exploring japan in Assassins Creed Shadows

Hello, welcome back to another video.

Today we're exploring Japan inside of

Assassin's Creed Shadows, probably the

closest thing we're ever going to get to

GTA set in Japan. It is 500 years old,

I guess, but it's the closest thing we

have to an open world game in Japan where

you can do what you want. And actually,

the map's pretty good. So if you go onto

the map, um, yeah, you got an entire map

of Japan. And if you recognize this area,

that's because you've probably been to

Japan before, like I And you get the

entire Kansai area. You get Lake Biwa,

you got Kyoto down here. Where is it?

Kyoto's here, but it's all in ruins for

some reason. You got Arashiyama, which

you'll know if you've traveled to Japan

before. You even got the bamboo forest,

which I've been to quite a few times in

real life. The bamboo forest. You've got

Osaka. This is where Osaka is. That's

Osaka Castle. Osaka Castle.

And that's actually where it is in real

life. So I think Umeda would be around

here, maybe where this question mark is.

I think Umeda is like there. And then you

go down here and you've got Namba and

Shinsaibashi. And then around here you got

USJ or something. And then you go down

here, you got the airport. I think the

airport's like there. And I

don't know if the key lock looking tomb

thing is here in the game. You got a bunch

of shrines and stuff which are actually in

real life real things. You got Amagasaki,

you got the Yodogawa River, which I used

to enjoy going to quite a lot. I think— I

don't know, it looks bigger in real life.

I mean, it looks bigger in the game than

it does in real life because I swear in

real life It's not this wide because I

used to go to the river and it wasn't— it

didn't look that big. Like, I don't know,

500 years ago was 500 years ago. So yeah,

you get all the way down here. You got

Wakayama. You also got Nara. Where would

Nara be? Hidden River.

Nara. Nara's here. So Nara is the place

where you got all the deers. Oh, Todaiji.

So Daichi's here. I swear I've been there

before in real life. And what else do you

get? Yeah,

you got Obama, Obama City.

Yeah, it gives you quite a large map of

Japan to explore, and that's what we're

gonna be doing today. So I'm playing the

game on low settings, and my laptop's not

the best, but it does play quite well. It

usually plays a lot better if I'm not

screen recording, so if it looks laggy,

it's because I'm screen recording. These

people— I just killed this man for some

reason. He attacked me, and then I threw a

dagger into his face, and then his brain

started bleeding into the river. So yeah,

the graphics look pretty good. We're

currently in Arashiyama,

and, um, yeah, you can get on the boat.

And you just go down the river, and this

is the place that I've been to many times

before in Japan. You've probably been

there too if you've ever visited Japan.

This is like the famous river bit at

Arashiyama where they got all the shops

and stuff. It's actually just

a really relaxing game. You don't have to

do the story, you don't have to go around

killing people. You can just enjoy the

sights and sounds of ancient Japan. It's

actually quite relaxing. So I reckon this

bit is like the famous bit where all the

tourists go. Because you look on the map,

uh, I mean, that is pretty much where it

would be, I reckon. And then

this river goes all the way back down to

Osaka, which you can follow in the boat.

So yeah, it's pretty funny. And then you

can like zoom in on little villages.

I forgot how to get off the boat. Ah, you

can jump down here, check out the little

village of Japan, see what

I don't really do anything. I think

Ubisoft's open-world engine or

open-world ability to make open-world

games, not quite as good as Rockstar.

Rockstar, definitely the best. Things like

Red Dead Redemption just blow this out of

the water. Look at the kittens. I mean,

it's not bad, it's pretty good, it's just

not as good as Rockstar.

あい苦しいの。あ、 it's so tiny. Look at

the mum cat. What's his face doing? Oh,

it's just like glitching. And then you got

destructible environments, so you can like

break all their stuff up. Look at that.

So first of all, I think I'll show you the

bamboo forest since we're basically there

already. Just take a little walk through

this bit. It's so pretty. Look at the wind

blowing everything. I checked my footage.

I think the game's a bit— I mean, it's not

laggy when I'm playing it, feels pretty

smooth, but when I play back the video,

it looks a bit laggy. But I don't know

what I can do about that because I put all

the graphics down to the lowest,

so It's probably just my laptop being

rubbish. So look, this is the bamboo

forest. It's actually pretty cool how

they've put the stuff that's actually in

Japan in the game. Look, this is the

bamboo forest. So cool. Look, the bamboo

grove, Arashiyama. I've been here so many

times. And then you got like some shrine,

and then you can go through the bamboo

forest. And you can actually chop down

every tree. I don't know if you could

actually chop down the entire forest, but

it seems— I don't know if the bamboos

respawn, but it seems like you can just

chop down every single bamboo thing like

that. Maybe you just deforest the entire

area. That'd be pretty funny. So you can

go into the bamboo forest and Yeah,

it's just a forest. Uh, it does have the

thingy. Yeah, it does have the walkway

with the like wooden fence bits, just like

in real life. It is kind of like the real

life place, just without all the stupid

tourists taking selfies getting in the

way. Ah,

yes, they made the whole— what, so the

bamboo forest dates back to 1500?

