The petition against Assassin’s Creed Shadows may be fake but it shows what real Japanese people think
Assassin’s Creed Shadows was hit by a Japanese petition that turned out to be fake, but it gave us a glimpse into what the Japanese really think about the whole situation.
In recent days, a petition aimed at blocking the commercialization of Assassin’s Creed Shadows , the new game from Ubisoft that brings fans to Japan, has once again made a lot of noise. The peculiarity of this petition was that it was in Japanese, an element that at first glance could make one think that there is actually a particularly large portion of Japanese players annoyed by the presence of Yasuke , the first black samurai in history.
It quickly turned out that the petition may actually have been created by a German (the petition was originally opened on the German version of the site) and, in any case, the bulk of the signatures in support came from Westerners.
The answer of real Japanese
The most interesting part is that, as explained by analyst Daniel Ahmad , there are a series of comments from real Japanese users in support of the petition, but these do not focus at all on Yasuke, who is a well-known historical figure in the Land of the Rising Sun and who has appeared over and over again in video games as well as manga.
The petition against Assassin’s Creed Shadows may be fake but it shows what real Japanese people think
The Japanese people in question.
(This is like 95% of the comments btw) https://t.co/YqnbV8LHvg pic.twitter.com/SO09REi365
— Daniel Ahmad (@ZhugeEX) July 2, 2024
No, the criticism is aimed at something much more specific and probably relevant: a series of architectural and cultural errors that, obviously, the average Western player can’t even see. One example is the fact that Oda Nobunaga’s coat of arms is backwards in the materials shared by Ubisoft. Some users on Twitter also point out that one of the things that upset the Japanese is the fact that the tatami are a bit too square in shape or that at the entrance to a village there was a torii gate, usually linked to sacred areas. There is also talk of the fact that persimmons (which are autumnal) are sold in the market while the cherry trees are in bloom (which happens in spring). If we dug deeper we could certainly find even more examples, but we think the point is clear.
The truth is that Ubisoft has never been so precise with historical elements. Yes, the large symbolic building of the reproduced area is realized in great detail, but the company takes various creative liberties. They can certainly be criticized if you are a great expert and if you do it in a positive way, for the pure spirit of information, but when the only big problem is the black character in a game set in Japan, we will never stop believing that in the end the issue is always racial .
Especially when Yasuke is joined by a Japanese character – Naoe – but since she’s a woman it doesn’t matter, right? But if you don’t care what we think, then listen to what a real Japanese person, and a veteran developer at that, has to say .