Let's Talk About The Controversy Surrounding Assassin's Creed Shadows...
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 27 พ.ค. 2024
- In this video, we dive into the controversy surrounding Assassin's Creed Shadows, the latest installment in the Assassin's Creed series. We explore the fan backlash over its portrayal of Yasuke both the historical consistency and new elements the writers are introducing to this historic figure.
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#assassinscreed #acshadows #assassinscreedshadows - เกม
For me the biggest controversy is playing as a historical figure rather than a fictional character, even if there is limited information in the figure in question. I would have preferred it if he was just a character in the game like Da Vinci or Washington rather than the player character but they’ll hopefully have some sort of lore explanation like Abstergo is making games where you can see history through the eyes of historical figures rather than your ancestors that sort of thing
I love that his room keeps getting messier with every video 😆
I've played Assassin's Creed ever since it's sequel came out. The reason I believe Shadows to be ESG influenced is because they changed the formula of the franchise. You usually play as an originally made character (typically originating from the region the game takes place in). Besides the tutorial part of the Syndicate dlc, you never play as a historical figure. They're always side characters within the game.
that’s not changing formula, there’s literally a fictional protagonist in the game too
But Yasuke isn't, which is the change. Why have Yasuke as a main character for the samurai counterpart instead of an original character and keep Yasuke as a side character like the others? Heck, why even need a samurai at all for what is mostly a stealth oriented game?
@@DarkRonin366 because it’s not a stealth oriented game, i thought the fact that they’re pushing this 2 separate play styles would have given it away for you🤦🏽♀️
@tommywright2487 Fair enough, but the point still stands that Yasuke should be a side character, not a main one.
All these people want a Japanese person as a protagonist, yet completely ignore that we literally have a Japanese protagonist in the game, who is the first of the two we are shown in the trailer. They intentionally ignore her because she is a woman and not a Japanese man specifically, so they are sexist as well as racist.
I imagine they wanted to use Yaskue because they wanted to differentiate it from Ghost of Tsushima (as well as its likely sequel coming sooner rather than later), which features a Japanese man as the main character, Jin Sakai. If I was a writer working in the writing room at Ubisoft, I probably would have made the same choice. I am a writer myself, so I can somewhat understand why they made this choice. I do find it a bit questionable about having LGBTQ romance options for Yaskue specifically, since this was a real person they are depicting, and potentially changing his sexual orientation is towing the line a bit. It's one thing to make a fictional character (like Naoe) queer, but it's another matter depicting a real person as queer, especially if they potentially were not in real life. On the other hand, we cannot say for certain what his sexuality truly was, its something we cannot prove either way for certain. I don't think romance options should be a thing at all, period, since to me it adds nothing to the game in my opinion.
Edit: I just discovered that the Wikipedia page for Yaskue has been locked, since there was so much editorial vandalism and edit wars on that page, as well as AC Shadows wiki page too.
Yasuke's history is not that interesting tbh. It is all from a history based fiction written by a white historical professor in Japan. If you dig deep enough you will know the fact that the reference to the actual Yasuke is very limited (about one or two dozen lines worth of data) and the author expended with his imagination and speculation to come up with a 400pages book.
This is what forms the foundation of western societies impression of having a POC samurai in sengoku
Period Japan
th-cam.com/video/nW5_-UPBx1k/w-d-xo.htmlsi=FvWTYSIo_0WsRmit
Japanese are the main ones bugged and the guy that it's based on isn't known to be a samurai maybe a page or even a guard but really a samurai was a title by social standards the armor the sword the fact he don't have a page would tell me he doesn't have that title but a title close too
@@deacon6347 This game is currently trending on Amazon japan for pre-orders, its high up on the list
@@netron66 Lockley is a hack.
Yes that's exactly what we want. A Japanese man. On an Assassin's Creed set in Japan. The woman version can stay. As the past games had the option to play as a female character. So ur claim that they are sexist is invalid asf. Now all roads leads to Yasuke. When you think of AC Japan. Do you go for the Japanese dude or the Black dude? Of course the black dude! Because you're not racist right? *Sarcasm. AC Japan has to be played by a Japanese PERIOD. Everything else is RACIST. There is no exception to Whites, Mexicans or even Fellow Asians like Chinese and Indians.
