Talking Point: Assassin's Creed Fans, Do You Think Feudal Japan Will Live Up To The Hype?

I’m betting it will sell, but it won’t be a major success. All the controversy and missteps Ubisoft made, plus pissed off Japanese fans…that’s not a great combo.

But there are die-hard AC fans out there who don’t care and just want another AC game, and that’s okay too.

It’ll be interesting if Ubisoft touts sales numbers or “engagement” numbers like EA did for Veilguard.

It seems to be looking good so far in footage etc.
shall wait for reviews as I will have to pay for this one, not on GPU of course and I have got used to paying 🤣
Then again not even half way through avowed, so should wait for a quiet spell and a discount as well.
The again we got atomfall, south of Midnight then Doom so the quiet spell could be a while yet.

No doubt about it! Will probably play it two times, once as each character.

@dskatter All the controversy and missteps

I found that really stupid, personally. The amount of people pretending they got offended over a torri gate was ridiculous.

I think it will sell well myself. Or at least I hope it does.

I haven’t been this excited for an Assassin’s Creed game for a long time. Went all out (CE, two statues and hidden blade. May buy the tankard). Ubisoft has (based on what I have seen with hands on previews) made the assassin’s creed I have been waiting for. This will be my last (the story has long gone off the deep end so I am no longer as invested…I feel like I am the only person that actually cared about the modern storyline.) but what a way to go! I plan on 3 playthroughs. My only hope is that it has a Japanese language version. If it doesn’t I will also buy a Japanese region version.

Edit: oh snap they made a shogi board. So glad today is payday. Hahaha just bought it.

@Kaloudz And that’s the thing. You found it stupid. Other gamers found it hilarious, others found it insulting, including a number of Japanese gamers.

Funny thing about viewpoints. There’s more than one!

I haven’t really been all that interested if truth be told. What I liked about earlier Assassin’s Creed games was going to time periods rarely touch in video games, such as the Middle-East during the Crusades, Renaissance Italy, the American and French Revolutions.

Another game set in feudal Japan, a time dozens of other games have featured, just isn’t as interesting to me.

@themightyant Won’t know till the game comes out. I said “a number” which is obviously more than zero.

I wouldn’t underestimate the “noisy malcontents” though. Lately they have a history of being pretty spot-on as far as game success. glances at Veilguard

For the first time ever with a assassins creed game I'm not buying it and am instead having Ubisoft plus for a month ,I learnt my lesson with mirage

If the minimum amount of characters would allow it I would just write “No!”

@Kaloudz

It was a world war 2 monument.

@dskatter I mean that's all good and well (and I meant no offence to you) but I think that whole ordeal was a classic example of the internet blowing something up that otherwise may have come and gone in the blink of an eye. Just imo.

Even if you don't care about the endless controversies that got the entire country of Japan to hate Ubisoft, the fact that the majority of devs working on Shadows have never worked on a game before means it's probably not gonna be a good game.

@VoidPunk Surely not, when the game's setting is based centuries before. What's to say there wasn't a one legged torri gate back in feudal Japan? Partially destroyed during a civil war?

@Kaloudz

Japan is to say actually. And they did. Hence why Japan was pretty upset.

@themightyant No, it's more than just Japanese fans. The controversies have gotten to the point where the non-gamers in Japan are mad too. A major tipping point was them showing off destroyable environments that happened to be a religious shrine, which outraged a lot of people.

I haven't completed or properly enjoyed an assassin's creed game since black flag but this one looks decent hopefully for ubisoft the game does well but just by track record I wouldn't bet on it if I ever eventually play this game it will be because it's not a bloated dull mess like every ubisoft game since the 360 era!
They should of just made a ninja game and have it nothing to do with assassin's creed that IP has been milked to death!!

@ChopperCampbell

Do we have a lot of open world RPGs set in feudal Japan/Sengoku period?

Genuine question.

No game ever lives up to the hype which is why I tend to ignore any of that nonsense these days. Much like I ignore the loud group that will crap on any game ever released. All that noise isn't why I started in on gaming as a hobby and its a waste of my time.

KISS rule, Play games and have fun.

With regards to Shadows, not a day one purchase for me but pretty sure I will pick this up in a sale at some point in the future.

@Lup open world? I would say no

There is the Ghost series (only one game out now)
If you lump time periods you can say rise of ronin (as it is focused on the Meiji Restoration) and way of the samurai 4 (kinda it isn’t open world in the ubisoft fashion) also the Like a Dragon spin off games (not open world though).

While not truly open world the rest of the way of the samurai series (minus katanakami). And Okami. Granted that is older than the sengoku period and is based on Shinto.

