Assassin's Creed Shadows: New Characters Revealed
Assassin's Creed Shadows has revealed several new characters that Yasuke and Naoe will be meeting along their journey through feudal Japan. While most of the attention surrounding Assassin's Creed Shadows has been focused on its two main characters in the lead-up to the game's release, a new piece of artwork shows several others, only a few of whom have had their identities confirmed so far.
The next chapter in the historical fiction action RPG series, currently scheduled for release on March 20, Assassin's Creed Shadows stars dual protagonists Yasuke and Naoe. The former is an actual historical figure, most well known for being the first black samurai, who served under Oda Nobunaga, the first "Great Unifier" of Japan. By contrast, Naoe's origins are entirely fictional, though her in-game father, Fujibayashi Nagato, was a real-life leader of the shinobi in the Iga province who opposed the Oda clan.
A new piece of artwork released on the official Assassin's Creed Twitter account provides a new look at both of the protagonists as well as the two opposing leaders of their clans. There has been much speculation that Nobunaga will be the main villain of Assassin's Creed Shadows, as the polarizing historical figure has played a menacing role in the past across a large number of video games, anime, and other forms of media. The new artwork may give extra weight to this speculation, as Nobunaga, whose image takes up the upper right corner of the group of characters, is also by far the largest, taking up nearly the same amount of space as Yasuke and Naoe combined.
On the opposite end of the image, the father of Assassin's Creed Origins' Naoe stands ready to draw his blade at the bottom right of the group. Unlike Nobunaga's massive presence, Nagato is depicted as the same size as the other seven characters at the center of the artwork. Not much has been revealed about the game's supporting cast, but the image may provide a glimpse into some of its other key characters, with its remaining members including two armed shinobi, an older woman in a headwrap, and a plucky young boy who stands at bottom center.
While the image may be meant to depict Nobunaga's looming presence over all of Japan, some Twitter users responding to the post have accused Ubisoft of using it to direct attention away from Yasuke. There have been numerous complaints about Assassin's Creed Shadows since its main characters were revealed, with arguments ranging from anti-DEI rants to concerns about the historical accuracy of Yasuke's status as a samurai. Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot has decried these complaints as hateful and malicious, and the production team recently announced the game was being delayed from its previously planned February 14 release date to certify historical accuracy and to improve performance.
