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The previous games offered some more variety when it comes to side content. Sadly, ever since Odyssey Ubisoft apparently forgot how to make fun side content for their AC games.
I just noticed some new Anomlies missions in the Animus Objectives just turned up to add a little more variety. Ah well. I guess I better crack on with all the stabbing and slashing 🙂
The anomaly missions are always the same as well... kill corrupted entity... retrieve data chunks guarded by enemies... the tournament thing was a bit different but ultimately means you need to kill all targets. But it's a nice diversion and I bought some outfit for Naoe with the keys from the exchange. I appreciate it that Helix store items can be acquired for free via the exchange and the keys. Not that microtransactions in a full price single player gamer are ever a good thing in my opinion, but at least it feels "fair" that the game hands out free currency you can use to buy items.
You have your main missions in Shinbakufu and Templars, that come with a lot of narrative and targets background.
You have your "elusive targets" in those "circles" that get the bare minimum of narrative content ("they are bandits, bandits bad, kill them") but are essentially still glorified contracts.
And then you have contracts, which is a random target on the level chosen for you to assassinate.
Of course, this is all kinda weird for an AC game, but when you consider pure minute to minute stealth gameplay is Shadows' high point, it kind of starts to make sense. 200 hours later I'm still discovering tricks, like you can kill someone with a falling bell, or headshot someone with kunai through shoji doors or the cloth camp walls...
I mean, I want to like Shadows, and as much as I hate the "kill 100 Harima ronin" quest design, at least we no longer have to follow people around.
So really, Shadows is as repetitive as your playstyle. Experiment with a different build, try some new gear. Watch some Youtube or read some Reddit for gameplay ideas and inspiration. StealthGamerBR has already uploaded a few videos, great stuff.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipVfsR_WKm8
I think this is the main takeaway... if you are bored just use Naoe to enter a castle through the main gate and enter open combat and see if you can kill everyone. Or try different and new builds. Just change your playstyle for a bit and shake things up. Create your own challenges.
I actually did not know you can kill enemies with the bell, but I have not been so lucky yet to find some poor victim standing in the right spot for that to happen... will try to find an opportunity now.
Of course once you minmax a build it becomes very compelling to use it all the time. I hope the DLC(s) will add some new mechanics to spice things up a bit more.
It doesn't have much to do with luck but has a lot to do with strategically placing bodies and then luring enemies to investigate. Also perfect for luring enemies towards the spots indoors where you can hang from the ceiling.
The assassination contracts are nice to have but they are always the same
and the endgame is clearly missing the challenge, the difficulty even on expert is way too low with no options for enemy scaling either and I dont even see a point in excploring japan cause apparently its the only place on earth where you cant find any Isu artefacts!
Its a shame they had a really solid basis with Odyssey all they had to do was making just another Odyssey in japan but they werent able to.
Why are there not even mercenaries, the worst thing that can happen to you is when you let them trigger the alarm, thats actually the funniest thing in the game if you think about it, there is always one guy shouting "I am gong to ring the bell" and then he is going or rather climbing up the 10 meter ladder, waiting for you to shoot him with a kunai before he can reach the top and if you actually let him go all the way up while there are no enemies around then there are no enemies around after that except for the 3 guards that spawn in, who are also a joke if you just kill the rifleman first. They are only a threat if you also let them call the shotgunner but come on.
It's a game about killing people! But with style!
It made my main quest fly by when I got around to it, but I missed out on all the possible dialogue, and I absolutely missed opportunities to spare any of those early found targets...
But to sympathize with OP, by the time the tenth or eleventh new circle of targets popped up on the objectives page, I was starting to get less a feeling of "more satisfying content" and instead a feeling of "padded for length" and "How long is this going to take me?"
This is where Yasuke vs Naoe comes into play... carrying bodies with Naoe is just a chore so I never really do it or even try to hide bodies in bushes etc :-D I wish the shinobi bells worked properly, but more often than not the guards are not lured in so currently I do not bother with them. But I may give it a try and strategically place a body at the foot of a bell tower.
The bells do work well, but you need to get the last upgrade for it work the way it really should.
But in all seriousness, welcome to Ubisoft. A large map peppered with repetitive tasks is kind of the developers trademark.
Prior to playing Shadows, I played Syndicate and Far Cry 5. Same thing. Free the children, kidnap the Blighter, assassinate the yellow target.
Free the hostages, destroy the trucks, raid the bunker!
Ubisoft games are repetitive by nature. It's the scenery and the approach that changes, not much the objective. I like it. Feels like my characters are sometimes on a campaign, and sometimes just going to work.
I guess you are making a confusion between side activities and generic quests.
ACV is even the Ubi top for side activities depth and amount of types. Alas ACV is also the weakest to make feel side activities as well merged to global gameplay and feeling natural, it's mostly the reverse, ACV side activities feel the most artificial ever seen in any game using a similar blueprint.
Odyssey was less bad for making feel side activities more natural and had a good set of types, but smaller set than ACV, and overall some less depth.
ACS is a big regression on amount of side activities types, but less bad than ACV to make them feel less artificial.
And then all, Origin, Odyssey, Valhalla, get some years of updates increasing this aspect, compare them to ACS isn't fully fair.
Moreover for generic side quests, which is a deeply different topic than side activities, yeah ACO was average ok, ACV was bad, and ACS is for now as bad than ACV. But for all the main problem comes from world feeling that would need be much better to make feel generic quests much better. It's unfortunate that on this aspect ACS still shows no improvement, and ACOr was less bad, and ACOd special a lot because of an extra good bounty hunters system even if with many potential of improvement.