Assassin’s Creed Shadows isn’t the first AC game to warp history

Ahead of the release on PS5, I've been thinking that Assassin's Creed Shadows' world needs to be historically accurate, but fictionalizing characters is fine.

Assassin’s Creed Shadows isn’t the first AC game to warp history
Kes Eylers-Stephenson

Opinion by Kes Eylers-Stephenson

Published

A lot has been made of Assassin's Creed Shadows' historical accuracy for its world and characters. So, ahead of collecting Assassin's Creed Shadows trophies on PS5 when it lands on Tuesday, November 12, 2024, I've been thinking about all the past games again — much like I did while ranking the list of the best Assassin's Creed games.

Kes

Assassin's Creed's characters have always been fiction, but the world needs historical accuracy

  • Assassin's Creed Shadows is the 14th mainline Assassin's Creed game and takes place in 16th century Japan
  • Platforms: PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PC
  • Release date: Tuesday, November 12, 2024
An interview between Marc-Alexis Côté, Ubisoft’s executive producer for its Assassin’s Creed franchise, and New York Times recently raised eyebrows among fans of the series when he said that Assassin's Creed Shadows will go “beyond what is accepted truth.” This statement addressed much of the talk around the Japan-set game's various time-period inaccurate flags and the appearance of the nebulous historical identity of Shadows' Samurai character Yasuke.
For the first time in the series' run, Yasuke is a playable character who is also a real historical figure. There is much debate over details of Yasuke's existence, but he was generally understood to be a Sudanese refugee who came into the service of a Jesuit missionary Alessandro Valignano as a bodyguard. In Japan, he became an inner circle member of warlord Lord Nobunaga — this much is known historical truth.

From there, Yasuke has lived as a near myth in the cultural memories of Japan. Historical documentation appears to point in that direction, but it has long been the subject of debate (only heightened by Assassin's Creed Shadows' use of him). In any case, I think we can conclude that the tale of a South Sudanese man ending up in Japan amongst a circle of a high-ranking warlord has fascinating fictional potential.

The presence of Yasuke brings up that natural tension between history and fiction — when can fact give way to fiction and when does fiction become a lie? As a former student of historical fiction, I can tell you that it's not a question with a definitive answer. However, I can tell you that I think Assassin's Creed as a franchise has answered it in its way already.
The characters are the special sauce of the series, but the series has always played fast and loose with the truth. Historical figures like Leonardo Da Vinci, I can definitively tell you, did not invent a hidden blade for a young bloke lusting for revenge on behalf of a secret order that wore hoods. Sorry, Assassin's Creed II fans.

In the same game, Pope Alexander VI (Rodrigo de Borja) fights Ezio in a cathedral with a glowing staff that is the relic of a previous generation of super-intelligent beings. If we can mess around with the Pope a bit for the fun of a good story, I think we can play around with the almost mythical status of Yasuke.

You can critique the decision to choose Yasuke of all characters to have around as a protagonist in 16th-century Japan. Even so, his brief historical outline objectively leaves so much room for fictitious fun that I don't think you can argue that the writers correctly identified him as a potentially fun protagonist.

For example, the Booker prize-winning book Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel uses the gaps in our historical knowledge of the mysterious Thomas Cromwell — a figure in Henry VIII's court — to great effect using a combination of fact and fiction. It's not just Assassin's Creed messing with history for storytelling effect.
So, in all of this debate about characters I'm showing that they are the flavour. The raw ingredients of an Assassin's Creed historical experience lies in the world — now that has to be broad strokes accurate in Assassin's Creed Shadows. As I'm sure many of you will point out, some of the architecture and flags in the gameplay trailers were inaccurate. However, what I mean to say is the feel of the world has to be real.

When I walk around Japan, I want to feel like I'm on the shores of Lake Biwa in the historical Omi Prefecture. I want to walk through towns and hear Japanese and have people wandering the streets going about business. I want to feel the impact of the seasons as promised for Assassin's Creed Shadows and sneak through buildings that do feel like they are straight out of the late 1500s.

If the world is right, just like Florence in ACII, the Caribbean in ACIVBlack Flag, or London in AC Syndicate, it gives the game a historical context that allows it to come alive. The characters are just the spruce of magic that weave their way through a fascinating point in time, allowing us to have fun exploring.
If you played Assassin's Creed Odyssey expecting an accurate portrayal of the Peloponnesian War but ended up wondering why on earth you were in Atlantis, this might be the wrong franchise to nitpick history on. Assassin's Creed has always moved beyond the truth with its narratives and characters — but the cultures and periods they represent have always given us great historical tourism.

So, there we go! Head off and play the Assassin's Creed games in order and see if you agree that the world needs to do the historical lifting! What do you think of the Yasuke saga? Let me know in the comments below and I'll see you there, TrueTrophies community!
Written by Kes Eylers-Stephenson
Editor Kes is our resident expert in PlayStation and Sony news. He writes about PS5 games like LEGO Horizon Adventures, Assassin’s Creed Shadows, Kingdom Come Deliverance II, Concord, and Death Stranding 2 using experience from years of PlayStation gaming. He also covers PS Plus news, as well as his favorite games — The Witcher 3, God of War, and The Last of Us — before an evening swim.
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