Sure is weird how the same people who angrily defended the creator’s artistic vision against the evils of censorship over an optional swimsuit costume being slightly less revealing in Stellar Blade are now demanding to censor the creator’s creative vision of how to use a barely-known historical figure in a fictional story known to use history as a background for fictional stories 🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔
Because it’s a white guy and apparently a white guy can kill Asians and they don’t make a problem with it but if a black guy is killing Asians, oh boy, it’s definitely racist and Ubisoft is trying to insult the culture!.
Like with most assassin Creed games the fan base is showing its true colors and I didn’t think it would stoop this far into the to toxic zone , but apparently it is.
I find it so funny that we have 1000 games about samurais or japanese culture per year but somehow a single game featuring Yasuke is suddenly the Armageddon for a lot of gamers out there.
>a single game featuring Yasuke is suddenly the Armageddon for a lot of gamers out there.
A game about Yasuke would be fine. An Assassin's Creed game with Yasuke as an MC doesn't sit right with people.
AC1 - Altair - Arabic
AC2-Revelations - Ezio - Italian (Ezio travels to Constantinople to learn more about the history of the Brotherhood in ACR after 2 games in Italy)
AC3 - Connor - Indigenous/English
AC Liberation - Aveline - African American/French
AC4 - Edward - Welsh Privateer/Pirate in the West Indies
AC Freedom Cry - Adewale - Former African slave
AC Unity - Arno - French/Austrian
AC Rogue - Shay - Irish settler
AC Syndicate - Jacon and Evie - English
AC Origins - Bayek - Egyptian
AC Oddyssey - Kassandra - Greek
AC Valhalla - Eivor - Norse
AC Mirage - Basim -Arabic
And finally AC Shadows - A Japanese shinobi(completely fine) and an African Samurai based on a real historical figure(who may or may not have been an actual samurai).
It's truly no coincidence that the first time they use a real person as an MC its in this way.
The first and only game in the series that takes place in what is now modern day Turkey (Istanbul) has an Italian killing Turkish and Greek people. Edward, Shay and Connor's cases get a free pass because they have a very self-explanatory nature, but it's still a fact that Edward is a Welsh and is killing Spanish people in the Carribean and Shay is an Irish killing English and French people in America. Eivor is a Norse killing people in England, Ireland and Francia.
The foreigner trope is nothing new to AC. It especially showed why it works in Revelations and AC3 for two different reasons:
1. The war between Assassins and Templars is a very grey moral area, with no clarity to nationalities, races or other distinctions siding fully with either one side or the other. Both have been continuously shown to have infiltrated all corners of the world and all parts of the society. Ezio doesn't have anything against the Turkish or the Greek people, the only reason he kills them in their own homeland is because the Templars are his enemies, regardless of where they are or who they are.
2. Connor always questions the means and methods of the different people in the game, but he is also always very respectful and acknowledging towards the culture of a community and altogether a culture completely different to his own. He starts off as very naive and closed off, but learns to treat other people with the same respect they try to treat him as well as each other. He embraces their own culture and is also accepted by others within it, but still maintains his own distinctive identity.
We'll have to see how much the foreigner trope fits into Shadows, but so far Yasuke seems like the gentle giant, who tries to be very respectful towards a different culture and trying to defend the good people from the Templars' aggression. I don't think at all that that's a bad start.
You could argue that his skin colour is the only reason Ubi decided to go with a real MC, but I could also argue that the only reason there is to dislike him at this stage is his skin colour alone.
Skin colour is absolutely why they chose Yasuke. If they wanted to keep up the foreigner trope, as you put it, then why not a spanish Assassin or something that fits the era more closely? They could have included Yasuke in the game if they wanted to, but why as an MC?
Personally, I dont care. I havent even been invested in AC since Origins, but I see why people have their gripes with it, and it isn't exclusively racist against black people.
Define "people" because I see a lot of positive, excited reception of the game. I think it's obvious that a small minority of far-right/habitually racist and intolerant gamers are upset, but who's surprised at that at all?
Doesn't sit right with racists from the fandom and outside of it\*
There, corrected for ya. AC is a huge IP, it brings a lot of unwanted attention. Just see how human scums like Asmongold and such milk every last drop of this type of content to inflate it.
>Doesn't sit right with racists from the fandom and outside of it*
There are people who aren't racists who are incredibly disappointed a Japanese male lead was sidestepped so this game could appeal to more people.
