Summary
After many years of fans being extremely vocal in their desire for the history-hopping series to visit Feudal Japan,Assassin’s Creed Shadowsis finally set to deliver this later this year. While the announcement ofShadows- then calledCodename Red- was initially well-received, the game has been the subject of plenty of backlash and controversy since itsfirst story trailer. A petition, which has nowreached over 80,000 signaturesas of the time of writing, has accused Ubisoft of having a “lack of respect for Japanese history and culture” and has demanded that the game be canceled or at least delayed until the studio has shown “sincere research.”
While most of this backlash had previously been from fans of the series, the Japanese government is getting involved, represented bySatoshi Hamada.Hamada took to X with a series of posts to announce that he had been contacted regarding concerns about the game’s portrayal of the country and its people and intends to bring it before the Japanese Diet, which is the country’s legislative body. Hamada specifically noted the concerns surrounding the potential “cultural appropriation and cultural invasion” in the depiction of one of the game’s protagonists, Yasuke.
Yasuke was a black African man who served Oda Nobunaga, but most of his life is still shrouded in mystery with very little documentation surrounding him. Therefore, Hamada notes that he will be examining on his portrayal in the game following Ubisoft’s marketing addressing Yasuke as the series' first playable characterbased on a real historical figure.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows: Release Date, Protagonists, Setting, & Story
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Hamada Also Criticized Ubisoft For Not Admitting Its Mistakes
Accusing The Studio Of Using AI To Create Inaccurate Representations Of Japanese Culture
Hamada continued to criticize Ubisoft for not admitting to its mistakes, addressing “messed up buildings, and messed up mannerisms” in the gameplay video, andmistakenly including Chinese subtitles rather than Japanese, something that the studio has yet to address. Hamada also expressed concerns that AI may have been used in the creation of the game to a negative effect. AI is already a controversial aspect in the creative world, and while this may have been trained using real historical photos, Hamada suggests that it has inadvertently created inaccurate representations of Japanese culture.
While the aforementioned fan petition can likely be disregarded as most AAA games' sales fall in the millions, something even an impressive figure like 80,000 won’t scratch, with Hamada’s new accusations and investigation, things could get complicated for the release ofAssassin’s Creed Shadows, particularly in Japan. These inaccuracies have sparked further accusations that Ubisoft did not adequately consult Japanese historians and cultural experts during the game’s development.
The original petition and X posts were written in Japanese, and the quotes used in this article came from Google’s translation to English.
Source:Satoshi Hamada/X
Assassin’s Creed Shadows
Set during Japan’s Sengoku period, two distinct protagonists—Naoe, a shinobi, and Yasuke, a historical African samurai—must navigate political intrigue and violent clashes between the Assassins and Templars. Players can switch between stealthy, shadow-based gameplay with Naoe and Yasuke’s direct combat approach, exploring the duality of their missions in a beautifully rendered open world.
