Assassin's Creed Shadows: Claws of Awaji Dev Details the…

In less than a week, many AC fans will be returning to Assassin's Creed Shadows for its first major post-launch expansion: The Claws of Awaji. In this DLC, Naoe and Yasuke engage the villainous Sanzoku Ippa on the island of Awaji, all while seeking Naoe's mother, facing new Templars, and hunting a rare treasure. It picks up right where Assassin's Creed Shadows leaves off, feeling as if it is a natural extension of the original story.

Of course, that means fans are looking forward to certain answers and have certain expectations from its narrative, gameplay, and new Awaji Island location. How it is ultimately received remains to be seen, but The Best War Games recently spoke with content director Simon Arseneault at Ubisoft Bordeaux about how the team identified and approached the content for Claws of Awaji. Our conversation covered its role in the overarching narrative, the choice of Awaji Island, rapid changes in development, and how the DLC's opening mission kicks things off strong. The following transcript has been edited for clarity and brevity.

Depending on how much of Assassin's Creed Shadows you've played, as well as your exposure to Claws of Awaji's marketing, parts of this interview may constitute minor spoilers.

A Continuous Story in a New Location

April 30 is Going to Be a Big Day for Assassin's Creed Shadows

The Best War Games: During the presentation, you mentioned that this DLC had to feel like it was part of a continuous story from AC Shadows' ending. I was curious what role this specific story plays. Is it that this is part of a continuing story, then, or does it wrap up any questions players have?

We try to wrap up the personal story of Naoe, but those two could still have adventures together afterward. Any more is hard without spoilers.

The Best War Games: Honestly, that's a pretty good answer because I'm sure Naoe's story is the one players have a lot of questions about.

It started strong, very personal, with Nagato in the main game. Then, we have the vengeance story that's super interesting in the middle. At the end, we for sure have small cliffhangers, so we have to wrap those up. Now, that doesn't mean we don't keep doors open while we do so, but when you close some doors, you leave more open.

Assassin's Creed Shadows big budget revealed

The Best War Games: So, questions players may have about Naoe's story from the end of the base game should be relatively answered?

Relatively, of course.

The Best War Games: With so many areas left in Japan, what brought the team to Awaji Island?

It might be kind of boring. When you do an expansion, you have to work with a tight schedule and a tight budget. Awaji is close by but not too close, so it can be different but not too different. That way, you don't have to produce everything. The temples can look more or less the same. It's the same kits. It's not the same organization, but it's the same kits. The castle? Same thing. Same assets but organized differently.

You can build stuff faster, so you have to build on top of what was already done by the main game, and then you can focus your energy on what you want to be new. For example, we picked up the trees and ambience, but we wanted to have our weather system be less systemic. We put our efforts there. That's where we put our manpower, our creative energy. There's a lot of that which generates this choice.

Narratively, Awaji also makes sense because, afterward, they can travel back and forth. You wouldn't necessarily do it during a preview, but if you were at home, you would probably go back to the hideout, work on some stuff, upgrade your weapons, and all that's dependent on how you start Awaji because if you haven't completed the narrative, you can still do that for a while. If you do it at 150 hours, you're probably going to stick to Awaji because there's less to do in the main game. Being close removes a little bit of the weirdness of teleporting, like taking a boat for three months, but you're arriving on the opposite side of the planet. It's convenient, let's say.

ACSH_COA_Screenshot_Eshima_Trail_10 09 2025_6PM CEST-1

The Best War Games: Fast travel is all fun and games until you start seriously questioning it, isn't it?

You kind of need to. It's something for player comfort and efficiency. You don't necessarily need to use it, but at one point with the size of the games, it's almost a needed feature for sure. I always encourage everyone not to use it a bit, at least at the beginning, but I totally understand the urge to do it.

One more thing about Awaji is, when we started looking at the island itself, there were a couple of things that were different from the mainland that we could bank on. For example, the temples don't have pagodas. It's a simple detail, but it's something you've noticed everywhere for 100 hours. Then, it's different even though we were just not putting an asset there. One of the temples we picked because we had to choose—there are so many temples and shrines in Awaji—but we picked some of the biggest ones, ones that were more unique. There's one that's built on a castle foundation, so it's very unique, very different. This one has been moved since then, so it doesn't exist anymore. But there was a foundation for a castle that was never built, and instead, there was a temple built on top. It's nice to find what can make it different, even if you're in a similar area, right?

Developing an Assassin's Creed Shadows DLC

The Best War Games: Earlier, you were talking about how you have to work on a tight budget and a tight timeline. During the Bo Staff presentation, one of my favorite mentions was how the high hit had to change because of how helmets changed between development and release. How do you tackle situations like this: what you know during development, what changes at release, and how you are developing the DLC? Are there any other examples of something that changed you could give me?

There's a lot that has changed since the game released as well because of their feedback. With every title update, there are new features coming in. We often learn about those beforehand, so we can plan ahead. We're often 2-3 updates ahead, so we can know that the expansion, for example, needs support for New Game Plus, new follower support, or like nightmare difficulty support. When these happen during production, we have to readjust as we are already moving. Sometimes it's not too big. Sometimes you just have to keep going and say we'll double-check that this is working. Sometimes it's a little more involved like the Nightmare mode. 'What about our boss fights? How does that work?' The timings we had with Nowaki yesterday won't be the same if we were playing on hard or nightmare mode.

The Best War Games: For Shadows, one of the big things is the dual protagonist approach, right? In this story, we have Naoe's mom and Yasuke's connection with the Templars. When you're looking at story and gameplay balance, how is it developing a DLC with these two characters factored into all facets of the game?

Narratively, because we're at the endgame, we knew that the relationship was now deeper. Even one of the last lines in the epilogue is about why they didn't tell each other about Naoe's mother or the Templars. They were still not sharing secrets, even after all this time, because it was too personal, but that changes as soon as you start mentioning these things. These characters have evolved. She's trusting him enough to ask that question. He's not a stranger anymore, and the opposite too, he's able to talk to her as well. Emotionally, we could go somewhere we could not before.

For gameplay, I think the same thing applies. They were resolving those issues together before, but they were often working on two different areas of the same problem at different times. Now that they're closer emotionally, they're also closer in goals; they don't have their own personal vengeance goals anymore. They have one thing, and right now, it's finding Naoe's mom. 'Well, I will help you' is Yasuke. They have one goal as two protagonists, so we can make quests or missions about this.

The escape is a way to reinforce it. We're bringing in something not seen in the main game, where one of them is in danger and the other has to help. There are still a lot of stories to tell, right?

The Best War Games: I knew I felt something different about that opening mission structure on Awaji. Obviously, Naoe and Yasuke have had these team missions before, but it felt slightly different. I really enjoyed the vibe of the mission, but I couldn't figure out what was different. The splits didn't feel like each one was just doing their own thing on their particular path.

They have the same goal. Although there is a split behind the scenes, it's choreographed narratively...it's a dance. Now, we don't do that all the time because it's complex.