Assassin's Creed Boss Says Series Is Inherently Diverse, Just Like History

Why is Cote, the Ubisoft boss complaining about lies and half-truths when the company puts them in the game and claims historical accuracy?

You must lay in your bed the way you make it. Maybe ask Japan how they feel and what actual history looks like.

It's just like when they complained about Elden Ring not having ugly UI and guides spewed all over the screen, or when Bethesda continues hailing Starfield as the second coming of Christ. Obviously all hate or threats are just awful and immature and never okay, but plenty of developers out there definitely need a healthy dose of humble pills to get off their absurdly high horses once in a while. We can be civil and intelligent about our critiques, but so should you.

Make better games, there's your answer

A small, vocal segment of gamers, are rigid-thinking, miserable group-thinkers and bullies. They constantly rally against diversity but are themselves shockingly non-diverse. Gamers weren’t always so obnoxious and toxic. They hold games hostage with review bombing, and they resort to online harassment because they can’t accept not everyone sees the world the way they do or has the exact same opinion as them.

There are thousands of fascinating women and black people throughout history that games can be made about. The problem is how they go about it.

Battlefield 5's story for example required them to delete REAL men and their achievements in order to fit women into battles where they had no place in being. That is quite simply disgusting. You cannot be allowed to erase actual people from actual events particularly when they are still within living memory ffs. And when confronted on this, these companies double down instead of apologising, resorting to the tired old bigot card.

Just choose some real people with real achievements. It is not hard.

@jesse_dylan I agree with you however I think DEI in games sometimes feels a bit false almost as if its there just for the box ticking. I'm not against DEI if it's actually used correctly but unfortunately it's not easy as there are so many aspects to it. For instance when scarlett johansen played the lead character in ghost in the shell there was a massive backlash and screams of cultural appropriation were heard throughout the media. Samuel Jackson played nick fury which in the comics is a white man but that was fine because you know DEI right? A recent TV show had a British monarch portrayed by a woman of colour but that was fine too because of DEI blah,blah,blah. It's something that's very easy to abuse but when it's used in the correct context it is a wonderful thing. Ubisofts claims of historical accuracy is something I always take with a pinch of salt. Yes they have historically correct characters etc but the story's surrounding them are very much works of fiction. At the end of the day it dosnt stop me enjoying the games or the movies but I think there are certain elements out there using the whole DEI thing to further their own agendas.

@LifeGirl @Victor_Meldrew really good points and well said.

@LifeGirl they did choose a real person - Yasuke is a real historical figure (unlike most AC protagonists)

It's also not the first time a protagonist wasn't from the setting of the game (that was Ezio in Assassin's Creed: Revelations)

This isn't even his first videogame. He appeared in both Niohs and Samurai Warriors 5

"When the work they pour their hearts into is twisted into a symbol of division"

"We put an African samurai in the game because we cannot relate to a Japanese person"

Sounds very much like intentional division to me.

Ok internet - let's all just take a deep breath.... and now.... 3... 2... 1....

Seriously, I think this is perhaps one of the most tone-deaf (head-in-the-sand) responses I've seen from someone that should not only know better, but should also be appreciative that their company is about to sh*t-the-bed.

Diversity in games is fine - it's been there for a long time (and yes, it could be increased organically), and I genuinely think that if it's included in a adult way (without treating adults like children) then I really don't think people, other than the die-hard trolls, would care. However, the issue isn't diversity, but forced (and ham-fisted) messaging.

Also - the complete lack of self-awareness of claiming historical accuracy is an all-time-new-level-of-denial.

So don't have a go at games because there's diverse stories/characters... but at the same time, don't defend amateurish (and often political) positions in gaming as upholding historical accuracy. This is literally just going to fan the flames, and it's like watching Rome burn while Ubisoft twiddles (I mean fiddles) itself.

@jesse_dylan so this is also part of the problem - that the people that are railing against the trolls tend to paint everyone with the same brush. There are genuinely racist / sexist / homophobic people out there that will automatically hate on anything that upsets their world view... but I'd suggest that most people that are not fans of DEI is because they just don't like being talked down to... or being treated like children... or overly moralised...

