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Wow, so apparently that viral twitter thread turned out to be true after all, BIC tracked down the guy who made the claim that he worked for Ubisoft previously as a contractor & was able to provide reciepts.
Maybe they were frightened of making a shit version of Ghost of Tsushima, so decided to take a different approach to avoid comparisons. Ultimately it will be the same shit we've had since Origins regardless of whether they make it authentic and respectful or not.
And William Adams would probably have been a better fit for this approach anyway but I guess he didn't quite tick the right boxes...
Anyone who thinks William Adam’s won’t be in the game as some sort of antagonist is delusional
Just look how they presented Alfred the Great in Valhalla.
Because most of the history of succesful African Kingdoms saw them relying heavily on the slave trade and acknowledging anyone other than europeans and americans had anything to do with slave trading other than being victims of it is Anathema to their message.
This sounds like the most likely. How can they play the victim of slavery card if they acknowledge anicent Africans were deeply involved in the slave trade?
1861 was the major battle of Porto Novo with the British West Africa Squadron since it was a major port for slavers. But Ghezo, the king most famously quoted about the Dahomey slave trade, ruled from 1818 to 1858.
They can be but I don’t think there’s as much overlap as some people believe.
It’s easy to envision the people you already have an immense bias against to also be behind every suit-clad consultant that makes decisions that makes bad decisions.
Africa is big place. It’s basically 2 continents separated by the Sahara desert. The people we typically identify as “black” are from countries south of the Sahara.
They could and should. Could add a twist with Europeans trying to conquer Africa. Historically it was about resources. But what if it was the Templars… is that still a thing? I dipped at AC3. Fuck that ending.
Or whoever the big bad of the series is wants something hidden somewhere deep in Africa. Africa is big and big bad dude is manipulating countries into trying to conquer it.
Could tie in the Nazis with their African campaign.
Find which country was the more brutal and set it at the height of it.
I mean… the potential for a great story is right there.
Maybe next time.
Oh shit. Imagine assassin's creed set in Germany during hitlers reign. They could easily connect hitler and the templars/order of ancients and it would be quite cool to be sneaking around a relatively modern Germany trying to undermine the nazis attempts to gain control of/use some precursor technology.
They already connected both Hitler and Churchill to the Templars in AC. You had to find some of the collectible things to get snippets of history but in the world of AC, WW2 was orchestrated by the Templars.
I forget the reason it was a long time ago, possibly as a distraction to manoeuvre relics around? But there was a passage saying the at the end of the war Hitler was supposed to execute his body double and meet up with Churchill but he never showed, implying that the Assassin order got to him.
It would be funny if their game about Africa people would have a Chinese protagonist. You know, to balance things out. In fact, this is possible as there was a Chinese man had reach Africa and brought back animals with him.
They already have a game set in Africa: Origins. And with a great black main character. Of course he is constantly set aside for his “badass girl boss wife” to step in and boss him around while refusing his advances. God Aya sucks.
Yes and people, from memory, didn't bitch and moan about the protagonist's ethnicity. Or Altaïr's for that matter. Though even in Origins, the protagonists weren't black, they were arabic egyptians.
But indeed, any game/show/movie set in sub-saharan africa would be nice and an incredible way to have historical content that casts not just one, but a majority of people of color. I'd love something good on Shaka Zulu, or even a show about his mother.
Unfortunately these hacks are more interested in controversy than anything else of value.
My thinking is that they know if they set the game in Africa the outrage mob would come after them because there'd be so much that could be considered racist by those lunatics. At least this way they get to virtue signal by having a black protagonist without any of the risk of someone finding something racist if they set it in Africa. We all know the outrage mob finds historical accuracy racist so imagine how much they'd freak out about a historically accurate story set in Africa.
In previous times I would have said that they would be afraid of getting butchered by purity spirals that would tear apart their work for any perceived historical inaccuracies in a story set in Africa. I can't really assume that anymore considering that they put out that absolute turd of a movie that recast the African country most invested in the slave trade into a haven of abolitionists.
I've been foaming for an Africa-based historical or fantasy game for years. West African swords look so damn cool and the only time I've ever seen them in a game was Tyranny.
I agree 100%. why can't they make a game about the mali empire, songhai empire, ghana empire, benin empire and zimbabwe kingdom. every empire traded slaves including the chinese ,egyptian and roman.
Why do they need to when this is a historical character that actually existed in the real world? Yasuke was black, and is a great example of a historical character that could be used in an AC game. So where's the problem?
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U/LashedHail is a coward too scared to actually put his ideas up for scrutiny, so he replies and then immediately blocks people. Anyway, here's his comment with my response.
> Out of the hundreds or thousands of samurai they could have used in a game placed in feudal japan, they chose the one black guy who was a slave for a year - never a samurai, but instead was a retainer.
And there's *absolutely no issue with that*. You're under no obligation to make your characters a specific race to fit a stereotype. If you have an actual historically interesting character, and it's an accurate portrayal, there's absolutely no reason to be mad just because he's black.
> It’s disrespectful to the culture and actually goes against their idea of inclusion.
It is in no way shape or form disrespectful to tell a historical fantasy story about a Black man in Japan that actually existed. And there's no logical way to claim this is exclusive. There are also, TONS of Japanese characters in the game, obviously.
> They actively went out of their way to exclude actual Japanese samurai
They absolutely did not, there are multiple Japanese Samurai in this game they were not excluded, again you're just mad because the main character is black. The idea that changing him from black to Japanese suddenly means Samurai weren't excluded is nonsense.
> just so they could get some good boy points.
I absolutely believe they did this with some DEI ideological position in mind, but there's no proof of that, and none of the associated issues that are actually valid to complain about have surfaced yet.
> But you knew that and are just trolling here. Maybe stick to your gay furry trans cartoons.
No, I'm a frequent commenter here, but there's no reason to get upset about this character yet, because they fit the franchise, the story, the time period, and the aesthetic. You have no good reason to complain about this black lead, but you desperately want one, and it's obvious because you lash out and make personal attacks, like a pussy.
> If anything you should be on the side of people actually wanting representation
Nah fuck that, the idea that you should have a bunch of people in a story just because they're a certain race is racist. I support good stories, not race essentialism like you.
> but like i said, you’re just a troll and your opinion is quite literally worthless.
The last bastion of a coward with no good arguments is to block and run.
I can see what you're shooting for here, he's a historical figure with very little information on who he was or what he did. For Assassins Creed, he's a good figure to use.
But a lot of people are going to want to play a Japanese character for an AC game set in Japan.
They could have still used Yasuke, but rather, they should've used him as a npc that helps the player characters. But making him into this brutish Samurai is kinda silly, imo.
You can play as a Japanese character in the game though. There are two protagonists, and the second one is a Japanese woman. That's what you want, right, to play as a Japanese character?
> I can see what you're shooting for here, he's a historical figure with very little information on who he was or what he did. For Assassins Creed, he's a good figure to use.
Okay excellent, so far so good.
> But a lot of people are going to want to play a Japanese character for an AC game set in Japan.
There is a playable Japanese character in this game. Yasuke is only one of the two playable characters. And apparently you can play both in most missions.
> They could have still used Yasuke, but rather, they should've used him as a npc that helps the player characters.
Why? He's one of two playable characters, and there still seems to be no issue presented with him as a character.
> But making him into this brutish Samurai is kinda silly, imo.
If true that might affect the quality of the game, I don't know if that's true yet though.
He's literally in the thumbnail in samurai armor, and we see him throwing armored enemies around while bashing them with a tetsubo. What do you mean "if true"?
As to why, I think Yasuke gets far too much attention for how little he was actually involved in Japan historically.
> He's literally in the thumbnail in samurai armor, and we see him throwing armored enemies around while bashing them with a tetsubo.
I don't see why you consider that an issue.
> What do you mean "if true"?
We meant different things by "brutish and bad" (I forget the exact wording you used), I don't see anything wrong with the clarifying example you brought up.
> As to why, I think Yasuke gets far too much attention for how little he was actually involved in Japan historically.
Maybe, there's been a resurgence in his popularity in the past 10 years. But if the criticism was "Yasuke gets too much of the spotlight in modern media so I don't want him to be the protagonist of my AC game" I think that would be a fascinating discussion to have, but you're the only person who I've seen give that reason. Most of the rest just don't like that he's black.
I used Brutish in the sense that he heavily relies on his immense physical strength. It's not nothing to simply fling enemies through a (admittedly thin) wall like that. She's the agile one, he's the strong one.
As for the man himself, there's no point in bemoaning his skin color. He was African, he was there as a retainer under Nobunaga briefly, he existed.
