They called it Assassin’s Creed Shadows because it’s too dark to see anything

Assassin’s Creed Shadows takes place in Japan circa 1579, near the end of what is known as the Sengoku period — 300 years before the advent of the incandescent light bulb. So it stands to reason that once the sun sets, the world that co-protagonists Naoe and Yasuke inhabit is going to get dark. 

Now, I wouldn’t ordinarily be on the side of anybody suggesting that the makers of Assassin’s Creed pull back from their devotion to the concept of historical accuracy. It’s one of my favorite elements of the franchise — and it’s why I would strongly recommend playing Assassin’s Creed Shadows in immersive mode.

But sometimes, historical accuracy should take a back seat to playability.

Aside from the very first cutscene, the opening of Assassin’s Creed Shadows — the introductions of both Yasuke and Naoe — takes place entirely at night. In the former character’s case, the setting makes for a striking scene as the warlord Oda Nobunaga burns Iga Province to the ground. Yasuke’s face is lit by a massive conflagration as he acknowledges to Nobunaga that the scale of the casualties in this war gives him some pause.

The point of view soon shifts to Naoe, who must undertake an important mission because her father is indisposed: retrieving an artifact from a kofun, or tomb. It was at this point that I started wondering if I needed to change the picture settings in the game or on my computer monitor, because as Naoe, I could hardly see who I was fighting or where I was going. Sure, there’s the moon at night, but its pale glow is often diffused, if not obscured, by clouds.

It’s likely that this is what the developers intended. Well, not that they wanted players to have difficulty seeing what they’re doing, but that this lighting design was meant to convey a sense of Naoe’s character — that she’s a shinobi who is best suited to sneaking in the shadows. Under cover of darkness, I crawled through tall grass and jumped out to assassinate soldiers in Nobunaga’s invading force. 

But unless the moon was fully visible high in the night sky, it didn’t seem to provide much illumination for me, even playing in HDR. The first time the game teaches you the controls for parkour, I missed the jump because I couldn’t see the pillar in the middle of the gap that Naoe was trying to cross. Above, you can see a couple of (unedited) screenshots of Naoe riding around at night that I captured while playing — I sure hope her horse can see better in the dark than humans can!

You may be thinking, This is how it should be. After all, this was a time in Japanese history when the only human-made lighting in existence comprised lanterns lit by an oil-burning flame within them (not even candles just yet!). And the makers of Assassin’s Creed Shadows did make a bit of a historical concession here: Technically, the paper lanterns you see everywhere in the game, andon, didn’t enter wide use until the Edo period, which began at the start of the 1600s.

Of course, I’m not suggesting that Assassin’s Creed Shadows’ version of feudal Japan should have been lit by kerosene lamps or LED spotlights. But this is where art direction can make a huge difference. Consider Sucker Punch Productions’ Ghost of Tsushima, which is set in an even earlier era of Japanese history, the Kamakura period, when the Mongols first invaded the country in the late 13th century.

Drawing inspiration from classic Japanese cinema like the works of Akira Kurosawa — in a quite literal sense — Sucker Punch went with a bold, high-contrast look for Ghost of Tsushima that brought to life the idea of the samurai as it exists in the popular imagination (even if it’s mostly a myth). Like Assassin’s Creed Shadows, that game has a full day-night cycle, but the moon might as well be a giant floodlight in the sky; even when a thunderstorm hits at night, the environment isn’t pitch black.

Again, if the developers of Assassin’s Creed Shadows made an intentional creative decision here — if they wanted players to experience the shinobi fantasy by skulking around in the darkness as Naoe — then I respect their, shall we say, vision. The filmmakers behind that infamously dark Game of Thrones episode certainly stuck to their guns when it came to shooting battle scenes lit only by firelight, and they didn’t concern themselves with viewers’ complaints. But game developers striving for various kinds of real-life accuracy often make concessions for playability and fun; just think about the “realism” of leaping into a hay bale from 10 stories up. As for me, I’m nearing my 40s, and my eyesight isn’t as good as it used to be, so I’m just going to turn up the brightness.