Assassin’s Creed Shadows: The Controversy
The best-selling video game franchise, having sold more than 230 million games worldwide, is back with Assassin’s Creed Shadows. This is the fourteenth major Assassin’s Creed game and the setting is in Japan!
Assassin’s Creed Shadows (2025)
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As I have previously mentioned, I have loved the recent AC games (don’t love the early games), starting with 2017’s Assassin’s Creed Origins (Greek), followed by Assassin’s Creed Odyssey (Egypt), and Assassin’s Creed Valhalla (Vikings)… but I felt the last game, Assassin’s Creed Mirage, was not very good.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows has a big controversy with one of the lead protagonists being a black Samurai named Yasuke. I love Japan and from my understanding, normal people can’t become a Samurai. It’s a class system; you basically have to be born in that class. You don’t see a farmer joining a rich family as a warrior. It doesn’t happen and it’s not acceptable.
I know Wikipedia tells me that there is one black Samurai named Yasuke (I believe he was more of a servant, rather than a noble Samurai). I’ve also read about King, a former black slave in Japan, but they are fictional stories. Still, my point is that it’s almost nonexistent to see a black Samurai or a woman Samurai, it’s just not possible.
With that said, I think it was a major mistake that Ubisoft decides that you have to play Yasuke. Imagine if you were forced to play a Japanese Viking from the Valhalla game, I would be pretty upset too.
Still, at the end of the day, most people will just argue that it’s just a game and that we shouldn’t take things so seriously. All this negative feedback on the game, I probably won’t be picking up the game until there’s a big discount. I made a mistake with my purchase of Mirage, so maybe I’ll just sit this one out – unless I see glowing reviews.
If you’re itching to play Shadows, but don’t want to spend $70, you can join Ubisoft+ Premium for $18 a month and play Shadows day one.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows
Soundtrack by the Flight |
Shadows is out today (March 20) on macOS, PlayStation 5, Windows, and Xbox Series X/S.
In related news, I’ve loved all the Assassin’s Creed Game Soundtrack, and you can currently stream the Assassin’s Creed Shadows Original Game Soundtrack at ubisoftmusic.ffm. If you have Amazon Prime, you can listen to it for free or pay $16.49 to buy the MP3s. What’s cool about buying it on Amazon is that it acts like a ‘locker’, so you can stream your library using various Amazon devices.
The soundtrack was composed by music duo The Flight (Joe Henson and Alexis Smith). The duo previously worked on my favorite Assassin’s Creed Odyssey.
Yours,
vu@weheartmusic.com
Also looking back on your other posts, It seems like you just want to complain.
I really don’t think it’s that big of a deal. I mean, why can’t we just enjoy all the other awesome and engaging mechanics. I understand that it may bug some people, but at the end of the day it’s a fun open world experience where you can explore and enjoy features other games don’t have to offer.
Yeah, literal hours of unskippable flashback cutscenes and an entire game of dialogue that has everyone speaking in “Japanese”-coded English, but it’s the one black character that’s the problem.
Actually, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, a retainer of Nobunaga, who became the de facto leader of Japan after Nobunaga’s death, was a samurai of peasant origin. He rose the ranks from foot soldier up to trusted retainer.