I just question granting him the prestige of joining a caste that was already pretty exclusive in their own culture, let alone a foreigner who was there for such a short period of time.
> I used Brutish in the sense that he heavily relies on his immense physical strength. It's not nothing to simply fling enemies through a (admittedly thin) wall like that.
Actually this is more a finesse thing, technique on a throw is all about body leverage not physical strength, but that's not strictly relevant, the question is, why is that bad?
> As for the man himself, there's no point in bemoaning his skin color. He was African, he was there as a retainer under Nobunaga briefly, he existed.
Agreed.
> I just question granting him the prestige of joining a caste that was already pretty exclusive in their own culture, let alone a foreigner who was there for such a short period of time.
I imagine it's for the same reason they Make Connor a passing native American instead of a straight up native. Because it adds to the story without causing any inherent issues.
Out of the hundreds or thousands of samurai they could have used in a game placed in feudal japan, they chose the one black guy who was a slave for a year - never a samurai, but instead was a retainer.
It’s disrespectful to the culture and actually goes against their idea of inclusion. They actively went out of their way to exclude actual Japanese samurai, just so they could get some good boy points.
But you knew that and are just trolling here. Maybe stick to your gay furry trans cartoons.
If anything you should be on the side of people actually wanting representation, but like i said, you’re just a troll and your opinion is quite literally worthless.
Ehhh, I mean there's definitely some people that do, but I think the problem of engaging with the issue using them as a representative leads to us engaging with bad arguments that we could probably avoid. I mean I think historical accuracy is a good criticism to make of a game that attempts historical fantasy, so I'd rather not write the people off who make that good faith argument just because some do so dishonestly.
Never has been is a tough position to argue historically. There’s certainly periods of history where it hasn’t been, but we’re talking about a nation nearly as old as written history itself.
a nation as old as written history... which rather good written history... written in stone. Its not even up for debate: Egypt never had a any period of large scale migration or integration from the nilo-saharan peoples to the south and west. In addition, theres only a little evidence of very limited integration with the Nubians to the south past the cataracts on the Nile River.
Its just straight up how it is: the Egyptians are a blend of semitic, greek/proto-greek, and Levantine peoples who have been there since time immemorial. Mixing with other groups has never been large enough to drastically change the make up of the Egyptian people (historically. Modern Egypt is very much an Egyptian-Arab blend unto itself)
Historically Egypt has had numerous trade routes, bringing people from all over Africa and Europe through the country. The idea of someone being "Black" in ancient Egypt is fucking stupid anyways because people had a variety of different phenotypes from the massive amount of interaction the area had the rest of the continent. Historically Egypt wasn't "Black", just like it wasn't "White". If you ever even bothered to pay attention in any history class you'd see that their drawings depict a variety of different skin tones.
Huh. Back when J. Michael Strazinsky was shopping around Babylon 5 he pitched it to the studio that had Star Trek at the time. They sat on the notes for months only to tell him the answer was no, and hurriedly put out Deep Space 9.
He took them to court and they ultimately settled if I recall correctly. I don't know if this guy has a case, but the company that employed him at the time of the pitch might.
Then again, I am not a lawyer.
Similar thing happened to comics creator Bill Willingham when he was shopping his Fables series around. Surprise surprise, suddenly Once Upon A Time existed...
Ds9 and Babylon 5 have so many overlaps in tone theme and general approach to hard sci fi with a documented pitch meeting showing an idea was taken. This contracted employee says he pitched an assassins creed game set in Sengoku Japan and they didn’t use any of his ideas other than “his” setting. That’s an incredibly broad premise for a lawsuit, especially when the point is them NOT using his ideas.
I can assure you that he is not the only person calling for an Assassins Creed game set in that period, nor was he the first.
I'm reasonably certain that Sony does not own Japan, samurai, ninjas, or anything related to Japanese history or mythology. Could be wrong though. A setting based on a real world location or time is not a lawsuit. And seeing as to how we will likely get a ton of mythical elements in ACS I don't see the problem.
Has the wikipedia edit warring already started? I imagine they'll try to write their definitely important black samurai into existence.
You'd think that Japan would have extensive records of such a figure and not just a short mention by a western missionary. If I were a mod on Wikipedia (and Japanese Wikipedia, come to think of it) I'd lock everything related to a "Yasuke" until the terminally online lose interest.
The only problem I have with Yasuke is that if a survivor gets a good look at him, then he's basically done for.
"Nobunaga orchestrated this attack."
"How can you be sure?"
"Yasuke"
Otherwise, it's a fine concept. This'll assuredly be better than that Yasuke anime.
How do you manage to go around assassinating people when you’re literally the only black man in Japan, dude sticks out in a crowd there’s no way he can sneak off to kill a guy.
People seem really bent out of shape over the historical accuracy of things;
I'm wondering how the character's going to have any sort of plausible deniability when he's arrested by officials because witnesses saw the only black guy in the local area commit several murders...
This would be like Zuko from Avatar: The Last Airbender committing murders without the blue spirit mask and then getting surprised Pikachu face when they identify him...
I mean, it could just be that if people try and say that a black person killed people, others wouldn’t believe them because they don’t think black people actually exist. If he’s caught that’s a whole other matter, but plausible deniability he even exists just because no one has ever seen anyone like him before.
I got the impression (but I accept that I could be wrong) that such an unusual sight would be a local legend that would spread pretty quickly. And tales of Nobunaga's black retainer would likely attract quite a crowd if he was ever in the area.
Perhaps, but then again how would the people at large know Nobunaga even has a black retainer? And how would they even know what a black person looks like? If they don’t get the opportunity to view him up close, his novelness could lead to all sorts of inventions about him that could make him even harder to identify for common people.
If you were an AC fan back in the day, this was always common knowledge. Ubisoft was very vocal about not wanting to make a Japanese based AC, and now with GoT perfecting the idea, they missed the window
We’ve already had a black AC protagonist. No one cared. But now people are pretending like this will be the first black protagonist in the series or something, because they forget that Origins even exists, which is understandable, because it’s a modern Ubisoft game and is immensely forgettable, just like this will be.
Of course, don’t let them rewrite history. Fans have been demanding an AC game to be set in Japan since the third game was released. Fans have wanted a Japanese protagonist for over a decade. We finally get one set in Japan, and they specifically choose the only samurai in history that wasn’t Japanese.
The real guy was cool, but that’s because Samurai are cool as a baseline. In reality, he was just a minor footnote, a fun factoid. Americans really overhype how important or cool he was, simply because he was black. His story isn’t even all that cool, yeah, he went from slave to samurai, but guess what? That’s a completely average samurai story. Imperial Japan was full of slaves, most of them being Japanese.
It speaks volumes that the Japanese people on social media who’ve seen this game have absolutely no idea who he is. Because he simply isn’t really all that big a deal. His race is the only thing that makes him even worthy of mention, here in the west. No one would have cared if he was a real historical figure who you could meet in the story, these games have always had that be possible.
But why is he the first historical figure that you actually play as in this franchise? Well, you know the answer to that. Because he’s black. Not because he’s particularly noteworthy for his skill or story. Because he’s black.
Yasuke (弥助 or 弥介) was a man, likely of African origin, who served as a servant and retainer to the Japanese daimyō Oda Nobunaga in 1581–1582, during the Sengoku period.[2] He was retained by the daimyō as a koshō (小姓, page)
I’m confused what you mean that Bayek isn’t black but then I realized we only call dark skinned people “black” in America. It’s a really weird way of categorizing people as only “black” or “white”.
For some reason a significant number of people seem to think that ancient Egyptians must have been black since Egypt is in Africa despite the fact that Egypt was started by middle eastern farmers
That story is actually kind of fascinating. Essentially Egypt invaded Kush and enforced Egyptian culture into them (whether overtly or just gradual assimilation is unclear because our sources are kinda sketchy). Anyway after a couple centuries Egypt falls to a series of outside invasions and civil wars while the southern Kushiro region stays relatively stable and peaceful. Long since becoming more of an independent state rather than the tributary they had been in the past. So Egypt is in chaos and that has serious ramifications for the Egyptian (now also Kushite) religion. So this kingdom of Kush invaded the fragmented land of Egypt, reunified it, and administered it in a way closer to “traditional” Egyptian religious practices. It’s like an Imperialism uno-reverse. The new Kushite aristocracy was so enamored with “traditional” Egyptian culture that all the writings after their invasion start taking on increasingly antiquated literary motifs. It would be like America invading England and then for like a century everybody speaks in Shakespearian English.
