I chopped about 45 seconds at the end of the video when talking about Yasuke. I don't know enough about this guy to make strong arguments, and frankly, I don't care. We shouldn't care. What Ubisoft is doing here is obvious, and they don't even deserve our time as we discuss whether the guy was a real samurai or not. This is a cheap marketing ploy, and the attention needs to be on their scummy monetization tactics and their dull, boring games. We also need to be focusing on the fact that they didn't even show the gameplay or discuss game mechanics. They aren't even trying at this point, and they think distracting everyone with the only black samurai(maybe, idc) is going to sell this game. The gameplay will decide, and I think it's telling that they don't have the confidence to show any. I mentioned Nioh, and I stand by that. Yes, Team Ninja is a Japanese group, but I still think plucking out the only white samurai is silly looking. But here's the thing with Nioh: I freaking loved that game, and I quickly forgot that the character was white. I was too invested in the tight combat, the crafting, the cool world, and everything else this game has to offer. That's the other reason I don't think Yasuke deserves much attention. If this game is EXTREMELY fun to play(which I doubt), then we won't give a damn what he looks like. But again, it's telling that we are discussing the merits of Yasuke, because there isn't anything else to discuss, because Ubisoft gave us nothing and has been giving us nothing for years. That fact that everyone is up in arms about Yasuke being one of the main characters says little about the audience, and volumes about how little there is to discuss about ANY Ubisoft game. Last point about gameplay. I'm playing Hades 2 at the moment, and I'm only on night 8 I think, but I have been about halfway through the third area, so I haven't seen everything, but I have seen 2/3 of it. I haven't seen any of this supposed woke writing or whatever yet. Yes, the character pictures are different, and some are silly, but the game is fun, so it's less important. I'm not saying entirely unimportant, you can discuss if you want to, but its importance is low. If you play this game, you don't want to discuss what Artemis looks like, you want to discuss the new magic and elemental systems. You want to talk about the play speed and if you think slowing it down is good or not. The MECHANICS of this game are interesting to discuss, the side characters are secondary, perhaps tertiary. I'm not pretending to be on a moral high ground here. It's fine to mock Ubisoft for this obvious ploy to get attention, because what they are doing is stupid. I'm just cautioning that we keep the perspectives right and give things the attention they deserve. While Yasuke deserves some attention, he doesn't deserve as much as their other shitty practices do. Happy gaming!

As a 6'7 black man myself I can confirm without reservation, that sneaking around anywhere is not my strong suit. Nighttime, sure I've got built in camo but I'm still tall af so it really doesn't do much good.

In China, we made a meme says ' Ubisoft is more excited finding Yasuke in history books than Oda Nobunaga finding Yasuke in real life. '

"I don't care what your school teachers told you but SHOGUN IS BLACK!"

Hey guy's did you know in Ghost of Tsushima you can play as an actual Japanese Samurai in Japan shocking I know.

I love how Sucker Punch dealt with months and months of toxic sludge being thrown at them being accused of "cultural appropriation" by western journos despite the game being beyond loved in Japan with some legendary Japanese game directors even gushing over it yet apparently this game also made entirely by white people is ok........I wonder why 🙄

"Ghost of Tsushima is superior" is the most succinct way to say what everyone is saying. That game still blows my mind. It was my first ever fully solo (I didn't need my husband's help for any main story boss fights so it counts! lol) Platinum Trophy and I am still so glad that it holds that title for me.

Man... When I saw the poster, I was really hyped for a mili-second until I realized that it's current-day Ubisoft.

Ubisoft used to be so good. I feel like we won’t be losing anything if that just go away.

11:55 You know what's hilarious. If someone made a Samurai game as like an Alternate history of Yasuke where he does become a samurai that's not connected to Assassin's Creed, it'd probably be fine, people would probably want to play it. It's the fact it's specifically Assassin's Creed, both in the Japanese game fans have been waiting for and the fact Yasuke would be terrible as an assassin that ruins it.

Every other AC game featured a unique fictional character as the protagonist until this one. I wouldn't have had a problem with Yasuke appearing as an NPC or character that you play as on a side mission, but it's obvious that they decided to go with him as the main character for the purpose of generating controversy and scoring ESG points, which just makes it feel very pandering and lame.

