Assassins Creed Shadows and the fake outrage of the Internet

Ubisoft finally pulled curtain back on its Japan-centric long gestating title formally known as Assassin's Creed Red, now offically unvieled as Assassin's Creed Shadows. The latest entry in the long running stealth franchise seemed to finally giving us a time period and setting that fans have been clamoring for since the series started -- aniceint Japan. A May 15th showcase gave us a look at a lengthy cinematic trailer.

While no gameplay was shown, the trailer did give us how it would play out. Assassin's Creed Shadows puts you in the role of two protagnoists -- stealth focused female-ninja Naoh, and armoured Samurai Yaskue, who has a bigger focus on direct combat.

The internet reupted over the fact that Yaksue was black -- and the arguing over hisotrical accuracy began. The historical settings of the Assassin Creed games have always been a trademark of the series. Assassin's Creed Orgins and Unity featured near perfect recreations of ancient Egypt and France. However the series also has taken alot of liberties with hisotrical time periods and chracters -- placing it in the realm of historical ficiton. Characters like Ben Franklin and Leonardo DiVinci have made appearances in past entries.

The case of Yaskue is an interesting one as it would be the first time that one of these historical figures would be playable in-game. Assassin Creed Shadows takes place near the start of 1579, during which Lord Oda Nobanaga is fighting aginst a cvil war, in an effort to unify Japan. These events take place roughly 20 years after the tv series Shogun. Yaksue was said to be living in Japan around the 16th Century, working a retainer -- a samurai who was part of a emergency army of warriors. The historical records for Yaksue are hit and miss, he's more of a foklore chracter, in the vien of Johnny Appeseed and John Henry. However, its hardly the first time he has been adapted into other media. He has appeared in various video games, inccluding Nioh and Dynasty Warriors. Yaksue was also adapted into an anime series for Netflix back in 2021.

As exspected, the usual internet outrage machine generated the usual arguments for historical accuracy and forced diversity. The arguement seems to be that a game based on Japan, is supposed to have a Japanese protagonist. And that is where it seems to get tricky -- as the game feature a Japanese protagonist in the former of its other playable hero, Noah.

Gaming Twitter seemed to be doing its best to invalidate Yakuke's inclusion as a central charater. All on the basis that he didnt really exsist, despite having hisotircal evidence of the contary.

So if Historical Accuracy is an issue, then what the game's other protagonist, female Naoe? She is the daughter of Fujibyiashi Nagato, one of the most famous Ninjas in Japan's history. His Iga Ninja Clan was also responsible for passing on techniques to future genreations. His decedant, compiled the first Ninja Enclyclopedia. However, there are no records of Nagato having a daughter, so she is fictional.

So the question remains, what has the affect of this "outage" over Yakske and Naoe? Well, it seems the backlash and triggered rants didnt do anything do stop the Pre-orders. Eurogamer reports that pre-orders for the game are very strong, despite it having a November release date and a obligagtory Collectors Edition. The lesson? Twitter outrage isn't real -- and its not a measureable indicator of the interest of the general population. While UbiSoft has made some quesitonable business decisions, Aassassin's Creed has a large fanbase wil likely still buy it, many on day 1. It is real shame, as the discourse with Shadows seems so focused on the Yaskue.

A few weeks later, Gameplay was revealed at Ubisoft Forward Event. The gameplay was definately a highlight of the event, showing off a great emphasis on fluid combat and layered stealth systems that feel baked into the game's world, not an after thought like it felt in Assassin's Creed Mirage. Even though we are only a few hours out, response from the gameplay so far has been overwhelming positve.

I think this shines a light on the fomo nature our very outrage and then forget about a week later internet culture. It seems There exsits a world where games dont exsist merely on YouTUbe and the opinions on Twitter/X are not a accuarely representation of how the general public actually feels. Advertisers and game developers should take note of this -- instead of basing decisions on things that are only going to be forgotten about a week later.

Assassin's Creed Shadows is available on November 15th.