Ubisoft leaked a teaser trailer that’s quite difficult to decipher for Assassin’s Creed Shadows, and everyone went crazy over the newest legendary animal. Now, the hunt is on for the mythical Shika deer that comes out under VERY peculiar circumstances. Full moon, cherry blossom season, and high-altitude meadow-type situations. So, bad news there, future samurais!
The devs had ominously poetic tweets about the riddle of finding this creature. It’s almost like you wait for the sakura to bloom (probably means staring at trees for 12 hours in the game), then hope the moon phase aligns (deer turning into werewolves, perhaps?), and climb up this ridge somewhere south of Yoshino Kakurega. Easy as pie.
This isn’t any ordinary deer! Having capitalized “Legendary” means this boy will rage through loot and secret content. Maybe a fancy new tanto? Or straw hats that originated for a reason? The tweet asks the players how many legendary animals they’ve tracked so far, suggesting that there’s an entire zoo of these magical creatures lurking around feudal Japan!
The picture attached looks like concept art of a deer beneath the moonlight with cherry blossom petals drifting around; maybe some kind of fever dream of Ghibli. Classic Ubisoft-try to make nature look prettier than real while killing you in the most far-fetched ways imaginable. Remember the lynx from Valhalla that ridiculously teleported behind you?
Such environmental storytelling is exactly what Assassin’s Creed fans feast on. Instead of having a pathetically large red blip marked everywhere on your map, they’re reviving that old-school way of having to actually do some exploring and paying attention to details. The tweet has already amassed thousands of likes; players are throwing out theories of other legendary beasts that could be hiding in the massive open-world of Shadows.
Others are speculating about wish-granting koi fish or maybe a nine-tailed fox boss. Me? I am all for a drunken tanuki that can instruct in secret martial arts. Setting this in a wild Sengoku period skyrocket the possibilities for myths-from tengu warriors to genuine dragons should Ubisoft dare to go more wild.
What is really crazy is this inkles a greater shore for Shadows: the core of mixing historical realism with the supernatural! The original game is somewhat strange in having a dual protagonist system-a shinobi and a samurai-which are totally different playstyles. Now, they’re teasing all that otherworldly wildlife hunting business that can strongly influence how a player explores. Imagine having to follow lunar cycles just so you could complete your big book of beasts!
The date for the release, coincidentally, is November 15; so it’s pretty clear that Ubisoft will carry the hype until just one drop remains. And unfailingly, the producers have sown little teases into the wild, keeping the fans stripped with intrigue-for good measure: A small bunch of folks in the replies are almost actually arguing about their exact strategies for virtual hunting. Others are getting acquainted with real-world deer migration patterns as if it were some National Geographic ordeal.
If anything else, with changing seasons, dynamic weather systems, and the moon phase mechanic, Shadows might be the most alive open world yet in the series. Whether it indeed is fun to play is a different topic altogether for now, but for now, the Legendary Shika Deer mystery has kept players nourished with juicy speculation until the countdown for release begins.
So when you realize you’ve been waiting for three days of real time just to get kicked off a cliff by this new deer overlord, don’t blame anybody. The Assassin’s way, really!
