesses from a role playing perspective. In my mind, that only makes a non-assassin protagonist the perfect next step as Ubisoft experiments with the series’ RPG future – although if all goes well, you’ll hear my impassioned Syndicate 2 demands from outer space.