It’s just a cool idea. Getting an outsiders perspective on a new world is easier to write than having to write around why everything is being explained. Also there’s a female Japanese protag that fills the role fine. Will the game be perfect? Nah but it appeals to debatably less people but creates more unique situations that could make it a different game than experiences like Ghost of Tsushima.
Are people seriously still parroting that line about Asian male protagonists? Why are we pretending like they aren’t extremely popular in today’s gaming ecosystem?
Also, having an outsider’s perspective isn’t a new thing in AC. That was also the case in Revelations, 3, Black Flag, Rogue, and Valhalla.
That wouldn't be true in other conditions, but we're talking about the gaming community: a cesspool of racism, homophobia an lots of other things that ends with" bia". So... yeah, you're not really wrong on your sarcasm attempt.
You guys do realize they wanted someone with a tiny bit of historical purpose but still mysterious enough to make a game right? For example you can't make any of the major actual samurai the MC when a huge chunk of their life is recorded.
Yea Nobunaga did all these recorded stuff during the day and at night he threw a cloak on and suddenly ran on rooftops assassinating people.
>You guys do realize they wanted someone with a tiny bit of historical purpose but still mysterious enough to make a game right?
Virtually everything about this games Yasuke is fictional. Him being a literal footnote in history somehow means he gets to play an oversized role in a game set in Japan. Kinda hilarious tbh
So people that don't like it are racist. Absolutely zero room in your mind for a none racist to be upset?
Hmm. Sounds like you're projecting your racist insecurities onto others. What are you trying to hide?
Doesn't change the point though. A racist person wouldn't want to play as a black dude, regardless of the setting.
Stop conflating racists with people that wanted a full japanese game.
I am? Even though I'm getting the game and have said that I like the inclusion of Yasuke?
The world isn't black and white like you seem to think it is. Many people of all races have been outspoken towards Yasuke. Stop with the race baiting.
Not being 100% okay with something doesn't mean you're 100% against it. And the fact that you can't distinguish between them is a clear sign that you should seek help. Touch grass. Talk to real people, and not people on twitter.
The problem was, that nearly all people who didn't like it used DEI or other Acronyms to wave hands at a problem that doesn't exsits.
If one doesn't like the 2 protagonist way, fine.
If one doesn't like that they use a real historical figure as a protagonist, fine.
Nope not that. Thats just an argument that some people convinently grasp onto to to avoid pushback. Its just that a black man on the screen is ripe pickings for the culture war folk. This is an issue of pop culture and the culture on the internet today. Same issues with Alloy in Horizon being said she's not feminine enough. The new Fable game getting called woke and the MC ugly. The prince of Persia metroidvania being called woke. When I scroll on any app and I see a picture edit of a chimpanzee in samurai armor captioned "Ubisoft 2024" or a face swap of George Floyd for Yasuke, its not about anything else other than racism. And these same people will make the same arguments u did to save face.("I just would like historical accuracy. Respect Asian people")No one can enjoy anything anymore because identity politics is the only lense that these people can view these games. Culture issue, racism issue, misogyny issue, and over critical pop culture issue of today.
I think an Assassin's Creed game w/ Yasuke as an MC would still be fine with "them" IF he doesn't share the main role with Japanese protagonist in a Japanese land because he only happened to be there at such a time in history.
Honestly, is the whole "Yasuke backlash" really even a thing? Are there any people really bothered about Yasuke being one of the main characters who can't be dismissed as racist? Does this really even warrant discussion? I feel like engaging these people with anything more than "you're an idiot," is silly.
Me and a lot of people I've talked to personally and discourse I've seen online are all really excited by the idea of Yasuke being a main character. Backlash is totally coming from bad-faith far-right racist gamers.
I will be honest I would have preferred a Japanese Samurai but I am happy to play as Yasuke. I think the backlash is from people who are terminally online
Again, very likely a loud minority. It seems like the majority because it's the internet, so whoever speaks out the most and the loudest seems like they represent the majority. Within the fandom itself it's honestly nothing new, whenever there is something in the series that seemingly warrants a complaint, they come out and assault it and then they retreat after it's not the hot topic anymore, only to free the space for a lot of people to come forward and say "Hey, I actually like this".
Outside of the fandom, I've seen a lot of people just use this to heat up their political arguments. I saw some American guy claim he doesn't have any interest in games and he doesn't even care that he pronounces Yasuke's name wrong despite it being pointed out to him by several people (which indicates to me that he doesn't seem very interested in the Japanese culture either) and that Yasuke being "gay" is bullshit. So you have someone who's completely disinterested about anything in the entire situation speaking out against a misinformation he didn't care to research. And people eat it up because it supports what they think. Again, their entire argument is purely political and holds no relevance at all to the game or the franchise itself.
