Current Events > Racists are losing it over the new Assassin's Creed black protagonist

(+) Yeah! (+)

I don't give af what racists cry about. Never been an AC guy, but I'm interested now just for the setting alone.

This isn't even the first time Ubi's taken a minor character from history and written them with secret ties to the templars/assassins or written new history for them... but somehow it only seems to be a problem when they do it with a black person? It's almost like people are desperately clawing at some kind of "legitimate" reason to "have a problem" with this... instead of just calling it what it really is. Racism.

Nemu posted...

Id say Yasuke seems to be overly milked for such a minor historical figure, but theres certainly nothing wrong with the game over it.

This. It's kind of like people recently found out he existed and now want to make everything about him.

The fact that we know so little about his real history makes him a great target for historical fiction because you can make up basically whatever you want. Only like one year of his life has any documentation at all and nobody knows what happened to him after he left Japan.

The dumbest thing about this is that they're making you play a samurai in Assassin's Creed. Literally the perfect game to be about some hidden Ninja village shit and instead they got you playing Nobunaga's bodyguard.

Would not be surprised if nearly everyone plays the woman.

Tyranthraxus posted...

Literally the perfect game to be about some hidden Ninja village shit and instead they got you playing Nobunaga's bodyguard.

AssCreed has been trying to become Dynasty Warriors for a while now.

The trailer made me want to play an Assassin Creed game. Which one is best? Theres a bunch on PSN.

SomeLikeItHoth posted...

The trailer made me want to play an Assassin Creed game. Which one is best? Theres a bunch on PSN.

Origins, probably.

SomeLikeItHoth posted...

The trailer made me want to play an Assassin Creed game. Which one is best? Theres a bunch on PSN.

2,4, Syndicate, Origins

Odyssey and Valhalla are OK but waaaaay too bloated.

SomeLikeItHoth posted...

The trailer made me want to play an Assassin Creed game. Which one is best? Theres a bunch on PSN.

2 is the only good one

Yasuke, is a real historical figure, but he was never a samurai, he was a sword-bearer for Nobunaga.

Yasuke ( or ) was a man of African origin who served as a servant and retainer to the Japanese daimy Oda Nobunaga in 15811582, during the Sengoku period.[3] He was employed as a kosh (, page or sword-bearer) for a period of 15 months until Nobunaga's death in the Honn-ji Incident.[4][5]

It is important to note that despite popular myth and modern depictions there are no historical writings nor evidence that Yasuke was ever granted the rank or title of samurai, he was never given a fief nor referred to as one in any writings. Most of our knowledge of his life comes from these messages written by missionaries and locals.

Like other's have mentioned it is a perfect blank slate character to use for the series, as AC stopped being even somewhat historically accurate many games ago.

SomeLikeItHoth posted...

The trailer made me want to play an Assassin Creed game. Which one is best? Theres a bunch on PSN.

2 for the classic style, or Origins for the modern RPG style.

CrimsonGear80 posted...

2,4, Syndicate, Origins

Odyssey and Valhalla are OK but waaaaay too bloated.

Odyssey is basically generic arpg which is either great or sucks shit depending on what you were expecting.

LinkDaLunatic posted...

This isn't even the first time Ubi's taken a minor character from history and written them with secret ties to the templars/assassins or written new history for them...

I'm sorry but da Vinci, Machiavelli and Alexander VI definitely don't count as minor characters.

Kinda funny, I never really considered myself a history buff but when I think about some of the other characters, the question isn't "were they important in real history" but instead "were they Assassins/Templars in Ass Creed", lol. Robespierre, Napoleon and Washington, for example, I really can't remember what they did in the story, lol. But I sure as hell remember what they did in real history.

They really didn't dive particularly deeply.

I am so sick of hateful people spewing their idiocy every day. Life was truly better before the internet. I know I am yelling at clouds, and I have learned a lot from a lot of smart people on the internet, but it sure was nice when not every random garbage opinion was amplified for all to hear.

Also: I am happy for myself that instead of being weird and idiotically angry about the fact that a video game protagonist might be from a different background or a different gender than I am, I can just play and enjoy the game. Because the trailer looks awesome.

Tyranthraxus posted...

Would not be surprised if nearly everyone plays the woman.

I would be 100% down for a game that lets you switch between them like in Syndicate

I preferred Odyssey over Origins.

Valhalla is just too much if you choose to do everything. One of the things that pissed me off is how the dumb NPCs will walk right into a fire and expect you to revive them during raids and some missions. How hard would it be to program them to not walk into fire?

Im just upset the protagonist isnt voiced by Chris Pratt

Samurai_Man posted...

