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[ShaiKhulud1989]

It’s been a week since Eurogamer took down comments due to maintenance from’2-3 days’

I can see why. Also bold words from a company who shielded guys like Hascoet for decades.

 

[Mobilemofo]

Cant wait for us English to be the bad guys yet again.

We just don't get the diversity breaks like the rest of you. It must be someone else's turn soon surely?

Must be India's turn surely.

"I kill you bastard bitch!!".

 

[Mattyp]

Who cares? Lol

No argument then? thought so.

No one in this thread gives a SHIT about playing as a black MC, Ubisoft could of released a killer MC in the Medievil age when African countries controlled the gold route to Europe, or any other period in time show casing their own strong history.

Instead we get him as the main character in Japan as a samurai, you’re blinded if you can’t see how forced that is for no reason at all.

 

[ProtoByte]

No, you’re not correct. AC odyssey gave us Egypt and we had a man that was brown, no one had anything bad to say and thought it was a damn good game. It was also authentic. We had middle eastern, Native American, White, Mediterranean, Chinese, French, Norwegian, no issues at all. All of them were authentic. The Native American even fought and killed a ton of white people, it was a great game, no complaints there! If they did a one for ancient Africa I’d probably buy it, but how pissed would people be if they randomly threw a white guy in for that one? It would blow minds at how obviously wrong that is and we are facing that now. Same goes for India (I hope it’s next) or any other non-white country. We didn’t have issues with sales in the past, why would we have them now?

Hell, the original AC had Desmond and Altier, men of middle eastern decent as the main character when white people were at war with the Middle East and it was a stellar game and allowed us to get here. No one cared about race at all. But now we have a black guy in Japan and to be fair, a white man would have been just as bad. It’s not what we wanted.

Face it, you’re too far left to see it. But this was the wrong kind of inclusion and a majority of people see that. It’s forced and was unnecessary. If they didn’t make this boldly dumb move, there would not be any backlash and people would be very excited. This isn’t racism, no one would have cared if the black guy fit the game he was in. But a black samurai is not what people were expecting and not what people wanted out of an AC FINALLY set in Japan.

No argument then? thought so.

No one in this thread gives a SHIT about playing as a black MC, Ubisoft could of released a killer MC in the Medievil age when African countries controlled the gold route to Europe, or any other period in time show casing their own strong history.

Instead we get him as the main character in Japan as a samurai, you’re blinded if you can’t see how forced that is for no reason at all.

Both of you misunderstand. I said “People just don’t like an African being a mc of this game”. I didn’t say “any game”. This game.

And again, the reasons why are varied and up to the individual. I think a lot of the backlash now has to do with hypersensitivity to the wokeism fits of the industry in the last few years. While there would be less arguments and backlash about an African-set AC game with an African protagonist, it’s intellectually dishonest of you to suggest that no one would complain about it, especially right now in the culture war environment. Can’t get away from the fact that there are some racists or racist-adjacents that exist. Not everyone who has a problem with Yasuke in this game is one of those, but the refusal to acknowledge what is plainly there is deluded. This is why I included TheThreadsThatBindUs statement in my last post: You open the can of worms of motivation/intent/subtext, don’t be surprised when it gets thrown the other way around.

Making arguments about authenticity, principle or tradition as it pertains to AC is just laughable. Ubisoft is in a different place culturally to where they were with Black Flag, but Yasuke did exist, and I see his feature in and of itself no differently as I see Edward Kenway’s in the Caribbean. And again, no one has answered my earlier “question” - I don’t think you would be making these arguments if the male MC in Shadows was a Portuguese missionary.

The argument Mattyp is that your arbitrary qualifiers aren’t arguments at all. There are posts on this site and others that ridicule that line of thinking. There are indeed plenty of Japanese characters and stories represented in western media, plenty of successful pieces of media from Japan that represent itself and are well known icons in the west, and the west isn’t obligated to make stories represented of everyone. Would you be receptive to the idea that devs in the west are obligated to make games based on South Asian or sub-Saharan African games? After all, it’s not like Yasuke’s real country of origin has ever gotten the AAA treatment ever.

I mean, go re-read what I quoted in that post. You seriously think that guy is going to heel-click over an AC with a black protagonist full of blacks?