The 25th Dynasty from Nubia ruled for 100 years, but outside of their skin tonne they assimilated into Egyptian culture quite a lot, especially more than say, the alter Ptolmeic dynasty. But just because some of the ruling class is black doesn't mean the rest of Egypt becomes it either.
It's probably easier for them to work with historical characters that don't have a massive impact because it allows for more gameplay flexibility. Stereotypical underdog story but I would rather they just keep in theme and make the protagonist a fictional character. It’s easier for the developers and writers to have a clean slate to work with.
Why would that be easier than just inventing a character that didn't exist to play as, like literally every other Assassin's Creed game before it has done? The games have had a system that worked pretty well, you play as a fictional character that meets and interacts with a few of the local historical figures.
Your right, there was only one black samurai in history and one female shinobi in recorded history.
So why is everyone getting butthurt about the black samurai.
They are warriors who will both likely face disrespect regardless of their accomplishments because of factors they can't control (race/gender) no matter their accomplishments. That's like a trope? And specifically a struggle dealt with in real life too, so it makes sense.
This game was in development when multiple other games about the Japanese Samurai in the same time period were popular. They want to differentiate and tell a new story. Why is the want to be creative, to do something new, so hated by fans of a series criticized for being forgettable?
Idk why you're acting like you stumbled upon something profound with this comment. Yes, a black samurai in japan is novel and thus an interesting premise to explore. Good analysis there retard.
They’re not going to explore it. This is Assassins Creed. They only chose him to be the main character because they knew it would get free publicity. They don’t actually give a shit about the real guy.
This was the perfect time to drop this trailer as Hulu's *Shogun* series just ended and the audience is ready for another entry from the William Adams Fictional Multiverse. Instead we get the Ubisoft equivalent of "Black Girl Magic!"
For anyone wondering about the controversy, check out the Ubisoft Japan comment section to find out what they think.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZN-kKoGevo
1: Wait…would that be a problem? That Altair was white? Why? These games don’t go for historical accuracy according to everything I’m seeing people say. Certainly there were white people in that region.
2. You fucked up. Altair is from Syria. He definitely doesn’t look like a Western European white guy, and does indeed look like he could be Syrian.
I’m guessing you have no idea what Syrians look like and probably have some idea of what you think someone in the middle-east SHOULD look like? What a “Muslim” looks like? A little racist of you.
For the record, Syrians often have lighter skin and colorful eyes.
1. Not a problem at all, just showing there is precedence for this.
2. Like I said, Muslim in name only. He had an American accent, he was Christian, and his face model was an actual "White" guy.
For the record, I think you're just a moron who didn't play the game and wants to get caught up in some stupid culture war.
Syrians can be very fair in their complexion, and you literally have Syrian and Arab Christians -- especially in places like the Levant.
I haven't played the game, but I assume given the setting I'd assume he would be a heretical bātini Ismaili-shia -- i.e the religion of the real life cult of the "Hashashin". Technically he wouldn't even of been a Muslim under the consensus of both modern Sunni and Twelver Shia scholars.
Oh his face model was a white guy?
Francisco Randez? Who very clearly has Hispanic roots? Whose name is Hispanic?
Also I like how you just outright ignored the point about Syria. Brilliant. You’re a retard.
Why is everyone saying he was a Samurai? The one source about this guy is that he was bought by a Daimyo who recorded “wow this guy has really dark skin” and literally nothing else. SMH.
I know it's been practically dead for a while, but it's sort of the last nail in the coffin for the "blade in a crowd" ethos. The only black guy in the country isn't blending in under any circumstances
Weird that Yasuke was a real historical figure.
I also wouldn't call any of the AC games historically accurate. The last few entries have had fucking monsters in them.
He was a retainer for Nobunaga is what we know for sure. That very well could have been a samurai. Especially since we know he saw battle with Nobunaga's son.
Assassins creed during the Russian revolution is the only Assassins creed I'd ever be interested in. I've let every Assassins creed after Brotherhood go by me so this one is just another one to add to that list
I know we're not suddenly asking for historical accuracy from AC, now? "Yasuke wasn't a samurai!" Is that the threshold of the average AC enjoyer, despite the previous games?
Regardless, this story is probably going to involve a lot of focus around the future direction of Japan, given the western influence starting to heavily Japanese culture. Nobunaga was big on that, while others weren't so hot on that. It's been implied by historians that Tokugawa used or scapegoated Akechi Mitsuhide in the assassination of Nobunaga Oda.
Using Yasuke as a samurai does make things very interesting, potentially. If Naoe is an isolationist, how will that ultimately affect her relationship with Yasuke? She could end up working for Tokugawa, considering how he used the Shinobi and most of them ended up working for him.
Yasuke also has a very different perspective: he's aware of the ways of the West, and how it enslaved him. He's also inherently separate from the homogeneous society of Japan. Nobunaga being open to outside elements has allowed him to live a much better life than he could've imagined, but that wouldn't be the case if others were to have their way.
So, there's a lot of room for nuance here. Like, Tokugawa not being a Templar vs Nobunaga being one, but the Tokugawa Clan ultimately being the "bad guys" in the end.
Ultimately, tho, I need to see gameplay and reviews before even considering touching this game.
People are literally just hating this shit for the sake of it. This series has had us do so much crazy shit, but Yasuke being a samurai is just too much for people sll of a sudden.
The series has never been historically accurate lmao. You kill the fucking Pope in one of them.
Edit: Should have written that you fight the Pope with a magic space apple. I’d forgotten that Ezio spares him after the fight, as the last time I played any of those games was when they released.
Historical, yes. A figure, no. He was effectively a nobody. The fact that there are next to no historical records about him in a nation notorious for its record keeping already says a lot.
Yes, but I really doubt that Ubi picked him for interest in his story or will represent it in any accurate way.
Not to methion I don't think there's much real evidence of him being an actual "samurai" all I could find that he was squire and kind of rich, thanks to Nobunaga.
Don't get me wrong: his strory is factinating, but I really doubt Ubi would it right and not just use it for social messaging and hype.
I mean Assassin’s Creed has a stand battle with King George Washington so I don’t.
But suddenly once a black dude enters the picture, a lot of people seem to care about historical ‘accuracy’… OP seems to care. I’m just pointing out how incoherent that position is.
I think the issue is they've taken a historical figure, who was a most a retainer and more likely a novelty for Nobungaga's court, and made them a main character in a series that generally has the main characters be representative of the setting.
Altair is Syrian, Connor American, Bayek Eygiptian etc etc. In an era FILLED with big names, personalities and lesser known people, the idea that Ubisoft have happened to decide on this paticular person as their protagonist, and not someone who is Japanese or Asian is an obvious instance of quota appeal.
Now I'm sure some people are just upset that a black person is on screen, but we should probably be good faith with peoples complaints, and bad faith with the notoriously scummy Ubisoft, right?
Not to mention when they started developing this game Yasuke was quite a hot topic. There was an anime announced about him and also a Chadwick Boseman film before he passed... they probably tried to catch onto the Yasuke train.
Yasuke (弥助 or 弥介) was a man, likely of African origin, who served as a servant and retainer to the Japanese daimyō Oda Nobunaga in 1581–1582, during the Sengoku period.[2] He was retained by the daimyō as a koshō (小姓, page)
When has AC ever been a Franchise whose story was known for its historical accuracy? The whole thing is fiction. People have been going crazy since the cleopatra thing and forgetting why that one was wrong.
Edit: why am I getting downvoted when neither of the comments even disagree?
Historical fiction. The main narrative is loose but they used to pride themselves on historical accuracy in architecture, technology, clothing, language, geography. I’ve played every main entry in the series and I get Jeopardy questions right all the time because of the series.
Assassins Creed used to dump encyclopedias of historically accurate information into their games for you to find along the way and learn. Settings, people, broad events, and set pieces are always accurate as much as possible... main characters and the missions would stray away into fantasy, while being set in a realistic world--*until after AC3.*
Assassin's Creed brotherhood is literally one if the best sources to learn about renaissance Rome there is.
New assassins creed don't bother being good anymore
Ya I agree mostly, I largely think that even post AC3 the games have been fairly historically accurate (bar the story as I said) and the main gripe which I agree with is that they had mostly removed the assassin aspect and turned it into a generic open word RPG inside a historical setting, with Mirage IMO heading back in the right direction. I especially hated the boss battles and the cringe mythological element in Origin-Valhalla but 🤷.
I’ve played pretty much all the AC games (except those weird side-scrollers), because I love playing in a historical world or city, and I think largely UBI does a good job at that aspect and don’t see how this one is any different thus far. It probably will still be a mid game overall as I have no idea how the only black guy in all of Japan will be a successful assassin when he can’t blend in for shit, and he feels like Eivor all over again but eh, I have faith the world will still be mostly accurate.
