Assassin’s Creed will have a playable Black Samurai in the upcoming Assassin’s Creed Shadows video game.
A trailer released last week revealed that the two main playable characters will be Naoe, a woman trained as a shinobi, and Yasuke, a Black samurai who served under the Japanese daimyo Oda Nobunaga.
The video game is reportedly set in the late Sengoku period, an era in the late 16th century that had social reforms and an artistic renaissance while also grappling with the threat of colonialism by the Portuguese.
While the creators still have yet to reveal how the characters will be linked to the video games’ previous plotlines, “Creed Shadows” will have the characters take part in the goal to unify Japan during the Second Tenshō Iga War.
“There must have been something exceptional about Yasuke to succeed in the service of a personality like Nobunaga’s,” said the creators and video game publisher UBISOFT in a blog post. “The goal has been to expound on this in Assassin’s Creed Shadows through his curiosity, openness, respect for values and tradition, valor, warmth, and charisma.”
Become a lethal shinobi assassin and powerful, legendary samurai in Feudal Japan. Assassin's Creed Shadows Official World Premiere Trailer now available on YouTube #AssassinsCreedShadows
— Assassin's Creed (@assassinscreed) May 15, 2024
Watch now: https://t.co/Pc5onMv8p0 pic.twitter.com/q6B376ZvTT
Following the trailer’s release, conservatives already began attacking the creators for including Yasuke’s character. According to Forbes, right-wingers such as Tim Pool and Brett Cooper claimed that his character’s inclusion is “woke” and “pandering,” claiming that a “real Japanese hero” should have been included.
As comments continue to flood Assassin’s Creed’s social media posts, the creators continue to emphasize that Yasuke is a real-life historical figure.
Considered to be the first Black and first non-native to become a samurai in history, he was born around the 1550s in what historians believe to be modern-day Ethiopia, Mozambique or South Sudan.
Although it’s unknown why he left Africa, Yasuke is believed to have started his story in Japan in 1579 when he arrived with Italian Jesuit missionary Alessandro Valignano.
Approximately two years later, he met with Nobunaga, a feudal lord who wanted to unify Japan, and became a soldier in his service, receiving his Japanese name and officially becoming a samurai.
Although he’s believed to have fought many battles for him, Yasuke’s life as a samurai for Nobunaga is believed to have come to an end a year later when the feudal lord was betrayed and forced to commit ritual suicide seppuku.
Although he briefly joined Nobunaga’s son in battle who was also forced to commit seppuku, Yasuke was last seen and mentioned following an incident where he was sent to a Jesuit mission house by Mitsuhide, the general who initially betrayed Nobunaga.
“On one hand, he serves as a warning for the colonizing threat that the Portuguese present, and on the other, he adapted and thrived in Japan and can be viewed as an example of the meritocratic structure established under Nobunaga,” said the creators. “In Assassin’s Creed Shadows, his historical story is established and then developed and expanded from that point.”
The upcoming game will be playable on PC5, the Mac App Store, PC, Xbox Series X|S and Amazon Luna.
