Another Assassin's Creed Shadows developer elaborated on Ubisoft's approach to historical and cultural accuracy in the latest entry in the series. Thierry Dancero, art director for the new Assassin's Creed game, commented in a statement.
During Gamescom 2024, Ubisoft did not allow reporters to experience the demonstration of the Japanese chapter of the "Assassin's Creed" series in person. Still, the developers discussed the game in detail, including the features of the new graphics engine.
Of course, reporters also had questions for the developers, not necessarily related to the strictly technical aspects of the visuals. Eurogamer's Tom Phillips raised the issue of "media pressure" surrounding confusion surrounding some elements that players criticized as historically inaccurate, particularly the depiction of Yasuke as a full-fledged samurai.
Dancero emphasized that Assassin's Creed: Shadows is first and foremost a video game and that the developers "made creative decisions" to "provide players with the best possible experience." However, he reiterated what his colleagues have said that Ubisoft worked with numerous experts and the publisher's Japanese arm in making the game to accurately depict the reality of ancient Japan with "respect."
"We work with studios in Osaka and Tokyo (who act as consultants) and one of their art directors is involved and does research in the field. We go there, we do fieldwork as well, and we have Japanese experts who live in Japan. We often use them to look at our assets and they play games and provide feedback."
Both arguments appeared in the publisher's statement on July 23. As a reminder, the discussion about the "historical accuracy" of Assassin's Creed Shadows got so heated that Ubisoft apologized for the "error." However, the company emphasized at the time that Assassin's Creed was first and foremost a video game series and a work of fiction, rather than a faithful representation of history.