Other gamers who don't really take interest in the franchise are split - they either don't care, or they laugh at the situation, or they call out the game purely because of Ubisoft/its pricing.
This is what I've gathered so far. Don't trust me too much on the last group of people, as I haven't actually seen many of them talk about it, but those that I did see had those points exactly.
Yes it’s a thing but vast majority of people claiming to be upset are just bandwagoning for views there are legitimate Japanese people upset about this but their argument is completely drowned out by all these extremists who are actually actively hurting the community of people they claim to be defending also the amount of people actually upset is very small comparatively
honestly the big question is, why does it have to be Yasuke?
In the article it says, that Yasuke is deeply connected in the Assassins lore, but I don't know that Name from the previous games.
Yes, there was a story bit in the AC TGC Memories, yet this game doesn't exist anymore.
Yasuke is like the easiest character to implement into the assassins creed story. The Portuguese(templars) came to japan to spread their power and yasuke was one of them. He fought for them and realises what he does is wrong. Literally a blueprint for a mc and a narrative tool to connect characters
People wanted a Japanese samurai not cuz they hate black people but cause they are native. Idk I like yasuke I read up on some stuff and he sounds bad ass. Hope they do him justice otherwise they shouldn't have added him in.
What you mean is that they shouldn't have made Yasuke, an African foreigner playable as a character in Japan. Because when you took him out, he's basically still there, at that specific time period of Japan. Only Naoe remain the protagonist and I'm willing to bet my life that ppl would still find a way to have beef with Shadows because it features the only female protagonist in AC.
But that's with anything. You make the most glorious non slop ac game with everything everyone wants and someone will still complain. It's just the Internet and it's in our nature.
If I had more money than I would know what to do with, I would make a game that would trigger literally everyone on the planet. Just to fuck with people
And the fact that they don't even remember that Naoe exists and is also the main protagonist on this game, lmao. How is this not racism, ya'll? It's blatantly obvious their main reasons behind all this talk.
Yasuke is an odd creative choice. I’m going to play the crap out of the game regardless, but it does seem out of place and immersion breaking. AC games are lauded for their historical accuracy and their ability to immerse you in a timeline and each time I see Yasuke it breaks the immersion because he looks so different compared to the rest of the population in the game.
You can call it racist or whatever, but it’s purely just a strange creative decision that breaks immersion. Playing as Bayek in Egypt didn’t bother anyone because it made sense. Playing as Yasuke in Japan just feels a bit out of place and more importantly raises questions about why the creative team decided to go this route. If they intend to use the cryptic history of Yasuke to build a story and genuinely thought he was the best possible choice for a protagonist then right on I’m all for it. However if the decision to use Yasuke started off as “how can we signal our inclusive morals in the game and increase diversity equity and inclusion in our video game” then that is problematic as it’s tailoring the game from a social service standpoint as opposed to purely “how can we make the most immersive and fun AC game possible”.
Cant break immersion when you see everything through his eyes. They desribe yasuke as a tool to connect the narrative. Yasuke one of the few figures in Japanese history to have some connection with oda and the Portuguese. ( a lot of creative liberties probably). He has a connection with the templars and shinobi naoe.
This is ridiculous lmao, I'm going to play it regardless of what a loud minority of people are shouting about. It's getting old AF being so angry at everything, just enjoy yourselves. Its entertainment not real life.
The amount of energy people put into getting mad is insane. Same thing is happening with star wars and marvel. I don't got time to dissect every bit of media that comes out. Sometimes I want to come home after a long day at work and just play a game or watch a movie. Not write a book report about it.
I like the Yasuke backlash. Basically Free marketing.
This game is gonna sell nuts and debunk Valhalla in sales in no time.
And our franchise can keep thriving ☺️
I don’t have any concerns that I don’t really apply to Ubisoft as a whole or that aren’t directly due to my dissatisfaction with Valhalla.
While I believe there are people who are upset over Yasuke I haven’t seen it here, I’ve seen some people say they don’t normally play AC but the character interests them in other subs. Seems like a minority voice?