It is important to note that despite popular myth and modern depictions there are no historical writings nor evidence that Yasuke was ever granted the rank or title of samurai, he was never given a fief nor referred to as one in any writings. Most of our knowledge of his life comes from these messages written by missionaries and locals.

I don't think when people say Samurai they mean a literal Japanese feudal noble most of the time. Like when people say "I want to play a game about Knights" they're probably not thinking about Patrick Stewart and Elton John.

Xenogears15 posted...

Based on William Adams from history, yes.

Wellthatwasdifferent.gif

Tyranthraxus posted...

I don't think when people say Samurai they mean a literal Japanese feudal noble most of the time. Like when people say "I want to play a game about Knights" they're probably not thinking about Patrick Stewart and Elton John.

True but now that you've opened the door can we please have a game where you play as Patrick Stewart and Elton John

SomeLikeItHoth posted...

The trailer made me want to play an Assassin Creed game. Which one is best? Theres a bunch on PSN.

Black Flag, Origins, and Odyssey are all good.

Tyranthraxus posted...

I don't think when people say Samurai they mean a literal Japanese feudal noble most of the time. Like when people say "I want to play a game about Knights" they're probably not thinking about Patrick Stewart and Elton John.

Yeah. Kind of seems they're using the word interchangeably with warrior. Samurai_Man's right though, they're in the wrong to call him samurai.

DipDipDiver posted...

Have they ever used a real person as a protagonist before? I know they like to sprinkle them into the story but this seems like a first.

my personal theory is two fold:

1. he's becoming a bit popular so why not ride that wave?
2. adding a black character in a Japanese setting would be strange but there is a real one so why not use him against naysayers?

People like to complain about changing a character's color for the sake of diversity so why not use a real person so that they can't backtalk? There's still going to be anger and hatred but at least it makes sense and like I said why make him black at all? Well of course he's a popular figure at the moment. Ride that wave baby. Plus it stands out.

Well, in ubisoft's fictional take of the person for their game he is a samurai, so its whatever.
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/f/f1032134.jpg

Tyranthraxus posted...

I don't think when people say Samurai they mean a literal Japanese feudal noble most of the time. Like when people say "I want to play a game about Knights" they're probably not thinking about Patrick Stewart and Elton John.

I mean...That's a bit of a stretch no? Most of the time when I hear knight I think King Arthur, etc. never once have I thought about Elton John or Patrick Stewart, lol even tho they are technically 'knighted' by the queen.

I was just posting from actual history, those weren't my own words, hence the italicization.

Like I said, I think its a cool concept and AC has been straying away from actual history for a while now so its really no big deal.

DipDipDiver posted...

I would be 100% down for a game that lets you switch between them like in Syndicate

IGN has a 40 things to know article following the trailer, and it says you can! Not sure where info is coming from, but they said it clearly. They Said design suggestion is to use female character for stealth, male character for more attacking type missions (he wears heavy armor so it is harder to sneak).

Dont know any of this for sure, just parroting what I read. Could be wrong, but I think they even mentioned that you could switch like in Syndicate.

Turbam posted...

Well now I have to buy it

Yeah I can't lie this will be the only single ass creed game I will ever buy day 1 just out of curiosity with the samurai yasuke thing.

To be honest, this might be the first ass creed game I even play for more than 30 minutes........I never understood why, but like many 360/PS3 era franchises (mass effect, bioshock, dead space, etc.) I missed out on ass creed when it first came out (was a bit into MMOs at the time and was sort of ignoring a good bit of xbox 360 releases for a little bit. Since I missed part 1 for all of those I never bothered trying out the sequels as they came out) I just never played any of these assassin creed games before aside from the ones ps plus or xbox live's old games with gold gave away as one of the games of the month to download.

Only thing I really know about the old games is that wacky story twist for ass creed 3 since I asked my best friend about it, lol.

I'm getting San Andreas flashbacks.

I've never played a AC but anything that makes racists shit themselves is a-ok with me. I'm just gonna wait for the franchise to die (probably decades from now) and then go and play whatever one the community thinks is best overall.

Yeah, in the other topic somebody straight up said they only want to play as an Asian man, not a black man or an Asian woman.

It's still so bizarre how just openly they cry about this shit.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rZHwGnGrm_k

Samurai_Man posted...

I mean...That's a bit of a stretch no? Most of the time when I hear knight I think King Arthur, etc. never once have I thought about Elton John or Patrick Stewart, lol even tho they are technically 'knighted' by the queen.

That's exactly my point. To the average person, a knight is literally just any dude in medieval European armor who sometimes rides a horse and maybe also a little religious. If I made a video game where the protagonist was a "self-taught" Knight nobody would complain about historical accuracy even though that's not actually a thing.