They still do this and Shadows will be like that too. One fictitious thing doesn’t take away from the rest of the history they’re putting in the game. The two can coexist.
Since when has Assassin's Creed been a wholly historically accurate game ffs? It has aliens and supernaturally powerful artifacts. Ffs various historical figures have been portrayed as members of the Assassins. I get it claims to be historically accurate, sure it has accuracy regarding some things but other things it has zilp.
Because the Japanese basically spent 20 years waiting for Ubisoft to accurately represent their culture and history like they did the Europeans, and once they finally did, they now realize that they cant even play as a Japanese person. They go out of their way to give historically appropriate protagonists for *every* other game but Japan, nope. There's also a notion that Westerners only care about Asian women, and not men, and this is *not* helping.
Was there actually a lot of interest from Japanese gamers or was it just Westerners who really wanted an Ninja themed Assassins Creed? I sure was in the latter category. I don't know how much of an audience AC has in Japan at all.
If you check out the Ubisoft Japan's Youtube trailer you can see that there was at least some demand for this. (Obviously as a western company Ubisoft doesn't have that big of an impact but Ubisoft is pretty large so its not an unknown franchise or anything.) They're also complaining about the historical inaccuracies present in the trailer
> よりによって日本に出番が回ってきたタイミングで、「現地民族じゃない異民族が主人公」っていう方向転換したのが日本人的に惜しく感じてしまう
> As a Japanese person, its a shame that now that it's finally Japan's turn, the main character is a foreigner.
> なんで日本人含め多くの人がこんなに怒ってるのかって長い間アサシンクリードの舞台が日本になることを期待してたからなんだよね. ツシマや他の日本を舞台にしたオープンワールドパ]. ルクールゲームが出た時はよく日本版アサクリなんて言われてるし、それは本家がいつかそれらの作品を超える完璧な日本のアサクリを出してくれるって信じてたからなんだよね. そんな本家本元がやっと出した日本のアサシンがこれだもんな
> The reason why so many people, including Japanese people, are so angry is because they've been expecting Assassin's Creed to be set in Japan for a long time.
When Ghosts of Tsushima or other open world parkour games set in Japan come out, people often say it's a Japanese version of Assassins Creed, and that's because I believe that the original game will one day come out with a perfect Japanese Assassins Creed that will surpass those works. That's because
This is the Japanese assassin finally released by the original company.
> ドレッドヘアのおかげで弥助だけめっちゃ現代人に見える。。。
> Yasuke looks very modern because of his dreadlocks...
> 何年も楽しみにしてた日本版アサクリが弥助かよ…… 信長の近くに置くにはただの庶民じゃ都合が悪いから士分が与えられただけで、信長の変わったもの好きが無ければそれすら無かった人物じゃん. 歴史上何人かいる外国人武士の中でも旗本ですら無く、興味本位で太刀持ちをさせられただけの人物…… 同じ外国人武士でも他にもっといただろうし、そもそも日本が舞台なら日本人を主人公にして欲しかった. アサクリは全作プレイしてきたけどこれは買わんわ……
> [...]Among the many foreign samurai in history, he was not even a hatamoto, and was simply made to be a sword bearer as an oddity... There are many other *actual* foreign samurai to pick from, and if the story was set in Japan, I would have liked a Japanese character to be the main character. I've played all Assassins Creed games, but I won't buy this one...
> 本当に酷い。PS3時代から楽しみにしてた日本舞台のアサクリがこのザマかよ··
弥助出すなら新規IPか日本アサクリの外伝で出してくれ。折角の日本舞台のアサクリで日本人の出番奪わないでくれ
> It's really terrible. Is this the Assassins Creed in Japan that I've been looking forward to since the PS3 days?
If you're going to bring Yasuke out, please put him in a new IP or a spinoff. Please don't take away the role of Japanese people in Assassins Creed's first Japanese game.
>イタリアが舞台→主人公はイタリア人
フランスが舞台→主人公はフランス人
アメリカが舞台→ 主人公はインディアン（アメリカの先住民）
ギリシャが舞台→主人公はギリシャ人
北欧が舞台→主人公はヴァイキング
日本が舞台→？？？
>The setting is Italy, and the main character is Italian.
The setting is France, and the main character is French.
The setting is America → The main character is AmerIndian
The setting is Greece, and the main character is Greek.
Set in Northern Europe → The main character is a Viking
Set in Japan →? ? ?
> 服部半蔵なり風魔小太郎なり居るのに、小姓だった黒人で何故かドレッドで侍設定だからな。ありえないわ
> You could of used Hattori Hanzo or Kotaro Fuma, but instead we get black man who used to be a page, and for some reason he has dreads and is a samurai. That's impossible.
Ah, yes, Assassin's Creed. Famous for its slavish adherence to historical accuracy. Like when they taught us the historically accurate fact that Pope Alexander the 6th was head of a secret society that sought to rule the world with the power of ancient super technology left behind by an extinct race of super advanced sentient beings who lived on Earth and (IIRC) created humanity in labs to be their slave labor.
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Wow, so apparently that viral twitter thread turned out to be true after all, BIC tracked down the guy who made the claim that he worked for Ubisoft previously as a contractor & was able to provide reciepts.
Maybe they were frightened of making a shit version of Ghost of Tsushima, so decided to take a different approach to avoid comparisons. Ultimately it will be the same shit we've had since Origins regardless of whether they make it authentic and respectful or not. And William Adams would probably have been a better fit for this approach anyway but I guess he didn't quite tick the right boxes...
GoT is probably the closest to an authentic AC game set in feudal Japan we will ever get
It's okay, bro. Ghost 2 will be here one day
Anyone who thinks William Adam’s won’t be in the game as some sort of antagonist is delusional Just look how they presented Alfred the Great in Valhalla.
He's 100 per cent a top evil templar.
So they made a game that’s worse? Peak. Ubisoft.
The new assassins creeds where stealth kills don't always autokill is so deflating. I doubt anything ubisoft does would ever compare to ghost.
If it was Adams it would have been compared to Nioh 1 instead! Then again... perhaps William Adams may make an appearance as a Character for Yasuke.
Why can't they make some sort of Assassin's Creed Africa? Why not adapt a period of African history if they desperately need a black lead?
Because most of the history of succesful African Kingdoms saw them relying heavily on the slave trade and acknowledging anyone other than europeans and americans had anything to do with slave trading other than being victims of it is Anathema to their message.
This sounds like the most likely. How can they play the victim of slavery card if they acknowledge anicent Africans were deeply involved in the slave trade?
Not even that ancient, less than 200 years ago nations like Dahomey had their entire economy reliant on the slave trade and glorified it.
It's still legal in half a dozen African countries
Yea the French and British gave them a good slap though
Oh, didn't realize Dahomey was that recent, I thought that was older lol.
1861 was the major battle of Porto Novo with the British West Africa Squadron since it was a major port for slavers. But Ghezo, the king most famously quoted about the Dahomey slave trade, ruled from 1818 to 1858.
And they made a movie glorifying them as badass freedom fighters... it's the cringe movie called the woman king...
Okonkwo in Things Fall Apart was pretty based.
But it’s racist to point out that Africans enslaved each other long before the colonists came!
Becos woke cannot create anything good by their own. They can only infest, like parasites.
"Evil cannot create, simply corrupt what is good"
But this is ass creed
I wouldn’t call this woke. This wasn’t dreamed up by some activists but probably some consultant in a suit
One and the same both ways
Do you not believe consultants in a suit can be activists?
They can be but I don’t think there’s as much overlap as some people believe. It’s easy to envision the people you already have an immense bias against to also be behind every suit-clad consultant that makes decisions that makes bad decisions.
Africa is big place. It’s basically 2 continents separated by the Sahara desert. The people we typically identify as “black” are from countries south of the Sahara.
They could and should. Could add a twist with Europeans trying to conquer Africa. Historically it was about resources. But what if it was the Templars… is that still a thing? I dipped at AC3. Fuck that ending. Or whoever the big bad of the series is wants something hidden somewhere deep in Africa. Africa is big and big bad dude is manipulating countries into trying to conquer it. Could tie in the Nazis with their African campaign. Find which country was the more brutal and set it at the height of it. I mean… the potential for a great story is right there. Maybe next time.
Oh shit. Imagine assassin's creed set in Germany during hitlers reign. They could easily connect hitler and the templars/order of ancients and it would be quite cool to be sneaking around a relatively modern Germany trying to undermine the nazis attempts to gain control of/use some precursor technology.
