In Japan, a Change.org petition has surfaced to ban Assassin’s Creed Shadows. It has now been a fair few weeks since Ubisoft lifted the lid on this year’s Assassin’s Creed title, announcing a dual protagonist adventure set in Feudal Japan – a setting that fans have been desperate to experience for many years.
However, Japanese fans of the franchise were quick to voice their disappointment and concern about the game, with the most extreme claims suggesting that Ubisoft is floating racism and severe historical inaccuracy in Shadows, which is set to be released in November.
Take Down Shadows
In Assassin’s Creed Shadows, users can assume control of Naoe, a shinobi, or Yasuke, a samurai and the series’ first protagonist to be based on a real historical figure. One of the main concerns is that Yasuke is being portrayed as a full-blown, respected samurai warrior in AC Shadows, and that is where the historical inaccuracies reportedly begin.
The recent Change.org petition that has surfaced in Japan has gathered almsot 30,000 signatures. Here’s the gist of the petition:
Recently, the lack of historical accuracy and cultural respect has been a serious issue regarding the upcoming game “Assassin’s Creed Shadows” by game developer Ubisoft. The game is based on Japanese samurai and ignores the fact that samurai were a higher class of warrior class and should have been “gokenin” or servants of nobles. In fact, the first European to receive the title of samurai, William Adams (Miura Anjin), served Tokugawa Ieyasu as a 250 koku hatamoto. In this history, Ubisoft continues to misunderstand the nature and role of samurai. This is a serious insult to Japanese culture and history, and may also be linked to Asian racism. We call on Ubisoft to immediately cancel the release of “Assassin’s Creed Shadows” and show sincere research and respect for Japanese history and culture. We need your signature. Sign this petition to let Ubisoft know the importance of cultural respect and historical accuracy.
The Assassin’s Creed Shadows trailer (especially the one aired in Japanese) picked up a pretty awful likes-to-dislikes ratio. Players in other regions had some issues with the game’s flow and overall appearance, with many ruing the fact that it’s moving back to the massive open-world RPG model that was first introduced in 2017. That subsequently pushed many long-time fans out of the franchise, and it’s one of the reasons why AC Mirage did so well in 2023 – it was a small-form return to glory for the franchise.
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might as well cancel and delete every piece of historically influenced fiction that has ever been published in any form.. any book. any movie. any TV show. any video game.. might as well cancel imagination and cancel entertainment as we know it.. might as well only ever consume stories if they are 100% true and accurate no matter what..
yup..
that makes sense..
That’s the dumbest take I’ve ever heard. The complaint is that it’s SO far removed from actual historical events and traditions that their culture is taking a hit by being grossly misrepresented. It’s one thing to take some creative liberties on what MAY have happened such as a how a battle might have taken place, how a historical figure may have met their demise, or how a historical figure may have moved on after a major event like Shogun’s take on the story of William Adams but outright forcing narratives that directly contradict their cultural norms and traditions especially in the time period the game uses as it’s setting is insanity.
By your logic, if they remade AC2 and decided that Leonardo Da Vinci was no longer an intellectual he actually was but now he’s some pimp rollin around Venice with his stable hoes or if they made a game where Hitler was in fact the messiah for the Jewish people who set out to free them from the tyranny of the allied forces it would be a great game cause…IMAGINATION
Perfection, that unfortunately is likely wasted on your intended “audience”. Great explanation of the true issue at hand, instead of letting the “anti woke mob” cry “cancel culture run amok”, while their figurehead, Chump, is the worst offender
The entirety of the ac franchise for historical accuracy isn’t about the main character it’s about the events surrounding them. Like with ac odyssey, the main character Cassandra or Alexios if you chose either or isn’t what the game is historically about, it’s about the events of the Civil War of Greece. Either way. ALL the main characters of the AC franchise are fake the aren’t real, never were. As for AC shadows it’s not about the Shinobu or the foreign looking samurai, but what is the events surrounding them, what part of feudal Japan/year is this game in. That is point of the being historically accurate
I think you are missing the point and overreacting just to be a jerk about it. They aren’t saying every tv show, movie, book, etc… needs to be historically accurate…..the AC franchise is known for their historical accuracy and they are promoting this game as such. It obviously isn’t and could be construed as disrespectful to that culture.
Read the article, do some independent research, and think before you post because you come off like a 5 year old with no clue of what is going on!
AC has never been about historical accuracy. Literally says in the first few seconds of the game. Loosely based on historical events.the game is based in an alternate reality. Tf are these dorks talking about
No sense talking to these clowns. Science has already proven long ago that most Liberals brains light up the emotion centers and not the logic centers when faced with information that conflicts with their own personal beliefs. Basically it’s like talking to a childish wall. Waste of time ⏲️
I’d be 100% fine with canceling all of that. It’s all trash now anyway.
