Assassin's Creed: Shadows is not a „feudal Japanese movie.” Game's director explained Ubisoft's take on Naoe and Yasuke's story
The developers of AC: Shadows freely interpreted Japanese history and played with the formula. This is manifested, for instance, in the two main characters.
The developers of Assassin's Creed: Shadows have repeatedly emphasized that they are primarily creating a game, only inspired by historical events. Finding their "own way" in adapting Japanese culture caused Ubisoft considerable difficulties, even though the game "is not a documentary," which allowed the studio to play around with the history a bit more.
"It's not a feudal Japanese movie"
The director of AC: Shadows, David Nibbelin, recently spoke with GamesRadar+. He stated that one of the best things about working on this project was the fact that the devs didn't have to tell a traditional Japanese story.
It's not a feudal Japanese movie where everything has to be very grounded, because the way Assassin's Creed looks at history is very unique.
Nibbelin admits that the team didn't want to show Japan from a "very clinical or an overriding stereotypical view." Their goal was for the player to experience the story, not watch a documentary film. The game included "small modern elements" precisely because Ubisoft could "play with the formula."
Part of this freedom is manifested in the existence of two protagonists - Naoe and Yasuke. According to Nibbelin, this is the perfect opportunity to see Japan from two different perspectives.
With just about all the cutscenes, we try to find ways to flavor them in terms of how the NPCs react to you. Between a samurai and a villager from Iga, the reactions of NPCs are going to be different, and we get to flavor these little variations and what they say, what their eye-lines do.
Assassin's Creed: Shadows is available on PC, PS5, and XSX/S. Within 3 days after its release, the game attracted 2 million players, and yesterday it also broke the series record for the number of people playing simultaneously on Steam, previously held by AC: Odyssey.
