Assassin’s Creed Shadows Downplaying Yaskuke?

Video Games

Were the Assassin’s Creed Shadows delays about cutting as much of Yasuke out as Ubisoft possibly could? That’s what a source told That Park Place, which says that the release date for the game was pushed back – twice – so that Ubisoft could minimize Yasuke’s importance to the game’s story. This involved things like cutting entire sidequests and even missions central to the game that could only be completed by Yasuke, changing dialogue in cut scenes to give co-hero Naoe more prominence, and putting some extra work into Naoe’s movements and abilities in the game, particularly her parkour. This seems to complement a recent interview with GamesRadar in which Simon Lemay-Comtois, Assassin’s Creed Shadows’ associate games director, clarified that Yasuke is not an assassin and doesn’t have any of the special moves associated with the main characters in other Assassin’s Creed games, like stealth. GamesRadar lists some other Assassin’s Creed characters who were not assassins but notes that they were not prominent characters, which would gel with That Park Place’s story that Yasuke is being sidelined as much as possible in favor of Naoe. Then, there’s the recent marketing for Assassin’s Creed Shadows, like the newest trailer:

Yasuke is in the trailer, but he’s mostly featured in the middle, with Naoe being the focus of the beginning and the end; Yasuke is presented more as a supporting character to Naoe, unlike the earlier trailers that showcased Yasuke much more than Naoe. It’s possible that this is just a give-and-take for the trailers: one was more about Yasuke, the other more about Naoe. But taken in tandem with not only That Park Place’s report, the GamesRadar interview, and that poster from a couple of weeks ago that pushed Yasuke into the background in favor of Naoe and some other characters, including heretofore unmentioned children. The sidequests and missions cut from the game are said to have been heavily influenced by historian Thomas Lockley, who was accused by other scholars, many of them Japanese, of distorting Yasuke’s historical significance by claiming he was a samurai instead of a vassal. (That makes you wonder what Yasuke is doing in whatever missions are still there. Is he, like, delivering swords?) Amusingly, there are still more historical inaccuracies being discovered in Assassin’s Creed Shadows, like the presence of cherry blossoms in the wrong season and watermelons before they arrived in Japan.

Watermelons and cherry blossoms. https://t.co/96ObwefqLc pic.twitter.com/WmN253VEfW

— Bunburyōdō (文武両道)拳 (@bunburyoudoujp) January 27, 2025

What’s funny is that I don’t think anyone would care about details like watermelons and cherry blossoms if the bigger issues like Yasuke weren’t prevalent (or if Ubisoft didn’t pat themselves on the back for hiring historians as consultants to make sure they got these details right). For some reason, Ubisoft decided their first Assassin’s Creed game set in Japan would focus on someone who wasn’t Japanese, and they didn’t foresee anyone being annoyed by that. They didn’t think Japanese gamers might be just a little insulted by what appeared to be a hijacking of their heritage to score some woke points. They needed an extra five months and what That Park Place says is $20 million to undo their mistake as much as they could, which probably still won’t be enough. It’s the same thing I’ve been saying about Captain America: Brave New World – trying to smooth over the blunder is only going to make you lose more money. At a certain point, you just have to power through, hope for the best, and likely chalk it up and learn for the next one. Unfortunately, Ubisoft is in a bad place financially, and they may not be able to afford to chalk up Assassin’s Creed Shadows… not that they can probably afford costly revamps that won’t help their sales, either.

Let us know what you think of Assassin’s Creed Shadows minimizing Yasuke in the comments!

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