How Assassin's Creed Shadows Honors the Lore of Early Games

This article contains MAJOR SPOILERS for Assassin's Creed Shadows.

The Assassin's Creed franchise has changed a lot in the last 18 years. The series' biggest change by far came in 2017 with the launch of Assassin's Creed Origins, an entry that exchanged the series' stealth and parkour focus for action-RPG elements and a gigantic open-world. Each entry since Assassin's Creed Origins (aside from AC Mirage) has continued to build on this open-world RPG formula, including the most recent release, Assassin's Creed Shadows.

From the outside, it might seem as though Assassin's Creed has lost touch with the series' original identity. While it's true that the series' modern entries look and feel quite different from Altair, Ezio, Connor, and Edward's adventures, there are still plenty of references to the franchise's overarching story, and a few callbacks to classic titles. Assassin's Creed Shadows, for instance, honors the franchise's legacy by referencing two of its most beloved entries.

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By Diego Perez

Assassin's Creed Shadows' Ezio Easter Eggs Explained

A Classic Assassin Robe Can Be Found in Assassin's Creed Shadows

After completing all of Assassin's Creed Shadows' Kuji-kiri side missions and the "Wolves and Foxes" main mission, players will be presented with a new quest titled "Secrets of the Blade." As Naoe, players need to head to the hidden Tomb of the Ancients in Izumi Settsu.

After completing a brief obstacle course, players will pass through a crack in the cavern's walls, and come face to face with the iconic Assassin Brotherhood logo carved into a large door. Players find a journal inside, along with a set of Assassin robes that they can equip. While these robes are not explicitly inspired by Ezio Auditore da Firenze, they do seem to pay homage to the legendary Assassin, appearing white with red highlights on the belt and hood.

The journal Naoe finds in the Tomb of the Ancients was written by Alvaro Catarribera, a Spanish Assassin who recruited Naoe's mother and father to the Brotherhood.

The Events of Assassin's Creed 2 and Brotherhood Are Referenced in AC Shadows

Towards the end of Yasuke's questline in Assassin's Creed Shadows, players come face to face with Duarte de Melo, a slaver from Yasuke's past. After promptly killing Duarte, Yasuke finds a letter and takes it to his Jesuit ally Luis Frois.

Frois tells Yasuke that the letter contains an oath to the Templar Order, an organization he had heard about when living in Italy. He relays that the Templars were said to be a powerful organization that consisted of the Pope and the Three Great Houses, and that the Borgias' "thirst for power nearly ruined the city [of Rome]." Frois also mentions that the Templars in Italy were "eradicated mysteriously" by a secret organization.

Of course, long-time fans of the Assassin's Creed franchise will immediately catch this reference to the events of Assassin's Creed 2 and Brotherhood, when Ezio Auditore formed his own Italian Brotherhood to take down the Borgias and their Templar associates. The end of Yasuke's questline sees him killing Nuno Caro, a Templar higher-up who promises that his death will bring about a war, potentially teasing an even more direct Templar-Assassin connection in the future.

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