People comparing Nioh to this debacle just make me shake my head. William Adams was a real Englishman who went to Japan and actually became a real samurai, named Miura Anjin by none other than Tokugawa Ieyasu himself. Yasuke was never made a samurai, he was a curiosity to Nobunaga, who had no problem using foreign technology if he deemed it beneficial to his cause. Nobunaga is famously depicted wearing a cuirass and was the first Japanese warlord to mass field firearms in battle.

I love how the marketing correctly communicates that the base game is going to be disappointing

Hell I've wanted a Ninja Assassin's Creed game for years. Literally all they needed to do was make the main character of the game a Ninja, give a bunch of cool Ninja Weapons and boom, easy money.

i wanted ninjas when they introduced the concept to me in the Ezio movie where he is an old man. I thought for sure they are gonna make a female ninja game then... Then they didn't. The "ended" the modern day story of Desmond and suddenly I didn't care anymore.

We'll never have a game as good as Black Flag ever again

Not being racist here, but a black guy in samurai armor back in feudal Japan would attract some attention me thinks and is not an everyday sight. Could not just have a Japanese guy and girl.

I really never wanted to turn into "that guy," but learning this year that AC, Valhalla appeared on the SBI list, then learning the next AC game heavily features a samurai of colour in the Orient, it's hard to not hesitate or notice creative red flags. If they take the time and try contributing to verisimilitude, im always willing to keep an open mind. The past few years of media in all forms sacrificing internal logic and believability in favour of fancy aesthetics/cgi/combat/action is pretty discouraging

New AC main character supposedly wasn't even a Samurai, and was given a sword that couldn't cut, his only use was he was big. He was just written about because he was the one of the only dark skinned in a light skinned country

1 view in 41 seconds. This channel probably didn't fall off because I clicked on the notification and went right to the video to be one of the first people to see it.

If AAA gaming is getting ready to crash I think Ubisoft will be either the first or only major studio to utterly collapse

Just to put into perspective how much of a disaster this is. Nate Fox and Jason Connell, who led Ghost of Tsushima's development, were made tourism ambassadors of Tsushima because of the game's incredible reception. Since the reveal of AC Shadows, Japan has unified in hating this game.

Fortunately, my brain is "locked" to an era where top-tier games were around $50, so when a company tries to tell me it's in my interests to pay $110 just to get a complete game (before reviews come out... that will likely be buggy as hell on release... that Ubisoft in particular has just expressed a right to "yoink" out of my collection at their own _discretion_ ...) I have very little difficulty telling them where they can put their "special offer".

Fighting perceived racism with more blatant racism is a weird flex. (The Saboteur already did Assassin's Creed in occupied Paris, it needs a remaster)

For me assassins creed died when i excitedly got origins, hid in a bush, stabbed someone in the neck... And they turned around and one shot killed me because i was the wrong level.

A Yasuke game, on its own, could be cool. He arrived as a missionary's assistant, so he spoke enough Japanese to get by, and while he wasn't a samurai, he *was* a page. I'm not entirely sure exactly what duties that entailed in feudal Japan, but since he served Nobunaga, it's not impossible to imagine and write a scenario in which he'd be put in the role of bodyguard or ordered to fight. The potential for a good game is there-but not Assassin's Creed. As for Nioh though...sorry, but that one doesn't hold up. People cried because a game based on the story of William Adams, a real-life historical figure who was officially made a samurai for his contributions to Japan, starred a white guy, because apparently you're just not allowed to set a game in Japan unless the main character is Japanese. It's the same brand of projection that let those people insist to this day that RE5 was racist because it took place in Africa-although, in this case, it's even worse, because the people who worked on the game are themselves Japanese, so ultimately it was a bunch of woke Westerners screaming at Japanese people that they were only allowed to write stories about Japanese people. It was not a great look for anyone.

People!, also remember they will try to sell this as a $70 USD game or a $130 USD premium 3 day early access, nevermind, Greg mentioned in 9:09

This feels like Yasuke started out as the protagonist of the DLC series associated with AC Shadows. Sweet Baby consultants saw this and advised Ubisoft to bump the original Japanese main character and crowbar Yasuke into the main game.

