Game of the Month: Assassin's Creed Shadows (March 2025)

Shadows by far, its easily become one of my fav AC games

Bleach new game came out and than that was that 👀

Could definitely picture Split Fiction winning game of the year. That is if GTA 6 doesn’t release in time 🤔

Assassin's Creed Shadows is a really great game but being the JRPG nerd I am my vote goes to Atelier Yumia. Amazing game and having fun exploring the map and doing all the pioneering missions and base building etc.

It's Yumia all the way.

I'm still catching up on February! But of the list Split Fiction for me

I voted for Suikoden 1 & 2, but The First Berserker: Khazan could easily take its place. I’m currently playing it and it’s fantastic, and probably the best Soulslike mechanically than any other game in the genre.

Shadows. I am enjoying this game a lot but I also recognise that it's ahead by a country mile partly because of there being very little competition.

Split Fiction, a game I'm yet to play, seems to be a well deserved second place.

Split Fiction, easy peasy

Ac Shadows for me the best AC game in a while and the world is absolutely gorgeous.

Joining the Split Fiction bandwagon. The game is absolutelly excellent.

@Kraven I concur on First Berserker. PS's review fell short for me. The combat is top tier, and it's far more in the vein of Nioh than a traditional Souls game.

Assassin's Creed Shadows and Atomfall. I do plan to check out The First Berserker Khazan eventually

Not played split fiction but imagine that would be number one if I had of.

Played Shadows and got bored but loving Atomfall. Great game. That got my vote

Will be loading up AC Shadows for the first time tonight, I think.

But it's really good to see a game like Split Fiction get a huge following. Not really the type of thing I play, but from what I've heard it's a good one and full of charm.

@Anke I'm loving it. Just taking it slow. Exploring. Soaking the world in

Found a Last of the summer wine Easter egg earlier. Never been a fan of that show as I'm in my 70s but I recognised the gag

Shadows is the only new game I've played this year lol

The sheer disrespect towards AI Limit

Suikoden 1 & 2 HD got my vote

Not bought any of those yet so no idea 😂

It's always the dark, depressing, and gritty games that get the top number of votes. To coin a popular anime term, there are SO many edgelords out there lol. 😅

In 10 years, people will talk much more about Split Fiction than about AC Shadows.

Atelier Yumia of course.

All those praising of Assassin's Creed looks like going to McDonald's and singing odes to big mac.

@Shizzlebob19 @Kraven I agree. The review for khazan sold the game short and gives people who were looking forwards to this the wrong impression. The combat which was described as inconsistent is the star of the show in my opinion and its just a superb and challenging game. It never feels cheap or unfair and rewards the player well with each boss encounter. My game of the month without a doubt.

@Enuo I'm intrigued by AI limit. I really enjoyed code vein so would I enjoy this?

@Northern_munkey Probably. It like if Code Vein had better game feel

@Enuo I'll stick it on my list..👍

Split Fiction.

That game is revolutionary.

@Northern_munkey Agreed one hundred percent. Thankfully, PS’s review was an outlier compared to other places. I think is a combination of a lot of Souls’ games and its counterparts. The difficulty of From Soft, blocking and parrying in Sekiro, dodging quickly like in Bloodborne, level design and overall movement similar to NiOh. It’s a combination of all those games and it does it damn near flawlessly.

Split Fiction is the only one I have bought. I do really want to play Shadows but I’m not buying another big open world game till I am done with KCD2 which is going to be a long way off I think.

My choice is Petit Island.

Release date : 14 March 2025

Such a cute cozy adventure game with anthropomorphic animals. 😊

No Venus Vacation Prism: Dead or Alive Xtreme, huh?

(I haven't played that or anything else new)

@Dalamar can't really comment if you haven't played it. It's actually fantastic that's why it's winning the poll

Damn... Nobody playing First Berserker? You guys are missing out lol

AC Shadows. I’m not a fan of the modern RPG AC games (prefer Classic AC) but this game is great. I was worried that Yasuke would feel forced and pandering but it works. The dual characters doesn’t make sense (because how can you play as two genetically unrelated characters?). But the game feels more serious than the previous RPG AC games (none of the forced same-sex relationships which amount to nothing). As a gay person myself I hated the dlc retcon in Odyssey that forced a hetero encounter to make sense of the lineage aspect, when I had played the main game as a gay person. Obviously a gay person of that era could not continue the bloodline. Unless they changed the lore so anyone can access the memories of anyone without the genetic connection? I haven’t finished the main storyline in Shadows yet.

