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Tom Henderson: Assassin's Creed Red to feature the first assassin that actually existed (Yasuke)


Insider Gaming has learned that the Assassin’s Creed Red Samurai will be based on the real-life African Samurai called Yasuke.


Speaking with sources, Insider Gaming understands that the male character is certainly Yasuke, but his story has been rewritten to align with the game’s story and direction.

Earlier this year, Twitter user j0nathan revealed some details on the female protagonist named “Naoe” who is on a quest for revenge following the death of her father. Insider Gaming can corroborate this information, with Naoe’s full name currently being called Naoe Fujibayashi – The daughter of the legendary real-life Fujibayashi Nagato, who is considered to be one of the three greatest Iga jōnin.

Similar to Naoe, Yasuke’s story starts off with tragedy and unlike his real-life story, his story has been rewritten. In Assassin’s Creed Red, Yasuke was a slave traveling on a slave ship when it was attacked and everyone was killed, including his lover, but he survived. Yasuke was then rescued and brought to Japan, where he learned the way of the samurai under Nobunaga’s service.
 

Banjo64

cumsessed
They really want to shat these games out don’t they? 1 day after release and they’re already trying to hype you on the next one.
 
... unlike his real-life story, his story has been rewritten. In Assassin’s Creed Red, Yasuke was a slave traveling on a slave ship when it was attacked and everyone was killed, including his lover, but he survived.
Surprised Nicolas Cage GIF

They just can't help themselves.
 
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ssringo

Member
I have to ashamedly admit I needed to read that headline a few times to understand what they were saying.

"Yasuke was the first assassin? In AC lore?" er, no
"Yasuke was the first assassin? IRL?" er, also no
"Oh, Yasuke is the first assassin in the franchise that was a real person"

derp GIF
 
I thought Bayek was the first? Or is this some retcon bullshit to drum up interest?
I think it means the protagonist is actually an existing historical figure. Although AC series has featured numerous historical figures as NPC (Da Vinci, Pythagoras, etc..) but the protagonists so far have always been fictional.
 

Gambit2483

Member
I think it means the protagonist is actually an existing historical figure. Although AC series has featured numerous historical figures as NPC (Da Vinci, Pythagoras, etc..) but the protagonists so far have always been fictional.
I thought they made a point to never base the MC off of a real historical figure. That way ther "re-tellings" of history don't come off quite as absurd.

Why include a real person then completely rewrite their history? 😕
 

Seyken

Member
What is the point of using a real person but totally rewriting their history?
Everyone knows why, they are just not saying it. The amazing not-political writers at Ubisoft REALLY wanted to have a black protagonist, buuuuut the game is set in Japan. As we know, there are not many blacks hanging around there, specially back then. Just making one up would probably not go over too well. So they decided to find that ONE DUDE that actually existed, all so they could justify it.

What, tell his real story? Who gives a shit about that, right? It's all about the woke points.
 
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norm9

Member
Was waiting for an Ass Creed game taking place in Japan. This ain't it though.

My other big hope is a game taking place in Forbidden Palace during the empire days. Crossing my fingers the main character will be a British dude.
 
What is the point of using a real person but totally rewriting their history?
i think that game developers, as did movie directors a while back, have come to realize that they are, to a large extent, actually creating history when they do this. iow, it's highly likely that younger generations of gamers'll associate this or that historic character/incident with their version rather than the genuine one, thereby allowing them to cherry pick the aspects they like, & simply fabricate the rest. an example:

Midway through the new Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, I sat nestled in a sniper’s nest overlooking the Highway of Death. In Modern Warfare, this is not the road between Kuwait and Iraq but a highway leading from a city into the mountains of the fictional country of Urzikstan. Viewed through the scope of my rifle, Call of Duty’s Highway of Death—with its burnt out cars, gray dust, and cracked road—looks exactly like photographs of Iraq’s Highway of Death.

We’re told in a cutscene that, during its invasion of this fictional country, Russia bombed the highway killing people trying to escape. Just like that, in a piece of popular fiction, American atrocities become Russian atrocities. It’s the kind of distance players need to separate themselves from history, to watch the road uncritically through a scope, and place bullets downrange so that their enemies head’s satisfyingly explode. It’s a fun mission...

https://www.vice.com/en/article/mbm...th-and-call-of-dutys-exploitation-of-the-past

it's fundamentally a kinda cynical version of that 'based on a true story' thing, mostly there to simply give your whole project a bit of depth/gravitas. iow, you're supposed to be impressed while being lied to...
 

Trunx81

Member
This really is dwelling into "Somehow, the first assassin returned" territory. Does anyone still understand or even care for an overarching plot?
 
Ffs…Go woke…Cant just be a Japanese character, just have to be a Black slave…Cant wait for all the White Supremacists being the root of all evil, fuck off Ubi, you had one fucking job…
Iditiotic take, Yasuke is a real person and his story is pretty cool, there's not a lot of media out there of him so there's nothing wrong with exploring this.
Also there's little known about his history before coming to japan, there's no actual hard evidence that he was a slave, that's speculation.
Also, there's two playable characters like in AC syndicate, and the other is japanese, so you can stop with the fake outrage.
 
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Giallo Corsa

Gold Member
We already had a samurai/japanese themed Assassin's Creed game, Ghost of Tsushima , this is a case of -too little, too late".

For all the good things Ghost of Tsushima did, it was - for all intents and purposes - a Ubisoft game , meaning, big boring open world with the usual "destroy X camp", "collect the hidden thingamajigs all over the map", "do these side missions", "lvl up to unlock skills", "grind mats to lvl equipment" etc etc...
At the very least, Ghost had an enjoyable melee system and the standoffs never got old, same with the 1 on 1 duels - something which the Ass Creed games will never be able to top.

TLDNR : Ghost of Tsushi, while being kinda mediocre itself it's still gonna be better than whatever Ubi is gonna shit out, also, they kinda lost their "opportunity window" since people could get their open world Samurai fix by playing Ghost of Tsushi years ago, then again, the people that like their mindless open world Ubisoft OCD collect-athon reskins are in the millions so what do I know...
 
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Fbh

Member
What is the point of using a real person but totally rewriting their history?

This sounds to me like they don't really care about the actual historical figure, just about his ethnicity. They want to write their own black samurai character but they need to loosely base him on a historical figure to deflect any criticism with "but he is based on a real person!!!".

What's funny is that the story of Yasuke isn't particularly well documented, there's a lot of unknown stuff about his history that they could have written as they see fit. But at least based on this report they can't even stay true to the little information we DO know about him
 

Gaiff

SBI’s Resident Gaslighter
What is the point of using a real person but totally rewriting their history?
Very little is known about the real Yasuke. Certainly not enough to make him the protagonist of such a long game. Most of it will be fictional because most of it isn't known.
 
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