Assassin's Creed Shadows bombards you with a handful of confusing settings right at the start of your journey. Better to get them out of the way beforehand, I suppose, yet it's hard to grasp what each one actually does. AC Shadows' canon mode is perhaps the biggest culprit.
Like the new immersive mode and guided exploration, canon mode changes many of the core mechanics in Shadows, resulting in a wildly different experience. This choice is especially daunting as you're told in scary red text that you can't change this setting midway through.
Below, I'll explain what canon mode affects and whether you should use it so you don't waste countless hours of your precious time.
Assassin's Creed Shadows canon mode explained
Canon mode removes all dialogue choices during conversations, letting Naoe and Yasuke automatically make the "canon" decision they're supposed to for Ubisoft's intended story. You can only activate canon mode at the start of a new game, and it cannot be disabled without starting all over again.
This means you won't be able to make different remarks in conversation, or even decide for yourself whether certain targets live or die. This also extends to many of the allies and romance options, which you'll be locked out of–effectively making them non-canon. You'll do whatever the characters actually did in Ubisoft's grand timeline. This could potentially be important if key Shadows characters return or are referenced in future games.
There are still moments when the choice wheel pops up, such as whether you're ready to continue with a quest or not, or when choosing which character you'd like to play. Besides these, you wouldn't even know there could be dialogue options as conversations aren't broken up by these choices in canon mode, making it much more seamless.
Canon mode is great if you're looking to experience Ubisoft's intended story and see exactly what Naoe and Yasuke did in their jaunt across Japan. I played Shadows with canon mode turned off and there were a few moments (mainly deciding if someone lives or dies) where I wondered if my choice actually aligned with the character's motivations.
Ultimately, you'll come to realise that most choices in Shadows don't matter anyhow, though that doesn't stop them from being interesting.
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