 

[Guileless]

I am referring to the majority of people who play video games.

I think people who buy games at Wal-Mart along with a case of Beast Ice and motor oil ultimately want to be entertained rather than lectured to by people who are concerned with checking off a list of corporate buzzwords from HR.

 

[StereoVsn]

You are seriously overesitimating how many care about this. Its an Assassin's Creed game set in Japan. I will be very suprised if it doesn't sell well.

It may even overwhelm the breakout hit DA: Veilguard with whole 90K CCUs on Steam even!

 

[Mercador]

The guy knows he will loose its title and perhaps even its job. They'll need a scapegoat and it won't be Yves.

 

[genesisblock]

k

make sure you let this company know this lol

Trailer - Showa America Story exclusive trailer - coming in 2025

https://www.ign.com/articles/exclusive-showa-american-story-gets-dramatic-new-trailer-release-window It’s been close to three years since the January 2022 reveal of Showa American Story, whose B-movie style trailer depicting 1980s America as a colony of Japan became a viral hit. Showa...

www.neogaf.com

they seem to be doing it to 2 cultures, go on, let them know this is wrong.

Yes, I saw it. Please explain to me where's the offensive messaging here?

 

[Rhazer Fusion]

I said it once and I’ll say it again. They probably could have avoided all of this controversy in AC: Shadows if they just included a character creator mode just like Ronin did for the male and female protagonists. Therefore you can make practically any type of characters that you want in that setting.

 

[lmimmfn]

Ahh the woe is me angle, that will surely fix the due to fail Ass Creed Black mofo getting down with hip hop while slaughtering native Japanese game

 

[DeepEnigma]

Ha ha. Yes, yes. Die.

Why does he look like Schreier?

 

[Hypnotoad]

Making arguments about authenticity, principle or tradition as it pertains to AC is just laughable. Ubisoft is in a different place culturally to where they were with Black Flag, but Yasuke did exist, and I see his feature in and of itself no differently as I see Edward Kenway’s in the Caribbean. And again, no one has answered my earlier “question” - I don’t think you would be making these arguments if the male MC in Shadows was a Portuguese missionary.

I had to refute this in another thread (these discussions always go in circles), so here I go again: the most famous pirates hailed from England and Wales. Henry Morgan and Bartholomew Roberts were both Welsh, for example. So the protagonist of Black Flag actually fits the setting quite well.

 

[Feel Like I'm On 42]

Sure, that's why Ubisoft is tanking, the game was delayed and this French potato cries a river about chuds and whatnot.

It's all because the majority —not just the majority, but the LARGE majority— doesn't care.

Lol

 

[ProtoByte]

I had to refute this in another thread (these discussions always go in circles), so here I go again: the most famous pirates hailed from England and Wales. Henry Morgan and Bartholomew Roberts were both Welsh, for example. So the protagonist of Black Flag actually fits the setting quite well.

Ah. So now it’s not about natives, it’s about whose most famous?

Moving Goalpost GIF - Moving Goalpost Argument - Discover & Share GIFs

Click to view the GIF

tenor.com

 

[DaciaJC]

Ubisoft is in a different place culturally to where they were with Black Flag, but Yasuke did exist, and I see his feature in and of itself no differently as I see Edward Kenway’s in the Caribbean.

Ah. So now it’s not about natives, it’s about whose most famous?

Moving Goalpost GIF - Moving Goalpost Argument - Discover & Share GIFs

Click to view the GIF

tenor.com

The majority of pirate captains active in the Caribbean during the Golden Age of Piracy hailed from Great Britain, therefore making the MC of Black Flag a Welshman was a very reasonable choice.

Likewise, 99.997% of samurai were Japanese, so one wonders why exactly Ubisoft went out of their way to cast one of a bare handful of known exceptions as the protagonist of Shadows, especially when they must know their audience would prefer a typical Japanese representative of the era as the MC.

Do you really consider these two choices to be equivalent?

 

[Plague Doctor]

It may even overwhelm the breakout hit DA: Veilguard with whole 90K CCUs on Steam even!

Dude, 90k CCU is fucking amazing for AA and indie games to launch on steam.

Who made this game?

Wait.

Oh.