Been waiting 10 yeears for an Assassin's Creed set in Japan and what do they do....they include DEI in it. And yeah it is kind of moot at this point since Ghost of Tsushima was effectively Assassin's Creed Japan but with better writing.

Most people say its just a game its not historically accurate why so serious . Me : But !!!!!!!! Ac 2 enzio italian in italy story Ac 3 connor native america in america Ac origin : bayek a persian in persia Ac odyssey : kassandra a spartan in greek metalogy story Ac valhalla : Eivor a viking decedent with viking story . But in Ac shadow we got sasuke a blackman represent japan with japanese story culture and history ??? Did japan lack of historical figure to represent their own Ac story and narrative ?? Even i from asian confuse why we need black to represent our own history and culture ??

Last Assassin's Creed game I played was Origins and I thought it was pretty fun overal. I loved the setting of Ancient Egypt, it was beautiful to look at and the expansions into the Afterlife were awesome too, hell Bayek is my favorite Assassin of the bunch, but I just don't care anymore.

Oh lovely, Sony is already screwing up the Tsushima PC release with the same BS they tried to pull on Helldivers. Wonderful. Still a good game, though.

Ghost of Tsushima Gave me what I wanted from AC it just needs better stealth like being able to hang from ledges or cling to corners and do corner assassination without exposing yourself Arkham batman style and more assassination mechanics in the sequel. Other than that I love it I've beaten the game 23 times it's what I play when listening to podcasts and testing out new builds like poison archer, Resolve and health builds, fear based fire builds etc. There are a lot of modifiers with charms that change how fights. I also just love the sword fighting and replay duels constantly with different armor sets, charms and at different difficulties. It feels like playing games back in the day where you do absolutely everything in the game and scrape it for every scrap of fun you can. It's like wiping a plate with a piece of bread to get all the gravy while saving for the next big game you will play for a whole year.

Ghost of Tsushima is a masterpiece, seriously, it's criminally underrated. Don't watch spoilers or reviews, just get it if, you think there's even a slim chance you'll enjoy it, because you'll love it. I don't know about Souls type, I couldn't manage the screeching on Bloodborne, but I've played Armored Core 6 just to get a sense of difficulty in modern gaming. Ghost of Tsushima is accessible, kind of, but on new game plus, with the cursed charms and the broken armour, it's as difficult as they come. One thing I really appreciated was the fact that button spamming and losing composure only makes things worse and worse, but if you keep your cool you can pull it off. You can approach situations as you please, stealthily, developing a plan or strategy, or you can go full on berserk. And it's gut wrenching of a storyline, don't be fooled by the beautiful graphics, it's brutal. As I once said about GOT ending, "everyone knows what's coming, but when it comes, no one is prepared for it". Get your tissues boys, it's Arthur Morgan all over again. (Jin doesn't die, so it's not a spoiler).

the sad thing is that the story of Yasuke is really cool and interesting, and it's gonna be told by Ubisoft

All that really matters is that no one in Shadows ever says "nigai!".

Yasuke, while not a samurai, was a vassal. In other words, a man who received land from a feudal lord in return for homage and loyalty. _A black man was taken on as a vassal by Nobunaga-sama and received a stipend. His name was decided to be Yasuke. He was also given a short sword and a house. He was sometimes made to carry Nobunaga-sama's tools_ _The black man understood a little Japanese, and Nobunaga never tired of talking with him. And because he was strong and could do a few tricks, Nobunaga took great pleasure in protecting him and had him roam around the city of Kyoto with an attendant. Some people in the town thought that Nobunaga might make him as tono_ (a lord) source: the italicized passages are from the records of the Society of Jesus of Japan, where wikipedia got the info*/

Well, the thing about Nioh William was actually an historical western dude who did come to Japan and did become a samurai. I think it was either Dutch or British.

Just for everyone's awareness, a little detail on Ubisoft's stock: There present stock price (ticker symbol UBSFY) is $4.70. Their five year performance: the stock has lost 71.27% of it's value from it's peak of $20.78 from Jan of 2021. Present market cap is 2.81 billion. As such, they have lost a whopping 12.43 BILLION IN MARKET CAP in the past 3 1/2 years.

I bet they're feeling pretty stupid about scrapping the Child of Light 2 game.