Now let me prove your racist claims wrong. We're ok with Yasuke being a side character. Every AC game had a good side character. Then once Ubisoft get their money. Make a spin-off game where Yasuke is the MC. Trust me no one would be racist if they go that route. or OR! A Django like story. Where Nobunaga hired him and taught him the ways of the Samurai. Wouldn't that be cool? But no! We got a double whammy from Ubisoft. To pander and get that sweet brownie points from the black community and also pander to women because obviously majority of Assassin's Creed fans are women. Obviously. So yeah, we're just racist and sexist. Thanks Ubisoft for pointing that out.
I wonder if Yasuke would even be controversial if it wasn’t for modern Disney
As long as they explain yasuke in a logical and Semi historical accurate way I’m ok with it. Also I feel like you have too much trust In Ubisoft.
Please don't mention the Timeless Child thing ever again. Shit gives me some nightmarish flashbacks.
I knew there’d be a doctor who fan in my audience somewhere
My problem is they're making him a samurai instead of an assassin. Also, even if he shares the same stealth system as the other main character, a 2 meter tall muscular African sneaking around in Japan seems really silly but I don't know whether it's in a good or bad way. Gonna need some gameplay footage
I think they mentioned Yasuke is more of brute force character and Naoe is the silent assassin character. Its less like Odyssey (choosing a character) but more like Syndicate, when you’re playing two stories at once.
Bro did you play origins, odyssey or valhalla? We've been so far away from an assasin for a while now.
He is literly a real life Person who was a Samurai
@@pascalfernandes6957 He wasn't a samurai.
@@armon230 Syndicate was the worst AC. So I stand with OP. They should have made him an assassin. Especially after Ubisoft said with Mirage that they needed to return to their roots.
I'm more concerned about the price of the game being so high then the protagonists. It's not just an Assassin's Creed issue but a Ubisoft issue. They really like making players pay extra just for additional content that isn't DLC
Really? How much is the game without any of the DLC?
@@lobstrosity6576 Standard Edition: $69.99
Gold Edition: $109.99
Ultimate Edition: $129.99
The Gold and Ultimate include a season pass, some cosmetics, and one side quest
@@lobstrosity6576 $70 for the base game, $110 for the gold edition and $130 for the ultimate edition
I’m actually offended that the main character of AC Valhalla was not an englishman since game was set in England.
I actually saw a video where a guy was talking about how all the AC games featured main characters native to their settings, and one of the examples he listed was AC Valhalla... Like, tell me you didn't play the game without telling me you didn't play the game lmao (he of course didn't think about Revelations, AC3, or AC4 either, all of which feature characters travelling to a setting outside of their cultural upbringing lol)
Well the main character is canonically a Norse woman set during the Viking invasion of England. So Norse people would’ve been in England at the time of the 10th Century. Honestly just say if you’ve not played the game it’s fine
@@Maple_T29 And there was a Black Samurai in Japan in the late 16th century, so that's a moot point. Also Valhalla takes place in the 9th century, not the 10th. Honestly just say if you've not played the game it's fine.
@@Maple_T29 Just because there were norse people in England does not make them English. There is a good amount of evidence that Yasuke was not even the first black person in Japan. Traders and missionaries likely already brought a few black people to Japan.
Also, i dont know if. you realised, but my comment was sarcastic, meant to show how stupid the arguments against Yasuke really is when you look at the older games.
@@neutralbychoice3584 you’re missing the point. There were lots of Norse people in 9th century England bcos they invaded England. Did black people invade 16th century Japan? No they did not. Also AC Valhalla actually starts out and ends in Norway as well. This is disgusting to portray a black protagonist in an era and setting that it is so underrepresented in gaming. I can only imagine the outrage if they released a game where you play as an ex slave turned freedom fighter in early 1800s America only for the trailer to drop and the character to be white. It’s no different here apart from lazy woke westerners trying to justify it. But but but he was a real person😂 no one gives a fuck honestly
I’m a longtime ac fan of the older games. When ac origins came out I highly detested all the changes and I’ve only recently, within the last year, come to accept it and enjoy what assassins creed has become. It’s just funny to me how ac shadows is the first new ac game I’ve genuinely been interested in for ACTUAL YEARS, and everyone else already hates it.
