Assassin’s Creed Shadows dev says the open-world game aims to be “respectful as possible to Japanese culture, but creative choices are made on our side”
Ubisoft has offered some mixed messages in response to the criticism of Black Samurai Yasuke in the lead-up to Assassin’s Creed Shadows. One dev called out Elon Musk for “feeding hatred” in the whole ordeal, while a month later Ubisoft apologized for promotional material that “caused concern within the Japanese community.” More recently, another dev has defended the studio’s “creative choices” while noting its heavy reliance on Japanese experts.
“Of course we’re making creative choices,” art director Thierry Dansereau told Eurogamer at Gamescom. “It’s a video game in the end, so we want to make the best experience possible for our players.” Dansereau noted that the team has “worked with Osaka and Tokyo studios [who’ve acted] as consultants. One of their art directors is involved and doing research in the field. We went there, we did a field trip as well, and we have Japanese experts living in Japan.”
Dansereau added, “There was a letter published by Ubisoft apologising to that group of people in Japan. But something they need to know is we are working with experts, world-renowned experts, and if we have in any way offended [people] we are sorry but this is not the goal. We’ve paid a lot of attention to stay as respectful as possible to Japanese culture, but creative choices are made on our side, based on all the discussions we had with our own group of experts. We’re confident with how the game will be received.”
However the character ends up being portrayed, Yasuke’s appearance in Assassin’s Creed Shadows has generated no shortage of opinions. Even veteran Capcom developer Yoshiki Okamoto weighed in, saying the backlash was overblown because “it’s a game, it’s fantasy, not reality.” Nonetheless, the vitriol has gotten intense enough that Ubisoft’s CEO was denouncing “hateful acts” toward the company’s developers just a few months ago.