With Assassin’s Creed Shadows finally available, it’s hard not to think about the series’ past and potential future. Moreover, its feudal Japan setting has prompted a number of comparisons to other recent games, but its closest relative could be the dormant Tenchu series.

It’s now been roughly 16 years since Tenchu: Shadow Assassins landed on Wii and PSP and failed to wow gamers that had just experienced Altaïr Ibn-La’Ahad’s first adventure on beefier console hardware. Even though Assassin’s Creed was born out of a scrapped Prince of Persia project, it kept the premise of organized assassins in a historical setting alive and took it to the next level. Its ‘old Ubisoft’ DNA was crystal-clear to anyone that had spent time with the developer-publisher’s PS2-era efforts, but there was more to the formula, and its evolution over the years has moved it closer (and away) from other IPs.

Somehow, in spite of the central premise of the series, an Assassin’s Creed set in Japan and focusing on the infamous shinobi and samurai took more than a decade to definitely come together as a concept that Ubisoft wanted to tackle next. Fast-forward to 2025 and we’re ready to jump into the late Sengoku period with Naoe and Yasuke. With all-new stealth systems added on top of a setting that lands right next to what Tenchu explored back in the day, are we finally getting the modern descendant we’d been waiting for?

Lack of real alternatives

One of the many weird (to put it mildly) conversations surrounding Assassin’s Creed Shadows is that it’s arriving too late to a party it should’ve kickstarted ages ago. While I’m inclined to agree with the general sentiment of Ubisoft taking too long to hit the one setting fans had been clamoring for since almost the beginning, the thing is that neither Ghost or Tsushima nor Rise of the Ronin (to name the two biggest examples) covered the same period as this game. Sure, you can run and sneak around while waiting for the perfect silent strike with a Japanese blade, but they’re not the same. Not by a long shot.

Ghost of Tsushima took us to the late 13th century, quite a while before the Sengoku period’s early days, and depicted the Mongols’ attempt to invade Japan with some big creative liberties. On the other hand, Rise of the Ronin chose to focus on the commonly overlooked late stage of the Edo period; that is, the mid-19th century, when the country began to open up to the rest of the world. Even putting gameplay differences aside, such as stealth mechanics and movement being simpler than in the Tenchu games, the two big murder-y Japan-set video games that are brought up over and over again as direct competitors to Assassin’s Creed Shadows aren’t even covering the same historical era of Japan.

Ghost of Yōtei, which is also set to arrive this year, appears to be the other AAA game that’s actually landing somewhere close to Shadows’ setting. So far, we know it kicks off in 1603, at the dawn of the Edo period, which started right after the late Sengoku era we can relive in the next Assassin’s Creed. But even in this specific case, we’re looking at an open-world game with a distinct sensibility that could serve as an ideal companion piece. I doubt the devs at Ubisoft Quebec and Sucker Punch aren’t as excited as most gamers to experience what the other studio has cooked, and it’s dumb to make this a pointless cultural battle.

Return to tradition

So, what’s Assassin’s Creed Shadows actually bringing to the table in order to up its stealth game and evoke some of those hardcore Tenchu vibes? A lot, actually. In many ways, it’s the first evolutionary jump of the series since 2017’s Assassin's Creed Origins, and all those innovations are actually moving it closer to the past and Tenchu’s approach to more demanding stealth sandboxes.

Besides smoother animations and new movement options, the upgraded version of the Anvil engine is introducing dynamic lighting and more environmental interactions. In other action-adventure series, most tech upgrades and graphical overhauls rarely affect how the actual game plays in substantial ways. Assassin’s Creed, however, has a long history of reimagining the assassins’ tricks and abilities with each major jump. In this installment, shadows factor into the stealth system, the grappling hook offers alternative movement options that are anything but rigid, and natural seasons affect how the maps can be navigated or used to Naoe and Yasuke’s advantage.

While we’re not expecting Assassin’s Creed to suddenly become a hardcore stealth simulator, these addition are certainly putting more meat on those bones, especially after criticism of the last three mainline games focusing too much on RPG systems and brutal combat and not enough on compelling assassinations and intricate ways to infiltrate the enemies’ bases and other locations. Will all this be enough for the old-school crowd? It remains to be seen, but the late-Sengoku setting and the deeper stealth mechanics when playing as the shinobi Naoe are evoking the most convincing Tenchu atmosphere we’ve seen since Shadow Assassins. No pitch-black nights coupled with poor draw distances in this one though.

Holding the fort

So, in conclusion, can Assassin’s Creed Shadows satisfy the need for a new Tenchu game? Not at all. It can, however, remind everyone that FromSoftware is sitting on a blood-soaked action-adventure stealth franchise that’s overdue for a reboot or legacy sequel of sorts. With the Japanese developer-publisher at the height of its popularity thanks to massive hits like Elden Ring, now feels like the perfect time to dig that IP back up.

In any case, Ubisoft’s take on the Sengoku period and righteous killers waiting in the shadows to strike down evildoers has a flavor of its own, and that’s a good thing. For starters, Yasuke plays a completely different, more brutish role that’s unlike anything we’ve had in the series before (or in a Tenchu game for that matter). It also remains a big historical RPG filled to the brim with different systems, which is an approach that’s worked quite well for the series’ growth despite the old-guard fans’ many complaints.

Long story short: Yes, Assassin’s Creed Shadows might be the closest thing in a good while to a proper new Tenchu, and all the AAA production values help it stand out, but it’s also a bigger adventure with other priorities. The aforementioned titles from other publishers aren’t very interested in replacing the original ‘Stealth Assassins’ either, so we’ll have to wait longer for the more restrained and darker assassin series to make a triumphant return.

Here's how to play the Assassin's Creed games in order.