Assassin’s Creed Shadowsis nearing itstwice-delayed launch date of March 20, and I remain unconvinced. It has long seemed (ironically for a historical game) like a series out of time. Too dated to truly compete at a triple-A level, but too deep into triple-A conventions to scale back to a scope its gameplay might thrive in.
Theroleplay elements of Shadows are intriguing, but feel like a hood on a hood for a game already too complex for its own good. Idon’t expect it to stick the landing, and streamlining whilefurther digitising the Animus functionsmakes it seem likeAssassin’s Creedno longer wants to be Assassin’s Creed, except for the fact that it is a valuable brand name with the potential to make a lot of money. I believe there remain many reasons to be wary of Assassin’s Creed Shadows, but the community is instead fighting about fruit.
Historical Accuracy Is Under The Microscope
In the latest gameplay showcase for Assassin’s Creed Shadows, we see Yasuke walking through a market. To his left, there is a cart of watermelons - a pretty common sight in Japan. In the background, a smattering of cherry blossoms decorate the horizons in full bloom - again, another common sight. For some, this has become the latest in a long line of reasons why Assassin’s Creed Shadows will be the worst game of all time.
The reason for this is because watermelon season is late-April to mid-August, while cherry blossoms bloom through March and into early-April. They don’t have any strict crossover, though nature does not work to our specific Gregorian time scales. More to the point, watermelons had not yet arrived in Japan, and so the presence of both is an anachronistic goof. Of course, this in itself is not the reason that people believe Assassin’s Creed Shadows will be the worst game of all time, it’s just what they’re saying right now. Why they actually think that is because Yasuke is Black.
We can see evidence of this inUbisoft outright condemning the racismthe game has endured, as well as incontinued tweets comparing Yasuke to George Floydorjoking about him eating watermelons.
This has been the whole story all along. At first it wasendless debates about the historical accuracy of Yasuke, despite many historical texts of him existing and the general dramatic flair Assassin’s Creed has shown previously, like when you had a fistfight with the Pope under the Vatican. Though there are legitimate concerns about Shadows' overall quality to be aired, so much of the general discourse is either wrapped up in people who are hiding their racism behind disingenuous complaints or simply aren’t hiding it at all.
Shadows Has Never Deserved This Level Of Attention
I don’t like being hauled into the trenches to defend Assassin’s Creed, because frankly, I’m not even sure it will be any good. My feelings were lukewarm whenI saw it at Summer Game Festand haveremained that way ever since. This is not a series that feels capable of the level of change required of it in order to thrive and survive. There are some substantial criticisms you can make of Assassin’s Creed Shadows and previous games in the series, from their large and empty worlds, lack of player agency, failure to evolve its combat and parkour with the times, and relying ona collectible-heavy formula that felt outdated in the ’00s.
And yet! These sorts of dog-whistle complaints over watermelons not being in season are what infect the void left when you look the other way. There is some perception that regular games simply don’t want to be dragged into culture war drama, but even the most casual, ‘I just want to grill’fans of Assassin’s Creed now find the game poisoned by this constant toxicity.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows may be good. It may be bad. It may be somewhere in the middle, which is where I expect it to be, even if I’d err closer to ‘bad’ right now. But none of that will be because Yasuke is Black. If the game is good, that fact will quickly be forgotten, previous protests ignored by many of the loudest voices as happened with the likes of Baldur’s Gate 3. If it is bad, that will be blamed squarely on Yasuke and not on Ubisoft’s inability to confidently evolve the formula. It will have nothing to do with watermelons, and the worst part is, everyone knows this already.
