In recent days, a petition aimed at blocking the marketing of Assassin’s Creed Shadowsthe new Ubisoft game that brings fans to Japan. 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 Yasukethe 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 theAnalyst Daniel Ahmadthere are a number of comments from real Japanese users supporting 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 time and again in video games as well as manga.
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 is 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 this precise with the 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 there is a Japanese character alongside Yasuke – Noah – 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, a veteran developer at that, has to say.
This is an editorial written by a member of the editorial staff and is not necessarily representative of the editorial line of Multiplayer.it.
#petition #Assassins #Creed #Shadows #fake #shows #real #Japanese #people