I already said above that he was Nobunaga's bodyguard, but that's not a helpful description IMO. If instead you say he's a samurai you get a better idea about what he's going to look like and how he's going to fight. Nobody really cares about the political connotations. In JRPGs, "Samurai" is just a job you can switch on and off as the mood suits you.

And since it's fiction anyway there's no reason you can't just say he's actually was a full on samurai but all the records of that were scrubbed by the templars.

certain gaming subreddits are absolutely livid over this. Like, it's almost insane to see how seething mad they are over a black man being made MC. I did not see any of this in Nioh after William Blake was made Irish and a Samurai. Only ever happens when they get a black man.

blackrider76 posted...

William Adams was a well-documented Englishman who actually had a pivotal role in Japans history.

People bringing up Nioh and Shogun as whataboutisms arent being clever.

Are they used as whataboutisms or are they being used as defense. In both cases you have a known historical figure.

creativerealms posted...

Are they used as whataboutisms or are they being used as defense. In both cases you have a known historical figure.

If youre outraged about a black samurai, why arent you outraged about a white samurai, basically.

Which obviously doesnt work when we know the white samurai existed and actually played a part in Ieyasus campaign.

It went in reverse too, like with that garbage article about why arent there black people in Shogun, when Yasuke was from a different era than the time period Shogun took place.

blackrider76 posted...

If youre outraged about a black samurai, why arent you outraged about a white samurai, basically.

Which obviously doesnt work when we know the white samurai existed and actually played a part in Ieyasus campaign.

It went in reverse too, like with that garbage article about why arent there black people in Shogun, when Yasuke was from a different era than the time period Shogun took place.

Once again Assassin's Creed is not and has never been historically accurate so that's a moot point.

Once again the only time y'all whine about things like this are when the character happens to be black. I wonder why?

I'm curious to know what Japanese gamers think of this.

blackrider76 posted...

If youre outraged about a black samurai, why arent you outraged about a white samurai, basically.

Which obviously doesnt work when we know the white samurai existed and actually played a part in Ieyasus campaign.

It went in reverse too, like with that garbage article about why arent there black people in Shogun, when Yasuke was from a different era than the time period Shogun took place.

do you also think Assassins and Templars have been at war with each other for centuries??

Ubisoft can do whatever they want
another ac is yet another ac

Fucking hell, how many Ass Creed games have they made already? I've only played the first one and it was waaaaay too fucking repetitive for me to not play any of the others.

Vicious_Dios posted...

Fucking hell, how many Ass Creed games have they made already? I've only played the first one and it was waaaaay too fucking repetitive for me to not play any of the others.

A ton. They used to make one every year.

I thought the new game protagonist was supposed to be a Ninja

^ one of them is

The people who buy AC games were going to buy them regardless so it's probably better to just farm outrage from weirdos.

It's just oddly convenient when it's a Black guy people go ballistic. But, a White guy? Sleep or "Shut up woke nerd".

Dio posted...

It's just oddly convenient when it's a Black guy people go ballistic. But, a White guy? Sleep or "Shut up woke nerd".

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/2/2df0a0e5.jpg

Oh shit hes based on the first African samurai. Which is a string of words that can definitely catch someone off guard.

I knew there were African people in Asia back then, but damn that must have been a hard life of aspirations for Asuke.

I'm sure those same people would have no issues if the main characters of Origins and Shadows were 2 white guys named Jim and Bob.

DrizztLink posted...

I liked this take on it.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/a/aa222013.jpg

Notice how they staunchly ignore that Kassandra and Woman Eivor are the canon protagonists.

Kassandra isn't greek?

CRON posted...

I don't remember anyone complaining about AC3 having a Native protagonist in a game taking place in Colonial era America. Makes you think about how much social media discourse has ruined everything.

Its a mix of things. Obviously, culture war shit has infected video game culture and you have morons crying about about it just because he is black. I remember when AC Origins was announced and a lot of people hated the protagonist just because of his race even though he fit the spirit of past AC protagonists (a fictional character who represented the "average" person of the time and place)

Having Yasuke being a protagonist is very weird for an Assassin's Creed game based on previous games. In the past, all the mainline AC games had you play as a fictional character (besides short segments such as playing as Leonidas for the tutorial of Odyssey). The character also was usually someone who was a stand in for the "average" person from that time and place. A Native American in game set in 1770s Colonial America isn't odd or out of place at all. A non-Japanese person in Japan pre 1800s is an anomaly.

Imagine if they made an AC game based on the Haitian Revolution, and you played as some obscure Polish man. It would technically be vaguely historically accurate, but it doesn't really fit the "spirit" of past AC games.