 

[EDMIX]

Yes, I saw it. Please explain to me where's the offensive messaging here?

lolz

My friend, you can't even pretend to care about anything you've actually stated about offending other cultures then suddenly you can't see anything offensive when its from another perspective...ummmmm that sounds a bit hypocritical to me , like massive. No way EA, Ubisoft, Take Two etc make a game where a country took over Japan and did any of that stuff, would you just be sitting here silent

If you can use those same blinders for that game, you can use them same blinders for AC Shadows lol

 

[ProtoByte]

The majority of pirate captains active in the Caribbean during the Golden Age of Piracy hailed from Great Britain, therefore making the MC of Black Flag a Welshman was a very reasonable choice.

Likewise, 99.997% of samurai were Japanese, so one wonders why exactly Ubisoft went out of their way to cast one of a bare handful of known exceptions as the protagonist of Shadows, especially when they must know their audience would prefer a typical Japanese representative of the era as the MC.

Do you really consider these two choices to be equivalent?

You’ve quoted me saying the following:
“Ubisoft is in a different place culturally to where they were with Black Flag”, so I acknowledge the difference in the origin of the choices. I also acknowledge that the gaming community is in a different place culturally, and would/would’ve/has reacted to Yasuke differently when taking out the culture war.

Effectively though, I don’t see the difference. Kenway is not one of those famous pirates, he’s a fictional character, which I think balances out with Yasuke having actually existed, with his somewhat murky history being fictionalized; this is historical fiction, and there’s no rule that says MC’s have to fit demographics; no one on “this side” complains about it when it’s William Adams (yes, yes, he was actually a samurai), quite the opposite; everyone just becomes an expert on the historical distribution of ethnicities to suit their arguments when this comes up.

Do you seriously believe this is about principle for anyone involved?

 

[Umbral]

Corporate drivel, as expected. Claim to be open to feedback but also hedge your bets by implying your customers are hateful.

You guys can’t even make the game part well, I don’t give a shit about your narrative and themes. You are making a product, not art. Don’t delude yourselves.

 

[MonkD]

You’ve quoted me saying the following:
“Ubisoft is in a different place culturally to where they were with Black Flag”, so I acknowledge the difference in the origin of the choices. I also acknowledge that the gaming community is in a different place culturally, and would/would’ve/has reacted to Yasuke differently when taking out the culture war.

Effectively though, I don’t see the difference. Kenway is not one of those famous pirates, he’s a fictional character, which I think balances out with Yasuke having actually existed, with his somewhat murky history being fictionalized; this is historical fiction, and there’s no rule that says MC’s have to fit demographics; no one on “this side” complains about it when it’s William Adams (yes, yes, he was actually a samurai), quite the opposite; everyone just becomes an expert on the historical distribution of ethnicities to suit their arguments when this comes up.

Do you seriously believe this is about principle for anyone involved?

Asssassins Creed should not have you play as historical figures. You're a character who had a hand in historical events, but was never known to the public.

 

[Cyberpunkd]

Not a single person gave a flying fuck about Naoe being female. The last two AC games had optional female leads that were well received and dialogued.

Not to mention Cassandra in Odyssey was arguably a much better route. Same with FemShep. For bros they refuse to play as a woman you just do the minimum effort with the male and pour resources into woman path, bros won’t care and others have a superior product.

 

[Panajev2001a]

Corporate drivel, as expected. Claim to be open to feedback but also hedge your bets by implying your customers are hateful.

You guys can’t even make the game part well, I don’t give a shit about your narrative and themes. You are making a product, not art. Don’t delude yourselves.

They could do better but they cannot resist pissing people off as it makes them feel even more righteous for some reason…

Meanwhile another game that was created by Westerners (criticised by weirdos in the U.S. press, but loved in Japan): https://www.neogaf.com/threads/ghos...inment-focused-approach-says-analyst.1676877/

 

[EDMIX]

Asssassins Creed should not have you play as historical figures

They should do what ever the fuck they want..

its their game, its fake, its fictional and they decided what the limits are of that iP

I also don't believe the real meat of this issue is suddenly you playing a historical figurer, with time travel thru DNA, monsters, people with powers, but shit they should not have historical figures playable, that would just be waaaaay to much here huh?

 

[Paasei]

So once this game is out and ends up not meeting expectations they will be shocked?