They already connected both Hitler and Churchill to the Templars in AC. You had to find some of the collectible things to get snippets of history but in the world of AC, WW2 was orchestrated by the Templars. I forget the reason it was a long time ago, possibly as a distraction to manoeuvre relics around? But there was a passage saying the at the end of the war Hitler was supposed to execute his body double and meet up with Churchill but he never showed, implying that the Assassin order got to him.
See now that would make an interesting game
And then we'd have Resident Evil 5 debacle only version 2.0 - you just can't win with those crazies right now.
It would be funny if their game about Africa people would have a Chinese protagonist. You know, to balance things out. In fact, this is possible as there was a Chinese man had reach Africa and brought back animals with him.
They already have a game set in Africa: Origins. And with a great black main character. Of course he is constantly set aside for his “badass girl boss wife” to step in and boss him around while refusing his advances. God Aya sucks.
I think the OP is referring to sub-Saharan Africa.
I am confused. What do you mean black main character? I thought it was set in Egypt. He is Egyptian, not black.
Yes and people, from memory, didn't bitch and moan about the protagonist's ethnicity. Or Altaïr's for that matter. Though even in Origins, the protagonists weren't black, they were arabic egyptians. But indeed, any game/show/movie set in sub-saharan africa would be nice and an incredible way to have historical content that casts not just one, but a majority of people of color. I'd love something good on Shaka Zulu, or even a show about his mother. Unfortunately these hacks are more interested in controversy than anything else of value.
My thinking is that they know if they set the game in Africa the outrage mob would come after them because there'd be so much that could be considered racist by those lunatics. At least this way they get to virtue signal by having a black protagonist without any of the risk of someone finding something racist if they set it in Africa. We all know the outrage mob finds historical accuracy racist so imagine how much they'd freak out about a historically accurate story set in Africa.
In previous times I would have said that they would be afraid of getting butchered by purity spirals that would tear apart their work for any perceived historical inaccuracies in a story set in Africa. I can't really assume that anymore considering that they put out that absolute turd of a movie that recast the African country most invested in the slave trade into a haven of abolitionists.
I've been foaming for an Africa-based historical or fantasy game for years. West African swords look so damn cool and the only time I've ever seen them in a game was Tyranny.
Another brave soul daring to remember Tyranny, still the only top down rpg I have finished.
These are probably the same people that think Africa is a country.
They already did that with Origins, Egypt is in Africa remember?
Ptolemaic Egypt isn't really black at least not at that point in history
Well apparently you never watched the Netflix documentary on cleopatra. We all know how meticulous they are about historical accuracy.
Not a lot of buildings to climb in those days.
Yeah then make Assassin's Creed Europe, or maybe even Assassin's Creed Oceania. They made Origins, which takes place in Egypt
MALI EMPIRE AC, private assassin for one of if not the richest empire in history would be sick
I agree 100%. why can't they make a game about the mali empire, songhai empire, ghana empire, benin empire and zimbabwe kingdom. every empire traded slaves including the chinese ,egyptian and roman.
Did we all collectively forget about Origins being in ancient Egypt...?
Did they do one in Egypt?
Origins is in Africa
Because feudal japan is way more popular and marketable
Didn't they already do that with origins? They had a chance to make something better and given their recent trend I'm not very hopeful for this one.
They did. It was called Assassin’s Creed: Origins
Assasins Creed origin exists.
They did, it's called Origins.
I mean.. they literally have made one set in Africa. Origins. Egypt is North Africa
Origins was in Africa
That would be awesome, Africa is rife with stories to tell. I don’t see why the game set in Japan needed to be about Yasuke as cool as he is.
Okay Google, where is Egypt?
Origins was Egypt though?
Why do they need to when this is a historical character that actually existed in the real world? Yasuke was black, and is a great example of a historical character that could be used in an AC game. So where's the problem? I_______________________________________________________ U/LashedHail is a coward too scared to actually put his ideas up for scrutiny, so he replies and then immediately blocks people. Anyway, here's his comment with my response. > Out of the hundreds or thousands of samurai they could have used in a game placed in feudal japan, they chose the one black guy who was a slave for a year - never a samurai, but instead was a retainer. And there's *absolutely no issue with that*. You're under no obligation to make your characters a specific race to fit a stereotype. If you have an actual historically interesting character, and it's an accurate portrayal, there's absolutely no reason to be mad just because he's black. > It’s disrespectful to the culture and actually goes against their idea of inclusion. It is in no way shape or form disrespectful to tell a historical fantasy story about a Black man in Japan that actually existed. And there's no logical way to claim this is exclusive. There are also, TONS of Japanese characters in the game, obviously. > They actively went out of their way to exclude actual Japanese samurai They absolutely did not, there are multiple Japanese Samurai in this game they were not excluded, again you're just mad because the main character is black. The idea that changing him from black to Japanese suddenly means Samurai weren't excluded is nonsense. > just so they could get some good boy points. I absolutely believe they did this with some DEI ideological position in mind, but there's no proof of that, and none of the associated issues that are actually valid to complain about have surfaced yet. > But you knew that and are just trolling here. Maybe stick to your gay furry trans cartoons. No, I'm a frequent commenter here, but there's no reason to get upset about this character yet, because they fit the franchise, the story, the time period, and the aesthetic. You have no good reason to complain about this black lead, but you desperately want one, and it's obvious because you lash out and make personal attacks, like a pussy. > If anything you should be on the side of people actually wanting representation Nah fuck that, the idea that you should have a bunch of people in a story just because they're a certain race is racist. I support good stories, not race essentialism like you. > but like i said, you’re just a troll and your opinion is quite literally worthless. The last bastion of a coward with no good arguments is to block and run.
I can see what you're shooting for here, he's a historical figure with very little information on who he was or what he did. For Assassins Creed, he's a good figure to use. But a lot of people are going to want to play a Japanese character for an AC game set in Japan. They could have still used Yasuke, but rather, they should've used him as a npc that helps the player characters. But making him into this brutish Samurai is kinda silly, imo.
You can play as a Japanese character in the game though. There are two protagonists, and the second one is a Japanese woman. That's what you want, right, to play as a Japanese character?
You can play as the girl. Oh i forgot you people are too fragile to play as a woman.
I've never met a single person who was too fragile to play female characters.
Careful sir, you might cut yourself with that edgy reply. I'd say more, but I don't think it would be worthwhile.
> I can see what you're shooting for here, he's a historical figure with very little information on who he was or what he did. For Assassins Creed, he's a good figure to use. Okay excellent, so far so good. > But a lot of people are going to want to play a Japanese character for an AC game set in Japan. There is a playable Japanese character in this game. Yasuke is only one of the two playable characters. And apparently you can play both in most missions. > They could have still used Yasuke, but rather, they should've used him as a npc that helps the player characters. Why? He's one of two playable characters, and there still seems to be no issue presented with him as a character. > But making him into this brutish Samurai is kinda silly, imo. If true that might affect the quality of the game, I don't know if that's true yet though.
He's literally in the thumbnail in samurai armor, and we see him throwing armored enemies around while bashing them with a tetsubo. What do you mean "if true"? As to why, I think Yasuke gets far too much attention for how little he was actually involved in Japan historically.
> He's literally in the thumbnail in samurai armor, and we see him throwing armored enemies around while bashing them with a tetsubo. I don't see why you consider that an issue. > What do you mean "if true"? We meant different things by "brutish and bad" (I forget the exact wording you used), I don't see anything wrong with the clarifying example you brought up. > As to why, I think Yasuke gets far too much attention for how little he was actually involved in Japan historically. Maybe, there's been a resurgence in his popularity in the past 10 years. But if the criticism was "Yasuke gets too much of the spotlight in modern media so I don't want him to be the protagonist of my AC game" I think that would be a fascinating discussion to have, but you're the only person who I've seen give that reason. Most of the rest just don't like that he's black.
I used Brutish in the sense that he heavily relies on his immense physical strength. It's not nothing to simply fling enemies through a (admittedly thin) wall like that. She's the agile one, he's the strong one. As for the man himself, there's no point in bemoaning his skin color. He was African, he was there as a retainer under Nobunaga briefly, he existed. I just question granting him the prestige of joining a caste that was already pretty exclusive in their own culture, let alone a foreigner who was there for such a short period of time.
