Assassin’s Creed Shadows was my first modern (as in, more recent than Black Flag, I guess) game in the franchise, and I’ll be honest with the fact I gave it more of chance due to the combination of it being a novel Switch 2 port in its first year in the market, as well as the fact I’m a sucker for old-school feudal Japanese stories. After having enjoyed the story, despite some pacing issues, I felt interested in tackling an expansion, one that felt like a straightforward continuation of the main plot, just with different characters and stakes in play, and a new map full of busy work to waste time on. Claws of Awaji is a quintessential “it’s more of the same if you like what we had to offer in the past” package, and it gets its job done.

Expansions set in a new region usually suffer from being focused less on depth and interesting characters, and more on the simple fact there’s more stuff to do in a new land to explore. Claws of Awaji is about protagonists Naoe and Yasuke travelling to an island near Osaka in order to look for a sacred artifact, in yet another plot tying the Templars to some convoluted shenanigans. In true expansion fashion, the plot is spread out in a main objective: having to deal with three rulers in the island of Awaji. Get rid of them, finish the story after some additional plot developments. Harder enemies to deal with, a lot more aggression, a map that is harder to navigate… and a single main addition to the gameplay: a brand new weapon for Naoe.

Naoe gets access to a bo staff, one that excels in crowd control. A perfect fit for a setting packed with ultra-agressive mobs.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fans who thought that Naoe was leaning too much towards Leonardo can rejoice with her now having a bo staff as part of her arsenal. That made for a fun diversion and interesting way to fight against hordes of enemies in a crowd control manner. But that also made the experience a bit unbalanced: while there are new abilities for Yasuke as well, it is clear that Naoe is the one that actually got new content, and with the uneven terrain of the island of Awaji, she is the focus of the DLC. I feel like Yasuke was a bit too sidelined as a result.

Claws of Awaji didn’t feel innovative or downright amazing, but considering how its base game was a lot better than I could have anticipated (to the point I even decided to grab a PC copy after tackling a fun, but compromised Switch 2 port), it didn’t particularly disappoint. It was more meat added to an already decent game, an additional reason to spend an extra dozen hours in a setting I was already somewhat fond of. Don’t expect a lot from it other than more content in an otherwise content-bloated, but fun experience. And that’s not a particularly bad thing in this case.

Assassin’s Creed Shadows: Claws of Awaji  is available now on PS5, Xbox Series S/X, PC and Switch 2.

Reviewed on PC.

A copy of Assassin’s Creed Shadows: Claws of Awaji was provided by the publisher.