Assassin’s Creed Shadows Ending Explained

Okay so you probably just finished the story of Assassin's Creed Shadows, and you're probably sitting there with a mix of emotions, some confusion, maybe a bit of frustration, but definitely curiosity. Because let's be honest, that ending was a bit strange. We had betrayals, ancient relics, and an epilogue that really drives home that this story isn't quite done yet. This is a video intended only for the people who have finished and completed the story of Assassin's Creed Shadows. Now I probably don't need to say this given the type of video this is, but just in case, yes there will be major spoilers for the ending of Assassin's Creed Shadows. Now I'm only saying that because I know there will be a few people that would complain if I did not. Anyway, in this video, I'll be breaking down the ending, covering the Shin Baku ending, Naoe's ending, Yasuke's ending, the epilogue, and then I'll explain why I'm pretty sure we're going to get some sort of follow up to Naoe's story. Now this video will focus on the canon story, which is of course the important side of the narrative that we should all be paying attention to. So if you have not already, make sure to hit that subscribe button. And with that out the way, let's jump right in. So throughout the game, we play as both Naoe and Yasuke as they hunt down 12 targets tied to an organisation called the Shin Baku. Naoe's motivation is personal. Each of these targets played a role in the death of her father, Fujibayashi Nagato. On top of that, they stole a precious box that her father entrusted her to protect. That's what drives her to take out all Yasuke, on the other hand, has a different goal. He is driven by loyalty. He served under Oda Nobunaga, and the Shin Baku, specifically Akechi Mitsuhide, betrayed and were responsible for Nobunaga's demise. Yasuke's mission is one of justice and retribution. That's essentially why he's involved. He's left without a daimyo, so he helps Naoe in hunting all 12 targets down. What's interesting is that most of the Shin Baku weren't even fully aware of the bigger picture. They were promised wealth, territory, and influence by a man named Yoshiaki, who I'll get into later in the video, and were used as pawns to further the Templars' goals in Japan. Most of them did not even know who the Templars were, or what their larger plan was. They were just in it for the power. Now, once we've taken down the 10th member of the Shin Baku, Akechi Mitsuhide becomes available to track and eliminate. Fast forward to Akechi Mitsuhide's target mission. After a long and intense chase, we finally corner him, and he comes to terms with the fact that there's no escape except through a fight. We get to fight with both characters, which is a nice touch, considering both have deeply personal reasons to take him down. And once the fight ends, we're hit with a wave of major revelations that need unpacking. First, Mitsuhide confirms that Oshikaga Yoshiaki is the real leader of the Shin Baku. Turns out, Yoshiaki once held the position of Shogun before Nabenaga overthrew him, which was actually a real event that occurred in real history in 1573. This entire conspiracy in the game was Yoshiaki's attempt to regain his lost power by allying with various regional warlords and promising them some sort of influence. But perhaps more importantly, Mitsuhide reveals that he still possesses the box that was stolen from Nabe's father, the very box we've been chasing since the prologue. Now, I'm sure we're all wondering what was in the box. Well, it turns out that it's one of Japan's Imperial Regalia, the Yasakani no Magatama, a legendary jewel said to symbolise benevolence. The other two parts we don't have currently, and are a sword and a mirror. And just for extra context, the three relics, the Magatama, the mirror and the sword are held in incredibly high regard in Japanese mythology and real world tradition. In the game, they've been reimagined as highly sought after artefacts by both assassins and Templars. We do know what happens with one other box, which we'll get into later when I talk about Nari's ending. But as for the third and final box, it remains missing. I will admit, it is a bit disappointing that it's not a piece of Eden. Or maybe it is, but we don't know that. The game does not do a great job going further into it. Now, with Mitsuhide's secrets laid bare, he's executed canonically by Yasuke, and the final path towards Yashiyaki is opened. Now, this part is where things get really interesting. Both Nare and Yasuke confront Yashiyaki together. He knows the Shinbaku has fallen, and he's cornered. In fact, we see this as he's sitting there defeated with the box Nare's looking for. But instead of putting up a fight, Yashiyaki tries to bargain. He offers Nare the Nare hesitates. Killing him would be justified. He led the very group that destroyed her family. But getting the box back might mean more. Yasuke, though, is ready to finish the job. He sees Yashiyaki as the true cause of Nobunaga's death and wants justice. Both characters have very good reasons to want this man dead. But then, Yashiyaki drops another bombshell. He sold some of the Imperial