AC Shadows BARELY looks like an Assassins Creed game, the first 6 (AC, 2, Brotherhood, Revaluations, 3, Black Flag) games all felt like AC, they all felt like they neetly tied together. Now AC games come off as that in name only, its Assassins Creed because it was made by Ubisoft, not because it captures the same essense that made the first couple of games in the series different from other games like it

"Nobunaga oda was a black man. It's the truth because my grandma said so"

They had one job. "Ninjas in Japan."

AC Shadows is just Walmart Ghost of Tsushima.

Never forget that this game is heavily influenced by sweet baby Inc

I was one of the hardcore AC fans who wanted a compromise between the Yes and No sides of the Feudal Japan debate. I proposed the idea of an AC game that's set in Meiji Restoration era Japan. Basically, think of _The Last Samurai_ as a video game. It meets the fans' desires of an AC game set in Japan and Alex Hutchinson's desire of having more unique historical settings. If they released that instead of _Origins_ it would've been a smash success if done right. Seeing how low this franchise sunk genuinely brings a tear to my eye.

Ubisoft peaked with Black Flag and it’s all been downhill since. It’s unbelievable

Piracy isn't stealing if buying isn't owning

We Wuz Samurai

If only ghost wasn't still blocked in countries where you can't get ps account. Even if it isn't required to play.

Average height of Japanese pre-17th was 5 feet, meanwhile a 6 feet+ black dude tries to blend in after stabbed someone.😂😂😂😂

Not only Tsushima but you also have Sekiro, Rise of the Ronin, Trek to Yomi, Ninja Gaiden re-release, etc all out now, plus a slew of television/movies that has jumped on this relative period (Blue Eye Samurai, Shogun). So what would have been fun and innovative a decade ago is now Ubisoft once again getting to the party late because all other media has decided to do it.... Vikings, Last Kingdom, The Northman, Vinland Saga etc....oh i guess we should do a Vikings game. At this point I will be shocked if we don't see a WWII AC in the next few years based on that 2012 stateme- OH WAIT THEY ALREADY DID IT IN UNITY!! Or they'll completely throw out the current concept and they'll do a future-based game with dystopian AI and cybernetics. Follow the media trends, wait a few years, then you'll see an AC game.

2:45 Thats so accurate! When I heard about this game. My first thought was "Not interested. Already have Ghost of Tsuhima"

Subscription model to basically stream your games. Is Ubisoft CEO hanging out with Disney’s CEO? 😅

To kill ass creed shadows(they literally even have a Japanese consultant who seems to be abit too deep into LGBTQ and pedo stuff) sucker punch just needs to announce ghost 2.

If you buy this game. It shows your level of intelligence and or when you were born(after the year 2000

In regards to the original Nioh and the historical figure of William Adams, I disagree it was wrong...primarily because of what I believe they were going for. I believe the idea was that William is a stranger in a strange land facing strange beings (For clarity I mean yokai and not the Japanese). In order for he, a foreigner, to survive he has learn and master things that just as foreign to him. This IMHO pairs nicely with the game's atmosphere and difficulty to cement the fact William is a fish out of water. I think Team Ninja's choice to use William in this regard was a deliberately and thematically approriate choice that serves the game rather than to pander. Whereas Ubisoft's protrayal of Yasuke is the opposite and to get that ESG/BRIDGE/WEF funding. I am not even opposed to Yasuke being a protagonist or major character in the game per say. However, I think would've been more narratively interesting to have him retain his well...retainer role instead of being a full fledged samurai. It could explore how Yasuke feels about the whole affair, but also use his "trophy" status among Nobunga to better infiltrate, gain intel, and y'know...assassinate certain big players among Japan at the time. Y'know, like an actual Assassin. Just my long-winded two cents.

This one gonna flop hard

Don't mind me, I'm going to play the Ezio Trilogy for the... Okay I've lost count how many times I've played through them, but I always come back every single year!

Damn! They really just don't care anymore '$70 or $130 take it or leave it.'

Its unfortunate with the DEI shit but the real problem to me is that it's $130 for the complete game...

