Assassin’s Creed Shadows is a pretty standalone entry in Ubisoft’s long-running series, with fewer ties to what’s gone before than any other game in recent memory.
If it’s been a while since your last Assassin’s Creed game and you’re just looking to stomp around feudal Japan for a bit, you’re not going to have any problems here.
I initially planned to write something of a lore explainer for those leaping into Shadows not having played the rest of the canon – and then ultimately had little to actually write about. Instead, then, let this be a PSA as to how little you need to know about the two dozen Assassin’s Creed games already out there, let alone their accompanying novels and that Michael Fassbender film.
If your last Assassin’s Creed was during the Ezio era and you’ve missed everything since, you’ll fit right in here. Shadows is actually set not long after – it begins in 1579 – only about 60 years after Ezio was romping around Renaissance Europe.