I just don't like the idea of them making an assassin out of a real person - i wish Yasuke was a supporting character like Leonardo Da Vinci. Im more against directly supporting Ubisoft as a company than anything else. Their comments on game ownership really struck a nerve with me. I may pick this one up used though.
Bro it’s fiction they can do whatever they want, in the anime they were battling robots, this whole controversy is fake, William Adams didn’t fight once in Japan yet in Nioh he battling everyone including Yasuke. No one knows his sexuality irl but apparently he will have a wife at the start of the game, Oda Nobunaga was openly queer and was obsessed with Yasuke, If you watch the Shogunates video on Yasuke which came out 3 years ago, he implies their relationship could had been a intimate one, so this isn’t unheard stuff. In Ghost of Tsushima the Mongols easily won the battle irl but they lose in the game and no one cries about those devs rewriting history.
You are right, I don't understand so much controversy and nonsende for a videogame plot, it is suposed to be fun, not a history lesson
@@aronzin6145not when they now claim the background of the character is truth
@@netron66 based on a real character but still a video game with hidden blade, who knows what Isu stuff, and Yasuke himself is not clear in the history sources, if he did this or that... I mean, I can understand both opinions but my point is "if it is cool, let's have fun with Shadows"
@netron66 no one is claiming it to be fact. The deves them selves said that they know that he probably wasn't a samurai. And that they picked him because we know so little. So that leaves room for creative license to do whatever they want with him.
@@brandonpick1486 just look his name in TH-cam and you will be surprised
Assassin’s Creed has been avoiding Feudal Japan because the gaming market is oversaturated with ninjas and samurais. Even in the last few years, Rise of Ronin, Ghost of Tsushima, Sekiro, Nioh. Nioh even featured a WHITE samurai and no one batted an eye.
I think they picked Yasuke and his story to do something different. Ubisoft clearly wanted to set themselves apart and not fall into the same game we’ve been playing for years. Plus a story of Yasuke is way overdue as he’s featured in so much historical fantasy media.
Thinking about it from a business perspective, Ubisoft already recycles the same AC formula. Just slapping ninjas on it would have been extremely boring.
The reason why there was no backlash to Nioh is the same reason why there was no backlash to Afro Samurai or the Yasuke anime. They are all isolated properties and not the next in a line of a franchise that has always featured protagonists that were "ethnically abundant" in their location/time period. If skin color is the deal breaker, why was there no hate towards Bayek, Adewale, or Avaline? People would be similarly upset if Ubisoft scrubbed through the entire history of ancient Africa to look for the one Asian man and paired him up with an African woman to slaughter hordes of African men.
"Nioh even featured a WHITE samurai and no one batted an eye."
Cause Adam's status as samurai isn't contested.
Yasuke's status has suffered online drama for years. A couple of years ago, people started making videos and articles claiming Yasuke was a samurai, even though there's no primary source saying so. Probably related to Lockley claiming he was, despite admitting he had to "make assumptions" to turn a few phrases of source material into a 500 page book.
So the colour of skin is not the difference here. The difference is the status of samurai being contested.
so much historical fantasy media. like what please ...give me some pointers
@@MustardSkaven We both have the same position, but I think trying to argue whether Yasuke was a samurai or not is not productive. Da Vinci didn’t make tanks either. And let’s be honest no one pops open a textbook to fact check the games they play. I’m more concerned on what seems to be a pattern regarding portrayals of East Asian men in AC.
AC Chronicles: China - u play as an Asian woman
AC: Shadows - black guy and Asian woman
AC: Jade - customizable character with even white looking people as an option.
Every previous game got to feature a man who represented a large ethnic population of the place and time but all of a sudden things are different when it comes to an East Asian country.
It just seems like they think East Asian men can’t be main protagonist material which is consistent with stereotypes in western media.
@@wibblesmcscribbles3018 Yeah but nobody is in danger of thinking DaVinci actually made tanks or hidden blades.
There are a lot of people out there at danger of believing Yasuke was actually a dude that won 100 battles and basically made Nobunaga near-shogun.
And, yeah, Ubisoft seems to have an issue with an East Asian male lead. In Odyssey they let us choose the gender but both were Greek.