It's gonna be ironic. Ubisoft wants to make a game set in Japan. But all its really doing is convincing players to go play Ghosts of Tashima instead.😄

Thank you for covering the issues with this game in an all encompassing manner instead of just zeroing in on the most surface level problem. It’s still a problem but you addressed it with the appropriate amount of context and scale while handling the criticism of Ubisoft well here.

Thank you for not shying away from Yasuke, so many people are either blowing that out of proportion or just ignoring it. It's a scummy shitty thing to do almost akin to the issue of Tokenism in the 90's. It's gross and should be called out.

I don't know if you'll see this, but if you're drinking green tea, and it has a sour/bitter taste of tannins, then you're brewing it in water that's too hot! Green tea should be brewed at 85°C (185°F), at 2-5 minutes. Add a teaspoon of honey for some extra sweetness!

" Leave The Ubisoft ALONE! You NATIVE JAPANESE! - fanboy Colonizer

i always has this idea for a WWII AC since right after Rogue, that it was essentially a reverse. You start as a SS Soldier, on his mission to become more than a Templar foot soldier during the invasion of Stalingrad, just to be captured by the Russian Brotherhood, who find a way to convince you to turn against the Templars and the rest of the game takes place in Berlin, until the end when you get to kill Hitler in the Eagle's Nest, just to end up being killed by the Soviets as they take the city.

They're likely to give "yasuke" better writing and development than the female ninja character.

i thought this game was single player? why would you need a season pass?

Day one DLC is Theft only games like Elden Ring and Ghost of Tsushima have real DLC. You get a complete experience followed by added value more story and gameplay and map months after the original game can out. If the DLC is already available when the game comes out it's just content they stole from a complete game and should be illegal as fraud.

216$ a year for the subscription 😂 yeah ok I'll get right in that. Nope. @Ubisoft died to me years ago

No worries, it will be as good as Skulls and Bones. I see you salivating and getting all giddy. Ubisoft is a company on the up and up.

It's funny how they think I'm gonna buy any of their trash games with how they've been shitting on ownership rights

I’d like to see a rouroni kenshin game that would be epic

I stopped playing Ubisoft games when I lost an MMA match against their stupid Ubisoft Connect Uplay garbage

I could have understood Japan, WWII, and Egypt not being great settings because there are no huge buildings to leap from. But AC is more than just parkour as we found out later.

I wouldn’t say they’re desparate, Valhalla was the first entry to pass 1 billion in revenue. But they are, as usual in recent years, just trend chasing. They could have been first on the block here but they chose to release it with Ghost of Tsushima and Rise of The Ronin on the market already with more on the way. This setting could have easily been a slam dunk for them if they had released it long before. To be fair though even RGG thought ‘western gamers won’t like a game based on historical Japan’ which is why they didn’t port Ishin over to the west until recently, legit citing Ghost’s popularity as the reason they did so. Why this was a prevelant thought in the industry I’ll never understand. People obviously love this stuff.

Now that I've seen you make a contagiously positive set of videos - I'm like... yearning for there to be some kick ass stuff for you to talk about.

Greg, I agree with everything you say. When saying "Yasuke" the U is virtually silent. Like Sasuke from Naruto.

Thank you for actually criticizing the game and company. Not getting bogged down in Yasuke.

I'm with you for most of the video (and against this game because of Sweet Baby Inc and the clear DEI it's pushing) but you got a slip-up with your Yasuke info. The real-life Yasuke was documented at 5'9". He did arrive as a slave and was kept by Nobunaga because of his skin. He was a retainer, which are and can be a samurai. He was Nobunaga's weapon holder but that was actually a High Ranking Position. He actually had more social rank than many other Japanese because of that. He's less impressive with the fact that the only recorded battle of him that was documented has him losing and becoming a prisoner. And when he is released, no other documented information about him is seen again.