Bleach gave us new canon information so it should be hire but I guess there's not many fans here huh 🤔

@Drago201 - It is an option, but pretty much no-one’s picking it (myself included).
———
As much as I wish I could say Bleach, unfortunately the game didn’t quite turn out as well as I hoped it would (though I’d still say it’s decent overall) so that leaves me with the sole other new game I played this month; Assassin’s Creed Shadows, which, while not a revolutionary game, is probably one of the better entries in the series, and a gorgeous looking game in general.

@FullMetalWesker I haven't played much myself but I went with suikoden I actually platinumed that game much to the detriment of that godforesaken dancing mini game and it was amazing

Atelier Yumia and The First Berserker: Khazan.
Oh and maybe Atomfall.

The First Berserker Khazan for me. Can't stop playing. I really like the variety of enemies and level design. I also enjoyed Split fiction. Had a lot of fun with my daughter

This poll is Two Point Museum erasure.

@DennisReynolds Totally agree! The setting alone makes it fantastic. So far, Origins is still my fav, but I haven't finished Shadows yet, so that might change. Definitely top 5 already, though.

@UltimateOtaku91 Would Yumia be a good starting point for someone who has never played an Atelier game before?

@Foxhound Yes I would reccomend it, it's more streamlined and more about exploring than the other Atelier games, feels more modern. Also there's no connection to previous games.

Although I’m yet to play it (i do have a physical copy on the shelf), a worthy winner… for the furore alone 🍿😏

Like 4 games top of head that tops the list

Seems like people still like Ubisoft colour by numbers games 🤷‍♂️

Keep going strong, Assassin's Creed Shadows. Carry on!!!

@Cornpop76 My retort would be, what actual risks did Ubisoft do with Shadows? go prone? to me it's still the game as Origins Just set in Japan. Defending the map pack is kinda wild...

Not a bad pick as it's definitely in the argument for game of the month.

@Northern_munkey yeah the review for khazan here was awful, really undersold the game, combat is fantastic and very fluid, especially later with talents, dodge charge weapon switch and smash ah its great,
Anyone here slightly intrested in Khazan ignore the review here and go play the demo , you get the first 2 bosses and good chunk of exploring

Honestly, I'm pretty happy with Shadows winning game of the month since I've been having a lot of fun in the game despite issues. The gameplay, gear, cutscenes and the season changing has been pretty good overall. I also went with immersion mode and decided to not turn on canon mode since I don't mind the dialogue choices. My main issue with the game is the side quest system since a lot of them are just killing members of a named group and the kill 25/50/100 enemies of a certain type per region and there's 9 of them. One of them wasn't so bad but some others can take several season resets. I'd also give this game an 8/10 since I like the game overall. Plus, this was the only March release I was excited for since I'm a big fan of the Assassin's Creed franchise

I've played every AC game. Shadows was profoundly disappointing. The 2 character system was just annoying because each was half a regular AC character. Had lots of problems with the story and characters motivations. No way to mediate or wait to move time along. So half the game is pitch black which sucks because the game does look good so arriving in a new town in the dead of night was just lame.

If I wasn’t downstairs (and away from my OLED) due to surgery protocols, I would’ve bought AC Shadows Day 1. It looks gorgeous and tbh, I love the gameplay loop. It’s mindless fun. Not every game has to be super intense (and still great) like TLOU Part 2. Even if the story could be lacking (I’ll judge that for myself), I know I’ll get my money’s worth roaming around Japan anyways

Nope suikoden still better 😉

Well played good game.

I voted for AC Shadows but wonder if I was a little premature in my choice. Don't get me wrong, it is a great game in general but after sinking about 50+ hours into it, the game is starting to get extremely repetitive. I am finding myself less and less interested in returning to another session but still have around half the map left to explore.

I really wish Ubi would pull back on the repetitive tasks in their games!

This is becoming like an "Employee of the month" monthly award?

It would be nice to be able to make some bets along the way with points, and some rewards (avatars maybe, or make a winner list with the top 3 in the last 3 months and temporarily add it in a "Hall of fame" panel on the main page, posted for the next 3 months, etc).

N.i.c.e. assassin's creed shadows for the win.word up son

Heck yeah! Can’t put shadows down! Also why is it so pretty? Anybody else getting distracted by the weather in this game?

@Cornpop76 I'm in a similar position, but not exactly the same. I like to keep one brain dead open world game on the back burner for months while also playing a few more challenging titles. That can get difficult when the rare open world game comes out that is also incredibly deep (Xenoblade X, for example). Anyway, there are definitely whole weeks where all I want to do is play a braindead game and relax. There's nothing wrong with that. Arguing about who is wasting their time more profoundly is silly.

Atomfall for me with Split Fiction in a close second.

4 million players?

Split Fiction is game of the year, so far, for me.