Concerns about Character Swapping

[Littlefatcat]

First I'd like to say that I am excited for the game but I am concerned about mission structure and character swapping. It seems like you will be prompted several times to swap between Yasuke and Naoe during missions and then the character you don't choose just hangs out. What I don't understand is why can't you just have one or the other tag along or at least offer help during the boss fights. I mean can you whistle for temporary support from one or the other like your other companions? Why not? Was the plan to have a coop feature where one player plays as one character? Sounds interesting on paper but definitely wouldn't work because most people will want to play as Naoe since she is the assassin.

Reviewers like Luke Stephens have noted that Naoe appears to have a clear disadvantage in boss fights over Yasuke. I'm sure other people would agree with me that it doesn't sound fun infiltrating a base and then having a mini cutscene with a prompt to character swap and then saying okay I'll use Yasuke here since Naoe sucks at defeating bosses but he can just use a giant polearm to knock their head off. That takes me out of it. The other concern is one I haven't confirmed but there is an animus wall that forms around the mission area so you can't infiltrate how you want?

[Harris]

Yeah, we are clearly supposed to play both characters, switching all the time. Naoe for exploration and castles, Yasuke for open spaces and boss fights.

The problem with Yasuke is not even about historical accuracy - it's just that people don't really want the samurai fantasy (a lot of games like that exists anyway, and they do a better job) and want a focused shinobi fantasy instead.

So it seems like we'll be:

A) forced into playstyle we don't necessarily care about, just because Naoe is supposed to run away from combat and not engage with it (unless you play on Story mode)

B) forced to going into menus and switching all the time, which is also due to a decision to bind useful abilities like double assassinations to only certain weapons.

Ultimately, it boils down to Ubisoft's mistake of attempting to please everyone and cover everything Japan within the single game. Which is in turn a result of their previous mistake of not creating a new IP for their RPG games and exploiting the Assassin's Creed name to drive sales of whatever unrelated game they cook up.

The likely outcome we'll get is two separate and largely disjointed games - each of them being inferior compared to more focused and "specialized" ones.

[katzenkrimis]

Originally posted by Littlefatcat:

There is an animus wall that forms around the mission area so you can't infiltrate how you want?

That's BS.

It's only a handful of story missions where you'll have to use a certain character.

The game is huge. Large enough that it won't feel like a big deal when you are forced to switch.

If you want Naoe to go toe-to-toe against a boss, you can.

If you want Naoe to 100-percent the game, you can.

I will not be using the fat slob unless they make me.

47 days.

[RozseK]

i d love to play as Y. But they make it unplayable. every time you want to climb something, you gotta switch. I srsly hate this. Because of that, the game for me is just waste of time. I do not want to play as shinobi teenager.
i have really tried to like it. combatz feels right, stealth too. but why the just did that stupid decision about movement... And there is tons of other problems that this episode has but this one is the worst for me. I have already uninstall the game and have no intention to go back to it. waste of time a nerves.

[Weltall8000]

I just got him. He is fun for open combat and light skirmishing/running around. I see some potential limitations with infiltration and vertical exploration. Also, the lack of Eagle Eye sucks.

Naoe is more fragile...but if you can overcome that aspect (skill and/or gear) she's probably just all around better.

[superlloyd]

My main concern about switching is the 5~8 seconds load time. Why is it so long?

Other than that.. mmm... Yasuke is not very good for exploration and sneaking (a core pillar of that game), but he sure destroy when I am fed up being all sneaky like ^_^

[MakMak]

The game is so easy, that there's no point switching to "a better character"

[Weltall8000]

Originally posted by MakMak:

The game is so easy, that there's no point switching to "a better character"

Naoe is faster and better able able to navigate terrain, usually.

Yasuke is capable of destroying some obstacles that Naoe can't.

[MakMak]

Originally posted by Weltall8000:

Originally posted by MakMak:

The game is so easy, that there's no point switching to "a better character"

Naoe is faster and better able able to navigate terrain, usually.

Yasuke is capable of destroying some obstacles that Naoe can't.

If it's not one of the graves, you can simply climb over the obstacles.
If the story or whatever doesn't require me to switch to Yasuke, I'm playing with Naoe and it's been fine, doesn't feel particularly weak in combat either.

[Weltall8000]

Originally posted by MakMak:

Originally posted by Weltall8000:

Naoe is faster and better able able to navigate terrain, usually.

Yasuke is capable of destroying some obstacles that Naoe can't.

If it's not one of the graves, you can simply climb over the obstacles.
If the story or whatever doesn't require me to switch to Yasuke, I'm playing with Naoe and it's been fine, doesn't feel particularly weak in combat either.

Essentially, I think at a skill/gear level above a certain (not particularly high) threshold, Naoe is just the better character.

[VhagarTheLastOne]

I liked character swapping, hopefully it stays in the series. AC is so long game, two character is good.

[superlloyd]

Originally posted by Cyberpunker:

I liked character swapping, hopefully it stays in the series. AC is so long game, two character is good.

I wish it would be faster though....
They just have to load a single character model!
I wonder whether it always takes a fixed time, or if it is as short as possible...

[Weltall8000]

Originally posted by Cyberpunker:

I liked character swapping, hopefully it stays in the series. AC is so long game, two character is good.

I didn't realize how cool it would be until this one, but, yeah, this opens a lot of doors for interesting gameplay.

I love having two very different approaches represented.

[draco2tiamat]

opinion, i wish it was more like how they did syndicate. just have bits of the game that require X and build the section around that character. and the open world can be designed around whomever. either way i'm enjoying my time