Regalia to a mysterious group, who we now know as the Templars. And yes, those Templars. I mean, it only took until near the end of the game for the actual Templar side of the story to get interesting. So now Assassin's Creed fans will start to see the bigger picture. Yashiyaki did not just want to reclaim power. He aligned himself with the Templars, and he's terrified of what they might do next. To save his skin, he offers Yasuke some information about the Templars still operating in Japan. In the end, both characters walk away, sparing Yashiyaki's life. But Yasuke delivers a final brutal line, a pretty cold one, saying that history will remember Nobunaga, not Yashiyaki. And you know what? He's probably right. Now, at this point, we can go in either direction. Hunt down the Templars within Japan as Yasuke, and end his story. Or follow the clues left behind by the Kakushiba Ikki, who are a branch of the Japanese Brotherhood, and end Naoe's story. Let's go over to Naoe's ending first, which is the less action packed and more Assassin related. Now, after all that had just happened with Yashiyaki, Naoe follows the clues left behind and finds an underground Assassin vault. There, she is hit with a flashback of the prologue that we did not see. In this flashback, her father explains that Naoe's mother, Suyu, had given him one of the three special boxes containing the Imperial Regalia. These boxes were entrusted to the Kakushiba Ikki by the Emperor of Japan, and Naoe's father hid his in a coffin tomb to keep it safe. I'll go over what happens to Naoe's mother in just a little bit. But for now, we need to know a few important things. Suyu, who is Naoe's mother, was part of the Japanese Brotherhood long before the events of Shadows actually takes place. In the game, Naoe's father mentions that she was recruited into the Brotherhood by a Nanban stranger. Now, Nanban means Southern Barbarian, which also means European. And although it's not mentioned here, he's referring to a man named Alvaro Cateribera, a Spanish Assassin that was essentially banished from his own Brotherhood. And he found Suyu in a messed up state, so he trained her, saw her potential and ultimately this is how Suyu became an Assassin. Now just going back to why Alvaro himself was banished from his own Brotherhood, well it was for killing an innocent, basically violating the Creed. After that, he made his way to Japan by tracking Templars who were planning to establish influence there. He built his own Brotherhood in Japan. A kind of redemption story. And that is how the Kakushiba Ikki was born. And yes, that does mean the lore of Shao Chun's apprentice Kotetsu is I believe retconned. So make of that what you will. Now while in Iga, Suyu sought the help of Shinobi leader Momochi Sendeiu to safeguard the relics. There, she trained under Momochi Sendeiu and formed strong bonds with fellow students Hattori Hanzo and Naoe's father, Fujibayashi Nagato. All three of them were inspired by Suyu's dedication and mission, and eventually joined her Brotherhood. Now as for what happened to Suyu, so I mentioned earlier that she gave one of the boxes to Fujibayashi Nagato and was supposed to return with the other two boxes to also hide the safekeeping, but she never did return. Some people such as Momochi Sendeiu say that she died, but nobody really knows. Now after that flashback scene is over, Naoe finally returns the box containing the Yasakani no Magatama and is unexpectedly met by Hattori Hanzo. Now this is a character that's been popping up throughout the game, and he ends up bringing one of the boxes. A box he said was taken from the Templars by Lord Iyasu, the first Shogun and Daimyo. Now here we learn something pretty shocking, there's still one box missing, and more importantly, Hanzo reveals the truth about Naoe's mother Suyu. It turns out that Hanzo was in love with Suyu, but when she chose to be with Naoe's father instead of him, he betrayed the Japanese Brotherhood out of pure jealousy. That betrayal led to the downfall of the assassins in Japan, and Suyu's apparent death. So yeah, Ubisoft portrayed Hattori Hanzo as somebody we were meant to dislike, which I'm not a fan of. Now Hattori Hanzo was guilt ridden, and he later sent a letter to warn Naoe's father about the attack on Iga, an attack that we saw at the beginning of the game. Now, Naoe has the chance to kill Hattori Hanzo for what he did. If you're not playing on cannon mode, you can choose to spare him or fight him. I did not play on cannon mode so I spared him, but the fight comes to a truce. Hanzo believes Suyu might still be alive, and he offers to help Naoe find her. The story ends with Naoe setting out on a new journey, not one of revenge, but one of hope and healing. And depending on if you did Yasuke's personal story before, the credits would roll then and there. I'll go over why I think we're going to have some sort of follow up for this at the end of the video. But for now, we need to move over to Yasuke and find out what his ending is all about. So the difference with Yasuke's journey and Naoe's journey is that he is focused on his past and closing that chapter. And with that information that Yoshiaki gave him, we