So I think we should all be critical of those that actually hold hate in their hearts (that spew it on the internet); but at the same time, don't think that people that don't like poor writing, or political messaging, are all bigots.

These conversations are important, but this isn't a conversation. I applaud them for not kowtowing to the performance artist bigots. The bigots that know so much about what offends who (architecture, flags, tori gates), they should go work for Sweet Baby Inc.

I'm personally don't care much about "diversity". It's not i'm against black skin as a protagonist. Some of my favs characters are black like Barret Wallace (FF VII), CJ (GTA San Andreas), Rider (Furi), Adam Hunter (Streets of Rage), and Dudley (SF III/IV).

So it's really weird to see Ubisoft CEO or some companies talked about "diversity" as if video games never have black representation or not diverse enough. It's like they live in other dimension or something :/

But if there's no solid reason why the protagonist must be a black person outside just for the sake of diversity then why bother?

I'm sure a lot of people care more about a character have good design and background story / personality as well good writing that makes them likeable, memorable, or they can relate over what skin color the character has.

@Oz_Who_Dat_Dare Oh. What's the message being jammed down people's throats so ham-fistedly, then?

@Zuljaras yup. Indies sure aren't known for "activist messaging," lol. What???

@Northern_munkey Dudebros that think they're nerds have been screaming about Snow White being Hispanic etc etc for approximately 700 years since it was revealed that Rachel Zegler was cast for the role. That's what being a big alpha strong man is all about! The sanctity of Disney princesses ...and women's sports or something.

@LikelySatan that gamers inherently need to be taught, like children, about how the world works... and that apparently gamers don't know, work alongside, are friends with, or indeed ARE diverse in nature. They need to be taught...

Diversity is part of life... but you know what, I don't go around thinking about people as "diverse", I actually just think of people as people (whatever their background or identity... including political persuasion). We now live in a world where value is based on performative demonstration that you are "better". That's my biggest problem - diversity in games now is entirely performative and it often comes across as written by teenagers for teenagers. As such, often doesn't feel natural, and hence the characters they portray feel like set-dressing rather than real characters.

Once again - some of my favourite games are very diverse - with stories from all sorts of perspectives. There should be more of that... grounded by good writing and good creative direction, rather than good intentions.

@Vil So you want to ask a group of millions of people to help make sure a game isn't offensive? Yet again, that's what Sweet Baby Inc is for.

@Oz_Who_Dat_Dare I didn't catch any of that messaging, at all. Where did Ubisoft ever explicitly say that the inclusion of Yasuke was in response to gamers not understanding that poc exist? How do you know that the people who created, wrote, or designed the characters you are referring to don't see themselves in the character? There's black people who worked on this game.
To be clear I agree that inclusivity with huge products like this is almost always to get into pockets. A shot of the entire Veilguard cast looks like it should have "You too can own your own home" as the caption. No matter how diverse the team is, I just don't see that happening naturally. But I mean ..you guys just waking up to how gross big publishers are?
You want to assume something, assume it's about money. These things are almost always about money. People love to yell "woke" about a company like Disney or something, meanwhile Disney is hiding poc on their posters in places that don't tolerate black people. Because money. I guess what I'm saying is a huge publisher like Ubisoft will always be looking for an angle to exploit. The outrage seems performative to me because like ...duh? What do people expect? If (as I keep hearing) it adds nothing for Yasuke to be black or for the idiot elf lady in Veilguard to be Asian, then it probably doesn't take anything away from the game either. If it does, why?
I see you bolded that last sentence. You haven't experienced this game, and can't assume intentions of the creators or the quality of the writing based on what they've shown us. You can assume all of that because it's Ubisoft, and a videogame, sure.

@Zuljaras Most of these sites barely get by, pay a pittance, and can't seem to understand that advertisements covering entire articles is bad.
....but yeah it's probably a conspiracy.

@LikelySatan to be very honest, you're right... a lot of the "anti-woke/DEI" is entirely performative. That's why it's devolved into a pointless and endless culture war. There is so much twaddle coming from those - but at the same time - an equal amount of just tripe from the pro-DEI camp. If people just worked out what they were complaining about, and listening, that would be good.