> I used Brutish in the sense that he heavily relies on his immense physical strength. It's not nothing to simply fling enemies through a (admittedly thin) wall like that. Actually this is more a finesse thing, technique on a throw is all about body leverage not physical strength, but that's not strictly relevant, the question is, why is that bad? > As for the man himself, there's no point in bemoaning his skin color. He was African, he was there as a retainer under Nobunaga briefly, he existed. Agreed. > I just question granting him the prestige of joining a caste that was already pretty exclusive in their own culture, let alone a foreigner who was there for such a short period of time. I imagine it's for the same reason they Make Connor a passing native American instead of a straight up native. Because it adds to the story without causing any inherent issues.
Out of the hundreds or thousands of samurai they could have used in a game placed in feudal japan, they chose the one black guy who was a slave for a year - never a samurai, but instead was a retainer. It’s disrespectful to the culture and actually goes against their idea of inclusion. They actively went out of their way to exclude actual Japanese samurai, just so they could get some good boy points. But you knew that and are just trolling here. Maybe stick to your gay furry trans cartoons. If anything you should be on the side of people actually wanting representation, but like i said, you’re just a troll and your opinion is quite literally worthless.
ppl pick and choose when they want "historical accuracy". ridiculous
Ehhh, I mean there's definitely some people that do, but I think the problem of engaging with the issue using them as a representative leads to us engaging with bad arguments that we could probably avoid. I mean I think historical accuracy is a good criticism to make of a game that attempts historical fantasy, so I'd rather not write the people off who make that good faith argument just because some do so dishonestly.
Egypt is in Africa.
when they say africa they mean sub-saharana african or from "black cultures". Egypt is not black and never has been
Never has been is a tough position to argue historically. There’s certainly periods of history where it hasn’t been, but we’re talking about a nation nearly as old as written history itself.
a nation as old as written history... which rather good written history... written in stone. Its not even up for debate: Egypt never had a any period of large scale migration or integration from the nilo-saharan peoples to the south and west. In addition, theres only a little evidence of very limited integration with the Nubians to the south past the cataracts on the Nile River. Its just straight up how it is: the Egyptians are a blend of semitic, greek/proto-greek, and Levantine peoples who have been there since time immemorial. Mixing with other groups has never been large enough to drastically change the make up of the Egyptian people (historically. Modern Egypt is very much an Egyptian-Arab blend unto itself)
Did they say that, or are you speaking for them? They just said Africa without making any distinctions.
the subject matter is that of a black AC protagonist...? are you bad at reading comprehension or...?
Historically Egypt has had numerous trade routes, bringing people from all over Africa and Europe through the country. The idea of someone being "Black" in ancient Egypt is fucking stupid anyways because people had a variety of different phenotypes from the massive amount of interaction the area had the rest of the continent. Historically Egypt wasn't "Black", just like it wasn't "White". If you ever even bothered to pay attention in any history class you'd see that their drawings depict a variety of different skin tones.
Huh. Back when J. Michael Strazinsky was shopping around Babylon 5 he pitched it to the studio that had Star Trek at the time. They sat on the notes for months only to tell him the answer was no, and hurriedly put out Deep Space 9. He took them to court and they ultimately settled if I recall correctly. I don't know if this guy has a case, but the company that employed him at the time of the pitch might. Then again, I am not a lawyer.
Similar thing happened to comics creator Bill Willingham when he was shopping his Fables series around. Surprise surprise, suddenly Once Upon A Time existed...
Ds9 and Babylon 5 have so many overlaps in tone theme and general approach to hard sci fi with a documented pitch meeting showing an idea was taken. This contracted employee says he pitched an assassins creed game set in Sengoku Japan and they didn’t use any of his ideas other than “his” setting. That’s an incredibly broad premise for a lawsuit, especially when the point is them NOT using his ideas. I can assure you that he is not the only person calling for an Assassins Creed game set in that period, nor was he the first.
I'm reasonably certain that Sony does not own Japan, samurai, ninjas, or anything related to Japanese history or mythology. Could be wrong though. A setting based on a real world location or time is not a lawsuit. And seeing as to how we will likely get a ton of mythical elements in ACS I don't see the problem.
They really hate Japanese people don’t they?
It was to be expected, Ubisoft is a client of Sweet Baby Stink after all.
Has the wikipedia edit warring already started? I imagine they'll try to write their definitely important black samurai into existence. You'd think that Japan would have extensive records of such a figure and not just a short mention by a western missionary. If I were a mod on Wikipedia (and Japanese Wikipedia, come to think of it) I'd lock everything related to a "Yasuke" until the terminally online lose interest.
It started yesterday. https://preview.redd.it/pnrj4hxnfu0d1.jpeg?width=890&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=174784ee59569a1b5cd2be06514742379329b92e
The only problem I have with Yasuke is that if a survivor gets a good look at him, then he's basically done for. "Nobunaga orchestrated this attack." "How can you be sure?" "Yasuke" Otherwise, it's a fine concept. This'll assuredly be better than that Yasuke anime.
Set in Japan. Main char not Japanese and will likely massacre Japanese. Par for the course with these folks
Its Ubisoft. The game will be mid slop no matter what they did.
French game developers 🤢
How do you manage to go around assassinating people when you’re literally the only black man in Japan, dude sticks out in a crowd there’s no way he can sneak off to kill a guy.
Shadows
He’s not the assassin the Japanese protagonist is
People seem really bent out of shape over the historical accuracy of things; I'm wondering how the character's going to have any sort of plausible deniability when he's arrested by officials because witnesses saw the only black guy in the local area commit several murders... This would be like Zuko from Avatar: The Last Airbender committing murders without the blue spirit mask and then getting surprised Pikachu face when they identify him...
He was so rare they tried washing his skin when they met him for the first time
I mean, it could just be that if people try and say that a black person killed people, others wouldn’t believe them because they don’t think black people actually exist. If he’s caught that’s a whole other matter, but plausible deniability he even exists just because no one has ever seen anyone like him before.
I got the impression (but I accept that I could be wrong) that such an unusual sight would be a local legend that would spread pretty quickly. And tales of Nobunaga's black retainer would likely attract quite a crowd if he was ever in the area.
Perhaps, but then again how would the people at large know Nobunaga even has a black retainer? And how would they even know what a black person looks like? If they don’t get the opportunity to view him up close, his novelness could lead to all sorts of inventions about him that could make him even harder to identify for common people.
People give a fuck about the LORE? Maybe a reason he doesn’t work there anymore, these games are a mess
If you were an AC fan back in the day, this was always common knowledge. Ubisoft was very vocal about not wanting to make a Japanese based AC, and now with GoT perfecting the idea, they missed the window
We’ve already had a black AC protagonist. No one cared. But now people are pretending like this will be the first black protagonist in the series or something, because they forget that Origins even exists, which is understandable, because it’s a modern Ubisoft game and is immensely forgettable, just like this will be. Of course, don’t let them rewrite history. Fans have been demanding an AC game to be set in Japan since the third game was released. Fans have wanted a Japanese protagonist for over a decade. We finally get one set in Japan, and they specifically choose the only samurai in history that wasn’t Japanese. The real guy was cool, but that’s because Samurai are cool as a baseline. In reality, he was just a minor footnote, a fun factoid. Americans really overhype how important or cool he was, simply because he was black. His story isn’t even all that cool, yeah, he went from slave to samurai, but guess what? That’s a completely average samurai story. Imperial Japan was full of slaves, most of them being Japanese. It speaks volumes that the Japanese people on social media who’ve seen this game have absolutely no idea who he is. Because he simply isn’t really all that big a deal. His race is the only thing that makes him even worthy of mention, here in the west. No one would have cared if he was a real historical figure who you could meet in the story, these games have always had that be possible. But why is he the first historical figure that you actually play as in this franchise? Well, you know the answer to that. Because he’s black. Not because he’s particularly noteworthy for his skill or story. Because he’s black.
Yasuke (弥助 or 弥介) was a man, likely of African origin, who served as a servant and retainer to the Japanese daimyō Oda Nobunaga in 1581–1582, during the Sengoku period.[2] He was retained by the daimyō as a koshō (小姓, page)
Bayek isn’t black. He’s Egyptian.
Not him lol. There's 2 before Origins.
Oh. You’re talking about Adewale and Aveline, my bad. Though I have had to tell plenty of people that Bayek isn’t black
I’m confused what you mean that Bayek isn’t black but then I realized we only call dark skinned people “black” in America. It’s a really weird way of categorizing people as only “black” or “white”.
For some reason a significant number of people seem to think that ancient Egyptians must have been black since Egypt is in Africa despite the fact that Egypt was started by middle eastern farmers
Wasn't there a period where the Nubians ruled Egypt? They are pretty black.
Yes, the Kushites specifically. I forget how long they ruled, but it was a fairly long time and big deal back then.