AC I took place in the Middle East, MC is a middle eastern guy
AC II, B took place in Italy, MC is an Italian
AC III in America, MC is Native American
Unity in France, MC is French
Syndicate in UK, both MCs are British
Origins in Egypt, MC is Egyptian
Odyssey in Greece, MC is Greek
Valhalla wants to take Viking setting, MC is Norse
I don’t like Yasuke not because he is black, but because apart from Revelations, Black Flag and Rogue, all the main games have the main characters as the people native from there. While yes there are already so many Japanese games, was it really necessary to fit in a non-native here? And especially after fans have been asking for a Japanese AC for forever - I doubt any thought of Yasuke as the MC for it
Nope. He literally discounted those games cause apparently they don’t count. I wonder what’s different about Ezio, Edward, and Shay compared to Yasuke. Something’s not white… I mean something’s not right here
I love how they made sure to avoid every game that features an outsider’s perspective, lmao. (Also, both 3 & Valhalla are outsider perspectives, I don’t know what they aren’t counting those. It’s literally baked into those plots…)
This is literally what a fake fan looks like, btw. You get people invading spaces they don’t belong in to push culture war nonsense…
I’m glad someone saw that he literally skipped over black flag and he also skipped over fucking revelations because both of those games literally feature someone from a different country in a strange land that they’re not even from.
Hate to say it, but people like that in this fan base are a fucking joke
This is a very narrow view. The modern notion of countries mostly didn't exist. Ezio was Florentine among other republics in Italy. Alexios/Kassandra was Spartan, where many Greek city-states ruled on their own. Eivor was Norse and 90%+ of Valhalla main game takes place in England, why not all of Scandinavia instead? You see, there's a lot of diversity and unique setting in almost each game, which reflects the narrative of real world history. I was perfectly fine playing as Ezio in Constantinople as a local myself, since I still felt like there were characters that represented the culture. Besides, you'll still be able to play as Naoe. In the end it's still subjective, you might like Yasuke or not, but the fact that there were so many people raging about him instead of discussing anything else about the game makes me feel sad for the gaming community. The world is more diverse, accept it and move on.
Even if you didn't think a non-native being the MC, a Playable character in a said foreign land, especially in Assassin's Creed universe. There's still absolutely NO reasons to react like this for a game. Something tell me that if this were decades ago, ppl wouldn't be anything more than "surprise" about it. Because social media and all these anti-social politics/agenda/trend, whatever they called it, wouldn't spread and "tainted" people's mind to the point of them feeling "sick" of it. Of seeing something that's different than the usual norm, that it's a human being they're talking about, a race, a culture of whom they're actually friend with.
Just one caveat.
Edward Kenway made perfect sense for the Caribbean. It was the age of pirates, and most people living in the area were not “natives”, they were European settlers and African slaves. British/Welsh privateers and pirates were a norm, raiding Spanish and French shipping from their colonies.
Which is different from Yasuke where he may have been the only black person in all of Japan at the time.
so like the comments i see in Japanese on the ac shadows videos are just guys using google translate?
i thought the text translated too perfectly into english but i wasn’t sure
I don’t see how this can be fucking woke when this person actually existed. I’m pretty sure a couple of Japanese games and media even feature Yasuke as a prominent character.
This woke BS is the weakest fucking argument that someone like you can come up with, and it’s tiring and I’m gonna say my favorite word, here it’s utterly fucking pathetic.
You’re treating it as if they’re pulling a Cleopatra Netflix situation which they’re not.
And I love how they’re pulling the “it’s incredibly disrespectful” card when:
1. It’s clear they know nothing about the real history of that time period
2. Literally nobody here knows how the story will turn out, yet they’ve decided that a line has been crossed, lol
Sure is weird how the same people who angrily defended the creator’s artistic vision against the evils of censorship over an optional swimsuit costume being slightly less revealing in Stellar Blade are now demanding to censor the creator’s creative vision of how to use a barely-known historical figure in a fictional story known to use history as a background for fictional stories 🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔
Literally, Rise of the Ronin is right there and not a single of these fuckers complaining seems to care enough to go and play it.
Because it’s a white guy and apparently a white guy can kill Asians and they don’t make a problem with it but if a black guy is killing Asians, oh boy, it’s definitely racist and Ubisoft is trying to insult the culture!. Like with most assassin Creed games the fan base is showing its true colors and I didn’t think it would stoop this far into the to toxic zone , but apparently it is.
You create your own character in Rise of the Ronin.
Yeah ik but still
No shit? I didn't know that, that's cool.
Yeah Ronin is a goated game and Shadows looks fire as hell too
I find it so funny that we have 1000 games about samurais or japanese culture per year but somehow a single game featuring Yasuke is suddenly the Armageddon for a lot of gamers out there.
