Ubisoft was right to put Yasuke as the main character ofAssassin’s Creed Shadows, Is the new saga game this Thursday? For a reactionary margin of the players, the answer is no, for lack of a historical reality, they affirm. To the point of weakening the event game of the French editor, which would have gone well with this controversy.
What is certain is that this protagonist, who really existed in Japan’s story, did not leave anyone indifferent.
In 2024: Ubisoft announces its new game of events with a “black samurai” as the main character. Yasuke is not the only one who can play, but crystallizes tensions.
Yasuke, also known as Kuro-San or Kuro-Suke names, is described in the Ubisoft game as a fighter who joined the murderers of the murderers to achieve his legend, as the story of the saga wants.
“The Ubisoft editorial choice to make it one of the two main characters does not seem so surprising that it is a character that we have seen for a long time in the Japanese pop culture”, keep in mind that Tech & Co, the journalist Romain Mielcarek, author of Yasuke: the African samurai (PLON Editions, 21 euros).
In addition, Yasuke has already been the hero of an anime transmitted in Netflix in 2021, produced by the Mappa Studio (Jujutsu Kaisen, Dororo…), as well as several manga and local cinematographic works, such as Afro Samurai.
“He has also been an important character in several video games, such as NiohWhere he is an important boss, “Romain Mielcarek continues. It is not an important role in Japan, in fact he is someone who will face important figures in history. But he is generally Japanese interested in more secondary protagonists, for example, in Shonen.”
However, in Assassin’s CreedA black samurai does not happen. Perhaps because the Amaza saga has always claimed a certain historical reality, for example, the reconstituto of Notre-Dame without hitting it there: the game remains a fiction and even a science fiction.
But in the forums, in social networks, the criticisms unleashed from the crowds of the CRITIS. In the United States, in France, but also in Japan, a heterogeneous and noisy movement is created, even reaching the creation of a request that wishes to prohibit the game.
“The main engine is the reaction (to the new information about the game, note), in particular in the issues carried by the Maga (Pro -Trump Ultra -Cservador Movement), the game has been revealed in the middle of the US campaign, and that takes advantage of the opportunity to write about issues of diversities and minorities,” continues the journalist.
But the phenomenon around Yasuke is not just the result of American politics. In France, a strip of the extreme right has taken over the issue, being particularly noisy on social networks.
“The extreme right is ready for all pretexts,” says Romain Mielcarek quotes the dissident or psychodélik Raptor (two active French influencers on YouTube and reactionary reactionaries of the renowned, note of the editor), pointing to his finger at his tendency to react without knowing the historical springs.
Slave in Japan
In Japan, on the other hand, the controversy is historical. “Some Japanese have the impression that they are stolen from them, their image of the samurai, to give it to another person, in this case a black character” continues Romain Mielcarek. “And there is a real historical debate about the way it must be described, such as a samurai or not.” A debate that allows freedoms, Ubisoft has made its decision.
For the journalist, it is more the presentation made by Ubisoft that raises a problem, especially when described as an almost legendary character: “When you historically look, there is nothing to discover that she has done miracles in combat,” says Roman Mielcarek.
In fact, Yasuke reached a slave in Japan in 1579. Two years later, he met the Lord Oda Nobunaga of War, who will take him as a servant, without anyone knowing if he was released or if he has remained as a slave. He disappeared from Japanese history in 1582 after the death of his teacher.
Despite the absence of Fuentes, Yasuke is a victim of a really violent witch hunt, although the West has already taken over the question that a stranger becomes Samurai, especially in the film The last samurai With Tom Cruise. “He didn’t surprise anyone at that time,” he remembers Romain Honeycarek.
A minority linked to the extreme right, even in France
“It has a minority of some accounts related to the extreme right on social networks that involve a lot of conversation by creating a lot of content, with a very compromised community,” adds Tech & Co Olivier Mauco, president of the European Video Games Observatory.
In his latest investigation, we discovered that Yasuke faces “a moral crusade” carried by the conservative world and the influencers mobilized against the “Wake” games. The study results show that in more than 822,000 conversations held in X, YouTube or the online press, the most negative rebounds refer to the choice of embodying a black character, and are made by influential people close to the “Gamer Gate” movement, a vector of a sexist harassment against women journalists and developers.
Among these influential ones, we find Asmongold and Grummz, two figures of the YouTube conservative, who have always opposed the choice of the inclusion of video game companies.
The study shows that players who express such a negative opinion on Yasuke and Ubisoft’s options represent only 0.8% of those who speak in the game in general. However, they weigh 22% of the interactions generated throughout the game (in the form of response to publications, videos …), only in the United States. A very noisy minority.
A digital strategy carried by Elon Musk
Olivier Mauco also sees it as the consequence of the events that led to Donald Trump’s return to the White House: “During the Donald Trump campaign, we saw that it was part of their digital strategy. Especially because these people behind these criticisms can count on the validation of an Elon musk, for example, which regularly reacts to the subject.” The billionaire was obviously not deprived of it.
Beyond Western debates, Japan, however, the first worried, is an exception. Between November 2023 and November 2024, the curve between positive and negative opinions has never been reversed. Therefore, it is 19.9% for a positive sensation, against 14.6% of the negative feeling.
A debate that is not ready to stop since a new goal has just been found: Ghost of Yoteifollowing Tsushima’s ghostthat presents … a woman.
Source: BFM TV
