Assassin's Creed Shadows Cover Art Leak Reveals Playable Protagonists

Summary

Assassin's Creed Shadows will be fully revealed by Ubisoft later today, but its key art has already confirmed something interesting.
Yasuke, the first black samurai, has long been rumoured to be a part of the game, and he can seemingly be spotted on the game's cover.
Yasuke will reportedly be playable alongside Naoé, with the two having completely different combat styles. We'll find out if the rumours are true during the full reveal later today.

The cover art for Assassin's Creed Shadows has leaked ahead of the game's reveal later today, giving us our first proper look at the game's two protagonists and seemingly confirming that Yasuke, the first black samurai, will be playable.

Although it doesn't feel like that long since Assassin's Creed Mirage launched and took us back to the world of hidden blades and leaps of faith, there's already something bigger on the horizon - Assassin's Creed Shadows. Originally known as Assassin's Creed Red, the next game in the series comes from the Odyssey team and finally lets us play as an assassin in Feudal Japan.

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We've known about Assassin's Creed Shadows for quite some time, but we're about to get a much closer look at it. Yesterday, Ubisoft revealed the game's new title and confirmed that we'd be getting a proper look at the game later today with a full reveal. In typical Ubisoft fashion, though, the announcement came alongside a leak that revealed Shadows' cover art.

Assassin's Creed Shadows Leak Reveals Two Protagonists

As showcased by Redditor Lift_Off_ on the GamingLeaksAndRumours subreddit, the key art for Assassin's Creed Shadows leaked around the same time that Ubisoft announced that it was going to be properly showcasing the game. The same happened for Assassin's Creed Mirage and countless other titles from the studio so it isn't a surprise to see happen again. This time, though, it does confirm something interesting.

Although Ubisoft quickly deleted some of the leaks for Shadows, the one that remains on the subreddit shows the game's cover art and seems to confirm that it'll have two protagonists. We've known about the female assassin, seemingly named Naoé, ever since Shadows was known as Red, but it's the other character that is particularly interesting.

For some time now, it's been rumoured that Assassin's Creed Shadows will include Yasuke, Japan's first black samurai, as a playable character, something that now seems to be fully confirmed by the cover art. You can see Yasuke in the image standing next to Naoé, suggesting that the game will feature two playable protagonists that aren't the same character, unlike Odyssey and Valhalla.

This is particularly interesting seeing as how Assassin's Creed usually has fictional characters as protagonists and hasn't featured one based on a real-life historical figure. Reports from Insider Gaming suggest that his story will be reworked a bit to fit the game's narrative, but it's still a big change for the series.

Insider Gaming also reports that Yasuke and Naoé will have completely different playstyles, with Naoé playing more stealthily and Yasuke focusing more on aggressive combat.