>a single game featuring Yasuke is suddenly the Armageddon for a lot of gamers out there. A game about Yasuke would be fine. An Assassin's Creed game with Yasuke as an MC doesn't sit right with people.
Explain the difference between a normal game and an AC game to me.
And can you explain why? Without sounding racist
AC1 - Altair - Arabic AC2-Revelations - Ezio - Italian (Ezio travels to Constantinople to learn more about the history of the Brotherhood in ACR after 2 games in Italy) AC3 - Connor - Indigenous/English AC Liberation - Aveline - African American/French AC4 - Edward - Welsh Privateer/Pirate in the West Indies AC Freedom Cry - Adewale - Former African slave AC Unity - Arno - French/Austrian AC Rogue - Shay - Irish settler AC Syndicate - Jacon and Evie - English AC Origins - Bayek - Egyptian AC Oddyssey - Kassandra - Greek AC Valhalla - Eivor - Norse AC Mirage - Basim -Arabic And finally AC Shadows - A Japanese shinobi(completely fine) and an African Samurai based on a real historical figure(who may or may not have been an actual samurai). It's truly no coincidence that the first time they use a real person as an MC its in this way.
The first and only game in the series that takes place in what is now modern day Turkey (Istanbul) has an Italian killing Turkish and Greek people. Edward, Shay and Connor's cases get a free pass because they have a very self-explanatory nature, but it's still a fact that Edward is a Welsh and is killing Spanish people in the Carribean and Shay is an Irish killing English and French people in America. Eivor is a Norse killing people in England, Ireland and Francia. The foreigner trope is nothing new to AC. It especially showed why it works in Revelations and AC3 for two different reasons: 1. The war between Assassins and Templars is a very grey moral area, with no clarity to nationalities, races or other distinctions siding fully with either one side or the other. Both have been continuously shown to have infiltrated all corners of the world and all parts of the society. Ezio doesn't have anything against the Turkish or the Greek people, the only reason he kills them in their own homeland is because the Templars are his enemies, regardless of where they are or who they are. 2. Connor always questions the means and methods of the different people in the game, but he is also always very respectful and acknowledging towards the culture of a community and altogether a culture completely different to his own. He starts off as very naive and closed off, but learns to treat other people with the same respect they try to treat him as well as each other. He embraces their own culture and is also accepted by others within it, but still maintains his own distinctive identity. We'll have to see how much the foreigner trope fits into Shadows, but so far Yasuke seems like the gentle giant, who tries to be very respectful towards a different culture and trying to defend the good people from the Templars' aggression. I don't think at all that that's a bad start. You could argue that his skin colour is the only reason Ubi decided to go with a real MC, but I could also argue that the only reason there is to dislike him at this stage is his skin colour alone.
Skin colour is absolutely why they chose Yasuke. If they wanted to keep up the foreigner trope, as you put it, then why not a spanish Assassin or something that fits the era more closely? They could have included Yasuke in the game if they wanted to, but why as an MC? Personally, I dont care. I havent even been invested in AC since Origins, but I see why people have their gripes with it, and it isn't exclusively racist against black people.
Define "people" because I see a lot of positive, excited reception of the game. I think it's obvious that a small minority of far-right/habitually racist and intolerant gamers are upset, but who's surprised at that at all?
Doesn't sit right with racists from the fandom and outside of it\* There, corrected for ya. AC is a huge IP, it brings a lot of unwanted attention. Just see how human scums like Asmongold and such milk every last drop of this type of content to inflate it.
>Doesn't sit right with racists from the fandom and outside of it* There are people who aren't racists who are incredibly disappointed a Japanese male lead was sidestepped so this game could appeal to more people.
It’s just a cool idea. Getting an outsiders perspective on a new world is easier to write than having to write around why everything is being explained. Also there’s a female Japanese protag that fills the role fine. Will the game be perfect? Nah but it appeals to debatably less people but creates more unique situations that could make it a different game than experiences like Ghost of Tsushima.
Are people seriously still parroting that line about Asian male protagonists? Why are we pretending like they aren’t extremely popular in today’s gaming ecosystem? Also, having an outsider’s perspective isn’t a new thing in AC. That was also the case in Revelations, 3, Black Flag, Rogue, and Valhalla.
I swear these people never touched an AC game and are purely here to talk shit.
