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[rhodesianshepard]

I wouldn't go by what random Japanese twitter accounts say. In Japan, there is a shitload of racism, especially against black people. I find Yasuke to be a fun wrinkle that seperates the game from other samurai games. It's really no different than Nioh or even a TV series like Shogun. They are hyper-exaggerated characters based on real people

If this was another white European instead of Yasuke, 2/3's of this forum would not give a shit. But because he is black, we have a problem. That is the reality

 

[Punished Miku]

Made in Japan by Japanese people who just thought a black samurai would be sick.

Shadows is made in the west by westerners who haven't done their due diligence.

Race quotas for dev members. Thats what the Oscars were pushing recently too.

 

[captainpat]

This help?

Some more random tweets with barely any engagement on any of them.

 

[Mister Wolf]

Will be interesting to see if this sells.

 

[DelireMan7]

I don't think it's about the person being black more so than a crazy outsider view of the culture. I mean this is a thing in Japan..

I think it's more to do with the Assassin's Creed brand.
For years, I have the feeling everybody like to complaint about each new game in the serie.

If they opted for a japanese male (everybody focus on the black male but there is a japanese female main character too), people would have complaint "so just a Ghost of Tsushima clone".

 

[Unknown Soldier]

American developer Sucker Punch making Ghost of Tsushima:

Ghost of Tsushima - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

To ensure that the game's world was authentic, the team consulted Japan Studio, a fellow Sony game development team, early in the game's development. Japan Studio was excited about the idea and helped fly approximately 10 members of Sucker Punch to Japan and Tsushima Island for a 10- or 11-day guided tour with a historian.[37] The team visited Japan twice to research Tsushima, once during the summer and again in November, during the anniversary of the invasion.[38][39][40] Japan Studio also helped connect Sucker Punch with historians who the team consulted on the history of the invasion and local Japanese customs and traditions. Experts on Japanese dialects, religions during the 13th century, and the recreation of 13th century kanji were also consulted.[39][41] The team invited Ide Ryusetsu and Kuwami Masakumo Shike, experts from a samurai martial arts school, to perform motion capture for the game and advise the team on sword-fighting.[42][37] Seattle-based historical sword fighting expert David Ishimaru was also involved in the creation of the game's combat style.[43] While the team initially considered introducing real-life historical figures into the game, they refrained from doing so after being told by experts that it would be insensitive.[44]

Ubisoft making Assassin's Creed Shadows:

Hurr durr let's make it star the 1 black man in all of Japanese history actually believed to exist and make him a samurai

 

[ManaByte]

barely any engagement on any of them.

Engagement doesn't exist on X anymore. Musk broke it.

 

[Bernardougf]

Pissing off the majority of Japanese players in a game about their own culture? Only Ubi can pull this off.

Then again, considering who the lead writer is, I'm not surprised:

x.com

twitter.com

And even with all this bullshit, the purple forum is still complaining:

A daily reminder that these people will never be happy, no matter what. Stop catering to the mentally ill.

"They force X to be straight and this still haunts me"

This people are mentally ill.

 

[Black_Stride]

There is a big difference.
Nioh is made by Japanese, so they get to choose who they place as the main character in a game set in Japan.
AC: Shadows is made by Europeans, choosing a black man to be the main character in a game set in Japan.
It's what the woke crowd would call cultural appropriation.
But because Asians are now considered white-adjacent, it's ok to be racist against them.

Are Québécois considered Europeans.........or is that an umbrella term for white people?
What does country of origin of the developer have to do with anything?

Id understand if Yasuke was completely made up the writers wanted an outsider who err stood out, Niohs William was already take.........Naoe is a completely made up character by the way.
Make no mistake im not for or against Yasuke being the deuteragonist, I havent played the game yet to see what he adds to the strory, but im going to be avoiding his playstyle anyway, cuz I prefer stealth.
If the game featured a Japanese or White Samurai.......again id have to gauge the story once I went through it, but id still be avoiding the play style either way.

Imagine switching the roles in that argument. Saying that there is no reason to include black people, because no one in Africa buys games.

Mate alot of games dont even have African servers......the whole continent....not one server.
We are just happy when a game has the decency to actually remember we exist.

If a game was set in Africa and one of the protagonists was white.......I wouldnt be losing my shit, no one would.
Hell bring on an African Assassins Creed with a Portuguese Protag........im in, as long as we get to kill a bunch of colonizers.
The game has a ton of Japanese people.....it has one black guy.....your analogy is alittle extreme no?
In terms of protagonists its a 50/50 split between Japanese and non-Japanese.