My complaint about the Ubisoft comments are (1) it is dismissive of their company's dire state (I personally don't want Ubisoft to die, as I liked a lot of their games); (2) it is creating a strawman argument that all of this is people living in denial that diverse peoples haven't existed before... no sane person thought that; (3) that the writers are not "instrumentalising" their own characters to promote political positions (Ubisoft do this often); and finally (4) that this is somehow required for them to represent history faithfully (and I can pretty well guarantee there's been little in AC games that is that historically accurate other than set-dressing - namely - how absolutely ridiculous some of their depiction of Japan is currently).

I also think Valhalla and Odyssey and Origins were also likely pretty "loose with historical representation"... but given that I've nearly 25 years involvement in Japan, that's the one I've related to at a personal level.

@LikelySatan the last statement I bolded was a general appraisal of the industry - that games should be driven by good writing and narrative (regardless of character types)... not driven by the good intentions to make us better people. Gamers don't play games to be better humans - they play games that are fun, inspiring, exciting, challenging (edit: or just escapism). People rarely play games to be made to feel like they are children.

No matter the intentions (which I assume are good) of the people trying inject lessons into games.

@Oz_Who_Dat_Dare I get that. I go crazy seeing what they do with US military uniforms on TV etc because they're always jacked tf up, lol. I just roll my eyes and think "to get that right would've taken seconds." I'm a combat soldier and I don't then write my senator about the depiction of soldiers in Army Wives, or whatever.

@Oz_Who_Dat_Dare Hell that's opposite of me. Any game that makes me feel like a kid again is ace in my book. I also just don't care about writing in my games, usually. I don't come to games for the story.
Anyway! I appreciate a civil discussion, man. I'm not interested in the game unless the stealth is excellent...but it won't be. Open world and Ubisoft means bad AI, and AC has never been good with stealth.

@LikelySatan It's ok if you're not about writing/narrative (it's funny, in my list of things gamers want, I didn't even spell that out... because I just assumed it). Look at the end of the day, Ubisoft is a huge company, made up of many different people - and that's cool. Many stories can be told, from diverse characters... I think most people just want to experience genuine stories/games - not manufactured ones. AC has been a grab-bag of quality (and crap)... they make good open worlds in general (even though people hate them for it... and they aren't innovators anymore). They also try to wear the garb of "respect for all" when they are clearly a company that doesn't actually respect much of the customer or developer base. I suspect it's the hypocrisy of Ubi that is most inciting of reaction.

Anyway - glad that we could calm the discussion down... we all have different perspectives, and I'm happy to support other gamers getting good games that they enjoy.

I do wonder.... what is the best stealth game that you've played?

@Oz_Who_Dat_Dare It's hard to narrow down to just one because I really like the genre, but Thief: The Metal Age, SC Chaos Theory, and Dishonored 2, all for different reasons. I like Phantom Pain and Ground Zeroes a lot too, but that's tough because V is obviously not finished. I want to get back into the Styx games also.
It is pretty funny us here talking so much about the most bland, milquetoast publisher out there...besides Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown. That game is going to be fawned upon so much as a sleeper hit in the future.

I absolutely agree with him. The series shines in its grounding in historical basis while incorporating fictional elements. That’s always been the case. Yasuke is the most historically accurate protagonist the series has ever had.

@LowDefAl ‘sake people go and educate yourselves.

Apparentley X boss Elon Musk quoted something about "dei kills art" if it's true history about Samurai Yasuke then Musk is looking like a right old plonker lol.

@torquex Elon Musk made his money from his father’s Apartheid era emerald mine. His feelings on black people are never going to be well-rounded.

@nessisonett Yasuke is the most historically accurate protagonist the series has ever had.

Well there we are. Until the colour of a man's skin / Is of no more significance / than the colour of his eyes / - Me say war. Haile Selassie quote popularised in a song by Bob Marley & the Wailers

@nessisonett

Yikes dude me not know about Musk history but appreciate the input.