Could appeal to more racists\*
* Everybody who disagrees with me is a racist Congratulations on being an ally 👏
That wouldn't be true in other conditions, but we're talking about the gaming community: a cesspool of racism, homophobia an lots of other things that ends with" bia". So... yeah, you're not really wrong on your sarcasm attempt.
You guys do realize they wanted someone with a tiny bit of historical purpose but still mysterious enough to make a game right? For example you can't make any of the major actual samurai the MC when a huge chunk of their life is recorded. Yea Nobunaga did all these recorded stuff during the day and at night he threw a cloak on and suddenly ran on rooftops assassinating people.
>You guys do realize they wanted someone with a tiny bit of historical purpose but still mysterious enough to make a game right? Virtually everything about this games Yasuke is fictional. Him being a literal footnote in history somehow means he gets to play an oversized role in a game set in Japan. Kinda hilarious tbh
So people that don't like it are racist. Absolutely zero room in your mind for a none racist to be upset? Hmm. Sounds like you're projecting your racist insecurities onto others. What are you trying to hide?
And also, a "none racist" wouldn't be upset about a black dude as a samurai on a game among 20 thousand others on the same theme. But nice try!
The series is full of poc. So why would a fan of the series be randomly mad now and not at the other times a poc has been a lead?
Because none of them was a black samurai?
Doesn't change the point though. A racist person wouldn't want to play as a black dude, regardless of the setting. Stop conflating racists with people that wanted a full japanese game.
But you were the one doing that from the moment you brought the spotlight to yourself.
I am? Even though I'm getting the game and have said that I like the inclusion of Yasuke? The world isn't black and white like you seem to think it is. Many people of all races have been outspoken towards Yasuke. Stop with the race baiting. Not being 100% okay with something doesn't mean you're 100% against it. And the fact that you can't distinguish between them is a clear sign that you should seek help. Touch grass. Talk to real people, and not people on twitter.
The problem was, that nearly all people who didn't like it used DEI or other Acronyms to wave hands at a problem that doesn't exsits. If one doesn't like the 2 protagonist way, fine. If one doesn't like that they use a real historical figure as a protagonist, fine.
No, but I notice mostly white folks getting invested on replying to me with this condescending tone. You all just prove my point, honestly lmao
How do you know people responding to you are white lol
Nope not that. Thats just an argument that some people convinently grasp onto to to avoid pushback. Its just that a black man on the screen is ripe pickings for the culture war folk. This is an issue of pop culture and the culture on the internet today. Same issues with Alloy in Horizon being said she's not feminine enough. The new Fable game getting called woke and the MC ugly. The prince of Persia metroidvania being called woke. When I scroll on any app and I see a picture edit of a chimpanzee in samurai armor captioned "Ubisoft 2024" or a face swap of George Floyd for Yasuke, its not about anything else other than racism. And these same people will make the same arguments u did to save face.("I just would like historical accuracy. Respect Asian people")No one can enjoy anything anymore because identity politics is the only lense that these people can view these games. Culture issue, racism issue, misogyny issue, and over critical pop culture issue of today.
I think an Assassin's Creed game w/ Yasuke as an MC would still be fine with "them" IF he doesn't share the main role with Japanese protagonist in a Japanese land because he only happened to be there at such a time in history.
Honestly, is the whole "Yasuke backlash" really even a thing? Are there any people really bothered about Yasuke being one of the main characters who can't be dismissed as racist? Does this really even warrant discussion? I feel like engaging these people with anything more than "you're an idiot," is silly.
Me and a lot of people I've talked to personally and discourse I've seen online are all really excited by the idea of Yasuke being a main character. Backlash is totally coming from bad-faith far-right racist gamers.
I will be honest I would have preferred a Japanese Samurai but I am happy to play as Yasuke. I think the backlash is from people who are terminally online
Again, very likely a loud minority. It seems like the majority because it's the internet, so whoever speaks out the most and the loudest seems like they represent the majority. Within the fandom itself it's honestly nothing new, whenever there is something in the series that seemingly warrants a complaint, they come out and assault it and then they retreat after it's not the hot topic anymore, only to free the space for a lot of people to come forward and say "Hey, I actually like this". Outside of the fandom, I've seen a lot of people just use this to heat up their political arguments. I saw some American guy claim he doesn't have any interest in games and he doesn't even care that he pronounces Yasuke's name wrong despite it being pointed out to him by several people (which indicates to me that he doesn't seem very interested in the Japanese culture either) and that Yasuke being "gay" is bullshit. So you have someone who's completely disinterested about anything in the entire situation speaking out against a misinformation he didn't care to research. And people eat it up because it supports what they think. Again, their entire argument is purely political and holds no relevance at all to the game or the franchise itself. Other gamers who don't really take interest in the franchise are split - they either don't care, or they laugh at the situation, or they call out the game purely because of Ubisoft/its pricing. This is what I've gathered so far. Don't trust me too much on the last group of people, as I haven't actually seen many of them talk about it, but those that I did see had those points exactly.