 

[CityHunter1981]

I live in Japan now for 15 years already and can understand the criticism. Looking at this looks like looking at a game from a complete racist, who thinks Asia is all the same and just mix different countries together.

No one expects Ubisoft to have a deep knowledge about Japan, but if they want to make a game about it, hire some people who can give advice what is authentic and what not.

 

[DarkBatman]

While I can understand the basic criticism of some Japanese people, I always find it exciting how Twitter/X sometimes personifies social hell on NeoGAF, but as long as it serves to bash a hated game / a hated publisher, it is the perfect source for meaningful opinions of a whole country.

 

[Hudo]

I am not completely up to date with my Japanese history but wasn't that black dude more like a pet/novelty item for Nobunaga rather than a freaking Samurai?

 

[Punished Miku]

Basically it's a cultural appropriation.

Another core SJW argument.

 

[Rac3r]

Yasuke as the lead male protagonist is such a lazy move, I expect nothing less from Ubisoft. They probably thought: "Let's make the one black samurai (unconfirmed) the lead male character so we already have a backstory and can fill in the gaps however we want." Such a cop out.

It's not racist to think this is dumb, and the Nioh argument I see tossed around makes no sense because it's a fucking fantasy game (you literally fight monsters). They could've made Yasuke the main character in Nioh and it would've been just as great (I know he's an NPC in the game). Unfortunately people are too stupid to see that Ubisoft is using Yasuke as a token, instead of making a genuine effort to create a compelling asian-male character. I don't blame Japanese people for being annoyed.

 

[Tiago Rodrigues]

Perfect timing for Sony to unveil Ghost of Tsushima 2

 

[TintoConCasera]

I am not completely up to date with my Japanese history but wasn't that black dude more like a pet/novelty item for Nobunaga rather than a freaking Samurai?

Yeah. Unlike William from the Nioh game, Yasuke was not a samurai.

 

[MadViking]

Another core SJW argument.

Funny how it only works one way and not the other. It's called a hypocrisy.

 

[Gaiff]

I am not completely up to date with my Japanese history but wasn't that black dude more like a pet/novelty item for Nobunaga rather than a freaking Samurai?

It's still debated. There just isn't that much info about him, but based on what is known, he enjoyed a privileged position besides Nobunaga.

He may have acted as a bodyguard and is very likely to have received military training as well. Considering that he was also huge and incredibly strong (allegedly), it's believed he acted as trusted security.

The samurai bit is contested because what the title means wasn't always consistent throughout history and changed depending on the time period. I've been looking it up and I've seen a lot of no he wasn't a samurai but also a surprising amount of yes, he was a samurai. I thought the consensus among experts was no but turns out it might not be the case.

 

[Unknown Soldier]

I am not completely up to date with my Japanese history but wasn't that black dude more like a pet/novelty item for Nobunaga rather than a freaking Samurai?

Almost nothing is known about him other than he apparently really existed but historically there is zero evidence he could ever have been a samurai

Yasuke - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[winjer]

Are Québécois considered Europeans.........or is that an umbrella term for white people?
What does country of origin of the developer have to do with anything?

Id understand if Yasuke was completely made up the writers wanted an outsider who err stood out, Niohs William was already take.........Naoe is a completely made up character by the way.
Make no mistake im not for or against Yasuke being the deuteragonist, I havent played the game yet to see what he adds to the strory, but im going to be avoiding his playstyle anyway, cuz I prefer stealth.
If the game featured a Japanese or White Samurai.......again id have to gauge the story once I went through it, but id still be avoiding the play style either way.

Once again, it's the choice of Japanese people to pick who they put as a main character.
Yes, white people are from Europe, in case you didn't notice. Even if they have been for a few generations in the American continent.
Exactly the same for Asians in American. And even African-Americans.
The only American-American are the natives. What we used to call "Indians".

Asians for a very long time, have been one of the least represented groups in western media.
And once again, they get to not being represented in a game set in an Asian country.
Yes, Yosuke was a real person. But Ubisoft is already changing what he really was, to pretend he had a much bigger role in Javanese society.

Mate alot of games dont even have African servers......the whole continent....not one server.
We are just happy when a game has the decency to actually remember we exist.

If a game was set in Africa and one of the protagonists was white.......I wouldnt be losing my shit, no one would.
Hell bring on an African Assassins Creed with a Portuguese Protag........im in, as long as we get to kill a bunch of colonizers.
The game has a ton of Japanese people.....it has one black guy.....your analogy is alittle extreme no?
In terms of protagonists its a 50/50 split between Japanese and non-Japanese.