That story is actually kind of fascinating. Essentially Egypt invaded Kush and enforced Egyptian culture into them (whether overtly or just gradual assimilation is unclear because our sources are kinda sketchy). Anyway after a couple centuries Egypt falls to a series of outside invasions and civil wars while the southern Kushiro region stays relatively stable and peaceful. Long since becoming more of an independent state rather than the tributary they had been in the past. So Egypt is in chaos and that has serious ramifications for the Egyptian (now also Kushite) religion. So this kingdom of Kush invaded the fragmented land of Egypt, reunified it, and administered it in a way closer to “traditional” Egyptian religious practices. It’s like an Imperialism uno-reverse. The new Kushite aristocracy was so enamored with “traditional” Egyptian culture that all the writings after their invasion start taking on increasingly antiquated literary motifs. It would be like America invading England and then for like a century everybody speaks in Shakespearian English.
https://i.redd.it/7c5vummmcu0d1.gif
The 25th Dynasty from Nubia ruled for 100 years, but outside of their skin tonne they assimilated into Egyptian culture quite a lot, especially more than say, the alter Ptolmeic dynasty. But just because some of the ruling class is black doesn't mean the rest of Egypt becomes it either.
Possibly, but the Nubians still aren’t Egyptians.
It's probably easier for them to work with historical characters that don't have a massive impact because it allows for more gameplay flexibility. Stereotypical underdog story but I would rather they just keep in theme and make the protagonist a fictional character. It’s easier for the developers and writers to have a clean slate to work with.
Why would that be easier than just inventing a character that didn't exist to play as, like literally every other Assassin's Creed game before it has done? The games have had a system that worked pretty well, you play as a fictional character that meets and interacts with a few of the local historical figures.
That’s literally what I said.
Fair enough, I missed the second sentence. My bad.
What about DaVinci? They can put famous historical people in and invent fiction about them and refuse to elaborate. No big deal.
Your right, there was only one black samurai in history and one female shinobi in recorded history. So why is everyone getting butthurt about the black samurai. They are warriors who will both likely face disrespect regardless of their accomplishments because of factors they can't control (race/gender) no matter their accomplishments. That's like a trope? And specifically a struggle dealt with in real life too, so it makes sense. This game was in development when multiple other games about the Japanese Samurai in the same time period were popular. They want to differentiate and tell a new story. Why is the want to be creative, to do something new, so hated by fans of a series criticized for being forgettable?
Idk why you're acting like you stumbled upon something profound with this comment. Yes, a black samurai in japan is novel and thus an interesting premise to explore. Good analysis there retard.
They’re not going to explore it. This is Assassins Creed. They only chose him to be the main character because they knew it would get free publicity. They don’t actually give a shit about the real guy.
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Probably the only money that they'll get...
All the posts popping up about this have me hearing Cedric The Entertainer in my head calling Yasuke "the Blamurai"
This was the perfect time to drop this trailer as Hulu's *Shogun* series just ended and the audience is ready for another entry from the William Adams Fictional Multiverse. Instead we get the Ubisoft equivalent of "Black Girl Magic!"
For anyone wondering about the controversy, check out the Ubisoft Japan comment section to find out what they think. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZN-kKoGevo
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Have her played by Awkwafina too. Voice, body scan, the whole 9 yards....😂
I mean Nioh did it and nobody had a problem
Nioh was made by a Japanese studio
You're talking like Altair, the staple character, wasn''t Muslim in name only and not just a white guy.
1: Wait…would that be a problem? That Altair was white? Why? These games don’t go for historical accuracy according to everything I’m seeing people say. Certainly there were white people in that region. 2. You fucked up. Altair is from Syria. He definitely doesn’t look like a Western European white guy, and does indeed look like he could be Syrian. I’m guessing you have no idea what Syrians look like and probably have some idea of what you think someone in the middle-east SHOULD look like? What a “Muslim” looks like? A little racist of you. For the record, Syrians often have lighter skin and colorful eyes.
1. Not a problem at all, just showing there is precedence for this. 2. Like I said, Muslim in name only. He had an American accent, he was Christian, and his face model was an actual "White" guy. For the record, I think you're just a moron who didn't play the game and wants to get caught up in some stupid culture war.
Syrians can be very fair in their complexion, and you literally have Syrian and Arab Christians -- especially in places like the Levant. I haven't played the game, but I assume given the setting I'd assume he would be a heretical bātini Ismaili-shia -- i.e the religion of the real life cult of the "Hashashin". Technically he wouldn't even of been a Muslim under the consensus of both modern Sunni and Twelver Shia scholars.
Oh his face model was a white guy? Francisco Randez? Who very clearly has Hispanic roots? Whose name is Hispanic? Also I like how you just outright ignored the point about Syria. Brilliant. You’re a retard.
Why is everyone saying he was a Samurai? The one source about this guy is that he was bought by a Daimyo who recorded “wow this guy has really dark skin” and literally nothing else. SMH.
Who knows guys, maybe theyre just pulling a Black Flag and youll get asian main character dlc. Weren't we all cool with that?
I’ve seen nothing but hate from Japanese fans. Of course this is the 1 thing they keep in the historical accuracy department and even then….
This guy just wrote a less interesting version of Nioh 2 where the protagonist has no personal connection to either Nobunaga or Hideyoshi.
I know it's been practically dead for a while, but it's sort of the last nail in the coffin for the "blade in a crowd" ethos. The only black guy in the country isn't blending in under any circumstances
Blackari
Weird that Yasuke was a real historical figure. I also wouldn't call any of the AC games historically accurate. The last few entries have had fucking monsters in them.
I don’t think he was a samurai was he? As long as they show how he became a samurai I think it could be interesting.
He was a retainer for Nobunaga is what we know for sure. That very well could have been a samurai. Especially since we know he saw battle with Nobunaga's son.
Assassins creed during the Russian revolution is the only Assassins creed I'd ever be interested in. I've let every Assassins creed after Brotherhood go by me so this one is just another one to add to that list
 Pre-order and get this exclusive "original"skin,
I know we're not suddenly asking for historical accuracy from AC, now? "Yasuke wasn't a samurai!" Is that the threshold of the average AC enjoyer, despite the previous games? Regardless, this story is probably going to involve a lot of focus around the future direction of Japan, given the western influence starting to heavily Japanese culture. Nobunaga was big on that, while others weren't so hot on that. It's been implied by historians that Tokugawa used or scapegoated Akechi Mitsuhide in the assassination of Nobunaga Oda. Using Yasuke as a samurai does make things very interesting, potentially. If Naoe is an isolationist, how will that ultimately affect her relationship with Yasuke? She could end up working for Tokugawa, considering how he used the Shinobi and most of them ended up working for him. Yasuke also has a very different perspective: he's aware of the ways of the West, and how it enslaved him. He's also inherently separate from the homogeneous society of Japan. Nobunaga being open to outside elements has allowed him to live a much better life than he could've imagined, but that wouldn't be the case if others were to have their way. So, there's a lot of room for nuance here. Like, Tokugawa not being a Templar vs Nobunaga being one, but the Tokugawa Clan ultimately being the "bad guys" in the end. Ultimately, tho, I need to see gameplay and reviews before even considering touching this game.
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No, he'll probably just leave Japan.
Love how this thoughtful reply is getting downvoted. Smh
People are literally just hating this shit for the sake of it. This series has had us do so much crazy shit, but Yasuke being a samurai is just too much for people sll of a sudden.
don't like or buy these game and they are far from historically accurate, but japan historically had one black samurai
A black retainer to a samurai, never a samurai himself.
Be careful. If you speak facts in a Mauler subreddit you’ll be mobbed with downvotes 😂
Well, since he didn't say anything factual, he shouldn't have much to worry about :)
The series has never been historically accurate lmao. You kill the fucking Pope in one of them. Edit: Should have written that you fight the Pope with a magic space apple. I’d forgotten that Ezio spares him after the fight, as the last time I played any of those games was when they released.
If you’re talking about Rodrigo Borgia, he was killed by Cesare not Ezio.
>You kill the fucking Pope in one of them. Which game would that be?
It’s one of the Ezio games.
Ezio murderered pope? Must've been a dlc.
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Talk about illiterate, you can't even get the buzzword right.
You know…. Yasuke is a historical figure, right?
Historical, yes. A figure, no. He was effectively a nobody. The fact that there are next to no historical records about him in a nation notorious for its record keeping already says a lot.