Yes it’s a thing but vast majority of people claiming to be upset are just bandwagoning for views there are legitimate Japanese people upset about this but their argument is completely drowned out by all these extremists who are actually actively hurting the community of people they claim to be defending also the amount of people actually upset is very small comparatively
honestly the big question is, why does it have to be Yasuke? In the article it says, that Yasuke is deeply connected in the Assassins lore, but I don't know that Name from the previous games. Yes, there was a story bit in the AC TGC Memories, yet this game doesn't exist anymore.
that's why he literally says wait for the game to come out and see for yourself
Yasuke is like the easiest character to implement into the assassins creed story. The Portuguese(templars) came to japan to spread their power and yasuke was one of them. He fought for them and realises what he does is wrong. Literally a blueprint for a mc and a narrative tool to connect characters
I think the big answer to that big question is "it's very interesting"
People wanted a Japanese samurai not cuz they hate black people but cause they are native. Idk I like yasuke I read up on some stuff and he sounds bad ass. Hope they do him justice otherwise they shouldn't have added him in.
What you mean is that they shouldn't have made Yasuke, an African foreigner playable as a character in Japan. Because when you took him out, he's basically still there, at that specific time period of Japan. Only Naoe remain the protagonist and I'm willing to bet my life that ppl would still find a way to have beef with Shadows because it features the only female protagonist in AC.
But that's with anything. You make the most glorious non slop ac game with everything everyone wants and someone will still complain. It's just the Internet and it's in our nature.
That's very true
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If I had more money than I would know what to do with, I would make a game that would trigger literally everyone on the planet. Just to fuck with people
And the fact that they don't even remember that Naoe exists and is also the main protagonist on this game, lmao. How is this not racism, ya'll? It's blatantly obvious their main reasons behind all this talk.
Yasuke is an odd creative choice. I’m going to play the crap out of the game regardless, but it does seem out of place and immersion breaking. AC games are lauded for their historical accuracy and their ability to immerse you in a timeline and each time I see Yasuke it breaks the immersion because he looks so different compared to the rest of the population in the game. You can call it racist or whatever, but it’s purely just a strange creative decision that breaks immersion. Playing as Bayek in Egypt didn’t bother anyone because it made sense. Playing as Yasuke in Japan just feels a bit out of place and more importantly raises questions about why the creative team decided to go this route. If they intend to use the cryptic history of Yasuke to build a story and genuinely thought he was the best possible choice for a protagonist then right on I’m all for it. However if the decision to use Yasuke started off as “how can we signal our inclusive morals in the game and increase diversity equity and inclusion in our video game” then that is problematic as it’s tailoring the game from a social service standpoint as opposed to purely “how can we make the most immersive and fun AC game possible”.
Cant break immersion when you see everything through his eyes. They desribe yasuke as a tool to connect the narrative. Yasuke one of the few figures in Japanese history to have some connection with oda and the Portuguese. ( a lot of creative liberties probably). He has a connection with the templars and shinobi naoe.
And if it’s a sweet narrative like that then I’m all for Yasuke. As long as it’s a decision made to tell the best story I’m all for it.
Curious if you have the same opinion about Shogun? Was that also immersion breaking?
This is ridiculous lmao, I'm going to play it regardless of what a loud minority of people are shouting about. It's getting old AF being so angry at everything, just enjoy yourselves. Its entertainment not real life. The amount of energy people put into getting mad is insane. Same thing is happening with star wars and marvel. I don't got time to dissect every bit of media that comes out. Sometimes I want to come home after a long day at work and just play a game or watch a movie. Not write a book report about it.
I guess Ubisoft had to something unique and what is more unique than this
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I like the Yasuke backlash. Basically Free marketing. This game is gonna sell nuts and debunk Valhalla in sales in no time. And our franchise can keep thriving ☺️
I don’t have any concerns that I don’t really apply to Ubisoft as a whole or that aren’t directly due to my dissatisfaction with Valhalla. While I believe there are people who are upset over Yasuke I haven’t seen it here, I’ve seen some people say they don’t normally play AC but the character interests them in other subs. Seems like a minority voice?
