One of the main characters in the new Assassin's Creed Shadow has sparked debates and disputes in the gaming community over an issue
The stemmed after Ubisoft, the franchise's publisher, released the first official trailer of the game to reveal that two protagonists would be taking center stage in the story.
One of which was Yasuke, a historical African retainer of Japanese "daimyō" (warlord) Oda Nobunaga during the Warring States period of Japan.
Despite having historical records of his existence in feudal Japan, the choice for the character was met with a different sort of negative feedback, most of which stemmed from racism.
Many critics of the choice pointed out the historical inaccuracy of making Yasuke a samurai, a traditional Japanese swordsman, to push his relevance to the story.
Leaked images suggest that the protagonist of Assassin's Creed Shadows might be Yasuke, the world's first black samurai pic.twitter.com/mEoAj4hq81
— Dexerto (@Dexerto) May 14, 2024
It is important to note that the Assassin's Creed franchise, while basing some of its lore on historical events, often deviates from actual records to connect the story to its previous releases.
Other Japanese games, including Nioh, and even a Netflix animated series have also depicted Yasuke as a samurai.
Assassin's Creed Shadow Sparks Racially-Motivated Wikipedia Edit War
Social media are not the only online platforms affected by the recent dispute over Yasuke's depiction in the new Assassin's Creed game as the conflict has started spreading even on Wikipedia.
Niche Gamer reported on Wednesday that the real-life Yasuke's Wikipedia page is experiencing repeated re-edits as a description of Yasuke being a samurai or having African descent becomes increasingly ambiguous.
Even fan pages of the character are suffering from multiple racially motivated re-edits even before the game is released.
It is worth noting that most character pages in Wikipedia and Fandom are subject to regular changes as almost anyone can edit its content.
Ubisoft, on the other hand, has yet to address the issue.
When Will Assassin's Creed Shadow Release?
Assassin's Creed Shadows is set to release on Nov. 15, for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Windows, Mac, and Amazon Luna.
Although the main plot of the story remains a secret, several key details can already be hinted at based on its first trailer.
Yasuke will be joined by a fictional female ninja warrior, Naoe, as they traverse the different warring states of the Sengoku period.
