TheAssassin’s Creedseries has long been famous for its unique historical settings within regions and countries set during pivotal events centuries ago, from the Holy Land during the Third Crusade inAssassin’s Creed 1to Sengoku period Japan inAssassin’s Creed Shadows. Each game’s world offers players a unique glance at these historical settings and time periods, with each subsequent mainline game expanding in the depth in which fans can learn about the various foregone societies and cultures. Since 2017, theAssassin’s Creedseries has greatly expanded its world by creating vast open worlds supported by increased RPG-like mechanics. WithAssassin’s Creed Shadowsbeing the latest game in the RPG line of AC games, it’s worth making an in-depth comparison ofShadowsto its RPG predecessors.
TheseAssassin’s Creedworld size comparisons do not include areas locked to prologue, epilogue, or DLC sections of the RPG games.
The Regions and Size of Assassin’s Creed Shadows’ Japan
Assassin’s Creed Shadowsis the second RPGACgame developed by Ubisoft Quebec, who previously worked on 2018’sAssassin’s Creed Odyssey. However,Shadowsis actually the fourth fully fleshed-outRPGAssassin’s Creedgame released, with the other games being 2017’sAssassin’s Creed Originsand 2020’sAssassin’s Creed Valhalla. 2023’sAssassin’s Creed Mirageis generally considered to be too short and too small to be properly grouped with the other RPGACgames as it primarily takes place in the Round City of Baghdad. In contrast,Shadowsallows players to be able to explore nine regions within central Japan in the late 16th century, including:
In terms of the actual size ofShadows’ base world, Creative Director Jonathan Dumont announced in 2024 thatShadowswill be about the same scale asOrigins. This was later confirmed by comparison animations YouTuber DG VFX in early 2025, who revealed thatShadows’ world is about 84 square kilometers large. This placesAssassin’s Creed Shadowsas the fourth-largest game in the series, slightly larger thanOriginsbut smaller thanValhalla,Black Flag, andOdyssey, the latter of which is the largestAssassin’s Creedgame at 130 square kilometers. Most ofBlack FlagandOdyssey’s size, however, comes from their vast ship-traversing bodies of water in the form of the Caribbean, Aegean, and Mediterranean seas.
The Dynamic Japanese World of Assassin’s Creed Shadows
WhileAssassin’s Creed Originsand its fellow open world successors expanded the series' journey into RPG territory, their worlds were relatively stagnant with their environments. BothOriginsandOdysseyfeatured arid environments, but they never really changed as players progressed through the story. Occasional sand storms may appear in Egypts desert and both games featured a consistent day and night cycle, but none of these truly altered the world or gameplay mechanics.Assassin’s Creed Valhallahad a more varied world, featuring snow-covered mountains, grassy hills, and sparse forests, but its environment also seldom changed. Ubisoft Quebec sought to rectify this issue inAssassin’s Creeds Shadowswith dynamic weather, seasons, and lighting.
The story ofAssassin’s Creed Shadowsseemingly takes place over the course of several years as feudal Japan seasons will consistently change naturally as gamers play through the game.Spring, summer, fall, and winter are all rotated throughoutAssassin’s CreedShadows’ story with each season altering NPC and gameplay mechanics on top of changing the appearance of the game. For example, the snow-covered winter will cause Naoe and Yasuke to slowly walk through fields and be able to cross frozen bodies of water. Storms will occasionally appear throughout the game as well, with rainstorms making sneaking through castles easier as it drowns out the noise of players’ footsteps.Shadowsmay be smaller than its predecessors, but it makes up for it with a more detailed world.
