6. Assassin’s Creed Shadows protagonist

Fans of the Assassin’s Creed games have been waiting for an Assassin’s Creed game set in Japan for a long while now, so it makes sense many were excited when Assassin’s Creed Shadows was revealed in February 2024. Set in the violent Sengoku period of Japanese history, a land of cherry blossoms, samurai and feudal castles, this takes the form of an open-world game in Ubisoft’s trademark style. Shadows, which launches on February 2025, also has dual protagonists: a shinobi girl (Naoe) and a samurai named Yasuke.

And it was Ubisoft’s choice of protagonist that rubbed some people the wrong way. Actually, some in East Asia were riled by the fact that the game’s samurai protagonist wasn’t Japanese, as Yasuke hails from an African country. Known as “the legendary black samurai”, he was a retainer for feudal lord Oda Nobunaga. So voices of dissent also complained about him not actually having been a samurai, even if Ubisoft’s choice of protagonist (or co-protagonist) should help differentiate the game from others like Rise of the Ronin or the eagerly anticipated Ghost of Yotei.

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Next: 7. Black Myth: Wukong sexism and censorship