Assassin’s Creed Shadows isn’t lacking for ways to just drift around the Japanese countryside for hours and hours. But eventually, once you’ve done a bit of legwork and made a few new friends, Naoe will have to get her gameface on so she can get some of that revenge she’s been thirsting for since the Onryo left her and her dad to die. And the best place to start is the sadistic son of a bitch whose ear she took on the night it happened.
It should be obvious by now that tackling the Onryo from lowest to highest level is the smart way to go, and as such, with The Wounded’s quests sitting at a lowly level 5 when you start out, he’s a perfect target, especially since you won’t be going in alone. Hoods up, y’all, it’s stabbin’ time.
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Preparation
If you’ve gotten to this point–as in, the “Heads Will Roll” mission opening up–whatddya know, as it turns out, you’ve been passing this dude’s front door the entire time you’ve been running errands. Wada Koretake’s hideout is right inside Amagasaki Castle in Izumi Settsu. So, the good news is you won’t have to go far to find him. The less good news is that Amagasaki Castle is one of the bigger plots of land you’ll encounter at this point of the game, with a dense layout, a lot of security just close enough to the rooftops where they can easily see you, two moats to contend with when traversing around, and a dearth of ways to stealth in that don’t involve taking a protracted swim.
When you and your crew set this sucker off, it’s gonna be nighttime, and there’s a small army of enemies to deal with. The last thing you want is to get turned around in here. So, the highest recommendation here is to take a stab at liberating the castle beforehand. That’s to say, finding and killing the five samurai guarding the place, and grabbing the key to the chest. You should give it a shot anyway; the rewards are actually pretty decent but mostly, you should take the time to scout this place out, get acquainted with the layout, hiding spots, and how to approach any enemies chilling under an overhang because there’s about to be a bunch of them to deal with, and quietly assassinating these guys is way preferable to the alternative.
The Mission (‘Heads Will Roll’)
When you’ve got a good solid grasp on the place, go find your friends Mitsumune, Kyonyo, and Yaya getting their zen meditation on before the big fight. There’s also an Animus glitch right in front of this place you might wanna check out too if you’re one of those sickos who’s still into the Animus lore of these games.
After some last minute prep, it’s time to stroll in. Somehow, this shot doesn’t have Battle Without Honor or Humanity playing over it, and that’s a damn shame. Either way, when you start, your allies want you to take out all the snipers in the immediate area. There’s about five of them and while they can be assassinated fairly easily, they’re actually harder to kill than they look if you get into a swordfight with them. Plus, alerting the wrong one will put his sniper friends onto your location as well, which is a royal pain in the ass. For the wide open guys, try hanging just outside their platform (as in, the side of the wall facing a moat) and take them out from the edge. For the ones under an overhang, by all means, try a kunai to the face if you’ve got the right angle, but lure them into the open with one (i.e. shoot one nearby to attract them) if that’s not an option.
Once the snipers are down, you’ll get the order to head to the courtyard, where Koretake’s pacing back and forth, bitching to his guards about the fact that you’re not dead yet. He’s got plenty of good conversation to go around, too, since the courtyard is lousy with soldiers. You’ll need to operate carefully on this, since anything under a roof or lower is absolutely being monitored by a sniper and there’s no wide open spaces with these guys at all. Tag as many of these guys in Eagle Vision as possible before making any moves.
Your target area, however, is the shrubbery just behind that yellow divider down there. If you watch for a bit, Koretaka’s walking pattern takes him back here so he can mutter to himself. There’s two basic bitch soldiers down here who can be lured in, shanked, and hidden in the bushes; so just keep an eye out for when one of them looks your direction. Once they’re gone, and there are no snipers to snitch on you, you can whistle for Koretake to come a little closer. For such an important dude, he actually goes down nice and easy from a single assassination prompt. Dad’s avenged, justice is done.
The aftermath
….well, almost. There’s one final bit of business as Mitsumune wants to go scorched Earth on the remaining soldiers, but Yaya vehemently disagrees. Naoe then has a choice to make: let Mitsumune make some henchman sashimi, or let them go, thus serving a merciful sort of justice, with the warning above that whichever you choose, it’ll affect your relationship with Yaya. And trust me, you want a good relationship with Yaya.
Technically the “right” choice is Yaya’s way, choosing “Killing them isn’t justice.” Surprise, though, Mitsumune kills his dudes anyway, and Yaya runs off to be pissed about it. Before you get on your “choices don’t matter” high horse though, remain calm, staying on Yaya’s good side will make recruiting her as an ally later a whole lot easier. And I’ll repeat: You want her as an ally. Go find the mission Stray Dogs on your map when you get a chance, you won’t regret it.
For right now, though, enjoy your whopping 6,000 XP, and the shiny new Death Whisperer kusarigama you just got.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows is available now on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and Windows PCs.
Order Assassin’s Creed Shadows: Amazon | CDKeys | Best Buy
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