It’s now been a few weeks since Assassin’s Creed Shadows got released. While the game fell prey to misinformation throughout its production, it turned out to be one of the most successful games in the franchise.
In fact, its success is only second to Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, which was not actually as critically acclaimed. However, in Ubisoft’s estimation, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla benefited from releasing in the middle of the quarantine and lockdown phases of the pandemic, and they do see Assassin’s Creed Shadows as a bigger success from a creative standpoint.
But some of the things that spread during the game’s production were never fully debunked or confirmed. For one, after Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba made some statements about temple destruction in Assassin’s Creed Shadows, many in the West assumed that the executive branch of the government was actually going to take action. We reported on Japanese political scientist Jeffrey C. Hall explaining that contextually, Ishiba was unlikely to do something about the game.
Ubisoft would go on to remove the ability to destroy temples in the game, without providing explanation. We never got a confirmation that anyone in the Japanese government, including CERO. In fact, Ubisoft intended not to even draw attention to these changes. It’s just as likely that Ubisoft made these changes of their own accord to stem the possibility of any further controversies.
Today, we finally did get a comment from people who were involved in making the game, and you couldn’t find anyone with a more important role. Actress and singer Tsunoda Masumi actually voiced Fubayashi Naoe, the deuteragonist of Assassin’s Creed Shadows.
Insider Gaming got the chance to interview her at the BAFTA Game Awards. Here’s what Masumi said about this issue:
“For me, as a Japanese Naoe, I’m satisfied with my job, with what I was able to portray.
As Japanese, we grow up with the whole shrine, sacred mirrors, all of that – and I saw in the game that those are destroyable, and those things just do not happen. Watching that kind of hurts my heart a little bit.
You’re able to do some things in the game that you would just never, ever, ever be able to do in Japan, and those do hurt me. It’s just not authentic to be able to do something like that.”
So it’s not that Ubisoft was completely unaware about this part of the game. It’s certainly interesting if the developers, including those in Ubisoft’s Japanese studio, would speak up on how production of this game looked like from their side. It would help us understand what things that were said about the game were never true, and how we should ultimately look at Assassin’s Creed Shadows.
In the meantime, if you wanted to see this interview, you can do so below.
