“Cultural References Have Been Very Positive”: Pirate Software Gives His Take on Assassin’s Creed Shadows

Popular Twitch streamer and game developer Pirate Software gives an extensive take on Assassin’s Creed Shadows.

Jason “Thor” Hall, widely recognized as Pirate Software, has given his take on the newest release in the Assassin’s Creed franchise. Jason is a popular game developer and former Blizzard employee. He wrote an extensive review of the game, praising its visuals and storyline. He mentioned that there has not been any destruction of cultural objects or locations.

Assassin’s Creed Shadows was under fire after supposedly showing the destruction of religious shrines. However, Pirate has since mentioned that the cultural references have been really positive:

“Cultural references have been very positive so far. I’ve learned a lot about locations, practices, and some historical figures. Practices like Kintsugi are really neat to learn about as well as prayer standards and things like the tea ceremony. These gave me footholds to learn more outside of the game which is A+ in my book.”

Assassin's Creed Shadows is fun and the environments are beautiful. pic.twitter.com/Z0DjA4ne34
— Pirate Software (@PirateSoftware) March 26, 2025

Assassin’s Creed Shadows was launched on March 20, 2025, and had a very shaky release. Several netizens complained about the game’s historical accuracy, while some fans praised the game for its mechanics and compelling storyline. Thor mentioned that the game had a “classic hero’s journey trope” and compared it to Star Wars. He talked about the combat system and how the game perfectly balances both stealth and the samurai aspect. He remarked that the game had enjoyable fights in either direction:

“Combat gets much more interesting around level 30 as you can’t just one shot everything and you need to take apart locations with more thought put in. Yasuke becomes a powerhouse but is shit at stealth and can’t climb to save his life. Naoe is exceptional at stealth and takedowns but can’t take a hit so you have to play well if you do get discovered. Fights are enjoyable in either direction.”

Pirate Software Lists Cons for Assassin’s Creed Shadows

Despite the overall positive review, Pirate had some criticism regarding the game. He mentioned that the game’s movement felt “clunky.” The streamer criticized the ladders in the game, stating that they had a huge amount of gravitational pull. He mentioned that Yasuke, the game’s protagonist, cannot run without damaging multiple objects near him. Meanwhile, Naoe, another one of the game’s protagonists, does not get an indicator for the objects she cannot climb.

“Movement can be clunky when everything in the world can be climbed. Ladders have an insane amount of gravity and will pull you in just looking at them. Yasuke cannot run without trying to bullcharge any object near him. Naoe has no indicator to show when she can’t climb something other than doing a backflip off it instead. For fans of the series I don’t know if this is common or not.”

Had a bunch of conversations with people below and wanted to sum them all up.

Pros:
The games story so far has been compelling overall. The protags have the classic heroes journey trope which has been used from the Illiad to Star Wars. It's the most common and compelling story…
— Pirate Software (@PirateSoftware) March 26, 2025

Another point of criticism Pirate Software mentioned was about the game’s explicit romance scenes. He mentioned that the romance scenes felt “far out of place.” Thor stated that two of the characters in-game were pushy about flirting, which he was not interested in. Jason wrote that he decided to skip out on those scenes.

One of the biggest points of criticism that Jason and many others, including CohhCarnage had, was the microtransactions. Pirate stated that microtransactions in single-player games just feel bad to him. He expressed his dislike and wrote that he refused to engage in those purchases entirely.

“MTX in a single player game feels bad to me. I dislike it entirely and refuse to engage in any purchases available. These types of purchases are very popular outside of western countries though so it makes sense to see them so commonly in games now.”

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