@nessisonett Elon Musk made his money from his father

Aka bank of dad lol

I hear him. It's been just awful the way this game has been targeted by the culture warriors. It sucks for the devs and it has sucked for the fans too. The actual game itself is almost never actually discussed online. Instead it always just defaults to "Why do I gotta play as Yasuke!? That's not historically accurate!"...even though there is another protagonist you can play as in the game and the series as a whole has never been 100% historically accurate. It called Historical Fiction. It's a genre.

It's been tough to watch as a fan so I can only imagine how tough it's been to watch as a developer. All I can say is hang in there! There are plenty of people out there excited to play the game.

@Skyfall Totally true, now they are trying to back peddle and smooth it over as they have realised it won’t make them money

@Gaia093 How can an African +American be from Japan? I thought Yasuke was from Japan.

@Korgon it’s more disappointing that they won’t bring multiplayer back

They've never really said the games are historically accurate have they?

I know they put a few modes in the recent games that let you just walk around the city and give you historic facts etc

In the second game, Leonardo DaVinci makes you a flying machine that you fly about in and theres also a magic apple that the Pope uses to gain magic powers, noones playing these and thinking that actually happened are they?

@Vil Elden Ring does have ugly UI. Still cant compare my armors. It also cant run at 60fps to this day in some areas, and there is incredible amounts of pop in. I get we love Elden Ring, but it’s insanely annoying to use it as an example of perfection just because you like its gameplay, and ignore all its flaws.

Also, 1 dev complaining about Elden Ring UI is not representative of the thousands of people who work there.

@nomither6 Yasuke is not Japanese whatsoever, the historical person arrived in Japan on board of a slave ship. Oda Nobunaga made him one of his vassals and gave him the name.

But re-reading what I wrote, the "American" bit actually doesn't make sense in this context, so I'll amend that.

@Victor_Meldrew I like it in AC when you fight with Da Vinci's tank. Or when the Pope Wizard fights aliens for a magic apple.

@nessisonett Sorry - my sarcasm meter is off now, so apologies if this comment was meant to be in jest. If not, I'm sorry... that is complete and absolute hogswash... yes, you can say he's the most historically accurate protagonist... because he's literally the only historical (as compared to fictional) protagonist. AC almost exclusively (at least in modern times) has relegated the protagonist as a plausible ficticious character... who interacts with historically representative side-characters.

However... in terms of history, you can literally write his historical reference on a napkin. And I don't care for the "was he a samurai or a retainer" argument... it's more the question of why now, why him... He was (historically) in Japan a very short time; and left shortly after his patron(?) died. He has a unique perspective, but not one that I would say actually tells us a lot about "Japan"... because he spent very little time there.

The argument that Yasuke has been an often portrayed historical figure is all well and good. I think people should perhaps look towards how the Japanese portray Yasuke. He is not the famous Japanese character that people would like to imagine... he's largely unknown (until the 2000's) when it became 'popular' as a character... prior to that he was very much the hen side-character in a story from the 1970s. However, nowadays the story of Yasuke has been taken up by pop-culture to mean something else. And a lot of that is driven by American-financed entertainment (for reasons of finding historical truth, perhaps?)

So yes - he was an historical character, but he was also someone whose life momentarily crossed with Japanese history. He has no reference in Japan after Nobunaga's death, and left with the Jesuits (to whom he was a slave). For me, this is the sort of romanticisation that actually detracts from the real things that people did...over the hopes of finding a represtation of people that we want to find. Sorry - this is a bit of a soap-box thing for me... and it's unfair to expect anyone to listen or care.

Edit - and to be clear.... if you are an advocate of DEI... but you think "western-washing" history is fine becuase.... then I don't think you actually understand either diversity or inclusion. Once again - sorry for the rant. But it bugs me when people get on their soap-box about things they often don't have any idea about.

You can tell Ubisoft is full of crap. It's when their lips are moving.

@Korgon you understand - it's not whether you can play as a token Japanese protagonist... it's the fact that a half the game is from a non-Japanese perspective (and I suspect, that their characterisation of Yasuke will likely have no reflection on his actual background either).

I'm sorry, but has someone who is married to a Japanese person (and lived in Japan for years), i actually find the cultural condescension (oh... you can 'play as a Japanese' just a little on the nose at best; and patronising at worst.

