Summary
The reveal trailer forAssassin’s Creed Shadowsreleased last week to great fanfare, alongside plentiful discourse. Fans of the series have wantedUbisoftto make anAssassin’s Creedset in Japan for years, and now that it’s finally here, I’ve mostly heard complaints. A lot of that was because the game was revealed to have dual protagonists,one of whom is Yasuke, a real historical figure who is largely considered the first Black samurai.
Yasuke actually has his ownNetflix-exclusive animestarring Lakeith Stanfield. I watched a bit of it when it first came out – it’s pretty cool.
Naturally, because we’re in the midst of an ill-advised anti-diversity movement in gaming, there was a wave of false outrage about the inclusion of a Black man in a game set in Japan. The whole thing is quite stupid, sinceAssassin’s Creed has never really been concerned with historical accuracy, but also, he was a real person so it’s bizarre to argue that the ‘representation’ is ‘forced’. I’m not here to talk about that, though – I’m here to talk about the other group of people who aren’t excited for Shadows becauseGhost of Tsushimaalready exists.
Ghost Of Tsushima Already Did Japanese Assassin’s Creed
It’s generally hard to think of a Japanese Assassin’s Creed without recognising that’s basically what Ghost of Tsushima was, and even harder now since the Director’s Cut has just been released on Steam, allowing PC players to jump into the game for the first time.
Ghost of Tsushima is everywhere in gaming discourse, with PC players allowing themselves to be astounded by the game’s beautiful opening sequence for the first time and being wowed by the execution of a game they’ve wanted for so long.
When I first played Ghost of Tsushima, I too was struck by how similar it was to the classic Assassin’s Creed games. I was immediately reminded not of the more recent AC games, but of the first game and its subsequent Ezio trilogy. Stealth has taken a backseat in most of the contemporary entries – I think often of the massive battlefields of Odyssey and grumble at what’s been taken from us – but the focus on stealth tactics in Ghost of Tsushima reminded me of being arealassassin, forced to take down my enemies one by one instead of rushing into camps and creating bloodbaths. You have the option, but Jin Sakai can spend most of the game striking from the shows if you so choose.
And yet, Ghost of Tsushima didn’t click with me at all. I know people loved it – it got good reviews from critics and my own partner considers it one of his favourite games – but it felt hollow to me. Jin felt like the classic trope of a samurai, and the game’s story regurgitated a familiar samurai tale about honour and discipline. It didn’t tell a story that I found meaningful, because it was a story that had been told time and time again. I finished it, because I had time and I’d paid full price for it, but I didn’t really enjoy it.
Features lead and Ghost of Tsushima defender Jade King insists that the expansion has excellent storytelling, but I didn’t play it.
Perhaps, in including an unconventional protagonist drawn directly from history, Shadows can avoid this pitfall. I haven’t found any of the recent games very narratively compelling, but against all odds, Shadows has piqued my interest. My favourite part of every Assassin’s Creedhas always been seeing how real historical figures are interpreted through Ubisoft’s lens and how we get to interact with them, from working with Leonardo da Vinci to debating Socrates, but we’ve never gotten to see that with a protagonist.
I’m not exactly hopeful – while Shadows already has a more interesting premise,I have no doubt that it will also be a victim of Ubisoft’s awful open-world philosophy. At the same time, I suspect that Shadows will bring back more focused stealth-oriented sequences with the inclusion of Naoe as a less melee-inclined character, and if it does this successfully, it’s already surpassed Ghost of Tsushima for me. Ghost of Tsushima might have gotten there first, but maybe, just maybe, Assassin’s Creed Shadows will do it better.