They didn’t cry about historical accuracy when Nioh came out featuring a Caucasian guy as a Samurai fighting ghosts or Shogun or the First or is it Last Samurai featuring Tom Cruise a non-japanese as a Samurai I wonder why this type of fiction and historical inaccuracy is acceptable. Text book hypocrisy and double standards.
I personally have signed this request and I invite other member of the site to sign this request. I’m from Persia and I simply ask from you dear westerner to stop insulting to other countries with stuff like 300 the movie and assassin’s Creed shadows.
It’s just a game who cares bro, only history teachers.. maybe a few anti racists, but seriously what’s the hurt
Clearly the people that are saying they care are the ones that care — the people who signed the petition, and the people commenting. If you think they are overreacting, or that it’s not something worth caring about, or you think their opinion is stupid, or you don’t understand why they care — just say that. But “who cares” is just redundant lol
I just hate Ubisoft it’s a bad company now that produces trash and want them bankrupt same with Nintendo so let’s cancel this game wooo hoo and if they wanted to make an assassin game in Japan they need to use ninjas not samurai duh ?
No. The vast majority of actual Japanese people don’t care and they are works of fiction. Nothing will come of this petition. Stop trying.
Says the non Japanese, privileged white guy….
Is that really all you can think of to counter his weak ass argument? Why bring privilege into it? Do you know where he is from? If he lives in a White country then shouldn’t he have privilege? Would he still have it if he lived in Uganda?
The majority of Japanese people don’t care because they don’t know about it to begin with lol. It’s not like they surveyed all of Japan and most of them said they didn’t care. You just made that up lol.
Also I’m pretty sure most people know that these petitions don’t yield tangible results. That’s not really the purpose. It’s more symbolic — a way for people to consolidate and amplify their grievances, and/or show solidarity. Usually with the hopes of generating some type of media buzz — which can clearly work. Sometimes it can be more valuable than you might think.
30,000 signatures is a lot. So, no to your no.
It has nothin to do whith insulting yuske was a real man that existed in japen at that time and they do Persians really good play oddessey one of the best ac characters is Darius the first assassin hes a Persian that that assassinated xerxes the third ( may be wrong on the third may be the second not sure haven’t played in years) and it’s pretty historicly accurate whith the actual assassination of xerxes they aint hating on any culture if anything they make yall look more badass then you are (not talking shit just really don’t hear much of Persia these days which is good thing means no bad shit happening to yall that ik of and if there is im sorry) in public media so I don’t really see the issue and I’m half black I could give a fuck less if yasuke was real or not but he WAS just never the title of Samurai he was nagos retainer which actaully is higher rank then Samurai cause of retainers close knowledge of what happens in there lieges lives
Hold on. . . The Knights Templar are fair game for horendous historical misrepresentation verging on slander, but ancient Japan is off the menu?!
Valid point
Ubisoft became weak after on giving his blood to Sweetbaby , I will never give money for that crap , they didn’t see Sweetbaby is a pact to loose money, the game could be free to play still they have to pay me to play please Ubisoft change your name by Ubisucks
Lmao in what world would this game have been free to play??? No AC title has EVER been free to play
He’s saying he wouldn’t play the game even if it were free, nor even if they paid him.
I don’t blame you for being confused, but try to chill.
Groups in Japan could take legal action if they see fit that would be the best course of action. Even the government could for misrepresentation of the country’s heritage and legacy. They should just organize the representation groups to file lawsuits against Ubisoft and bring up the already toxic work environments that haven’t improved.
But they cool with Godzilla movies? ?
yasuke has appeared in other japanese media though, why would they sue? he inspired afro samurai, got a manga and anime based off him animated by MAPPA, and also was in nioh which didn’t garner the same controversy. he was also a character in many japanese paintings and novels for centuries. why do people have a problem now?
Literally not one thing is going to come of this, the vast majority of Japanese don’t care about a piece of historical fiction taking a few liberties, especially when it’s par for the course for the series as a whole.
Maybe next time finish the other games you had announced instead of making this! Splinter Cell remake, Prince Of Persia remake, and of course Beyond Good & Evil 2!
The Prince of Persia remake has been up for months now
So, almost 30,000 – guess most Japanese don’t really care. Considering how much history they butcher, makes sense…
I think you’re confused with the far right in America sir. Although all cultures are guilty of white washing their history to an extent, some are much more egregious. What exactly to you refer to? Full disclosure, History Professor by trade.
I don’t see why anyone cares what fictional story a video game has, it has nothing to do with anyone. It’s fiction! Every book author, movie maker, game dev, etc better watch out, cause they are coming to cancel your hardwork.
Can’t cancel imagination just because it offends you.
This is dumb.
You know what doesn’t stop a company from creating a product? Petitions. You know what DOES? Not buying the game. If you don’t like the game, don’t buy it. Stop trying to tell people how to consume their WORKS OF FICTION!
