Yasuke is actually a fantastic choice as far as history/narrative goes.
A shame the game looks like more generic Assassin’s Creed Mapfucking+Crowd Supermurder.
Which is fine if that’s your thing, but I haven’t been thrilled by an AC game since… well, AC1.
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I’d argue Yasuke was kind of a poor choice. AC’s have traditionally been about stealth, blending in to crowds, and being famous person adjacent (e.g. You meet Da Vinci, but you aren’t him.). Yasuke being known for being the only black dude in Japan at the time kinda screws the pooch on all three. Of course more recent AC’s have leaned more into arpg stuff but still.
Had Yasuke been a key supporting character I think those guys still would have bitched about woke dei whatever, but it would have held a lot less sway.
I mean, you were a super flamboyant Renaissance guy with dual wrist blades murdering dozens of mooks per encounter as early as AC2, and by Brotherhood and 3 it only got more overt.
I mean, you were a super flamboyant Renaissance guy
Well you just described half of Italy there!
I have 2 kinda conflicting opinions about the whole thing
- Annoying the anti-dei crowd is always a big plus
- Is including Yasuke (who looks like a modern American in the game) racist in of itself because the publisher thought Americans will be unable to identify with a Japanese character.
The last AC game I’ve played is Brotherhood so it might all perfectly fit into the current AC universe idk.
Yeah, I have the exact conflict about it.
I hate the pandering too but when I hear a breakdown from it and I hear “woke” and “DEI” and it makes me want to strangle that YT personality.
Can I interest you in a calm and respectful disembowelment of Ubisoft?
(edit) The video is nine minutes long.
YouSomeone downvoted me two minutes after I posted the link. You really only care about pushing the message, don’t you?oh I thought you said I specifically downvoted you and I was so confused.
It blows my mind that they had diversity consultants? Japan is like a huge part of the gaming industry the fact they really messed things up so bad is confusing. I figured they’d have a huge Japan division which would have been able to be like: “you know that’s wrong, right?” I like how he said the issue wasn’t diversity and that it was incompetency.
The end message is really important, I really needed to hear it.
I don’t know who the downvote came from, it just appeared suspiciously quickly. Apparently some people are trawling this thread for dissenting ideas that do not conform to the herd’s opinion.
I’m sure Ubisoft had some sort of consultants about cultural and historical matters, but their involvement in production of the game and marketing is dubious at best. It still fucks me up that anyone thought it was okay to use a destroyed cultural/religious object as marketing material, even without knowing its connection to the Allied bombings. I maintain my position that Ubisoft is exploiting these ideas callously and arrogantly and should not be given the benefit of doubt.
AC hasn’t been about stealth since they stupidly killed off Desmond.
That makes me wonder if the gameplay is more segmented, so Yasuke gets the upfront battles that became popular in AC Oranges, while the other lady gets the covert social stealth.
They showed some gameplay that had one character collect information, and then you get a checkpoint of sorts before the actual mission where you choose which character to use. Yasuke can bust up the front door and whack everyone, or Naoe can climb the walls and crawl underwater. It’s suggested that this is most of the game, but it’s safe to presume there will be some missions here and there that require a specific character.
AC Oranges
Was that the one set in Florida?
Palm trees, sand, crocodiles… Maybe?
Odyssey and Valhalla were both more on the RPG side, Mirage went somewhat back to form, though not fully. Could be they split between the two types, but based on Valhalla and Odyssey it’s more likely to me that Yasuke and Naoe’s gameplay loops aren’t super different, maybe some techniques (e.g. he throws a knife that does x damage, she throws a kunai that does x-5 damage + poison, or something like that.) and a couple story elements relevant to them.
I dont understand why ubisoft won’t just go back to the style of game AC 1-3 was. Or even just stop doing AC altogether and do a whole spinoff series like black flag.
They keep trying to reinvent things, and all anyone wants is the same old assassins creed but in a new locale.
The answer is simple even if it isn’t a good answer. With so much money involved in the development of AAA games now, a committee has to agree on what ventures are “safe”. These games won’t commit to new ideas or challenge players with a particular expected flow. They’ll basically let you do everything and play however you want.
I have wanted to parody that if I ever find myself running an E3 demo. “This game lets you play however you’d like. You can sneak in, with nobody ever seeing you, or you can run in guns blazing - and die instantly.”
Isn’t your last sentence a perfect description of Shadows? People are saying you can choose the big smashy guy or the small sneaky lady on each mission I think.
There is a second playable character that does all the stealth, an actual ninja. It looks like most of the missions will allow you to choose which character you’ll play. So no, Yasuke is still a great choice - for those who don’t want to play that way.