But that's fine... because DEI means.. you can insert token representation at the expense of Japanese people in Japanese stories, because no one really thinks they need representation. Whereas Africans reeeeeally need more representation in Japanese historical stories.

I have not heard one serious reason why they chose Yasuke as the first historical protagonist... not one.

You know what isn't inherently diverse in the gaming industry Ubisoft? Money income since it all comes from making games people expect you to make.

Shadows just isn't that, no matter how much you try to butter up that isn't the game players were expecting nor it is the game players want to play. You either scrap that game and go back to the drawing board or you release it and watch it flop, pre-orders were way bellow expectations already.

@AzamisRightEye [edit: the original post I was replying to has since been deleted; and the ensuing drawn out debate]... the original post that was put up was here in case you're interested. I've left the replies up... even though it seemed like I was have a one way discussion. Have you actually read that post - rather than just posted it. Have you read who (and what background they have). It starts off with the OP "I have never met Thomas Lockley, nor have I read his work, and so I have no criticism to offer". The second bemoaning people complaining about the accuracy of Ubisoft games writes "On the other hand, I have not read Lockley's book, but when I learned about it, I was so surprised, because we have so few sources about Yasuke... but I don't think there's enough to write a good history book on it".
Then the third author on your thread " the key problem with African Samurai is much more simple and fundamental than whether Yasuke can properly be called a ‘samurai’ or not. The problem is that the book contains a number of sections that could reasonably be classed as historical fiction"

So before you start posting things (clearly either not reading, or expecting no-one-else to read/or know) ... perhaps stop commenting on history that you clearly ACTUALLY know nothing about.

@Oz_Who_Dat_Dare shall I continue...
"so this seems to be a case of thinking he could get away with a lot more in English than in Japanese (in the service of selling more copies, I assume?)"

And I continue "Lockley’s Yasuke: The True Story of the Legendary African Samurai was released in 2019, and I admit that as a historian of medieval Japan I gave it only a cursory look and found it to be more historical fiction-oriented than aimed at a scholarly audience. But aside from several people asking me about it, it did not make that big of an impact in scholarly circles to my knowledge""

So I read the ENTIRE blogpost (interesting that you think a random google blogpost is something important)... By and large, no one cares about Lockley or his representation of Yasuke in your linked post; but most of the post is a counter-reaction to a perceived anti-black sentiment (which I honestly don't think is the core complaint).

So I'm wondering... given that you so bravely tendered this link as some form of historical evidence... what were you wanting to say?

@AzamisRightEye As purely entertainment... we've had Ubisoft initially tout this has historically-based, then disgard that for historical fiction, and now they're back to "well diversity is a core historical fact". The annoying thing is (and I'm sure everyone is tired about this debate), is you can't say the game is historical and have your commercial cake to eat as well. Otherwise it's likely to stick in the craw.

Edit - it's meant to be a game... but as a "historical fiction" set in a very specific history of Japan, it's naive to think that people won't question... why did you choose an African co-lead... when there are literally thousands of other more historical or interesting characters. Yes - having an African samurai is "headline worthy", but it's a creative choice...and as such, people can argue why that creative choice was made.

Look - to be honest - the game may be entirely good (and I might enjoy it)... I just get annoyed with the cross-over between people saying this is pro-diversity and then saying "well it's good enough you can play as one Japanese in a Japanese-focussed game"... that's literally the same tokenism that most under-representative people struggle against.

Lies? You mana like when the you double down on Yasuke being a historical Samurai then backed out and said “Actually he really may not have been a Samurai”?

A huge problem is that it has become almost impossible to have a meaningful discourse on this game. People spewing genuine bigotry are being used as the poster children for any and all criticism, drowning out any more nuanced or thoughtful takes.
I will always be extremely skeptical of Ubisoft’s motivations because of their very public track record on anti-consumer practices together with the numerous workplace allegations they’ve amassed over the years. When this skepticism of giant corporate entities simply gets lumped, uncritically, in with “bias”, it dissuades thoughtful discussion.

