Assassin’s Creed: Shadows Claws of Awaji Review – Endgame Adventures

Assassin’s Creed: Shadows Claws of Awaji Review

Like many AAA action-adventure games, the Assassin’s Creed franchise is known for its DLC. Quite often, the extra content runs parallel to the base game or mixes up the mechanics and setting. Usually, the DLC only requires the player to have completed a portion of the main game. In the case of Claws of Awaji, the price of entry is much more significant. This DLC is gated behind having completed Shadows’ campaign and essentially reached the level cap. It’s kind of a risky ask, but the reward is a satisfying addition to the main narrative and a large new island to explore.

Finishing the Story

Despite it taking dozens of hours to wind through its story, Assassin’s Creed: Shadows still left a few narrative threads dangling. Meaning, it had a very unsatisfactory ending.  Claws of Awaji takes Naoe and Yasuke to a mysterious island in search of Naoe’s mother, Tsuyu, who has been held captive for years. Yasuke’s goal is to hunt down any remaining Templars and work with Naoe to find the remaining third regalia. In addition to the enemies from the main game, Claws of Awaji introduces a new enemy faction called the Sanzoku Ippa and their leader, Yukari. Uniquely, the Sanzoku Ippa use new deadly tactics like ambushes and traps, making encounters interesting.

In the base game, Naoe always felt a little like the real leading character, and the DLC pushes this even further. Yasuke’s talents aren’t entirely relevant, but Claws of Awaji is Naoe’s story.

Claws of Awaji spins out its major narrative arcs with more focused pacing than in the base game. Aside from a few larger-scale battles, however, the DLC’s mission design is very much in line with the main game. The DLC campaign can be approached in a very linear way, but it’s also possible to choose story missions in any order. The Sanzoku Ippa are formidable enemies and hard to take down, which is understandable given the level that players should already be at. There’s no need to spend even more time grinding for XP once on Awaji.

Stellar Staff

When it comes to combat, there’s one new addition that really stands out. Early in the DLC, Naoe gets a Bo staff, which has its own new move sets and upgrade tree. Basically, the Bo has high, neutral, and low attacks, vaguely like the stances in Nioh. The Bo staff is a lot of fun to use, maybe not exclusively, but it is useful in a number of situations. Yasuke is not entirely forgotten, receiving one new skill and two upgrades for each existing weapon. Still. Not tossing him a new weapon further pushes him into the role of sidekick.

The titular island of Awaji is one of the stars of the show. Mountainous and compact, the new area is much larger than it seems at first. This is because there is a lot of verticality and landscape variety in its four zones: Sumoto, Eshima Coast, Fukura Bay, and Yura. Awaji is really a perfect size for free-form exploration, not too intimidating but full of content. It’s also atmospheric and beautiful, carrying the stellar art design and graphics from the base game. The DLC’s voice acting, music, and environmental audio continue to be excellent as well.

Wrongs, Righted

Claws of Awaji provides a more satisfying conclusion to Naoe’s narrative than players got in Assassin’s Creed: Shadows, though it clearly suggests that Shadows was really her story all along. Awaji is a beautifully designed playground, filled with content. The new enemies and bosses are an appropriate challenge for the high-level players that the DLC demands. It’s a bit disappointing that Yasuke gets no new weapons and that the basic mission design remains relatively unchanged. It’s also a shame that Awaji Island and its enemies are gated from all but endgame players. However, for anyone frustrated by Shadows’ inconclusive finale, Claws of Awaji will bring some much-needed closure in DLC that rewards committed players.

***PC code provided by the publisher for review***