Valid points, but fails to see their justified reasoning for protesting in the first place. Guarantee that if it represented your heritage in a less than ideal way, you would be crying out “cancel this shit” as well…Oh right, there’s good people on both sides of Fascism/Hate speech though
The creator of the patition states that William Adam’s was the first European Samurai in 1600 and the game takes place in 1580. As far as I’m seeing the time period is only off by 20 years of you want to start making sci fi off of these events. Perhaps at the beginning of the game Yasuke is only learning to become a Samurai and becomes one after 20 years, but all of that seems a bit unimportant because it really seems like Yasuke was BORN in Japan with his name making his heritage from Africa but being raised as a Japanese would change things. These seems like a generally good time frame to be doing this with a slight twist.
Oh no 30k signatures, they should cancel it, its not like they have 20 million people who played valhalla ???
Hahahaha bruh…what?!
He’s not wrong I mean he is on the number tho not 20 but 12 to 15 million copies sold so ya know rounding up 20 mil…..dayum it’s my favorite ac game but i still didn’t even expect anything close to 12 mil no less 12 TO 15
It’s not even a actual issue in Japan which makes it funny, ontop of alot of people that “signed” it aren’t actually japanese. Let alone its as accurate as any AC game. People are Racist and Weird.
You all realize it’s a game
I get hating the game for being Ubislop but let’s be honest. No body has been this vocal about any other Ubislop
People are just racist and some people are even masquerading as Japanese people on Twitter just to be racist. Hell even one of the comments is bitching about a company that is only involved in like an ant sized portion of every project. Sweet baby also helped Spider-Man, god of war, Alan fucking Wake. This is because they are merely the butter on a pancake. They’re not the baker, they don’t make the flower, they just add the goddamn butter
Good for Japan. Depending on the issue…many companies will bend the knee if even one person cries. But then again…it seems okay to hate on cultures previously seen as “white adjacent”.
Yasuke was a real African man who came over there’s documentented history of him in Japan they still talk about him even have a statue for him he was given the name yasuke by his master cause he never became a samurai he was a retainer of nago and in that gave him more sway then a samurai cause a lords retainer is privy to most of there lives so they have a higher rank than samurai in there culture he was given armour and a katana cause of his fighting prowess and nago let him fight whith his samurai cause he knew he could handle his own when most retainers are high class men who never seen battle really and here’s even a link for you cause theres even paintings of yasuke in japan hundreds of years ago if hes made up from todays fiction why do they still respect and have him on display in there country https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/who-was-yasuke-japans-first-black-samurai-180981416/&ved=2ahUKEwjrjNP-yKWHAxUZtokEHb0UBmcQFnoECCMQAQ&usg=AOvVaw14kSVeGPOcEbdBVSsbNy7h he was a real man
Hopefully ubisoft ignores this and doesn’t actually gets cancelled. I’ll buy it.
“Japanese” petition signed by 30,000 white guys in rural America who are mad at anything involving a black person. The templar’s, predecessors, magical super apple, Egyptian and Norse gods, all of them historically accurate enough. AC “fans” draw the line at a black man in Japan, a black man based on a real person who no-one disputes existed, and the only dispute the racists can come up with is what his real status in Japan was.
Exactly man just like they tried to do to bayek
What a bunch of entitle clownfish – if you don’t like the game, just don’t buy it – who do you think you are dictating what people should be able to play and enjoy?
I feel sorry about whoever thinks this is a serious insult to Japanese History and Culture. Sure, maybe it’s an insult, but by no means a serious one.
What about that “Fate” garbage from Japan where male historical figures get turned into women? Kind of disrespectful and inaccurate.
Yeah this still is an extreme minority, and they’re not gonna accomplish anything. AC has flouted history several times already, if they want this then they have to request delisting for all other AC games.
It’s a damn game. Grow up people. If you have to learn history from video games than you are a sad basement dweller.
Yall are completely brain broken. Its pretty fuckin cool.
30k lmao, these people should never ever play assassin creed games in their lives then, you’d have to go back to Altair to relies even that game is based on myths, none of it is true. The fact there are people in the gaming community crying like babies about a black man being a samurai/assassin makes me laugh at these weird 30k people that signed that useless petition. I have been playing Ubisoft games since PS2 era and assassin’s creed games pretty much most of my life (teen to adulthood) I never take their products seriously. I enjoy them and move on.
These people (30k) need to grow up and move on!
I signed to cancel this agenda…it’s like a TLoU2 with a sword, the objective is to please a certain class, the so-called minorities and that is ridiculous. Interestingly, in Brazil they are asking a Japanese company to cancel an anime because it has characters that are Brazilian with blonde hair and green eyes, the victims say that there cannot be Brazilians with blonde hair and light skin….