Definitely what fustrates me the most is peoples ignorance for Naoe.
She gets completely ignored for peoples controversial illogical argument just for views.
Since you haven't played Ghost of Tsushima yet, I highly recommend playing it. The main character, Jin Sakai, is an amazing character, and his journey from Honourable Samurai to Ghost Assassin is quintessential. Assassin's Creed fan service.
"Controversy" also known as racism.
I love that you compare Yasuke's characterization to Charles Lee's. As if there's something wrong with being gay, as if it was the same as being a racist genocider. *bruh*
Nah man, it's totally ok to imagine a mysterious historical figure as queer. There's so little information about this person and for some reason you already assume he was straight, maybe he was bi and would be insulted if portayed as hetero.
Assasins creed is a series of what if conspiracies wher true.
The Sexualität thing is a choice of the rpg elements . Ther not saxi g ther changing his Sexualität. Its your choice
They picked him because he was more likely to change sides samurai mainly an Asian samurai wouldn't go against their master or ruler, Roni would. The guy stuff is going into almost all games nowadays that's up to the player usually. But if it's like the expensive Telltale game then it will be the same sex romance.
I am not japanese and yet I feel offended as an Asian. Ubisoft had PLENTY of chances to represent a black character but they have to put a black character in a homogenous society which was not even important figure nor warrior with no impact in history what so ever. They had decent amount of African knights during medieval era. You can also reimagine ancient western african kingdoms or so many other choices to empower and represent black people. But no, they have to take one of the Asian spot away.
It's too expensive though, I'm gonna have to wait.. and you know what if people could only be patient the gaming industry would be for the better however game developers know we have no discipline at all 😂
I appreciate you mentioning previous characters lol because Ubisoft has never been historically accurate with their characters. I can’t help but wonder if Yasuke is only getting controversy because he’s black it’s really distasteful and disgusting to see in our current society
I haven't been excited for an assassins creed for years now and this is probably the closest I've been to getting "hyped" excited for what this story could be but honestly because I'm so out the loop and just a very casual fan I haven't seen the hate or controversy so super interesting video much love
Keeping expectations in check is v smart especially for a game like this
The reason people say they are checking boxes is because these game studios take many years to make a game, and they are expensive to make, so they take out loans from investment firms like Blackrock and Vanguard to pay for the making of the games. These investment firms will give low interest loans IF the studio has a certain ESG score, and they can increase that score by having "diverse" characters and storylines, and hiring consulting firms like Sweet Baby Inc (among others) to help them raise that score. As a result, you see many movies and games with forced diversity, not because they actually care about diversity, but because they are shoehorning these characters into game. Far Cry 6 had a random quest thrown in where you need to gather vegetables for a barbecue because one of the crew is vegan, and you talk to another character about how hard it is to be trans. These moments completely break with the fluidity of the game and were only thrown in for the ESG score. If the game came out 15 years ago, it would be done this way because it was a creative decision. Nowadays, we know it was done purely for the points. Thank you for criticizing the racist memes though. Not enough people are doing that. Anyone who upvotes or supports racist memes and comments is part of the problem.
I don’t really like defending Ubisoft because they have a sexist history but people are bashing Ubisoft for all the wrong reasons. Ubisoft is sexist not racist. Also the pricing is mentioned a bit but not enough and what I don’t understand is no one has mentioned the pricing for the gold edition!
The ultimate and standard edition has always been that price since 2020 when games were getting revamped for new generation gaming consoles.
The gold edition though is $10 more. That might not seem a lot but that’s still cheeky and scummy to raise a price for something that doesn’t include anything special. The whole point of getting the gold edition was to save money from buying the dlc expansions and game separately. But you’re not saving any money from getting the shadows gold edition. The dlcs might be hit or miss too and if ng+ gets added the dlcs will probably be on sale anyways. After Valhalla’s dlcs im definitely not buying another dlc until they’re revealed. I also don’t need to play shadows early I’d rather wait until the bugs get patched anyways
Imagine getting mad over a game.
no it's not ok ,it's not fine, they purposly choos the exacte periode when he existed , Feudal Japan is not exclusive to the "Sengogu jidai" .
