Assassin’s Creed Shadows lead admits Valhalla was a “monster game” even at the start, and became unwieldy with all the DLC piled on: “It was getting more messy”
By Jordan Gerblick
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Assassin’s Creed Shadows lead admits Valhalla was a “monster game” even at the start, and became unwieldy with all the DLC piled on: “It was getting more messy”
Jordan Gerblick
15 September 2025
It was time someone said it
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(Image credit: Ubisoft)
Ah, sweet vindication. Assassin’s Creed Shadows Claws of Awaji DLC lead Simon Arsenault has admitted 2020’s Assassin’s Creed Valhalla was just too damn much, basically.
I’ve been an Assassin’s Creed fan since 2010’s Brotherhood, but as I’ve gotten older I’ve found it harder and harder to find time to actually complete any of the series’ games, especially with updates and DLC. Assassin’s Creed Valhalla is the perfect example of a game I’d love to have finished, but whose systems are spread out over too many missions, and thus remains in my library at about 60% completion. It is what it is.
Thankfully, Arsenault seems to agree that there’s such a thing as Too Much Content.
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“It was getting more messy,” says Arsenault, speaking with GamesRadar+. “If you played [Valhalla] at release, it was good, but the more you waited, all the expansions and free content was piling on. At one point it became a monster game. It was already a monster, but it became a way bigger monster game by the end.”
According to Arsenault, this issue is “alleviated” somewhat with Assassin’s Creed Shadows’ DLC, if only by virtue of the fact that it’s made by a much smaller team than the main game. Arsenault’s team in Bordeaux is separate from the studio proper in Quebec, which resulted in a “design by constraints” approach.
“When you start a main game and you’re doing something big, of course, you have a lot of resources, a lot of people,” Arsenault says. “You can go very far. For this, we had a limited time, even though we got a lot more than we expected at the beginning, but it was limited so we had to focus. And how do you focus? You keep the scope as clear as possible.”
Claws of Awaji, out on all platforms September 16, whisks players off to the titular island of Awaji for an additional 10 hours of content on top of the roughly 35- to 40-hour main quest. In addition to the new storyline, you’ll have access to new skills, new abilities, and new gear, including the new Bo staff for Naoe.
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Claws of Awaji is an ambitious expansion that hides a little too much of its shine behind Assassin’s Creed Shadows’ familiarity
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Jordan Gerblick
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After earning an English degree from ASU, I worked as a corporate copy editor while freelancing for places like SFX Magazine, Screen Rant, Game Revolution, and MMORPG on the side. I got my big break here in 2019 with a freelance news gig, and I was hired on as GamesRadar’s west coast Staff Writer in 2021. That means I’m responsible for managing the site’s western regional executive branch, AKA my home office, and writing about whatever horror game I’m too afraid to finish.
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I took 140 hours to finish Assassin’s Creed Shadows, but post-launch updates are making it harder than ever to feel satisfied by RPGs
Assassin’s Creed Shadows’ DLC wraps up 2 storylines left open in the base RPG, but devs aren’t closing the door completely: “You can always reopen things”
The new Assassin’s Creed Mirage DLC is a blunt reminder that maybe we’ve outgrown the series’ old-school formula once and for all
Claws of Awaji is an ambitious expansion that hides a little too much of its shine behind Assassin’s Creed Shadows’ familiarity
Ubisoft foresaw the grindy fate of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla back in the Odyssey days, wanting a literal “odyssey” but not “a world that was just fatiguing to travel through”
Assassin’s Creed 3 director says Ubisoft put “a lot of pressure” on devs to “add play time” and “bulk” out games with RPG elements “to delay resale as GameStop was the only one making any money on that transaction”
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