Assassin’s Creed Shadows personnel reveals the real reason why it took so long for Ubisoft to finally make a game on feudal Japan.

Assassin’s Creed Shadows, the next installment in Ubisoft’s enormous Assassin’s Creed franchise, transports players to the war-torn world of feudal Japan during the Warring States era. In order to bring justice to those whose lives have been impacted by ongoing conflict and war, players take control of two main characters: the samurai Yasuke, and the shinobi Naoe.

Assassin’s Creed Shadows is going to be released on February 14, 2024. | Credit: Ubisoft.

Players can switch between two characters with very different gameplay styles, explore a large open world, and defeat strong enemies with a variety of traditional Japanese weapons in Assassin’s Creed Shadows. However, Ubisoft took a pretty long time to surface a game based on feudal Japan.

Ubisoft took too long in making Assassin’s Creed Shadows, a game based on feudal Japan

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In an interview with Gamerant, Assassin’s Creed associate game director Simon Lemay-Comtois and associate narrative director Brooke Davies spoke about the development of the game. They revealed that Ubisoft had been wanting to make a game set in feudal Japan for a long time. But what took them so long to finally surface a full-fledged Assassin’s Creed title based on the specific setting? This is what Lemay-Comtois stated:

I can’t tell you why it never happened, but one thing I can say is that, ultimately, I’m glad we waited for the current gen that we have. Now, we’re really able to push it and show all of the seasons and all the stuff that makes it so special as well

Actually making a game based on feudal Japan is not an easy task at all. And Ubisoft is clearly realizing that after they announced the game for the first time. After the reveal of the two protagonists of the game, Ubisoft faced a huge backlash due to improper depiction of the Japanese culture. However, the long-hailed franchise has always been spot on with its historical depictions. Shadows featured Yasuke, one of the two protagonists of the game, along with Naoe, who is actually a Black samurai of African ethnicity.

Fans demanded an original samurai from Japan itself, and this is where all the criticisms stirred. Many have even questioned the background of Yasuke and the credibility of his story, which the company claimed to be a real historical figure. Naoe is there, who is a Japanese shinobi, but as she isn’t a male character, the deliberate effort to imply DEI from Ubisoft didn’t spare Yasuke from the heat of the controversy.

Will Ubisoft get rid of Yasuke to save the game?

There’s no way Yasuke can be cut off. | Credit: Ubisoft.

There will be some pressure on Ubisoft to keep Yasuke’s involvement to a minimum in order to appease the most ardent game critics and satisfy these bloodthirsty crowds. These seem to be the most vocal critics, and some people believe that everything will go smoothly if they can just be persuaded to agree.

However, that is not possible. These individuals cannot be reasoned out of their opinions because they have not been persuaded to hold them and are not speaking the truth. Examining why no one else seems to be interested in Shadows other than those yelling for its head on a pike would be a much better course of action. It might attract supporters of your cause, but it won’t keep the mob away from your door.

The anti-woke cabal is currently making all of the noise. Relatively speaking, they are few in number, but they are the only ones who are interested in Shadows enough to create any kind of noise.

Although it is impossible to remove Yasuke, attempting to reach an agreement with these individuals will only give them more confidence and not stop their songs. Their songs will be just as loud when Shadows launches in February, so Ubisoft needs to use this delay to get people to join its cause and block out the noise.