Assassin’s Creed Shadows Is Proof Historical Accuracy Is Overrated

Ahead of its release last week, the discourse surrounding Assassin’s Creed Shadows was fraught. To put it mildly.

Many fans bristled, and in some cases raged online, over historical inaccuracies spotted in the game’s preview content and marketing materials. For example, it’s debated among historians whether the historical figure of Yasuke, who is depicted as a Black samurai and a lead protagonist in the new Assassin’s Creed game, was actually a samurai under 16th century Japanese warlord daimyo Oda Nobunaga, or if this was simply an honorary title given to Yasuke in a gesture of appreciation. There were even folks online commenting on the historicity of one clip in which rice is being planted by farmers next to cherry blossoms, which evidently wouldn’t be blooming during rice planting season.

Furthermore, a recent, culturally charged development in the game’s rollout saw Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba commenting on gameplay footage showing Yasuke attacking innocents and breaking furniture in a sacred shrine. Ishiba expressed concern that if the game were to inspire visitors to deface a shrine in real life, it would be a serious issue. Commenters online likewise viewed the footage as disrespectful to Japanese culture.

In response, publisher Ubisoft released a patch for the game that doesn’t allow for weaponless civilians to bleed and renders tables and racks in shrines indestructible. This is one of several instances in the lead-up to the game’s release that Ubisoft has apologized for and amended controversial imagery related to the game.

The peculiar thing about the controversy surrounding Shadows is that while it has elicited a significant outcry from certain people upset with its perceived cultural insensitivities, the game’s revisionist mode of storytelling doesn’t deviate whatsoever from the approach the series has taken in the past. The franchise has always told an ongoing, fictional story informed and bolstered by historical figures and events, not the other way around. In other words, the going concern in Assassin’s Creed has always been the made-up stuff, not the archival stuff.

That’s not to say the games’ historical elements aren’t important, of course. From the digital recreations of Notre Dame to approximating what the Pyramids of Giza looked like during the reign of Cleopatra VII, there has always been deep value in the series’ historical research. What’s sad about the contentious rhetoric surrounding Shadows’ depiction of Japan, however, is that the game might literally be the most painstakingly detailed, lovingly crafted, respectfully researched portrayals of feudal Japan ever committed to an interactive medium. 

Den of Geek visited Ubisoft back in January to learn the lengths the developers went to pay proper respects to the region and its history, and it was almost unfathomable how obsessive the team was in recreating the look and feel of the time period. They spent time in Japan, consulted historians and experts, kept real-life weaponry and armor in the office for visual reference. Down to the shingles on roofs and the types of wood used in cabinets, the team were borderline psychotic about getting the details right.

In this respect, for every historical detail the game gets “wrong,” there are thousands and thousands of details the game gets right. Shadows’ game world is a ravishingly vivid portrait of 16th century Japan that deserves to be celebrated, and it’s a shame that some may be deterred from playing the game due to a vocal minority blowing minor issues out of proportion.

But there’s a deeper point still regarding the nature of historical fiction. While it goes without saying that historicity is a crucial component of period pieces, it’s unreasonable to uncouple a historical fiction from its fictional context and then dismiss it for inaccuracies.

Assassin’s Creed has reimagined history in countless ways since its inception in 2007. In Assassin’s Creed Origins, protagonist Bayek’s wife Aya is the first person to stab Julius Caesar, amusingly suggesting the Roman Senate followed the lead of an Egyptian dissident. In Assassin’s Creed II, the big bad is the freaking Pope, whose children are depicted as incestuous in Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood despite many historians now claiming that was anti-Borgia propaganda. In the same games, Leonardo da Vinci builds the player a wooden tank! Nobody complained about these “inaccuracies” for obvious reasons.

The outrage stemming from one of Shadows’ protagonists being Black comes from a dark place, and frankly, this article isn’t about that. The point here is that no historical fiction, Shadows and all of Assassin’s Creed included, should be judged solely on their historicity, as if they were documentaries or academic retellings of past events. To fixate on a handful of mischaracterizations or creative liberties in a game of such enormous scope isn’t helpful to anyone and only serves to distract from the fact that it’s unbelievably cool that such an immersive, breathtakingly beautiful portal into 16th century Japan now exists.

An irony that’s often lost in the interpretation of historical fiction is that while there is power and meaning in the accurate representation of a place and time, the most meaningful reflection of the past often exists in a story’s distortions of the facts.

The Assassin’s Creed Shadows tale of Naoe and Yasuke never happened, of course. But Naoe’s quest to find a deeper connection with her parents and Yasuke’s journey to self-empowerment and independence speak to the experiences of real people both past and present. The community of allies and friends the heroes build throughout the game and the adversities they overcome together is an homage to the strength and persistence of the Japanese people and a poignant message about what even the most oppressed people can accomplish when they work together.

Mark Twain famously cautioned us to “never let the truth get in the way of a good story,” and Ubisoft heeded those wise words. Assassin’s Creed isn’t afraid to reimagine historical figures and events to enrich its story and in many cases have a bit of fun. Did Leonardo da Vinci actually make gadgets for the Assassins in their eternal struggle with the Templars? Nope. But who cares? Assassin’s Creed II rules!

Assassin’s Creed Shadows rules, too, and the game’s critical response seems to echo this sentiment with the game currently holding a Metacritic score of 81. This is the silver lining of the story. Despite all of the noise and hubbub in the game’s lead-up, now that people are getting their hands on this bad boy and playing it themselves, it’s becoming crystal clear that the game should be judged on its own merits instead of being defined by venomous sociopolitical commentary perpetuated by people who haven’t even played the damn thing.

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