It’s wild that it took almost 20 years and dozens of games for the biggest stealth action series around to finally bend towards feudal Japan. Assassin's Creed Shadows makes the most of that theme, with a great pair of shinobi and samurai heroes sharing center stage that are well-written and fun to skulk through giant castles or wade into vicious battles with. Besides the setting, the bulk of the changes this time focus on making smaller tweaks to well-established systems, such as less cluttered maps and skill trees, while also doubling down on things that really worked in 2023’s Assassin’s Creed Mirage, like the more focused and tougher combat that accompanies its better paced main quests. It’s not a perfect reset, as imbalances and missed opportunities abound, but I feel more confident than ever that Assassin’s Creed could be back and here to stay.