The Assassin's Creed series' recent trend of featuring dual protagonists has sometimes been "divisive", the associate game director of this year's Assassin's Creed Shadows has said — acknowledging that the choice between nimble shinobi Naoe and hulking samurai Yasuke had been a particularly notable example of this.
Shadows' development is headed up by Ubisoft Quebec, the studio behind Victoria London-set Assassin's Creed Syndicate and Ancient Greece RPG Assassin's Creed Odyssey. Both also featured dual protagonists, though in different ways.
"The differences between Evie and Jacob were mostly cosmetic," associate game director Simon Lemay-Comtois told GamesRadar+. "They play very, very similarly, except with very few select skills." Shadows, by comparison, was specifically designed to be "an exercise in contrast" — something that "can split our fan base a little."
These aren't the only Assassin's Creed games to feature multiple protagonists, of course. The Ancient Egypt-set Origins lets you play as both husband and wife Bayek and Aya, even if the latter only gets a sliver of screentime. Viking-era Valhalla also offered male and female versions of hero Eivor, meanwhile, for complicated story-related reasons (but also so Ubisoft could have a man on the game's box).
More than any other Assassin's Creed game before it, however, Shadows' two protagonists are built as different people. Their abilities are different, their combat systems are different, and they are treated as two different yet equal characters to play the game's main quest as.
"Dual protagonists can be divisive along very strange lines, right?" Lemay-Comtois said. "It's not just a 'well, I prefer a war, therefore I prefer Yasuke.' Some people just don't like one character over the other, and they don't like to spend time with one. It was true with Evie and Jacob, but with Naoe and Yasuke it's more divisive," he continued. "And we knew this. We knew going into it, but I think it can split our fan base a little too."
With this in mind, will Ubisoft continue offering dual protagonists in future — for example in the upcoming Assassin's Creed Hexe? "I think the learning for us is that, yes, we could do more dual-protagonist games in the future – if we have a good reason to do it narratively and for the setting," Lemay-Comtois concluded.
Ubisoft's next Assassin's Creed project expected to release will be the still-unannounced Black Flag remake that's reportedly set to launch in spring 2026. This features pirate Edward Kenway as its star, with no second mate during the game's main campaign.
As for Assassin's Creed Shadows, little is known of Ubisoft's plans to support the game through next year. The company had initially expected to release a second major expansion, following this fall's Claws of Awaji, but Ubisoft has said that plans shifted when Shadows was delayed — and now, next year's add-on content will be smaller in nature.
Tom Phillips is IGN's News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
