The beauty of a good open world is how it can transcend the traditional structure of a video game. Assassin's Creed Shadows, at times, leans into this in a way that manages to excite me a lot more than its predecessors. In Sonic I run from left to right to finish a stage. In Metropolis Street Racer (okay turn me to dust) I blitz past the finish line of each track. A good open world has missions, sure, but it's sometimes what occurs in those in-between moments that can be the most exciting.
Right after finally unlocking Yasuke to join Naoe's quest about 11 hours in, I find myself near a viewpoint I want to grab in The Warlands. It's in Myoyoji Temple. I climb in. Boy, those enemies are high level. Before I know it, I'm battling my way through them to trigger a quest – the Ox – while vastly underleveled. Yasuke is getting one shot. Blades clashing, this becomes a bit Dark Souls, every parry needing to be on point, every dodge creating viable spacing. It's perhaps the most fun I have with Yasuke's combat. Sure, I could bump up combat difficulty but the point isn't that it's tough, it's fun because I accidentally ended up in this situation, and I can choose to persevere here or, indeed, scarper (I clear the mission, then wait a while to come back for the Ox's head).