That's insane. Look at that.

Oh wow, look, I can go into here too.

Oh, and then you got these random shrines.

You can pray at the shrine. Uh, I can't be

bothered. The problem is the world just

feels kind of empty. There's just nothing

going on. There's no little creatures

anywhere. Where are the people? There's

like a empty camp. If this

was Red Dead, there'd be random NPCs just

camping and doing stuff. I don't know why

the world's so empty in this game.

Yeah, so you got Bamboo Forest. Next we're

gonna go to— which one's nearest? I guess

we go to Kyoto since that's nearest, and

then get my horse. Wait for

him. There he is. And then I guess just

ride through unless there's

a mountain blocking the way. Oh wow,

look, we got this whole view of the

mountains. Look at that, that's pretty

cool. It really

does feel like you're in Japan.

Riding through the mountains, going to

Kyoto, get stuck in a tree. Oh my fucking

God. Okay, so this is— I'm in Kyoto, and

for some reason during this time period

Kyoto is in ruins. Oh, I don't know what

that is, some shrine

and a temple or something. Oh, it's the

Imperial Palace. I remember doing a stream

around the Imperial Palace. I walked

around the whole thing, couldn't find out

how to get inside. I got bored, went to

McDonald's. Look, some temple,

I guess. So this is Kyoto.

Stupid horse, just go through the door.

Oh my God, I hate horses in games.

They always just get stuck all the time,

don't they? You got some kind of temple

here. I don't really recognize

it. Some peasant

woman.

It looks more brown than I remember.

Of course, man needs some sunscreen or

put a shirt on. So you got Kyoto.

Kyoto's here. Climb up

stuff if you want to.

Oops. Typical Assassin's Creed stuff.

Oh, this is like the town bit, I guess.

The main town of Kyoto.

No stinking gaijin.

Oh, we've got a samurai down there. Oh,

is he an enemy? I can actually fight him.

I don't think they would attack me even

though I can assassinate them.

It's pretty quite high level. So you've

I don't know if they'll attack me.

What are

they doing? Look, you can roll through

the paper doors and break them.

You can break everything basically. Look,

all this stuff too. We can break it.

Whoa, look at these samurai

Oh, at least they're not attacking me. So

yeah, anyway, let's go to Osaka next.

Osaka is quite far away.

It doesn't seem to be fast travel. There

must be fast travel. I don't know how you

unlock it. So it's that blue one.

Where's my map? 4,000 meters away.

So, um, I mean, it's not actual real-life

size of Japan, so you can run to Osaka

from Kyoto and it'll only take a few

unlike me when I tried to walk

there. It took like 10 hours, didn't it?

For some reason you can't gallop in the

town. Bit annoying.

Yeah, I'll probably just skip until we get

to Osaka. So as you can see, we are

approaching Osaka down the river,

and this is my favorite river to hang out.

At back in the day.

So we can go down here and

see what Osaka looks like from the

It's kind of weird to think that Japan

used to look like this before all of the

karaoke and the konbini stores and

all the buildings. It was all just trees

and mud, grass, and then all these

little towns with big castles. I think

that's Osaka Castle. Oh no, that's

Amagasaki. Oh, we're going towards

Amagasaki. We'll go to Amagasaki first

since we're on this side.

I don't even think Amagasaki was like a

major place back in— I mean, oh yeah,

there was a castle. Yeah, I went to

it. It was like a fake, um,

what's the word? It's not the real castle

because the real one burnt down, so they

just rebuilt it. I went to that one, had a

cheeseburger outside of it. So this is—

oh, Amagasaki.

So now— oh yeah, yeah,

that's where the castle was.

Yeah, I've been there. And then up

there, I don't know, is it Itami?

The Hankyu Line. That's Amagasaki

Castle. I guess you can sneak in over

this tree. Yeah, they just

conveniently put this tree so you can jump

over onto the wall. Amagasaki Castle,

it kind of looks as big or maybe even

bigger than Osaka Castle.

I guess it got burnt down in some kind of

war or natural disaster.

So you got the castle, Amagasaki Castle,

where I had the cheeseburger. I don't

really want to go in there. You end up

having to fight all these people. It's a

bit annoying. How do I get back over?

Where's that tree? Can I get back onto

I can't get back onto the tree. I guess I

just jump off.

That water must be disgusting. Imagine the

smell, all the pond scum.

Okay, get back on. Well, this isn't my

horse, but I guess I can take it. Oh,

these samurai.

Okay, uh, anyway, so that's Amagasaki.

I guess that way goes to Kobe. Yeah, that

must be Kobe around there, and then

Shikoku's down there. So Kobe. I don't

know why Kobe is not on the map,

but Himeji is.