Funny how all of the sudden a small group of people became experts on Yasuke. As if he saved Japan back in the day

Yasuke wasn't exactly a Samurai specifically as far as we know, but he was a warrior and based on the little historical knowledge we have of him he appears to have been relatively close and trusted by Nobunaga. It's important to understand when we use words like retainer/servant in the west it might not carry the same connotation as they do in the east. All Samurai are retainers after all, who serve their daimyo. In the same way that one might say a Noble Night is still the servant or retainer of the king. And Nobunaga was certainly a powerful warlord for his time. And while we don't know Yasuke's exact position in Nobunaga's hierarchy, from the evidence we do have it is clear that Yasuke was favored by Nobunaga, who gave Yasuke a weapon and a house of his own, trusted Yasuke to try and save his son when he was betrayed by one his other retainers, and the two were close enough that some of the other nobles under Nobunage began to think he would make Yasuke a Lord. As far as we know that last bit didn't ever play out, but to say that Yasuke is AT BEST as squire is disingenuous I think. There is evidence to support the idea he was much much more than that, but not enough to conclusively state his position one way or the other. There is a lot of wiggle room to tell a fictional story w/ Yasuke precisely because we DON'T know a whole lot about him.

They were on the right track in Mirage I didnt know why they went back to the RPG again.

It isn't sure if he was a Samurai or not. There is very little known about him. Women Shinobi didn't really exist. Then again Shinobi didn't really assassinate...

I don't care about the "controversy." While people have argued about the franchise being supposedly historical or not, Assassin's Creed has always been on the more wacky fictional side of things from the start regardless of what people say. HOWEVER, I am not keen on Ubisoft again falling short and just having another open world experience for us all filled with boring busywork. It means nothing to be an "assassin" in the series now. There's no weight, no proper conveyance as to the importance of being part of the Assassin Order since.........Black Flag, I would say. Nowadays, we're just playing as random edgy people wearing hoods and sticking blades into others.

Thank you for explaining the tiers so well! You inspired me to go Ultimate!

Ill still argue 2 big things in defense of Nioh, 1. Nioh doesnt make you think that its super historically accurate, Assassins creed did at one point, and 2 the main charcter in nioh 1 was a historical figure who did indeed become a samurai and play a small but important part in Japanese history.

While I don't usually fall for the sort of marketing tricks employed like price anchoring or monthly subscriptions for things like Ubisoft+ (the one I would say I'm most susceptible to is FOMO namely with big sales where games are over 50% off), it always fascinates me to see the little psychological tricks used by companies to try and make the tactic work. Seemingly doubling the number of features from base edition to gold edition. Changing the banner from base game to the other more pricier editions, always adding onto the list of available features no matter their actual value, and relying that ppl get the $18/month edition several months earlier to get more money out of the consumer who doesn't know any better.

Sinking ship for Star Wars? That thing is laying next to the Titanic now

I love how you disect this problem without going into the DEI aspect

Another thing to point of with the pricing is, that the subscription comes with this "Season Pass" thing. It means, that they will release those season DLCs slowly on purpose, so that the consumer needs to be subbed 4-6+ moths if he wants to play all of those. And when he has done those, Ubisoft is having "a next thing coming just in 1-2 months!" to keep you subbed. That, and also their open world games are so boring and filled with endless padding, that nobody wants to fiinish them quickly, instead get bored in the middle, and then keep the game still installed and subscription going on, since "didnt finish it yet".

Aaaahhh Greg, this is your best video yet. Very well done indeed, keep up the good work. Yeah, Ubislop is dead to me, I played six AC games, it seriously looks like I won't be playing anymore, sad times in a minor way.

I wouldn't mind if they had included Yasuke as a side character. A black man who has found a way to help the assassins, but cannot do field missions do to the fact that he sticks out like a sore thumb in any social setting is interesting to me, and we've met a few characters throughout the games that are just that: they help gather information, but typically aren't seen doing anything especially physical.

Props on the Yorkshire Tea!!!!!

Strange that Nioh 1 got the flack that it did. William Adams is a real person in history that Nioh 1 tried to revolve around. The historical accuracy is obviously not perfect but i believe it's more than enough to understand the scenario.

Remember if a game dev or studio doesn't show gameplay then wipe the game from your memory and pretend it doesn't exist, you'll be better off for it.

I was an Assassin’s Creed teen, I got started writing by doing Assassin’s Creed fanfiction…. Now I’m just disappointed and not playing the new games. It was a fun phase, but so many fandoms have been hijacked and crashing into mediocrity. No thanks!

彼らの政治的信条のために我々の歴史や文化が都合のいい道具として使われるのは実に不本意ですな

Look I’m a black guy, how the hell is a giant black dude supposed to not stand out in feudal Japan and be a stealthy assassin?