Summary
- After months of unending backlash to Assassin’s Creed Shadows for having a Black lead, fans are getting fed up.
- A post on the series’ subreddit shot to the top after one fan called out the “blatant racism” in the community.
- Many in the comments agreed with the sentiment, pushing back against the backlash, pointing out once again that Yasuke is a historical figure, and that there wasn’t nearly as much controversy over his appearance in Nioh.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows has been the victim of impassioned ridicule and outrage ever since Ubisoft first unveiled that one of its two lead characters was Black. Some fans declared it historically inaccurate and even insulting to Japan, despite Yasuke being a real historical figure from the era the game is adapting.
Things got so bad that Ubisoft issued a lengthy statement addressing the backlash, while CEO Yves Guillemot directly denounced the “hateful acts” towards the game. Scouring through forums or online discussion, however, you’ll still run into fans complaining that Yasuke feels out of place, often making racist, stereotyped remarks and jokes, while also wishing for an ‘actual’ Japanese protagonist instead — there is one… she’s called Naoe.
Over the weekend, u/KvasirTheOld called out these fans, and the YouTubers and content creators who are pushing the same narrative, directly on the series’ subreddit.
“Assassin’s Creed Shadows has revealed just how ugly the gaming community is,” they wrote. “I’ve been a gamer for my whole life, but I’ve never seen people act more feral about a game than they did with Shadows […] I’m talking about blatant racism, bias, and openly admitting to wanting tens of thousands of people to lose their job […] I’m just sick and tired of this”.
Fans Are In Agreement, Complain About “Toxic” Shadows Community
Looking at the comments is a welcome surprise. While it has been locked by the subreddit’s moderators, you’ll find that many in the community are in support of OP’s message.
“I have leant towards ignoring the gaming community at large [because] of the toxicity,” u/LukaLaurent said. “I left all the generic [Facebook] groups and subreddits and have instead just taken up the individual game/series ones. I never really followed YouTubers, [because] they were always pretty toxic”.
This franchise has brought me nothing but joy and happiness, and I’ll be damned if some hate-filled idiot is gonna try and dissuade me from playing what I enjoy — u/JurassicRanger93
“Gaming has been co-opted by a syndicate of grifters on Twitter and YouTube. It’s culture war horsesh*t, nothing more,” u/Spartan3_LucyB091 added.
“It’s not really just this game,” u/una322 said. “You have a huge amount of people now, who go out of their way to look for anything negative. You have entire YouTube channels that build their entire channel around reporting anything negative […] They will nitpick non-stop, bring up anything they can find even if it’s super stretching. Then once the game’s been out for a bit, they’re already off onto the next thing […] People wanna hate, and there is an entire culture around it now.”
Normal tolerant people who play games and engage in gaming-related spaces have a responsibility to shut that shi* down when we hear people try to start it. It’s the only way their ability to dominate every conversation is going to change — u/EhhSpoofy.
Several commenters agree with this remark and have declared the response to Shadows as “irrational” and “disturbing”, pointing out Yasuke even featured in the popular Soulslike game Nioh — developed by famed Japanese studio Team Ninja — as the “Obsidian Samurai“. There wasn’t close to the same wave of backlash in 2017, or again in 2020 when he featured more prominently in Nioh 2, making the whole controversy feel especially artificial.
Going by the many comments in support of the original post, and the over 4,600 upvotes, it’s clear that many in the community are in agreement, growing increasingly tired at the backlash as Shadows finally nears release.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows
- Released
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March 20, 2025
- ESRB
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Mature 17+ // Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Language
- Developer(s)
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Ubisoft Quebec