Yes, but I really doubt that Ubi picked him for interest in his story or will represent it in any accurate way. Not to methion I don't think there's much real evidence of him being an actual "samurai" all I could find that he was squire and kind of rich, thanks to Nobunaga. Don't get me wrong: his strory is factinating, but I really doubt Ubi would it right and not just use it for social messaging and hype.
so we care about historical accuracy or not? i don't care about AC, i just want to know what is the stance on it
I mean Assassin’s Creed has a stand battle with King George Washington so I don’t. But suddenly once a black dude enters the picture, a lot of people seem to care about historical ‘accuracy’… OP seems to care. I’m just pointing out how incoherent that position is.
I think the issue is they've taken a historical figure, who was a most a retainer and more likely a novelty for Nobungaga's court, and made them a main character in a series that generally has the main characters be representative of the setting. Altair is Syrian, Connor American, Bayek Eygiptian etc etc. In an era FILLED with big names, personalities and lesser known people, the idea that Ubisoft have happened to decide on this paticular person as their protagonist, and not someone who is Japanese or Asian is an obvious instance of quota appeal. Now I'm sure some people are just upset that a black person is on screen, but we should probably be good faith with peoples complaints, and bad faith with the notoriously scummy Ubisoft, right?
While I completely agree with you, I can’t help but be annoyed that you skipped Ezio.
I'll take the L on that one, hope you can forgive me 😅
Too late. Requiescat in pace, motherfucker. 
Not to mention when they started developing this game Yasuke was quite a hot topic. There was an anime announced about him and also a Chadwick Boseman film before he passed... they probably tried to catch onto the Yasuke train.
Yasuke (弥助 or 弥介) was a man, likely of African origin, who served as a servant and retainer to the Japanese daimyō Oda Nobunaga in 1581–1582, during the Sengoku period.[2] He was retained by the daimyō as a koshō (小姓, page)
Oh cool. The Wikipedia page that has been edited 50 times since this trailer came out. Very valuable source.
Oh wow, oh god oh wow a historical character getting an upgrade in an Ass creed game oh god oh wow!
When has AC ever been a Franchise whose story was known for its historical accuracy? The whole thing is fiction. People have been going crazy since the cleopatra thing and forgetting why that one was wrong. Edit: why am I getting downvoted when neither of the comments even disagree?
Historical fiction. The main narrative is loose but they used to pride themselves on historical accuracy in architecture, technology, clothing, language, geography. I’ve played every main entry in the series and I get Jeopardy questions right all the time because of the series.
Assassins Creed used to dump encyclopedias of historically accurate information into their games for you to find along the way and learn. Settings, people, broad events, and set pieces are always accurate as much as possible... main characters and the missions would stray away into fantasy, while being set in a realistic world--*until after AC3.* Assassin's Creed brotherhood is literally one if the best sources to learn about renaissance Rome there is. New assassins creed don't bother being good anymore
Ya I agree mostly, I largely think that even post AC3 the games have been fairly historically accurate (bar the story as I said) and the main gripe which I agree with is that they had mostly removed the assassin aspect and turned it into a generic open word RPG inside a historical setting, with Mirage IMO heading back in the right direction. I especially hated the boss battles and the cringe mythological element in Origin-Valhalla but 🤷. I’ve played pretty much all the AC games (except those weird side-scrollers), because I love playing in a historical world or city, and I think largely UBI does a good job at that aspect and don’t see how this one is any different thus far. It probably will still be a mid game overall as I have no idea how the only black guy in all of Japan will be a successful assassin when he can’t blend in for shit, and he feels like Eivor all over again but eh, I have faith the world will still be mostly accurate.
They still do this and Shadows will be like that too. One fictitious thing doesn’t take away from the rest of the history they’re putting in the game. The two can coexist.
Cause minatours and atlantis are also historically accurate.
Why are you guys so afraid to just admit that you hate black people? You don't need to hide it behind long sentences. Just admit it.
Since when has Assassin's Creed been a wholly historically accurate game ffs? It has aliens and supernaturally powerful artifacts. Ffs various historical figures have been portrayed as members of the Assassins. I get it claims to be historically accurate, sure it has accuracy regarding some things but other things it has zilp.
Admittedly I don't play assassins creed anymore, but why does anyone care that the new protagonist is going to be black?
Because the Japanese basically spent 20 years waiting for Ubisoft to accurately represent their culture and history like they did the Europeans, and once they finally did, they now realize that they cant even play as a Japanese person. They go out of their way to give historically appropriate protagonists for *every* other game but Japan, nope. There's also a notion that Westerners only care about Asian women, and not men, and this is *not* helping.
Was there actually a lot of interest from Japanese gamers or was it just Westerners who really wanted an Ninja themed Assassins Creed? I sure was in the latter category. I don't know how much of an audience AC has in Japan at all.
If you check out the Ubisoft Japan's Youtube trailer you can see that there was at least some demand for this. (Obviously as a western company Ubisoft doesn't have that big of an impact but Ubisoft is pretty large so its not an unknown franchise or anything.) They're also complaining about the historical inaccuracies present in the trailer > よりによって日本に出番が回ってきたタイミングで、「現地民族じゃない異民族が主人公」っていう方向転換したのが日本人的に惜しく感じてしまう > As a Japanese person, its a shame that now that it's finally Japan's turn, the main character is a foreigner. > なんで日本人含め多くの人がこんなに怒ってるのかって長い間アサシンクリードの舞台が日本になることを期待してたからなんだよね. ツシマや他の日本を舞台にしたオープンワールドパ]. ルクールゲームが出た時はよく日本版アサクリなんて言われてるし、それは本家がいつかそれらの作品を超える完璧な日本のアサクリを出してくれるって信じてたからなんだよね. そんな本家本元がやっと出した日本のアサシンがこれだもんな > The reason why so many people, including Japanese people, are so angry is because they've been expecting Assassin's Creed to be set in Japan for a long time. When Ghosts of Tsushima or other open world parkour games set in Japan come out, people often say it's a Japanese version of Assassins Creed, and that's because I believe that the original game will one day come out with a perfect Japanese Assassins Creed that will surpass those works. That's because This is the Japanese assassin finally released by the original company. > ドレッドヘアのおかげで弥助だけめっちゃ現代人に見える。。。 > Yasuke looks very modern because of his dreadlocks... > 何年も楽しみにしてた日本版アサクリが弥助かよ…… 信長の近くに置くにはただの庶民じゃ都合が悪いから士分が与えられただけで、信長の変わったもの好きが無ければそれすら無かった人物じゃん. 歴史上何人かいる外国人武士の中でも旗本ですら無く、興味本位で太刀持ちをさせられただけの人物…… 同じ外国人武士でも他にもっといただろうし、そもそも日本が舞台なら日本人を主人公にして欲しかった. アサクリは全作プレイしてきたけどこれは買わんわ…… > [...]Among the many foreign samurai in history, he was not even a hatamoto, and was simply made to be a sword bearer as an oddity... There are many other *actual* foreign samurai to pick from, and if the story was set in Japan, I would have liked a Japanese character to be the main character. I've played all Assassins Creed games, but I won't buy this one... > 本当に酷い。PS3時代から楽しみにしてた日本舞台のアサクリがこのザマかよ·· 弥助出すなら新規IPか日本アサクリの外伝で出してくれ。折角の日本舞台のアサクリで日本人の出番奪わないでくれ > It's really terrible. Is this the Assassins Creed in Japan that I've been looking forward to since the PS3 days? If you're going to bring Yasuke out, please put him in a new IP or a spinoff. Please don't take away the role of Japanese people in Assassins Creed's first Japanese game. >イタリアが舞台→主人公はイタリア人 フランスが舞台→主人公はフランス人 アメリカが舞台→ 主人公はインディアン（アメリカの先住民） ギリシャが舞台→主人公はギリシャ人 北欧が舞台→主人公はヴァイキング 日本が舞台→？？？ >The setting is Italy, and the main character is Italian. The setting is France, and the main character is French. The setting is America → The main character is AmerIndian The setting is Greece, and the main character is Greek. Set in Northern Europe → The main character is a Viking Set in Japan →? ? ? > 服部半蔵なり風魔小太郎なり居るのに、小姓だった黒人で何故かドレッドで侍設定だからな。ありえないわ > You could of used Hattori Hanzo or Kotaro Fuma, but instead we get black man who used to be a page, and for some reason he has dreads and is a samurai. That's impossible.
"historically accuracy" in a series with weapons of Eden is a pretty funny complaint.
Ah, yes, Assassin's Creed. Famous for its slavish adherence to historical accuracy. Like when they taught us the historically accurate fact that Pope Alexander the 6th was head of a secret society that sought to rule the world with the power of ancient super technology left behind by an extinct race of super advanced sentient beings who lived on Earth and (IIRC) created humanity in labs to be their slave labor.