Honestly the first time I’ve thought about buying a game just because all the racists and misogynists hate it lmao
This is actually the first time I find myself interested in this series in a long time. Sengoku period Japan feels like a great setting for an Assassin’s Creed game and the fact that bigots hate it is just the cherry on top.
As much as these AC RPGs get hate, I found Odyssey awesome. If they don’t go too hard into the “grind before continuing main story” thing, Shadows could be pretty good too.
Ubisoft’s management won’t let them make a good game. imagine getting up tight about the color of the cast and not the mountains of copy paste garbage quests, microtransactions and time padding rpg mechanics.
It’s insane that of all the things they could complain about with AAA slop, that they pick representation at their breaking out. Not day one, game breaking bugs. Not Microtransaction. Not gambling/gatcha/loot boxes. Not shitty working conditions. Not workplace harassment.
Promoting the culture war is easier than actually talking about the real problems plaguing the games industry, it seems.
Ubisoft is that one guy what said something funny once and made that joke their whole personality.
but if we don’t make the game a chore to play how are we going to sell xp boosts?
imagine making deliberately shitty games so you can put monetary value to playing the game less.
People keep saying stuff like this but I keep playing fun Ubisoft games.
It’s like how people say evening EA makes is trash yet i just finished that fantastic dead space remake
I read the first tweet and was like yea it’s not fare the dude is in full body armor and the woman is not. Totally wooshed that this person was mad about their choice of both characters until I looked over the post a second time.
As someone who has been an avid gamer since the 90’s; I see a choice between a tank or a rogue… What’s the problem?
Also, I think the story of a black samurai is interesting and cool. Even if, like most history of that nature, it might be heavily embellished. “Conservatives”, can y’all, for the live of glob, stop politicized fukting everything. Geez.
Yasuke is based on a real life, Black samurai, who unfortunately, did not have too much written in detail about him. This does mean that almost any depiction is going to be embellished or at the very least, unverifiable.
I do hate the Netflix show about him though. When it was announced, I was hoping for a grounded samurai story. Something in the vein of Sword of the Stranger. Not something with magic and giant robots.
I’m willing to bet it’s a bad game. A little controversy to fool idiot’s into buying it without thinking usually works. It serves double duty as it keeps those who really want the best games out of the discussion.
Ubisoft has done it a few times.
Really ramp up the controversy through the marketing, and then release the most non-offensive milquetoast game ever.
Imagine the reality where they actually commit to it like Rockstar, and Far Cry 4-6 aren’t just generic open worlds with simple window dressing.
Ubisoft has pushed the game back multiple times.
Ubisoft.
Ubisoft.
Look at all the shit they’ve sold. They wouldn’t have minded selling you dogshit in a bag - hell, they would have added MTX if you want them to set it on fire.
And this game is still too shit for them.
Outrage Marketing
Yeah Ubi💩 knows that a certain slice of the gaming population will defend this game to its grave no matter how shit it is. Simply because the right hates it so much for the diversity. Also saw it with that last Star Wars game.
Asscreed: Mirage just … disappeared?
I haven’t heard anything about it since it was released, was it that boring?
Mirage was self contained, sold well, and was well liked by most. Shadows has a millioj controversies and the gameplay loop looks bad. Controcersy gets clicks so Mirage was ignored for more Shadows spam.
There’s also the whole “Ubi refused to allow it on Steam because they didn’t want Valve to eat their cake” side of things. Ubi believed that Mirage would have enough market pull for them to only release it on their internal Ubi store. It also has Denuvo, which many PC players despise. So nobody on PC bothered to play it, and it was only noteworthy for console players. Mirage only recently released on Steam, (I think around Halloween of last year?) but by that point any marketing that was done for it is old news and players have moved on. Ubi seems to have learned their lesson, because Shadows is releasing on Steam at the same time as the rest of the platforms.
It was a stand alone expansion for Valhalla and didn’t get as much marketing as Shadows. Beyond that, I don’t know.
“Originally envisioned as an expansion for Valhalla, the game was reworked into a standalone title to expand its scope.”
It really disappeared from the public consciousness 😀
I don’t even know this game but aren’t you choosing between a heavily armored warrior and a peasant?
The conservative idiots are really going to make me hate buy this game aren’t they?
Did they actually release new gameplay footage? The delays and Ubisoft trying to sell had me worried.
I’m more thinking that the black dude would look so “pretend” doing all of the acrobatics that AC is known for. Why is he 300 pounds?
He’s wearing at least 30kg of armor and weapons,
Sonic is a Hedgehog in sneakers
And goku could destroy a universe with less effort than you put into a sneeze.