 

[March Climber]

Just make sure the game is polished enough in these next few months and then release it.

 

[DaciaJC]

You’ve quoted me saying the following:
“Ubisoft is in a different place culturally to where they were with Black Flag”, so I acknowledge the difference in the origin of the choices. I also acknowledge that the gaming community is in a different place culturally, and would/would’ve/has reacted to Yasuke differently when taking out the culture war.

Effectively though, I don’t see the difference. Kenway is not one of those famous pirates, he’s a fictional character, which I think balances out with Yasuke having actually existed, with his somewhat murky history being fictionalized; this is historical fiction, and there’s no rule that says MC’s have to fit demographics;

There isn't, but as I described earlier, I'm sure the majority of the audience would prefer that for purposes of believability and cultural immersion. And no, that doesn't come from a place of "racism" or anti-wokeness, there would have been ridicule all the same if in place of Yasuke the MC was actually a Portuguese missionary-cum-samurai, to use your earlier example.

no one on “this side” complains about it when it’s William Adams (yes, yes, he was actually a samurai), quite the opposite; everyone just becomes an expert on the historical distribution of ethnicities to suit their arguments when this comes up.

Funny that you should mention him, I thought he was by far the weakest part of Nioh 1. The story would have been stronger with a native Japanese person as the MC through which to experience the background and events of the civil war instead of some transplanted foreigner.

Do you seriously believe this is about principle for anyone involved?

Clearly Ubisoft's mission is something other than simply maximizing interest and sales in their game - anybody on the street could have told them this narrative choice would be a blunder and backfire on them. What, then, do you think their motivation is here?

 

[The Cockatrice]

Dude, 90k CCU is fucking amazing for AA and indie games to launch on steam.

Who made this game?

Wait.

Oh.

It's more common than you think. 90k is pretty good even for AAA. That being said, it's not really that important as its legs and we dont know if Veilguard will have strong legs. It'll sell enough not to close Bioware tho.

 

[ProtoByte]

There isn't, but as I described earlier, I'm sure the majority of the audience would prefer that for purposes of believability and cultural immersion.

AC has always been good at the presentation and visual language of different locales in history, not so much with the actual writing in cultural immersion. Valhalla stretches Viking culture to a breaking point, and Odyssey borders on/is a fantasy game in many ways. I might otherwise take your point, but it must be said that AC, especially post Origins, is anything but believable.

At the end of the day, yes, Yasuke sticks out visually with what samurai/ninja stuff is. Though I don’t always think conformity is what gamers are/would be looking for regardless. More on this point later.

And no, that doesn't come from a place of "racism" or anti-wokeness,

True in most or a lot of cases, respectively. If I were tasked to pitch a Yasuke portrayal, I think I’d go ronin instead of a samurai walking around in ceremonial armour.

there would have been ridicule all the same if in place of Yasuke the MC was actually a Portuguese missionary-cum-samurai, to use your earlier example.

The ridicule would come from the side vehemently defending Yasuke for woke reasons. Personally, the Portuguese missionary thing sounds more interesting than Yasuke. I acknowledge your assessment of Adams in Nioh, but the dynamic I’m suggesting here actually happened there.

Clearly Ubisoft's mission is something other than simply maximizing interest and sales in their game - anybody on the street could have told them this narrative choice would be a blunder and backfire on them. What, then, do you think their motivation is here?

2 things:

1. So as I’ve hinted at in this thread and said outright elsewhere, yes, DEI customs is one of the reasons for Yasuke’s inclusion.

2. In a post Ghost of Tsushima/Sekiro world, I would be looking for ways to spin a feudal Japan setting. I know that between those 2 titles, 2 Nioh games, Rise of the Ronin, and Wo Long (ik, ik, set in China, but be honest, there’s a lot of aesthetic crossover), the appeal of the setting in and of itself has worn out to a degree. There was a thread about a rumoured Samurai Witcher game demonstrating as much. And that’s just games. Blue Eye Samurai and Shogun covered a lot of ground very recently.

 

[Cyberpunkd]

Just make sure the game is polished enough in these next few months and then release it.

In a social media world being “top of mind” is absolutely necessary. They need to make sure there are constantly news about the game this close to release.