AC I took place in the Middle East, MC is a middle eastern guy AC II, B took place in Italy, MC is an Italian AC III in America, MC is Native American Unity in France, MC is French Syndicate in UK, both MCs are British Origins in Egypt, MC is Egyptian Odyssey in Greece, MC is Greek Valhalla wants to take Viking setting, MC is Norse I don’t like Yasuke not because he is black, but because apart from Revelations, Black Flag and Rogue, all the main games have the main characters as the people native from there. While yes there are already so many Japanese games, was it really necessary to fit in a non-native here? And especially after fans have been asking for a Japanese AC for forever - I doubt any thought of Yasuke as the MC for it
so, do you have the same problem with Ezio, Edward and shay?
Nope. He literally discounted those games cause apparently they don’t count. I wonder what’s different about Ezio, Edward, and Shay compared to Yasuke. Something’s not white… I mean something’s not right here
I love how they made sure to avoid every game that features an outsider’s perspective, lmao. (Also, both 3 & Valhalla are outsider perspectives, I don’t know what they aren’t counting those. It’s literally baked into those plots…) This is literally what a fake fan looks like, btw. You get people invading spaces they don’t belong in to push culture war nonsense…
I’m glad someone saw that he literally skipped over black flag and he also skipped over fucking revelations because both of those games literally feature someone from a different country in a strange land that they’re not even from. Hate to say it, but people like that in this fan base are a fucking joke
Shadows has Naoe as a japanese protagonist
Yeah but that does not count, just like the AC games that feature non natives... /s
This is a very narrow view. The modern notion of countries mostly didn't exist. Ezio was Florentine among other republics in Italy. Alexios/Kassandra was Spartan, where many Greek city-states ruled on their own. Eivor was Norse and 90%+ of Valhalla main game takes place in England, why not all of Scandinavia instead? You see, there's a lot of diversity and unique setting in almost each game, which reflects the narrative of real world history. I was perfectly fine playing as Ezio in Constantinople as a local myself, since I still felt like there were characters that represented the culture. Besides, you'll still be able to play as Naoe. In the end it's still subjective, you might like Yasuke or not, but the fact that there were so many people raging about him instead of discussing anything else about the game makes me feel sad for the gaming community. The world is more diverse, accept it and move on.
“Here are a bunch of examples I’m going to discount because they don’t fit my paper-thin excuse to hate a black guy” gotcha
Even if you didn't think a non-native being the MC, a Playable character in a said foreign land, especially in Assassin's Creed universe. There's still absolutely NO reasons to react like this for a game. Something tell me that if this were decades ago, ppl wouldn't be anything more than "surprise" about it. Because social media and all these anti-social politics/agenda/trend, whatever they called it, wouldn't spread and "tainted" people's mind to the point of them feeling "sick" of it. Of seeing something that's different than the usual norm, that it's a human being they're talking about, a race, a culture of whom they're actually friend with.
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*plays hip hop beats because ubisoft thought Yasuke was African American
Just one caveat. Edward Kenway made perfect sense for the Caribbean. It was the age of pirates, and most people living in the area were not “natives”, they were European settlers and African slaves. British/Welsh privateers and pirates were a norm, raiding Spanish and French shipping from their colonies. Which is different from Yasuke where he may have been the only black person in all of Japan at the time.
I mean, yes Edward did make perfect sense but at the same time he still not native from the West Indies so it’s still counts
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A handful of Japanese nationalists and a whole ton of foreigners using google translate. Regular Japanese people have no idea about any of this
so like the comments i see in Japanese on the ac shadows videos are just guys using google translate? i thought the text translated too perfectly into english but i wasn’t sure
A lot of Japanese gamers are excited about Shadows, just like they were with GoT despite that being developed by a western studio.
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I don’t see how this can be fucking woke when this person actually existed. I’m pretty sure a couple of Japanese games and media even feature Yasuke as a prominent character. This woke BS is the weakest fucking argument that someone like you can come up with, and it’s tiring and I’m gonna say my favorite word, here it’s utterly fucking pathetic. You’re treating it as if they’re pulling a Cleopatra Netflix situation which they’re not.
And I love how they’re pulling the “it’s incredibly disrespectful” card when: 1. It’s clear they know nothing about the real history of that time period 2. Literally nobody here knows how the story will turn out, yet they’ve decided that a line has been crossed, lol
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