Ubisoft has revealed a game-changing feature coming to the Feudal Japan-set Assassin’s Creed Shadows: protagonist Naoe can Naruto run.
Creative director Jonathon Dumont told Entertainment Weekly of the flamboyant means of traversal, in which someone leans over so their face is just a few feet from the ground, throws their arms straight back, and sprints at top speed.
“Naoe’s the fastest Assassin we ever made,” Dumont said. “She runs super fast, she has a lot of gadgets to keep her stealth so that she doesn’t have to fight often. We wanted to satisfy that for players that come in for that ninja-Assassin game.”
He then teased the Naruto run. “We do have a run on top of buildings that has a little bit of a wink-wink to it,” Dumont said.
The Naruto run, obviously, comes from beloved anime and manga series Naruto, which is set in a ficticious world full of ninja. The distinct style of sprinting is fairly iconic imagery from the series and has been honored and laughed at in equal measure over the years.
Players can virtually Naruto run for themselves when Assassin’s Creed Shadows arrives on February 14, a few months after its original November release date.
A lot rests on the shoulders of Assassin’s Creed Shadows as not only is it the long-awaited Feudal Japan-set entry and the first full Assassin’s Creed since 2020, but a struggling Ubisoft needs it to perform well following recent flops.
It’s not enjoyed a particularly positive promotional period so far, however, with the development team having to apologize on separate occasions for inaccuracies in Assassin’s Creed Shadows’ depictions of Japan and using a historical recreation group’s flag without permission.
Yet another controversy came as collectible figure maker PureArts removed an Assassin’s Creed Shadows statue from sale over its “insensitive” design.
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.