and there are no historical records or sources written about him it's just one diary . he was brough to serve as a "kushu" or a page , he belonge to a samurai class, but was he a samurai ? did he receive any battle training? did he take part in any battle ? no evidance of that whatsoever. that is how much insignificant his existance was . so evrything you'r going to expeirience with him is fake , and if you'r going to fake evrything anyways , why make him the protagonist instead on any other fake japanese character?
you said they did make a japanese character? i don't wanna play the femal character what's my elternative? a non japanese man....
and now apparently you get the romance the same gender too
just fantastic
just recently they forced a studio dev to appologise for making a comment stating that the backlache kind of make sence .that's right ....screw free speach . but it's fine . let's support ubisoft anyway for wanting us not to own our games .and charging it for 130 dollar
You dont know if he was queer or not. I dont see the argument
I was so excited by finding out our male character was in fact the historical figure of Yasuke as opposed to a fictional character with an implausibly similar backstory, as suggested by some of the early leaks, that I ended up completely blindsided by his race sparking a controversy at all lmao. As a long-term fan of the series, part of the appeal to me has always been the idea that all of our characters really existed, and that the animus allows us to fill in the gaps in their stories (like, I don't know how many others remember this, in AC2 all of the Auditore database entries frame them as obscure historical figures who appear in a few sources and then disappear - I loved that element). To me, including a real historical figure who has a lot of gaps in their story just adds a little extra legitimacy to that fantasy, and reminds me of characters from the side content I grew up with, like Giovanni Borgia from the Facebook game Project Legacy, another historical figure who was used as a viewpoint character.
~1:52-2:50 Having queer romance options for Yasuke isn't really "changing" his sexuality, since that's not something recorded in the sources - it's as much of a gap as anything else about him. I'd see a bit more logic if the issue was with giving him romance options at all, but specifying queer ones implies that we know he was historically straight, which we don't; aside from statistics (which obviously aren't enough to say anything about specific individuals), there's no more reason to assume he was. In fact, a certain type of bisexuality was the norm for men in Japanese culture at the time (though there was an element of age and power involved that would be considered deeply harmful today), so it has actually been suggested in the past that Yasuke may have had a romantic relationship with Oda Nobunaga due to their closeness and the nature of their roles (Yasuke, as a kosho to Nobunaga, would have been seen as a potential partner for the older lord). We don't have strong reason to think this, but since that's the only romantic relationship that's even been considered for Yasuke, it's arguably more historically grounded to have a gay romance option than a straight one for him (provided said option is Oda Nobunaga in particular lmao).
~7:44-7:59 We actually have pretty good reason to specifically think that Charles Lee was not a massive racist when it came to Indigenous people, or, rather, three: his Kanien'keha:ka wife and their two children. Like, not saying a guy couldn't be racist and also have a Native wife (maybe he viewed her as an exception, or only married her for political reasons, or both), but it's definitely a striking omission from AC3 that he was not only married to an indigenous woman, but specifically a woman from the same nation as Connor. There's a reason he had a Kanien'keha: name that was used by Kanen'to:kon in AC3 - he was an adopted member of the nation!
You defo start having panic attacks if people don’t refer to you with they/them pronouns😂
@@Maple_T29 You defo shit yourself 7 times today.
Its a dei checking exercise yasuke should not be in this game its quite clearly what they have done...hope it flops
I can already tell that this video is going to have higher dislikes than usual for no reason
i wont buy it because he black and the other one is a kunoichi, otherwise if it was a normal asian dude i would had bought it for sure !
The claim of rhe black samurai comes from the book published by thomas lockley. However, the actal historical evidence on the actual Yasuke is very limited (couple dozen lines primary sources so far). The rest, also admitted on his youtube interview, is based on his own theory and speculation.
In reality, yasuke's status of rather he is a samurai or not is not conclusive.
Right, but you're being a little ahistorical in the analysis here. Of the contemporary sources we do have, it does point in one direction. Tono, stipend, decorative swords and a weapons bearer. We also have two differing accounts on whether he was a "slave" of the Jesuits or even a "Monk".
@@brainworm666 I will tackle your different "evidences".
Tono: The quote says that "the people THINK he will make him tono". It is never said he was made tono.
