‘It’s been a challenge’: Assassin’s Creed Shadows and the quest to bring feudal Japan to life

From watching classic samurai movies to rendering the unique way light falls on Japan's mountainsides and modelling individual characters' socks, Ubisoft has spared no effort recreating a fascinatingly violent period of history

More than four years after its announcement and after two last-minute delays, the latest title in Ubisoft's historical fiction series Assassin's Creed will finally be released on Thursday. Set in Japan in 1579, a time of intense civil war dominated by the feudal lord Oda Nobunaga, it follows two characters navigating their way through the bloody chaos: a female shinobi named Fujibayashi Naoe, and Yasuke, an African slave turned samurai. Japan has been the series' most-requested setting for years, Ubisoft says.

"I've been on [this] franchise for 16 years and I think every time we start a new game, Japan comes up and we ask, is this the time?" says executive producer Marc-Alexis Cote. We've never pushed beyond the conception phase with Japan until this one."