 

[MetalFreak]

 

[Edgelord79]

This speech was not helpful for Ubisoft.

 

[MMaRsu]

They should do what ever the fuck they want..

its their game, its fake, its fictional and they decided what the limits are of that iP

I also don't believe the real meat of this issue is suddenly you playing a historical figurer, with time travel thru DNA, monsters, people with powers, but shit they should not have historical figures playable, that would just be waaaaay to much here huh?

The problem and fakery is that one character in this is based on a historical person, which was never the case with ANY AC protagonist.

And then you have the problem and fakery that it's only one character, why not base Naoe on a historical person as well?

Because they wanted to maximize sales by leaning into the cool black guy, with hiphop music and all. Thats why they chose Yasuke. Not for any other reason.

Fuck Ubisoft and their disengenous bullshit.

 

[MonkD]

They should do what ever the fuck they want..

its their game, its fake, its fictional and they decided what the limits are of that iP

I also don't believe the real meat of this issue is suddenly you playing a historical figurer, with time travel thru DNA, monsters, people with powers, but shit they should not have historical figures playable, that would just be waaaaay to much here huh?

All of the things you list have been staples of the game since 2007 though. Except maybe monsters, but that part has at least been implied since AC2. There is no way we would be playing as black protagnist in this game unless they decided to run with a real life character.

And of course they can do whatever they want. And I don't have to pay for it. Not sure what the argument is there really. We are all going to die and nothing matters bro.

 

[freemandos]

Of course journalists are part of the machinery of the industry and if the later works like a circus, well, it can't be the other way.

The Yasuke problem is not difficult to understand: AC used to have natives of their locations as main characters. Arrives a new entry in feudal Japan, people expected a japanese samurai as the playable character. But it breaks the franchise norm with an outsider, with the Ubisoft excuse of "he existed and he was samurai" (the company was the first with the excuse, don't forget), but at the same time you have a female NINJA as the second character. Oh, and hip hop music, so appropiate. So it's easy to rolling eyes because too obviously the reason is not artistic, historical or even about entertaining, it's the same tiring corporate culture which 90% players or normies don't care. And the excuse about "Yasuke existed" is just a godamn shield and nothing else.

 

[gatti-man]

This guy needs to touch grass. Ass creed has never been anything but entertainment. No one plays games for any of that bullshit. We are literally surrounded by these types of controversies on every other form of media. No one wants it in games/entertainment.

 

[Sharius]

i think he should worry more about how his game can be direct compete with MH wild in febuary than some trivial thing

 

[March Climber]

In a social media world being “top of mind” is absolutely necessary. They need to make sure there are constantly news about the game this close to release.

It doesn’t always work in their favor to do such a thing, at least not the way they are currently doing it. This constant apologizing, delays, walls of text, and fighting parts of the community, is all just sad to witness.

I don’t see how this article gets anyone excited about the game. Instead release a gameplay deep dive update or something. They’re doing things all wrong.

 

[Kenpachii]

Main problems i got with it.

- Not a big fan of japan setting
- Not a fan of having 2 different playstyle characters, so we probably won't see a odyssey build type of game again which i liked
- Price is way to expensive, i could get the edition with everything in it for valhalla for 88 bucks which is now 119 bucks as 20% discount doesn't apply anymore and also they pushed a higher price
- 3 day late edition that is 70 bucks full price was just a complete joke to the point of insulting your consumers really. good they went back on it
- Valhalla didn't had all content in game pass, so won't fall for those lies again with shadows with there top edition. Short gains and created long term distrust hope it was worth it.
- Mirage was mid as fuck, fun for old school ac games not what i look for, doesn't help with them selling shadows towards me.
- Endless fighting there community, is getting tired real hard. Its just constant yes no, yes no fighting and it puts me off the game entirely.
- Releasing in februari is to late, huge let down on that.

In short unless they can create some trust back which i doubt through there shitty actions, its probably the first game i will skip until its in a deep discount.

 

[Bradamante3D]

Where in that endless wall of text does he explain that their lofty goals always translate to generic climb that tower gameplay?

 

[ResilientBanana]

Both of you misunderstand. I said “People just don’t like an African being a mc of this game”. I didn’t say “any game”. This game.

