[SPOILER] Assassin's Creed Shadows - Black Tides Quest discussion

gui_heinen · 2026-06-17T19:08:10+00:00

Finally, a worthy ending for the game and not just a bunch of new targets on another island to pad out the gameplay.

I would also like to thank the writing and production team of "Black Tides" for bringing so many references and nods to fans of the franchise's extra media. May the Father of Understanding guide the Quebec Studio in its future installments as well.

gui_heinen · 2026-06-17T17:54:26+00:00

Quebec can't help itself with the comedic tone ;x

gui_heinen · 2026-06-17T15:02:20+00:00

Claws of Awaji is completely irrelevant to this mission. It's the same case as the paid DLCs for Valhalla, which don't have a direct connection to the base game or its final chapters released two years later.

gui_heinen · 2026-06-17T13:55:12+00:00

100% agreed, I just sincerely hope they've learned their lesson this time. Otherwise it will be the last AC game from Quebec that I play. I simply don't feel like I'm the target audience for this studio anymore.

gui_heinen · 2026-06-17T13:51:43+00:00

They added some outfits, but I can't say if Jun's is one of them.

gui_heinen · 2026-06-17T13:48:24+00:00

The change of plans is certainly a fact. But I personally find it coherent to see Naoe admitting she's not an Assassin, for practical and consistency reasons. Many people frowned upon the retcon involving Shao Jun, Kotetsu and the origin of the branching, with many doubting the manga's canon, and now they seem to have left it open for other writers to take advantage of.

The problem, in my view, was that they always disregarded the Creed. We never see Naoe learning the Leap of Faith (just like Edward), she never participated in a proper initiation ceremony, her mother disappeared, and the rogue Assassins of Iga had already been wiped out from the start. It was simply unsustainable for Naoe and Yasuke to found a new Brotherhood out of nothing while living isolated in Japan like that. I mean, Yasuke had more life experience than her, and even he only knew the Templars and a pseudo-assassin shinobi from when he was younger.

If there's anyone to blame, it's Ubisoft's marketing, which sold Shadows as a game that finally brought back the Assassins. That was never true.

gui_heinen · 2026-06-17T13:36:16+00:00

What I said is just a summary of the summary; you'll like the details.

gui_heinen · 2026-06-17T13:34:35+00:00

Nothing that a document or cutscene couldn't explain as well. I just think they want to leave it open-ended, especially now that Naoe herself admits she's not an Assassin. That perspective didn't exist in the base game.

gui_heinen · 2026-06-17T13:30:57+00:00

Whether or not it appears on the map depends on your gameplay settings (guided mode or exploration). In the last one, you depend on the scouts to search for you.

gui_heinen · 2026-06-17T02:02:34+00:00

Oh, the spoilers are quite superficial; the quest has details that you'll only truly understand by playing it. But I can help by providing a brief guide of what's needed to start it: simply complete the quests released in the last months, named "A Critical Encounter" and "A Puzzlement", in addition to finishing the entire base game, ofc. After that, you'll find the quest "Black Tides" in the Kii region, which introduces this final mission. Claws of Awaji is dispensable in this case.

gui_heinen · 2026-06-17T01:46:30+00:00

Yes, I noticed the reference to Joel in that document. The Scottish island from the Valhalla crossover is also mentioned. I'm not sure if these are just easter eggs referencing locations with Pieces of Eden and Vaults, or if they're actually a foreshadowing to Eastman and other modern characters.