Africa, is still a very small percentage of gaming spending worldwide.
By the reasoning you made, if a group of people doesn't buy games in enough quantity, then they don't get to be represented.
Why do you use that argument against Asians, but not against Africans?
Why must Asians, again, be under-represented in western media?

 

[Punished Miku]

Funny how it only works one way and not the other. It's called a hypocrisy.

It sure is. SJWs are hypocrites for trashing RE5 but now most of NeoGAF is no better apparently.

 

[Represent.]

Black women are the go-to group for diversity in games now. Forspoken and Alan Wake 2. Deathloop stars a black man but it's not AAA, more like AA.

Yea we are talking about black men not women. Again, this is, literally, the first AAA game I can think of since San Andreas with a black male lead and the outrage is kind of surprising.

Was the character in Nioh not white? In Japan? Was there any outrage? Genuine question.

There's still a Japanese character in the game.

Idk I just dont see the issue being a big one since yasuke actually did exist. Samurai or not, he existed.

This is not a Little Mermaid situation, because they are not race swapping anyone here. Race Swapping, now that's an issue. Yasuke existed and was black. You play as him. He remains black.

If this was like, the first samurai game taking place in Japan, and we played as a black guy, then I'd understand the frustration. But we have ghosts of Tsushima and Ronin that just came out. Ghosts 2 is undoubtedly going to be revealed this year as well.

Also.

There was an Assasins Creed game that took place in the Caribbean, and we played as a fucking Welsh European. Not a single bit peep. No outrage. They couldn't have given us a black protagonist? Play as a rebellious slave? Same situation. No outrage.

People will live.

 

[SCB3]

The worst part of this is that AC does kinda keep the historical accuracy to some points and can generally tell a fun story with a lot of factual based stuff, its a historical playground for the most part and why I like the series

Yasuke in the Sengoku period is a interesting story and you can do a decent game surrounding that and himself of course, but no it'll be him being the absolute best Samurai ever and making no mistakes and he should be the true Emperor of Nippon thus completely re-writing the history,

Now yea yea its a game etc, but the point of why they're casting a black man as the protagonist is to "give representation" - Re-writing history does more damage to that than just telling his actual story with a AC twist

 

[rhodesianshepard]

Yeah. Unlike William from the Nioh game, Yasuke was not a samurai.

William was given the honary title of Samurai, but there is no evidence he was proficient at all in Samurai combat. I don't believe he ever saw a battlefield when he was in Japan

 

[tommib]

Play Rise of the Ronin instead.

 

[Hypereides]

Made in Japan by Japanese people who just thought a black samurai would be sick.

Shadows is made in the west by westerners who haven't done their due diligence.

Speaking of... Afro Samurai 3, when? I'm serious. Its way past due.

 

[Hudo]

Once again, it's the choice of Japanese people to pick who they put as a main character.
Yes, white people are from Europe, in case you didn't notice. Even if they have been for a few generations in the American continent.
Exactly the same for Asians in American. And even African-Americans.
The only American-American are the natives. What we used to call "Indians".

Asians for a very long time, have been one of the least represented groups in western media.
And once again, they get to not being represented in a game set in an Asian country.
Yes, Yosuke was a real person. But Ubisoft is already changing what he really was, to pretend he had a much bigger role in Javanese society.



Africa, is still a very small percentage of gaming spending worldwide.
By the reasoning you made, if a group of people doesn't buy games in enough quantity, then they don't get to be represented.
Why do you use that argument against Asians, but not against Africans?
Why must Asians, again, be under-represented in western media?

I don't disagree with you but I just want to chime in and say that American culture is quite different from the culture a European country has (culture also differs between European countries as well). So if you give developers from Spain, Poland and Canada the same instructions to make a game, you'd very likely end up with quite different results. Which is why I dislike the term "western" because it vastly differs. Just as "Asian" vastly differs.

 

[Bernardougf]

Ubisoft should go balls deep and name him Musashi

 

[SCB3]

Was the character in Nioh not white? In Japan? Was there any outrage? Genuine question.

William Adams was a real White Samurai in Japan

but as far as I know there were not giant fucking Oni demons roaming the countryside terrorising the place, see the difference?

AC is trying to have it both ways, Historically accurate with a twist and just making up any old shit with history.

I will say, you do have a point with AC4 there, I think the Spin Off game from that period is exactly that as well, but AC4 was more about the Pirate Fantasy than it was about the Creed

 

[Oberstein]

Don't worry, Ubisoft will play the victim card now.