I don't recognize any of this. The muggy

lands. Yeah, really Japanese. I don't know

what that red dot is. I want to go over

the bridge and north. And see what's

there. Looks like there's nothing

here. Nakayama Peak.

Yeah,

I guess I haven't built any of the towns

here yet.

It's just countryside, isn't it?

Stupid horse keeps Spasming. Yeah,

not, not really anything here, I guess. I

suppose it's just the Amagasaki Castle and

then the outposts around it.

Amagasaki. I was surprised it said Muko.

Yeah, Muko,

cuz there was a train station called Muko

no Sō that I used to go to,

and then you'd ride that And it will take

you over. It will take you over the river

into Osaka, into Umeda. I guess I'll go to

Umeda, or I mean Osaka next. Just be

this way, wouldn't it?

The rice paddies.

And then oh, Osaka Castle.

Osaka Joe.

Wow. So where, where would Umeda be?

I guess Umeda would be there because you

could see it from the river, and it would

be in between the river and the castle.

You wouldn't be able to see the castle

from the river. I feel like the castle was

not that close to the river. In real

So, um,

yeah, I guess it would be more down there.

Well, I don't really remember it being

that close to the opening to the sea.

Little fishing village here. Whoops,

probably caught the fish. Uh, look,

where's the Lawson and the Family Mart?

I guess this is their equivalent of the

konbinis, just a pile of fish hanging.

Can I bring the horse inside?

I thought I could smash through the wall.

Whoa,

horse physics.

Then you got the sea,

big boat over there.

Okay, I'll go into Osaka Castle now.

Probably gonna need a boat.

Take this one. There's Osaka Castle.

Osaka.

Fukushima Ruins. Oh my God,

Fukushima! Huh,

yeah, that's where Fukushima is.

And then north of Fukushima is, uh,

Umeda. That's where I went to that Thai

restaurant. Yeah,

Fukushima,

the name rings a bell. And then

where— so Umeda would be on

this little island bit.

Interesting. Guess I haven't built Umeda

yet. This is the beginning of

Umeda, this scaffolding piece of wood.

Oh, there's a chest.

Let's jump down.

Sometimes the pathfinding on Assassin's

Creed games really— Shinobi Hood.

Yeah, so this would be Umeda, and then

you got Fukushima, and then that bit would

go down to like USJ and the aquarium.

Fukushima ruins.

Got a little village here.

Oh, hello!

That's such nice homes.

So, oh my God, samurai guy.

It says I can assassinate him. Um, no.

So we've got this place and

then Osaka Castle's over there. Let's go

to Osaka Castle.

Kind of annoying it's not daytime. I can't

really see it well. I don't even know if

they'll let me in.

No, they won't. Comply or refuse.

Yeah, but I can just sneak in. But they

didn't even notice I ran up the wall. So

there's Osaka Castle.

I don't really know if it looks like that

in real life. It's hard to tell really.

This is funny, all these big cities in

Japan, they all just originated because

they had a castle in the center at some

point. It all starts off with the castle,

doesn't And then look, you got the walls.

Just jump in.

It's kind of hard to get up here. No,

look,

it's still being

built. They're still constructing it.

How do I get up there?

Uh-huh.

Look at this, they're still building it.

He saw me.

Oh, they're still building it.

I've got hemp cloth.

There's the castle. So yeah, we're in

Osaka and

you get all this to explore, although it

all just kind of looks the same, to be

honest. It's just like mountains, trees.

It's cool you can see places that actually

exist in Japan. Like, you can just run

off into the mountains if you want to,

but there's no reason to at all. Maybe

they're building Shinsaibashi over there.

What's that? East.

East of Osaka Castle would have been, I

don't know. Where they're building all

the little town around it.

They chopped all this bit down.

It's a little settlement over there.

I wonder what that would be south of Osaka

Castle. It would be Namba, wouldn't it?

Yeah, down here would be Namba.

I want to go there.

Seems like so much work building a new

city. Chop down all the trees, turn it

into planks, and turn that into buildings

and walls. And then you have a war and

then it all gets burnt down. Seems like

such a waste of time.

Gotta do something, I guess. Can't just

live in the jungle forever.

Okay, where's my horse?

So south of Osaka— oh

God, how do I change the damn weather?

Change season.

I'll just skip this.

Oh God, be— no,

it's still raining. Oh my God.

Okay,

it looks like there's nothing here.

Oh, look, you can still see Osaka Castle

over there, kind of.

Oh, Sumiyoshi Shrine. Not really—

I don't really know this place.

And then you got that thing. What is that?

Come on, it's print.

I don't know, what is this, like a cave?

What's a coffin?

Can't see a thing.

Yeah, pretty good game.

It's cool you can go around all these

places that exist in actual Japan.

Oh, Katana of Truth.

Ability damage.

This one does way more damage.

This one does more daze buildup.

Oh, level 6. Okay, whatever.

It's like a tomb, isn't it?

Maybe it is that tomb that looks like a

key lock on the Google Maps.