And again, the reasons why are varied and up to the individual. I think a lot of the backlash now has to do with hypersensitivity to the wokeism fits of the industry in the last few years. While there would be less arguments and backlash about an African-set AC game with an African protagonist, it’s intellectually dishonest of you to suggest that no one would complain about it, especially right now in the culture war environment. Can’t get away from the fact that there are some racists or racist-adjacents that exist. Not everyone who has a problem with Yasuke in this game is one of those, but the refusal to acknowledge what is plainly there is deluded. This is why I included TheThreadsThatBindUs statement in my last post: You open the can of worms of motivation/intent/subtext, don’t be surprised when it gets thrown the other way around.

Making arguments about authenticity, principle or tradition as it pertains to AC is just laughable. Ubisoft is in a different place culturally to where they were with Black Flag, but Yasuke did exist, and I see his feature in and of itself no differently as I see Edward Kenway’s in the Caribbean. And again, no one has answered my earlier “question” - I don’t think you would be making these arguments if the male MC in Shadows was a Portuguese missionary.

The argument Mattyp is that your arbitrary qualifiers aren’t arguments at all. There are posts on this site and others that ridicule that line of thinking. There are indeed plenty of Japanese characters and stories represented in western media, plenty of successful pieces of media from Japan that represent itself and are well known icons in the west, and the west isn’t obligated to make stories represented of everyone. Would you be receptive to the idea that devs in the west are obligated to make games based on South Asian or sub-Saharan African games? After all, it’s not like Yasuke’s real country of origin has ever gotten the AAA treatment ever.

I mean, go re-read what I quoted in that post. You seriously think that guy is going to heel-click over an AC with a black protagonist full of blacks?

Did you read the rest of what I said? First of all that hypersensitivity goes both ways. Maybe it's less about authenticity, given the overarching sci-fi story, but there is a bit of realism if you remain authentic to the time and utilize existing historical figures as mission givers to tell a fictional story, which AC has been good at doing up until this game. The cultural wars you're referring to is due to the inclusivity standards of the industry and how they are forcing us to be as such is creating the environment of hate. Whether the guy was African, Eastern European, Middle Easter, and so on, nobody wants it here in this game. We wanted what the rest of the series had to offer, to play as a Japanese Assassin in a Japanese inspired Assassin's Creed. What happened here is that people expected one thing and got the rug pulled out from under them and can only chalk it up to Inclusivity and now people will vote with their wallets.

But racist and racist-adjacent? You're out of your fuckin' mind. Again, Assassin's Creed Origins, Egypt, based in the continent of Africa sold 10 Million Copies. No one cared about this man's race and it fit the setting. So you can honestly fuck right off with that. People play Assassin's Creed as each progressing game dealt with a different continent and race. It was already diverse. In Assassin's Creed, you typically play as a fictional Assassin that speaks to historical figures. Yasuke should have been one of those figures that lead the Assassin's in Japan, but should not have been the main character, or the main leader for that matter. I don't think the disappointment is unreasonable here. It's not a matter of being racist against black people, but clearly there is a group of people want to play a Japanese inspired Assassin's Creed as a Japanese person. Then, the only option you have to be Japanese is a woman, which I'm ok with a woman as a main character, but you can't help to be a little disapointed here.

 

[strike670]

This guy needs to touch grass. Ass creed has never been anything but entertainment. No one plays games for any of that bullshit. We are literally surrounded by these types of controversies on every other form of media. No one wants it in games/entertainment.

People are manufacturing a controversy. The simple solution is just don't buy it, if you dislike playing as Yasuke in an Assassins Creed game. There are plenty of games where you can already play a samurai who is Japanese.

Was there this much outrage when Nioh came out and you played a historically based white samurai? I honestly cannot recall if there was or not.

 

[ZoukGalaxy]

 

[ResilientBanana]

People are manufacturing a controversy. The simple solution is just don't buy it, if you dislike playing as Yasuke in an Assassins Creed game. There are plenty of games where you can already play a samurai who is Japanese.

Was there this much outrage when Nioh came out and you played a historically based white samurai? I honestly cannot recall if there was or not.

disregard

 

[strike670]

I'm pretty sure you had a choice. So no.

Never played the game, so I didn't know you could create a character. I was under the impression the game centered around a white samurai from history named William or I think that is his name.