I expect certain amounts of realism within certain fantasies, and AC has generally been a bit grounded in realism with the protagonists strengths and abilities being kind of close to humanly possible. AC is like a history lesson with a free runner who can fight. This guy here gonna jump to a rooftop and fall through.
Yasuke is dope AF. Who is Nade?
But seriously, the story of Yasuke is badass. Unfortunately there just wasn’t written about him.
Too bad it can’t be their holocaust.
I’ve come to realize I don’t enjoy games that I can’t rp as the character. I just can’t get invested in a story where my character doesn’t look like me. Perfect example is Horizon zero dawn. I loved that game so much. Mechanics and gameplay were great. Visually stunning. And yet I had no problem dropping it for something else. I didn’t even finish it.
It’s not hard to comprehend that as a Hispanic man, I would want to play games with characters that look like me. A simple character creation screen is not hard to make for every game. Let anyone play as any character they want.
Yeah I understand. Still the reason I can’t play Sonic to this day. I’m a yellow hedgehog. Immersion is ruined, everytime.
I know you’re trying to be cute but you gave a terrible example. Sonic is a male character so it works. You can make outlandish comparisons all you want but the majority of Americans feel the same and it’s not going to change my personal opinions on my game choices.
lol it’s very normal behavior to have an easier time identifying with a cartoon hedgehog than a black man.
Fucking weirdo
So you can relate to a blue male hedgehog more than a black man?
So Sonic looks more like you than Aloy?
I actually hate sonic. HZD is an infinitely superior game.
Cool job sidestepping the question.
the majority of Americans feel the same
I don’t believe you. You got a source for that?
Anyway, so you’re saying that gender is a bigger gap for you to cross than species? You, a human, are better able to roleplay as a fucking bipedal hedgehog than a human woman? Maybe you should take a step back and try to figure out why that is.
That’s a you problem.
Personally, I don’t want to play a game with a character creator because it means the story can’t reference the character in any meaningful way.
It’s not a problem for me at all actually. Plenty of games that fit my needs. Just as there’re plenty of games that don’t. For people that are suppose to be open minded some of the people here are extremely close minded.
An inability to empathize is not an artistic preference, it’s a medical condition.
So we’re shaming people with medical conditions now? That’s pretty ableist of you.
yeah besides the visual appearance you’re pretty much a samurai
It’s not hard to comprehend that as a Hispanic man, I would want to play games with characters that look like me.
Tbh, even if I live character customization I don’t think it’s easy and affordable at all for a small dev. You have to make sure all aspects of the game adapt to the choice (models, textures, items, SE, writing and so on). Actually, I suppose it can significantly increase the cost of the project.
Yasuke is a questionable choice for a protagonist. It breaks with the pattern of inserting a fictional character into the world, you’ll never convince me that his race was not a calculated factor in choosing him, and his status as a samurai (and portrayal in western media) is largely based on a single historian’s work with questionable credibility. Ubisoft has used the Oda family crest without permission (the family still exists today),
used imagery of the Buddha without permission (retracted, may have been the Budai), used a destroyed torii gate as advertising material; and for how much they bleat about historical accuracy, their trailers are chock full of inaccuracies.I do not believe that a character is enhanced or ruined based on their race, but Ubisoft is definitely exploiting it.
Buddha is not copyrighted / trademarked 🤣
I’m not touching the rest of your comment but the Buddhism thing really shows you don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about. You don’t need “permission” to use imagery of the Buddha, that’s not how it works.
Who do you think can even “give permission” to use imagery of the Buddha anyway, the Siddhartha family? The Dalai Lama? Does he need to phone up the leaders of the other schools for consensus?
The rest of the comment is also barely touching on the subjects. Yasuke was not a samurai, more than likely just a retainer that Oda kept as a sort of trophy or show of wealth. The main issue Japanese people have is the portrayal of Samurai themselves, saying the way Yasuke fights is not right. They also gave Yasuke the family seal, which is a major legal issue even today since the design is copyrighted. The Buddha issue is not the yse itself, but the fact Ubisoft used Chinese depictions of Buddha and not Japanese depictions. They also showed the destroyed torri gate in artwork, based on the Nagasaki gate destroyed by the atom bomb and is also a protected piece. They also showed supposedly Japanese farmworkers in Thai and Myanmar clothing, and others in clothing not seen until the 17th century.
Still can’t believe they put Socrates in AC Odyssey just because he was a popular figure from history. They didn’t even portray him realistically in their video game about solo killing hundreds of enemies.
/s
Oh, right, so all criticisms are invalid because its a game. Just a shitty lowly game, that shitty lowly gamers play. Can’t stand those losers, taking all their childish bullshit seriously. Caring is for pussies.