start hunting down the Templars operating in Japan. This leads us to Duarte de Melo, a Portuguese slaver who was one of the men in Yasuke's slavery past that we end up taking down. But the problem is Duarte does not reveal where a man named Nunokaro, who is the leader of the slavers, is located. So we end up killing him because he talked a bunch of shit about Yasuke's mother. On Duarte's body we find a letter, as well as a symbol depicting Templars. At that point, Yasuke has no idea who the Templars are. So we take the letter to Luis Freuze, the Jesuit missionary who arrived with Yasuke to Japan, something we saw at the beginning of the game. The letter turns out to be an oath, a written commitment to the Templar Order. It confirms that Duarte wasn't just a slaver, but also a member of the Templars. The letter also references a man named Kimura Kei, who is training a group of secret warriors at a school in Kyoto. These warriors are being prepared to serve a powerful Templar figure named Nunokaro, a man Yasuke once was a slave for before the events of the game. Now through this letter, Yasuke realises that the Templars are still active in Japan, operating through familiar faces from his past. It sets him on a new path, not just one of personal revenge, but of purpose. And so our search then leads us to the Templar I mentioned named Kimura Kei. After a goddamn long fight with a bunch of enemies tossed at you, we finally confront Kei and kill him. But unfortunately he does not reveal the location of Nunokaro. Next up we meet the Silver Queen, who turns out to be Akechi Mitsuhide's very own daughter. Now she ends up drugging Yasuke and hands him over to the Templars. But the big reveal is Nunokaro himself, the man Yasuke was hunting for. Nunokaro at this point doesn't even know who Yasuke is in the past, but he does know he killed Akechi Mitsuhide, so he orders the Silver Queen to kill Yasuke. Instead of her actually doing it, she wants Yasuke to rescue her brother, which we end up doing, and in turn she reveals the location of where Nunokaro is. Now once we are face to face with Nunokaro, a big revelation happens, and it turns out that he is the one responsible for killing Yasuke's mother, something he did as a punishment for disobedience. And he even tried to kill Yasuke too, but of course he's our protagonist and he's got plot armour, and eventually ended up with the Jesuits in Japan. Here's a detail that's very easy to miss, Nunokaro did not just kill Yasuke's mother in the past, he did it because she was caught snooping in his quarters. What's interesting is that Yasuke's survival was actually thanks to an unnamed assassin, who intervened during the chaos. Not sure why or how he got there, but hey why not. After a bunch of talking, we throw him out the castle window, which by the way, how the **** did he survive that fall? Anyway, as he's clinging to life, he tries to shoot Yasuke in a last act of defiance, but Yasuke is faster. He slices Karo's throat and declares something powerful, my name is Yasuke. And with that, Yasuke's story comes full circle. He reclaims his identity, severs his ties to the Templars and steps forward as something greater. I mean he even declares war against the Templars and that is something we'll probably never see expanded upon. The credits roll and that is all. But there is one more thing, an epilogue. Now this epilogue will start once you talk to Tomiko. So back at the hideout, Naoe and Yasuke regroup with Junjiro, the young boy we meet at the beginning of the game. Junjiro creates a banner with the assassin insignia and plants it near the entrance of the hideout. It's a small moment, but I guess it feels symbolic, like the rebirth of the Brotherhood in Japan. We then share a few final optional conversations with the allies of our hideout. And as we're doing this, we get a letter from Hattori Hanzo to Naoe, saying he has a lead on her mother and even gives her a set of master assassin robes, a quiet gesture of redemption. The final scenes take place on the cliffside, with Naoe, Yasuke and Junjiro looking over the horizon. Naoe promises she'll find her mother when she's ready. Yasuke says he'll stay and take care of Junjiro, which Junjiro sees as the father figure. And when Junjiro says he wants to grow into Naoe's assassin hood someday, she tells him it's a big job. And after a very Disney or Pixar like ending, this then marks the closure of Assassin's Creed Shadow's story in the base game. Now I say base game, because I do think we are going to see something that focuses on Naoe's mother. It may be an entire expansion, or maybe a potential quest they add later on, or just something. But there is no way in hell that the writers would end on a cliffhanger, one where we are supposed to find Naoe's mother. In fact Hattori Hanzo's letter even mentions he has a lead on her, and if there was something to be added later on, it would only make sense. Plus we still haven't seen the 3rd Imperial Regalia box, the one that's missing. That's going to play a key role in whatever content comes next. And there we have it, that is the ending of Assassin's Creed Shadows Explained. Now I made this video because as of right now,