@Oz_Who_Dat_Dare
I mean the likely reason they picked Yasuke is because of creative reasons. There isn't very much historical documentation on the actual person...which opens him up to be interpreted in any way they see fit because like I said, it's historical fiction. We don't know yet because no one has played the game yet. Plus this isn't the first time Yasuke has been portrayed as a samurai and yet for whatever reason AC Shadows has been bombarded with "Not historically accurate!"

And I don't know what else to tell you about Naoe being a Japanese protagonist you can play as. People just weirdly and conveniently hand-wave it off like it's not important and well, I just frankly don't get it. If you want to play as a Japanese protagonist in Japan, I mean there it is! Enjoy!

Look feel however you want about it man. I don't really care. I just want to play the game. That's all. The entire Yasuke discourse has been dragged along for so long that I mostly just try to ignore it at this point.

They're free to do whatever they want with their games, as much as we're free not to purchase it as a consumer.

Personally, I won't be touching this mess of a title after all the annoying drama surrounding it and now that they delayed it to February 2025, that decision is a lot easier with a slew of great titles coming out that month. I found both camps of people attacking and defending Yasuke are equally as aggravating and obnoxious as neither of them seems to realize that this discord is a well-crafted experience by Ubisoft's team to create more buzz on the game for free. So carry on virtue signaling for both your camps while the rest of us just sit here looking forward to Yakuza: Black Flag and Monster Hunter: Wilds. We also already have AC in Japan, it's called Ghost of Tsushima which was arguably far more superior experience than any previous AC titles. Ghost of Yotei is also coming out next year which is a death warrant signed for Shadows.

Ubisoft's demise is long overdue and I'll be the first one cheering when they announce their bankruptcy or buyout.

@Oz_Who_Dat_Dare oh he's so ignoring you now..

@Northern_munkey it''s ok...they just shouldn't post links to things they haven't read, or don't even know why they're posting it.

I honestly don't think the "Yasuke was not a samurai" is that interesting an argument, because he's such a small historical figure (in the records). I also don't appreciate people using the "arm-chair warrior" code words when they are literally just that.

To be honest, I'd have no objection to a standalone Yasuke game - and I'd think it'd make a great story line in AC (even a DLC)... Still, none of us will know until the game comes out, what story line they went down; and how well done it was. I actually hope it's a good game. I wanted to play it very much.

@Korgon and I agree... it's tiresome. Which is why - I really don't understand why UbiSoft would be (apparently) going out of their way to re-ignite a debate and flame-war that had disappeared.... by going on about the historical accuracy of diversity. They were clearly wanting to increase the noise...

I actually don't get that hung up on games - and especially historical accuracy - however, as I've some skin in the game, I do take it more personally. I was (honestly) wanting to play this game... I just don't want to be gas-lit by UbiSoft... which, let's face it... we were.

@Oz_Who_Dat_Dare
On that I definitely agree with you. Ubisoft should really just stop bringing it up. I don't know if I'd go as far as saying they gas-lit anyone but they should just stop poking the bear. What's done is done. They aren't going to change anyone's mind at this point.

I will not be buying this game.

@AzamisRightEye
Sure, that's why they haven't delayed the game, stopped the pre-orders and refunded the season pass, right?

Face it champ, the backlash was huge.
And the bar for an AC in Japan wasn't even that high, in fact it was a literal cake recipe and Ubisoft still manage to screw up somehow.

@Korgon
I mean, expectations were betrayed, you can't expect people to use reason when that happens.

And you definetly can't expect people to use reason when Ubisoft keeps fighting against the consumer instead of going full PR mode like:
"Okay, we knew what you were expecting and we know we screwed this up not only from a development standpoint but from a marketing standpoint as well. We'll try to make and deliver a new AC game in Japan that will live up to your expectations in the near future but please at least try to give this game a chance and try to give us a chance to fix this"

@CielloArc
But what expectations were betrayed? Was it the use of a historical figure like Yasuke? That doesn't make sense because AC has always played fast and loose with historical figures. This is not the first time and likely won't be the last time.

Was it that people expected to play as a Japanese character? Well...you can. Her name is Naoe. She plays like a more traditional AC protagonist. No one has to play as Yasuke outside of at most a couple missions.

