Assassin's Creed Shadows director on splitting time between the two heroes: "The core of the game can be pick your character and the game adapts"

Assassin's Creed Shadows screenshot showing Yasuke kneeling and praying while wearing a traditional purple robe
(Image credit: Ubisoft)

It's widely known by this point that Assassin's Creed Shadows has two protagonists, but apparently if you choose to primarily play one over the other, you won't be missing out on a bunch of content.

In an interview with ScreenRant, Assassin's Creed Shadows director Jonathan Dumont explained how he personally chooses to spend his time between the two protagonists. They both have their own unique strengths and weaknesses, with Yasuke is big, powerful, and brutish, while Naoe is light, nimble, and quick, and Dumont wisely takes advantage of that.

"I play quite a bit balanced out and what happens is, I play with one for three, four, five hours, and then I switch, and then I just play two, three hours," said Dumont. "Usually I play stealth and then I play, all right, let me destroy some camps and stuff all right for a while. And then I just change like that."

Content-wise, Dumont said each hero has their own unique intro scenes and questlines, but he recommends simply playing the characters you're having more fun with.

"So I don't think you're missing out on things too much," he said. "I think it's more on your preference to [say], 'okay, I'll see how the game will adapt a little bit to the character if you choose one over the other.' They get individual introductions and then they get their own questline also. So that one is, let's say Naoe, a personal questline cannot be played by Yasuke and those are two distinct things. But the core of the game can be pick your character and the game adapts."

It's still not entirely clear how many unique scenarios can be missed, but Dumont said several times you won't be "missing out on things too much," adding, "we're not imposing players try to split the time. So if you prefer one character for any reason, you can play maybe - I don't know, I'm not going to put a percentage - but quite a bit of the game using one of them. But if you want to balance it out."

Assassin's Creed Shadows launches on PS5, Xbox Series X, and PC on March 20.

Be sure to check out our Assassin's Creed Shadows big preview hub for more details about the game from our hands-on preview.

Jordan Gerblick

After scoring a degree in English from ASU, I worked as a copy editor while freelancing for places like SFX Magazine, Screen Rant, Game Revolution, and MMORPG on the side. Now, as GamesRadar's west coast Staff Writer, I'm responsible for managing the site's western regional executive branch, AKA my apartment, and writing about whatever horror game I'm too afraid to finish.