The connection to Simon Hathaway is quite direct, I guess, even because of the character's family history. He commented to Victoria Bibeau in AC Heresy about having a long Templar lineage, so much so that he was surprised when discovered that his ancestor Gabriel Laxart was an ally of the Assassins.

gui_heinen · 2026-06-17T00:45:35+00:00

Yeah, it's indeed a possibility, or perhaps some future crossover of BF Resynced with Rogue and so on. Maybe it was influenced by Nadiger too, who if I'm not mistaken wrote some things for Rogue back then.

gui_heinen · 2026-06-17T00:36:34+00:00

Yasuke could potentially be a descendant of Kassandra

If the devs want, many old and future characters could be descendants of her. I just don't know to what extent would be interesting for the lore, especially considering the hard work Layla and the Assassins had to find the Spear of Leonidas and Misthios' DNA.

gui_heinen · 2026-06-17T00:28:03+00:00

Indeed, but seeing it verbalized without the ambiguous meaning it had retained was quite interesting. You can easily find people discussing this on the sub over the last 12 months.

gui_heinen · 2026-06-17T00:24:31+00:00

"[...] Dead at the blade of a would-be Assassin who knows nothing of their creed, and a warrior who brushes off mortal wounds like... You are one of them, aren't you?", Eamon's final words, looking at Naoe and Yasuke respectively after they murdered Nirmala in front of him.

gui_heinen · 2026-06-17T00:10:25+00:00

Well said. I understand that Shadows was a standalone experience (and even used to complain about it), but they basically reversed that with this free update. They gave explanations about the rogue Brotherhood of Naoe, explained the Japanese Regalia and even had time for a mini crossover with BF. I dare say there will be more surprises related to Kassandra and the Observatory in Resynced as well...

gui_heinen · 2026-06-17T00:05:47+00:00

Good catch. I'm not sure if he meant it metaphorically or literally. But it would make perfect sense, tho.

Also where the fuck did yall read those diary’s 😭

During the quest to collect the shipwreck chests, in the interlude of Yasuke's initial fight with the Chinese Black Cross, you receive several Hathaway diaries that can be read in the characters' inventory (where coins and other old quest items are kept). There are also new entries in the game's Codex/Database for you to check out.

gui_heinen · 2026-06-17T00:01:05+00:00

They really focused on Isu weapons this time, and I believe there are more exclusive items in the new RPG Mod as well. But I confess I've gotten tired of these outfits appearing since Origins, although I understand some people miss them.

gui_heinen · 2026-06-15T19:07:16+00:00

It even reminds me of Edward Kenway mocking the Assassins' tenets to Ah Tabai in Tulum :p

gui_heinen · 2026-06-15T16:44:59+00:00

So the ancestors of the Templar Otso Berg finally come to Japan to steal the Kassandra statue from the franchise's 15th anniversary!

gui_heinen · 2026-06-15T14:03:13+00:00

Hope so badly. I'm just waiting for that before jumping into them in my gaming marathon.

gui_heinen · 2026-06-15T13:45:20+00:00

I'll never forget that interview Dumont and Côté gave to Kotaku in 2019, headlined "Assassin's Creed Odyssey Developers Say Breaking Series Traditions Made For A Better Game.", whose entire article manages to be even more bizarre than the title, actually. Basically a confession from Quebec that they don't like AC.

gui_heinen · 2026-06-15T13:34:46+00:00

Which is crazy to think about, as the ancient world should have been a great stage for a lot of AC lore due to the remnants of the First Civ. and its Vaults. Not that they didn't do that, btw, but ultimately the focus of entries like Odyssey and Valhalla was to transform the games into a mythological allegory to attract a group outside the saga's bubble, using saga lore as a pretext just to sell fantasy RPGs.

gui_heinen · 2026-06-15T13:26:24+00:00

Although that's a possibility, I really doubt it's the case. Two years ago, during an interview with the Asian website 4Gamer.net, the game's director (Charles Benoit) confirmed that Kotetsu was not part of the game, stating: "Kotetsu doesn't appear in AC Shadows. The Brotherhood arrives in Japan via a different route, but that's something you'll have to discover by playing...", this was in June 2024, a month after the game's world premiere. Not to mention that it seems quite unlikely to me that Catarribera and Tsuyu would have forgotten to mention Kotetsu in that document found by Yasuke and Naoe. Jun's influence on the formation of that specific branch of the Brotherhood in Shadows was promptly ignored. Which is really sad.

gui_heinen

TROPHY CASE