Ubisoft officially showed the reveal trailer for Assassin’s Creed Shadows, also revealing the first details on the next main game in the series, but a few hours were enough to spark controversy among players. The one targeted is the male protagonist, Yasuke .
The fact that the main character is a black samurai made several users turn up their noses, who went wild with negative comments in the comments under Ubisoft’s announcement post on Twitter/X . For example, there are those who claim that the French company was ” disrespectful ” and ” racist ” towards Japanese culture by not including a samurai originally from Japan as the protagonist, while there is no shortage of accusations of woke propaganda and DEI ( Diversity, Equity and Inclusion ) for centering the game on a black man and a woman, the shinobi and female protagonist Naoe . As a result , many are already mobilizing to boycott the new Assassin’s Creed by not purchasing it when it releases on November 15th on PC , PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series
The character of Yasuke in Assassin’s Creed Shadows is based on a real-life figure of the same name, whose original name was Yusufe . Of probable Macua origin (Portuguese East African population), Yasuke arrived in Japan in 1579 as a servant of the Jesuit Alessandro Valignano , immediately attracting the attention of Oda Nobunaga , who at the time had control of a large part of Japanese territory. Impressed by his fighting skills, Nobunaga gave him a katana and raised him to the rank of samurai, the first black in Japanese history. Despite documents and testimonies that have confirmed his existence, several people dispute this historical reconstruction by claiming that Yasuke was not a real samurai but only a servant of Nobunaga.
The figure of Yasuke was taken as a source of inspiration for the Afro Samurai manga , from which an anime series and two video games were later based. Yasuke is also present in the Nioh series by Team Ninja (where he is also known as the Obsidian Samurai ), and it is possible to unlock his armor in Rise of the Ronin , another game also by Team Ninja.
In the meantime, it has been confirmed that Assassin’s Creed Shadows on disc cannot be installed without an Internet connection , as has already happened with other Ubisoft games.