 

[ResilientBanana]

Never played the game, so I didn't know you could create a character. I was under the impression the game centered around a white samurai from history named William or I think that is his name.

Here is some backstory. It fits the story they were portraying. Not only this, but it wasn't an established series with already diverse settings. I don't think there was an expectation to uphold.

Nioh as an Exploration of the White Samurai Narrative from a Japanese Perspective

I originally wrote this in February 2017, when Nioh had only just been released. I finally got around to posting it as a note on Facebook, and on my old wordpress, in December 2017. While there are…

memorylinkgames.wordpress.com

William’s story begins in England, at a time when the crown has its eyes set on conquering the world. It’s rumored that Japan possesses a near-unlimited supply of a magical stone called Amrita that could give Britain unimaginable power, were they to take it for themselves. William, however, is not involved in this ploy. As the game opens, he’s breaking out of the Tower of London with the help of his fairy friend, Saoirse. At the end of the prologue Saoirse is taken from him by a man named Edward Kelley (also a real person, but it’s unlikely that the historical William and Edward ever met). Kelley is spearheading England’s efforts to rob Japan of Amrita, and he intends to use Saoirse to boost his own power. Kelley departs for Japan, and William chases after him to get Saoirse back.


William spends the long voyage to Japan reading up on the culture and several fighting styles from various “traveler memoirs”. By the time he arrives in Japan, he knows enough about Japanese weapons to get by with what he can find on the ground, but still doesn’t understand a word of Japanese. After fighting his way through the first area and defeating a powerful Oni, William is met by a ninja who calls himself Hattori Hanzo. Hanzo addresses William in English–a janky, rough English, but it would have been impressive for the time. He noticed William’s prowess in battle and would like to enlist William’s help fighting Oni. William isn’t really interested; after all, he’s here for one thing, and that’s finding Edward Kelley. Hanzo offers to locate Kelley in exchange for William’s help fighting Oni, and William accepts.

he sounds like a greedy ass white guy though.

 

[Reizo Ryuu]

I'm pretty sure you had a choice. So no.

search "Nioh white guy" in google and you will see that there were people somewhat vocal on the issue. But isn't the game about a white guy learning japanese culture and fighting styles? AC: Shadows is not that.

What the fuck are you linking that image for, That's Wo Long not Nioh...
Nioh doesn't have a create a character mode.

 

[strike670]

Here is some backstory. It fits the story they were portraying. Not only this, but it wasn't an established series with already diverse settings. I don't think there was an expectation to uphold.

Nioh as an Exploration of the White Samurai Narrative from a Japanese Perspective

I originally wrote this in February 2017, when Nioh had only just been released. I finally got around to posting it as a note on Facebook, and on my old wordpress, in December 2017. While there are…

memorylinkgames.wordpress.com

he sounds like a greedy ass white guy though.

Thanks for the info

 

[ResilientBanana]

Thanks for the info

What the fuck are you linking that image for, That's Wo Long not Nioh...
Nioh doesn't have a create a character mode.

I fucked up! The story is correct though

 

[Dr Cowley]

Nioh 1 was William Adams as main character, nioh 2 had a player created character, Male or female

 

[TheThreadsThatBindUs]

This is why I included TheThreadsThatBindUs statement in my last post: You open the can of worms of motivation/intent/subtext, don’t be surprised when it gets thrown the other way around.

Matthew 7:16 "16 Ye shall know them by their fruits. "

The motivations of woke activist developers are as clear as the sun in the sky, because they couldn't even be subtle about them if they tried (and in actual fact, their products would be infinitely better and more effective if they could employ the art of subtly). Like I said in my previous post, they cannot write or create for shit without bludgeoning their audience over the head with their overt political messaging.

So, I don't see it as a can of worms at all. Folks can argue the same the other way (and the woke activists do.... frequently) but their arguments amount to logical fallacies when they have nothing evidentiary to back up the claims that "all detractors of our wok propaganda are just bigoted racist trolls).

The bigoted, racist, incel troll minority argument only goes so far, when a game like Concord fails so catastrophically, worse than anything the industry has ever see, leading to the obvious conclusion that the game having problems with its quality was not a view held by only a tiny minority.