Stipend: The "stipend" is written as 扶持 (fumochi), which is just a payment in food. The samurai stipend would be written as 家禄 (karoku)
Decorative swords: What is this referring to?
Weapon bearer: Hideyoshi was sandal bearer (equal honour) to Nobunaga while he was not samurai. Ashigaru and other peasants could hold such roles without being samurai.
We have something that actually points into a direction. Whenever a foreigner was made samurai, the contemporary sources wrote about it, excessively. But in the case of Yasuke they somehow forgot how this first foreigner ever became samurai?
OP is correct in claiming Lockley is at the basis of this. He decided to do something "different" to get attention and he went against the grain and said Yasuke was samurai. While at the same time admitting he barely had anything to work with, forcing him to make plenty of assumptions.
My problem is that the whole point of being an Assassin is you’re supposed to blend in with your environment and a 6’6 black samurai in 16th century Japan is gonna stick out like a sore thumb. And before anyone cries that’s racist I would say the exact same thing if we had 6’6 white Viking in a game that’s set in Africa for example. It just feels like this is so forced and just to tick diversity boxes.
If they really want to have a black protagonist then why not choose a setting that fits them well. Adewale is a great example of a black protagonist who fit his setting well. I have no issue with the race or gender of the protagonist bcos race or gender isn’t what makes me decide if a character is good or not. But it does annoy me when they are so obviously trying to shoehorn characters in just for the sake of being ‘diverse’ and ‘progressive’. It feels like they are trying to please everyone all at once and we’ve seen them do this before and we know how this plays out. We just don’t get good games.
casual take
For the record, he was just under 6'0" lol. Regardless, Yasuke is being framed as the heavy-hitter, and unlike someone like Jacob (who was mechanically identical to the supposedly stealthier Evie), he actually seems to be mechanically built around combat (he doesn't even have a Hidden Blade). They even feature him standing out from the crowd in the trailer, with a little girl stopping to stare at him. His character isn't meant to be sneaky, that's what Naoe is for; Yasuke is for Samurai-ing.
@@wasteurtime5677 casual take bcos I want an AC game to have actual AC elements in it?😂😂 Go to sleep you woke mess
@@SomasAcademy you’ve just missed the entire point I was making but ok go off kid😂 he’s just gonna be so out of place it’s gonna look borderline funny when I’m sure that’s not the approach they are taking. How am I meant to play this game and feel immersed in the setting when I’m running round as a towering black dude in 16th century Japan? As I said it’s like running round as a Viking in somewhere like Africa it would look ridiculous. I don’t have anything against the character itself but I would much rather they just create characters that fit the setting rather than shoehorning them in like this just to please the woke crowd it’s cringe. Doesn’t matter if he’s meant to be a combat focused character or not bcos either way it’s gonna look ridiculous. And before you cry racist, Adewale was a fantastic character and he was perfect for the setting he was in. He fit perfectly bcos he was a black protagonist who was a freedom fighter and slave liberator in the Caribbean during the 18th Century. It just made sense and didn’t look ridiculous. That’s the point I’m making
@@Maple_T29 ...You know he was real, right?
2
Lets be real, the only reason he was added was so ubisoft can check some boxes and not have a female as a sole protagonist. Ubisoft is still a trash company. Yosuke is a interesting person and deserves his own game, not to be added because of ubisoft execs being sexist
So? who cares. Why dont you start a game company and make something better with Yasuke in it.
Hexe is alegedly only female
@wasteurtime5677 I care only because altho some of the outrage is absolutely racist people, alot of people I've personally talked to see this for what it is given the company history. Hand waving it away doesn't change what it is.
@pascalfernandes6957 I hope it is, I really do. I'm not hating on ubisoft to just hate. I've played legitimately every ac game ever made. I love the franchise but I'm not blinded by the issues the company has. If Hexe is them getting past their past bs behavior I'll sing a completely different tune, ubisoft just has been really had to defend lately, especially after legit taking games away from people
@Novice.Assassin it's not that they have to have a female MC but it's well documented that the devs really wanted to tell female assassin's stories only to be forced to put a guy as well. AC Odyssey is the perfect example cause even if the person in canon is female, still have to add a dude there. AC games of old didn't have to have a female ezio auditore. It's just the ubisoft execs that have serious issues that trickle down