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Assassin's Creed Shadows
GRTV News - Ubisoft comments on Assassin's Creed Shadows' Yasuke
Creative director Jonathan Dumont explained that the developer always expected a degree of criticism about the character.
Audio transcription
"Hello everyone and welcome back to another episode of GRTV News.
Today we're going to be touching on something that we reported on at the end of last week.
Essentially, this is the launch week for Assassin's Creed Shadows."
"The game launches on Thursday, March 20th. Our review coverage will go up tomorrow, March 18th.
And recently we've also had a chance to speak with Creative Director Jonathan Dumont, where in an interview, which you'll be able to read in full relatively soon, we asked him about Yasuke.
And if some of the backlash and the criticism that Ubisoft has faced, whether it's something that you look at and you say they should have expected that, whether you look at it and go it's toxic, overreaction, whatever the case, we talked to him about the criticism that Yasuke has faced and he gave us quite an interesting response."
"So let's dive on in.
Ubisoft comments on Yasuke's criticism in Assassin's Creed Shadows.
Some of it was a bit expected.
Creative Director Jonathan Dumont spoke to Gamereactor about the flack that the developer has received regarding the inclusion of the historical figure."
"So Ubisoft has faced a slew of criticism and backlash for Assassin's Creed Shadows over the past 12 months, whether it's fans voicing their thoughts about the representation of Japan and Japanese culture in the game, the insensitive collectible figure, or the inclusion of Yasuke and how his story has been incorporated.
The developer has been in hot water for a long while."
"Despite this being the case, Ubisoft is launching Assassin's Creed Shadows next week on March 20th as part of a delayed arrival.
With that coming up very quickly, we've had the chance to speak with Creative Director Jonathan Dumont for an interview coming to Gamereactor next week.
As a sneak peek, we asked Dumont about Yasuke and whether there was ever any expectation for the character to generate as much flack and backlash as he did."
"Dumont told us the following.
I guess some of it was a bit expected, but we believed and still believe that Yasuke is a great character for the Assassin's Creed universe.
Aside from the gameplay aspects, where his gameplay is very different from Narue, he is a very intriguing historical character that allowed us to create a rich narrative from the little historical information we had."
"I don't want to spoil his story and how he is connected to our lore, but his unique perspective of a man between two worlds, who was given a new chance in Japan, complemented Narue's character very well.
Stay tuned for the full interview with Dumont next week and also our review of Assassin's Creed Shadows, which will be going live on March 18th at 5pm GMT, 6pm CET."
"So, I mean, I'm personally in the boat that I think the attention directed at Yasuke is over-exaggerated.
I always stand by this with Assassin's Creed.
At the start of the game, when they always put that message up that says, it's inspired by historical events, but ultimately it's a work of fiction."
"Every Assassin's Creed game, doesn't matter where it's set, has things that don't make sense because they're not real.
It's a fictional story that Ubisoft is telling here, that's how it's always been.
So, a lot of the Japanese audience have become quite miffed by this game.
And you can understand certain parts of it like a disrespectful collectible figurine, for example."
"But overall, I think the flack that this game has received has been a bit overdone.
That's my take on it anyway, because we see it with all these Assassin's Creed games, when they go off in supernatural directions and whatnot.
No one ever makes a peep about that, but for whatever reason, this game has been a huge talking point."
"But yeah, basically, I can understand what Dumont's saying here, from the idea that we're expecting a little bit of criticism, a little bit of talk in channels around the world.
But at the same time, I think the way that it's blown up has been over-exaggerated quite significantly."
"But again, you'll have to wait and play the game yourself, to see whether you like the way that Ubisoft has incorporated Yasuke into the game.
Again, Assassin's Creed Shadow is fundamentally built in such a way that you don't need to play as Yasuke, or you don't need to play as Narue."
"For the majority of the experience, if you don't want to, you can choose one or the other, or you can switch between them pretty freely.
So, check it out on Thursday, when it launches.
And let us know what you think. Which character do you want to play the most?
Does Yasuke feel like he fits into the game? Is it more based around Narue?
You can tell us all about that soon."
"But otherwise, again, this full interview will be coming to Game Rector soon.
It's a written one, so don't be looking in the video channels.
It'll be live on your local Game Rector regions, on the front page, relatively soon.
So stay tuned for that."
"And otherwise, this is all the time that I have on today's episode of GRTV News, but I will be back now tomorrow for the next one of the week, so stay tuned for that.
But otherwise, thank you for watching, and I'll see you all for the next one.
Take care, everyone."
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