Castles, sneaking, samurai - true to its historical, feudal setting, Assassin's Creed Shadows is also all about the swordfights. The very first game brought us the revolutionary wrist blade. Assassin's Creed Valhalla made combat heavier and tougher thanks to its weighty Viking axes. Now, with the Shadows launch date almost upon us, at least one version of the new open-world Ubisoft stealth epic will be censored. The developer confirms that a key feature will be absent from Assassin's Creed Shadows' Japanese edition.
The Assassin's Creed Shadows release date was recently delayed, but the new open-world game and quasi-RPG is nevertheless almost here. After its variable successes in recent years, including Skull and Bones, Avatar Frontiers of Pandora, and Prince of Persia The Lost Crown, Ubisoft is likely hoping for a big, surefire hit - and on paper, Assassin's Creed Shadows fits the description. Ever since the first game back in 2007, the series' formula has felt like a perfect match for a Japanese setting. But when it's released in Japan, the new Assassin's Creed will be missing the elevated levels of gore that have been trailed so far.
Combat in Assassin's Creed Shadows allows you to sever an enemy's limbs, resulting in a brutal spray of blood. As confirmed by Ubisoft Japan, and reported by VGC, although you can toggle this on and off in the options menu, in the Japanese edition of AC Shadows, amputation will always be disabled, and won't feature in the game whatsoever.
"The option to switch amputation on/off from the game settings has been removed," Ubisoft Japan says, in a post translated on X. "Amputating the neck and limbs of enemies during gameplay is now always impossible. The representation of the amputated surface of the body has been changed."
Although it doesn't offer any further details, Ubisoft Japan also says that "the representation of some Japanese voices played in the overseas versions (North America and Europe) has been changed." This could mean that some dialogue or some voice performances are different in the Japanese version of AC Shadows.
While we wait for Shadows' launch day, you may want to try some of the best stealth games, or maybe the best sandbox games available on PC.
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