Assassin's Creed Shadow DLC includes Persian-style side scrolling sequences
Blog Andrew Joseph 16 Sep , 2025 0
Assassin's Creed Shadow Awaji's DLC Claws launches today, starting with a surprising side-scrolling sequence, reminiscent of Ubisoft's Classic Prince of Prince of Prince's series, themed on Japanese puppet show.
In a hands-on game show, developers working at Awaji's paws in Ubisoft Bordeaux told IGN that the idea started with life, a cool concept for a small team between studios, when the studio was doing Assassin's Creed work between large projects.
When Bordeaux officially began working on Awaji's claws, the idea surfaced as a way to introduce the setup and characters of a new story and was built with the inspiration of the Prince of Persia.
While relatively basic, the side scroller provides a wise way to quickly speed up the Awaji itself, an island separated from the main Japanese maps, accessible only to Shadows' first major add-on. Awaji is overseen by DLC's main rival Kimura Yukari, and soon you are playing through a propaganda puppet show designed to celebrate her domination.
The introduction not only shows Yukari, but also provides players with their first hint of the fate of a mysterious assassin who appears to be Naoe's lost mother. Of course, you heard from Yukari's point of view – it's safe to say that the two don't get along. Overall, it's a clever framing device that tells players that they almost need to know everything about Awaji before Naoe's boots hit the shore.
When it comes to gameplay, you mainly navigate on simple stealth and platform, as well as short battle moments that see Shadows' regular system put it on the 2.5D plane. It was an interesting experiment and I especially like the side roller narrative’s reaction to what I did, such as when I was discovered by enemies or performed particularly well in battle. Although the overall endpoint is the same, there are several areas with branch paths.
Although it has been tilled for 100 hours of fans in the main Assassin's Creed Shadow game, it may end up feeling familiar paws, DLC does offer a great array of original moments to keep things fresh. The other one is its Fun Invisible Boss FightIGN has all the details. Player Finding the closure of the storyline of the basic game (such as the fate of Naoe's mother and the location of the last mysterious box) should also satisfyUbisoft has already said.
Tom Phillips is the news editor for IGN. You can reach Tom at [email protected] or find him on the Blues @tomphillipseg.bsky.social