And people honestly expect them to just say "Sorry this game is not what you expected so just ignore this one and we will make one exactly like what you personally want later."!? (even though that also makes no sense since no one knows if the game will live up to expectations yet. The game isn't even out yet!)

That's...insane. They have put over 4 years of development into Shadows. A lot is riding on this game being a success. No company would tell customers to ignore a project especially this big. Especially since AC is very popular with the casual market too. Plenty of folks are interested in the game that probably haven't even heard of any of the controversy. This just makes no sense!

@LowDefAl same thing I've said regarding Nioh. Not an eye was batted when the blonde-haired Irishman was a Samurai. But now, they want "historical accuracy" from a game that includes time travel and a fistfight with the Pope.

@nomither6 right?! Black people are Black people! Most of us would rather be called "Black" than "African-American". Like, I'm Jamaican. But here in the US, I'm called "African-American". And technically, I'm neither African nor American.

The way almost everything now that's helmed by a minority (racial or gender) is perceived is crazy to me! Like, imagine if Ripley from Alien would've been released in 2021 or so? They'd have torn that film apart! Much like the discourse around the latest Alien film was about the female lead besting aliens.

I'm always amazed how some of the arguments play out. Like, no one bats an eye when Nathan Drake can dispatch an entire army by himself. But the moment they release Uncharted: Lost Legacy, the conversation pops up about Chloe and Nadine being able to do the same. In reality, neither is likely a possibility. But I guess a man is more likely to be able to take out an entire army singlehandedly.

To speak on AC. Yasuke is really the only gripe people have here. Nothing about him hasn't been done in prior AC games. There've been leads "out of place" before. But, as I've stated in previous posts about this game. It's always easier to see non-Black leads out of place than the opposite. No one will complain when a Black guy is a gangster or some slick-talking wheeler & dealer. But make him a Samurai and it's questionable.

@Victor_Meldrew we all know Assassins Creed is historically accurate. What with it's time travel and loose retellings of historical events.

Problem is not where people are not willing to accept triangles or circles. Problem is they are pushing triangles and circles into square holes by hammer.

@djlard sounds painful..

@Korgon
What is the first thing that comes in your mind when I say there will be an Assassin's Creed in, let's say, China, who do you expect to be the main character? What is the setting, time period and so on? Sure as hell it ain't George Washington with a steel chair fighting a cabal of space lizards in the 24th century with Shenzhen, China as the main hub map.

People had expectations when it came to an Assassin's Creed situated in medieval Japan, the bar wasn't high and doing the bare minimum would guarantee sales, Ubisoft just chose to ignore that and the rest is history as they say.

Also Naoe is so much of a main character she is barely featured or mentioned on promotional materials.

@CielloArc
What are you talking about? She has been shown off to be a main protagonist in literally all of the promotional material. Heck she is the actual "Assassin" style character in the game! She is on the front cover and is posing in front of Yasuke!

I expected a ninja style looking character in an Assassin's Creed set in Japan and welp that's Naoe!

I feel like I'm taking crazy pills here!

Wow. Am I the only one who doesn't care about the race or gender of characters and just enjoy games based on how fun the gameplay is?

@Oz_Who_Dat_Dare Maybe they thought they could make an interesting story around it. It's not that hard to imagine.

@LikelySatan - and it's possible that they did... we'll see when it comes out.

@Oz_Who_Dat_Dare I still doubt it, lol. It's AC.

Choosing Yasuke as the protagonist for an AC game set in Japan was an odd choice in terms of player expectation. In the decade plus of fans requesting such a game, I can't say I've seen anyone ask for Yasuke (or any other non-Japanese protagonist).

Doubling down on historical accuracy as the justification when the Yasuke-samurai conjecture is disputed, and was popularised by a single western author who wrote 400+ pages based loosely on a handful of paragraphs that never stated he was a samurai, or a lord, was a terrible choice.

Characterising all opposition to said choices as racism is just willful ignorance when both "diverse" AC titles and other media featuring black samurais have, and will likely continue to succeed (on their own merits).

Studios seem to be ever increasingly incapable of accepting critiscm.