 

[anthony2690]

This is like, the first AAA game I can think of with a black male lead since fucking San Andreas.

Bayek and in my opinion he was an excellent lead character.

I'm personally really looking forward to seeing gameplay for AC:Shadows

 

[winjer]

I don't disagree with you but I just want to chime in and say that American culture is quite different from the culture a European country has (culture also differs between European countries as well). So if you give developers from Spain, Poland and Canada the same instructions to make a game, you'd very likely end up with quite different results. Which is why I dislike the term "western" because it vastly differs. Just as "Asian" vastly differs.

That is always what happens when speaking about something as big as a continent. But the distinction remains.
And it's why we still use terms like Asian, European and African-American.

 

[Laptop1991]

I support the Japanese on this, it's their history, they have every right to complain when it gets changed and taken away from them, same with Egypt and Cleopatra, this nonesense needs to stop, it won't work.

 

[FunkMiller]

Pissing off the majority of Japanese players in a game about their own culture? Only Ubi can pull this off.

Then again, considering who the lead writer is, I'm not surprised:

x.com

twitter.com

And even with all this bullshit, the purple forum is still complaining:

A daily reminder that these people will never be happy, no matter what. Stop catering to the mentally ill.

"If it doesn't directly represent me, it's terrible" is the single most selfish, entitled, childish attitude I can think of for fiction... and whoever makes things to chase this attitude deserves nothing but failure.

 

[Black_Stride]

This game is going to flop. Waste of money.

An Assassins Creed game bombing?
Especially part of the RPG-era.......not a chance.
Even the stand-alone expansion of Valhalla did like 5 million units.
This game is doing 10 easy work.....at the prices they are charging for all the extra extra editions and what-not a billion in revenue doesnt even seem out of reach.

I live in Japan now for 15 years already and can understand the criticism. Looking at this looks like looking at a game from a complete racist, who thinks Asia is all the same and just mix different countries together.

How so?
What makes the game seem like a mixture of different countries.....care to point them out in the trailer cuz we have seen so little gameplay im shocked youve managed to gauge so much of the games authenticity from the CGI trailer.

Your 15 years living in Japan or studying Japanese history?
During this period in Japans history is exactly when a lot of ships would be arriving from the west, so port cities would actually have quite a number of foreigners.

No one expects Ubisoft to have a deep knowledge about Japan, but if they want to make a game about it, hire some people who can give advice what is authentic and what not.

And you are assuming they didnt hire any consultants on this title?

Yeah. Unlike William from the Nioh game, Yasuke was not a samurai.

There is so little information about Yasuke stating such as fact is just as bad if not worse.
Even WIlliam himself its not recorded that he was some badass ass Samurai......but creative license and all that jazz.....we can allow it.
But Yasuke whose final title we dont know........he definitely cant be called a Samurai.

 

[Angry_Megalodon]

It's peak cynicism and also racism to start a game with the message "people from all backgrounds and cultures..." when they don't give a shit about what Japanese think of this.

Besides, the protagonist will probably be the least of the problems this game has in representing Japan and its folks. I'm pretty sure the disrespect is all over the place but the MC misdirects criticism.

The depravity of companies like EA or Ubisoft has no limits.

It sure is. SJWs are hypocrites for trashing RE5 but now most of NeoGAF is no better apparently.

What is hypocritical is treating two different cases as equal.

RE5 was trashed for "racism" (which was absurd, since in Africa people are black, hence zombies need to be black). More so, RE5 is a fantasy game. It's so funny that nobody complains about how RE4 treats Spain like a country of cultist freaks with Mexican accents. The hypocrisy reaches the sky.

As for this game, it portrays Japanese society, so they must stick to historical accuracy, otherwise, they are appropriating something that its not theirs for the only purpose of pushing an agenda. They have done the same in their previous games, in all of them. This is not new.

Completely unrelated things.

 

[Gaiff]

Almost nothing is known about him other than he apparently really existed but historically there is zero evidence he could ever have been a samurai

Yasuke - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

From what I heard, the official definition of samurai to a hereditary noble warrior class was changed after Hideyoshi ( peasant elevated to the rank of samurai) passed a law in 1586, a few years after Yasuke's death. By that more modern definition, he wouldn't be considered a samurai.

When he was alive, however, samurais and bushis (warriors) might have been considered interchangeable and Yasuke was also given a sword (and I read it was a katana, not a wakizashi as was later reported), a stipend, and a house. He was also accompanied by Nobunaga's servants who showed him the city and it's believed he was a retainer/warrior/sword carrier in the service of Nobunaga. No document ever says that he was proclaimed a samurai or anything of the sort but it wasn't necessarily standard practice to record such an event at the time.

