Assassin’s Creed Shadows promises two full-fledged protagonists in the Shinobi Naoe and the Samaurai Yasuke. However, in the lead up to launch, it hasn’t been exactly clear when and how you get to choose to control each. Here’s when you can switch between Naoe and Yasuke in Assassin’s Creed Shadows.
While Assassin’s Creed Shadows is no doubt a massive open world game, the beginning is fairly linear. In the games prologue, which takes about 90 minutes to complete, players will alternate between Naoe and Yasuke in set moments. Once this prologue is completed, players will still be locked as Naoe, and play as her for several hours.
Unfortunately for prospective fans looking to live out their Samurai fantasy immediately, players are forced to play as Naoe until near the end of the game’s first act. The early game revolves entirely around her, and Yasuke is completely absent until the Temple of the Horseman Quest. He becomes briefly locked as the playable character for the Fire and Lightening Quest. After completing this quest, and Act I, players can switch between these two characters much more freely.
In my playthrough, getting to the end of Act I and unlocking the ability to freely swap between protagonists took me about 10 hours of gameplay. That being said, I also went out of my way to do lots of side content in this time. Realistically, if players want to breeze through the first act and get to experience Assassin’s Creed Shadows‘ dual protagonists fully, they can likely reach that point in about 6 to 8 hours.
Thankfully, once players unlock the ability to play as Naoe and Yasuke freely, there are several easy ways to switch. The first is simply by fast traveling to a location. When hovering over a fast travel location on the game’s map, players have two button prompts. The first is simply to fast travel, and the other is to fast travel as the protagonist they are not currently playing is. When selecting the later prompt, you’ll spawn in as the other character at the fast travel point of your choosing. This can be done when fast traveling to several points on the map, from Synchronization points to Kakurega Hideouts.
There are also moments in the story where a quest will be presented to Yasuke as Naoe, and players will be able to choose which protagonist to play as.
In the open world of Assassin’s Creed Shadows, players have lots of freedom to choose between their preferred playable protagonist after Act I. However, there are certain story moments and major quests where the protagonist is locked for specific scenes and quests.
However, it is worth noting that there are character specific quests and activities. Naoe and Yasuke each have their own quests which get into their back story before they met, which only features one of the characters. There are also some side activities which are must be completed by Naoe or Yasuke respectively. These are indicated with a specific symbol pertaining to each character; a Samurai helmet for Yasuke and a Shinobi’s hood for Naoe.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows is available on March 20th for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S.
