When I stumbled upon a shrine early on in Assassin's Creed Shadows, my fate was sealed. Among the Torii gates and statues, a pack of black Akita puppies rollicked about on the ground, as their big fluffy mother doggo moseyed on over to greet me. Assailed by the cuteness of the scene before me, I slammed down the triangle prompt on my PS5 DualSense, and began petting the first of many dogs in Ubisoft's latest RPG. When an icon flashed up on my screen to inform me that I'd just unlocked the Akita as a pet for my future base, followed by the puppies I'd also dutifully taken the time to scratch behind the ears, I knew what I had to do.
With almost 60 hours under my robes so far, a lot of that time has been spent framed around the pursuit of finding and unlocking every available pet in Assassin's Creed Shadows. In fact, it feels very much like I've created my own Pokemon-style quest. Just as I'd fill up my Pokedex with all of the critters I could catch out in the wilds, I'm now filling up my base and pet menu with all of the animals I've encountered, earned through Animus rewards, or sketched as Naoe or Yasuke. Did I expect Assassin's Creed Shadows would become a game like Pokemon? Absolutely not. But I've been absolutely loving the direction my adventures have been taking me because of it.