This is quite tricky because most primary sources are in Japanese translated to Portuguese and then to English. Whatever the case, the answer isn't a definitive no, but it's not a definitive yes either.

 

[Utamaru1706]

Almost nothing is known about him other than he apparently really existed but historically there is zero evidence he could ever have been a samurai

Yasuke - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Yasuke's Wikipedia page were in a complete mess after the AC game announcement, because lots of people were vandalizing it with historical revisionism, by saying that Yasuke's role is much more prominent when he served for Nobunaga, despite there was only few texts that mentioning him (the English page is currently on lockdown due to this).

 

[TintoConCasera]

There is so little information about Yasuke stating such as fact is just as bad if not worse.
Even WIlliam himself its not recorded that he was some badass ass Samurai......but creative license and all that jazz.....we can allow it.
But Yasuke whose final title we dont know........he definitely cant be called a Samurai.

I guess I'm a Samurai too since there's no record to prove otherwise.

 

[Jaybe]

Sweet Baby Inc.'s founder originally worked at Ubisoft Montreal on narrative and likely consultant on this or at least her viewpoints are shared in the company. No surprise they pursue this DEI at all costs mentality.

Now you see me: Representation as innovation

In Dontnod's flawed but ambitious (and underplayed) title Remember Me, the protagonist is Nilin, a mixed race "memory h…

www.gamesindustry.biz

 

[Punished Miku]

William Adams was a real White Samurai in Japan

but as far as I know there were not giant fucking Oni demons roaming the countryside terrorising the place, see the difference?

Another very common SJW argument. Witcher has monsters in it so why not put in black people? Same with LOTR.

 

[Trilobit]

The best compromise would be to have a Japanese character in blackface pretending to be Yasuke.

 

[Three]

When RE5 came out so many people lost their shit due to a black woman and a white man teaming up to kill black people/zombies, they even updated the game to add white enemies ffs.
But now when the same argument gets turned against a black man teaming up with an asian woman to kill asians, it's suddenly racist to complain about it... these culture wars suck so goddamn much

The complaining for both RE5 and AC is dumb in that regard. The sad part is that you really can't win in those situations. Include some other races in that Africa or Japan setting and people would complain that it's not accurate. You can please some of the people all of the time, you can please all of the people some of the time, but you can't please all of the people all of the time

The complaints about AC using art/architecture from incorrect regions is just poor from Ubi though.

 

[Tal Shiar Agent]

This is like, the first AAA game I can think of with a black male lead since fucking San Andreas.

Assassin's Creed Origins
GTA V
Watch Dogs 2
Spider-Man Miles Morales and Spider-Man 2

Just off the top of my head.

 

[darrylgorn]

Stick to focusing on the GAAS part gaf lmao

 

[kruis]

American developer Sucker Punch making Ghost of Tsushima:

Ghost of Tsushima - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Ubisoft making Assassin's Creed Shadows:

Ubisoft think they can get away with rewriting/distorting history by using the disclaimer below:

 

[Represent.]

Assassin's Creed Origins
GTA V
Watch Dogs 2
Spider-Man Miles Morales and Spider-Man 2

Just off the top of my head.

Forgot about GTAV and Miles.

My other points still stand though, and thats like 4 games in like 20 years lol

 

[HerjansEagleFeeder]

I don't know who I should feel more sorry for. The Japanese players who feel like their own cultural heritage is being butchered by some uncultivated white Lefties, or the black Americans (and, possibly, many Africans, too) who feel like their being abused as some grotesque ideological shield for the insidious agendas of some white Lefties as if they didn't have a voice of their own to begin with.

 

[Moneal]

I don't understand the reasoning for changing the formula of main characters in AC games. They have always been completely fictional characters. Why use a real historical figure this time, using the only known black figure in japan at the time? Hell, even in this game they keep the original formula with the other lead. Why is the female fictional and not a real historical Japanese woman? I am sure they could have easily found one to base their character on? It just reeks of DEI.

 

[Larxia]

Forgot about GTAV and Miles.

My other points still stand though, and thats like 4 games in like 20 years lol

Mafia 3 (great characters though, sucks that the game was filled with filler content, because it had such a great atmosphere, story, characters)
Deathloop

Probably some others if we keep searching.

No one said there were ton of this though I think, people are just disappointed that out of everything they could have picked for a japanese AC, they picked this. They should have waited for another episode where it would have been more fitting if they wanted another black lead character.