Canon mode is a setting in Assassin’s Creed Shadows. Like all the familiar boot-up settings — subtitle preferences, game difficulty, immersive mode, guided exploration mode, and so on — you’ll choose whether or not to activate it before starting a new game. But the thing is, once you select it, you can’t change it. You’re locked in.
Below, let’s get into what canon mode is in Assassin’s Creed Shadows, alongside some thoughts on whether or not it’s best to play in canon mode.
What is canon mode in Assassin’s Creed Shadows?
Image: Ubisoft Quebec/Ubisoft via Polygon
Canon mode in Assassin’s Creed Shadows will remove certain dialogue options (see above) from the game that allow you to influence the story in one way or another. Instead, you’ll be watching the story play out without having the option to affect it.
The introduction of these sorts of dialogue choices in Assassin’s Creed was a somewhat divisive one when it first appeared in Assassin’s Creed Odyssey; in that game, the player would sometimes be presented with multiple dialogue options, and choosing from those options would affect the story. (Valhalla also had some of this; Mirage did not.)
Assassin’s Creed Shadows splits the difference by introducing canon mode. If you don’t play in canon mode, you’ll be presented with various moments when your character can choose from dialogue options that can slightly alter the course of the story. If you play in canon mode, you won’t be presented with those moments.
Should you play canon mode in Assassin’s Creed Shadows?
I chose to play Assassin’s Creed Shadows in canon mode, so that means I never have the option to choose any dialogue at all. Instead, I’m just watching cutscenes in which the story plays out the way that it was meant to, within the overarching fiction of Assassin’s Creed as a series — and that’s how I want it to be, personally. I want to see the story that the writers of this game have set up to be the “intended” version.
This has resulted in a couple of moments when it’s obvious that I would have been presented with a choice that I don’t actually get to make, though.
For example, during the “The Perfect Gift” main story mission, as Naoe, you have to select from three possible gifts to present to someone important (leaving them unidentified here for spoiler purposes). When not playing in canon mode, here’s what that choice looks like.
Image: Ubisoft Quebec/Ubisoft via Polygon
I didn’t get to choose this gift myself, although if I had the option, I would’ve chosen the one that Naoe ended up picking (an antique bamboo tea ladle). Instead, I got to watch her select the gift, and then as I forged ahead in the questline, I watched her present it to its recipient.
Similarly, there have been moments where Assassin’s Creed Shadows presents a choice but it’s really just an illusion. For instance, early on, you need to decide whether or not to let Junjiro, a young child, stay at your Hideout, an enclave of stab-happy individuals possessing very sharp blades. Regardless of what you choose, Junjiro stays at the Hideout. I was never presented with this choice, and yet the outcome is the same as everyone who’s playing with canon mode turned off.
I don’t feel like I’m “missing out” on anything by having chosen to play in canon mode, but if you’re the sort of person who really enjoyed the dialogue options in Odyssey and Valhalla, you shouldn’t activate it. On the other hand, if you prefer to see the story play out on its own in the way it does in early Assassin’s Creed games (and in 2023’s Mirage), then canon mode is the right selection for you.
Just starting Assassin’s Creed Shadows? Beyond our full Assassin’s Creed Shadows walkthrough, here are explainers on how long to beat the game and when you unlock Yasuke, plus if you should play immersive or guided exploration modes.