Nioh and sekiro are mission based so not open world…

Honestly I would say no. I would also say there has been a massive decrease in stand alone games that focus on feudal Japan as well with only staples like Nobunaga’s Ambition, the Samurai Musou/Warriors series being modern examples. A lot of the ancient Japan themed (as in set in Japan) games faded after the PlayStation 3/vita era. Some games are coming back like Onimusha which makes its lore in the sengoku era (well the the third game has time travel…) and Okami is getting a new sequel. But until Ghost there hasn’t really been an attempt at an historical simulator. Likely because some countries ban samurai imagery and Japanese devs didn’t want to deal with that. I am not really surprised that the historical simulators that are open world like this are made by western studios. Japanese devs tend to like “inspired by” games so they can be loose with culture and make changes for global audiences. I think a lot of times westerners lump “inspired by”(onimusha,shinobi,ninja gaiden, goemon) games and say “oh that’s feudal japan”. But that would be like saying the early Final Fantasy games were medieval europe.

I am not who you tagged but I tend to gravitate to these types of games so wanted to respond.

I think it will be a great assassins creed game. There will probably be some more stupid drama about the setting or comparisons to other games set in that era of Japan but it will satisfy fans of the AC series. Valhalla should be the comparison instead of any of the other games going for this setting.

I think the game will do really well sales wise but be on the receiving end of a lot of bad takes online. Things like the 14th game in the franchise is "too much" like the other 13 and not enough like someone elses game set in japan.

They prioritised US politics over making the best game possible organically.

Everybody is upset at the makers of this game and likely won’t be buying it

My main concern is if I will enjoy this game and I think I will based on what I have seen so far. As for sales, I don't understand why anyone other than a Ubisoft shareholder should worry about that. The company will either remain as is or be sold to ensure the valuable IP's get used. I will play the game and leave the armchair analysts to the echo chamber.

There's a YouTuber called The Hidden One who made an excellent video debunking a lot of the controversy around this game. Worth a watch as it's pretty devastating.

As for the game itself, I think it looks good. I expect it to score in the low 80s on Metacritic. I will probably play it through Ubisoft+ as my big game purchase this month is going to be Xenoblade Chronicles X.

@VoidPunk Japan went on record and said that there was never a torri gate partially destroyed in all of feudal Japan history? I highly doubt that they'd know that. If they've said that (do you have a source?) I'm calling BS.

I know they said something along the lines of the WW2 torri gate being the only one legged gate currently in existence, but there's no way in hell they'd know that it's the only torri gate that was partially destroyed, throughout Japanese history. Not with all the wars, civil wars, and natural disasters Japan has endured throughout it's feudal history. There's just no way anyone could know that.

Whilst I would had preferred a remake of the first game that ditched Desmond altogether and just told the story of Altair, this has come at the right time. There aren’t as many genres set in Japan as there used to be and even less ninja games. It will be nice to play as the first historically accurate protagonist too.

@Kaloudz I think it’s the whole “Japan is the only country that has been nuked and the partially destroyed Torii gate is currently a symbol related to that devastation” thing that is the point.

Literally no one is saying that there’s never been a partially destroyed one of these. But CURRENTLY it’s kind of a thing that has more meaning after…you know…

@dskatter No no I totally get the respect that some people feel about the current one legged torri gate, but I absolutely draw the line at people that want to make something out of nothing - which is what that is imo.

Yep, the WW2 torri gate has one leg. That's history that relates specifically to WW2. It doesn't relate to anything that happened in feudal Japan, which is where this game is based. I see no connection whatsoever. It's daft imo.

I'm hype for it. Don't care about the chuds and their "controversy".

@JoyfulFire Same. Hasn't been a creed yet that I didn't enjoy, including the handheld games.

@Kaloudz Again, YOU see no connection. Neither did Ubisoft.

Japanese folks? Oh, a good number of them saw the connection, whether unintentional or not. I’m 100% sure it was unintentional, but dang Ubisoft seems to keep doing it.

But what you or I think is utterly meaningless. We (at least, I, can’t speak for you) aren’t Japanese and we aren’t qualified to speak towards what Japanese people are allowed to find objectionable or acceptable, as it is a completely different culture.

It amuses me when people like us think we can dictate what other cultures should accept or decry. The fact is that the offense is there.

@dskatter It's not just about other cultures though. It's about the masses that slated Ubisoft to the hills and back for the design - and accused them of sullying events from WW2. That to me is ridiculous.

The game has nothing at all to do with the WW2 torri gate - nor does the design that they used for the collectors edition. That's just a fact. It doesn't even symbolise it, and that's not me trying to dictate on behalf of other cultures, that's me simply speaking truths.

Geez between merch and the game I have dropped 900 USD. Lol 😂 no regrets.

Might have convinced myself to get that Kassandra statue I keep talking myself out of.

It's an Ubisoft game and it has ninjas. Both those things mean I'll play it. They're formulaic sure, but I enjoy the ACs and FCs. I just buy them 3-6mo after release for 20-30 bucks.

I hope it lives up to the hype. They should definitely bring it to Switch 2.

@Kaloudz

https://www.ign.com/articles/assassins-creed-shadows-figure-removed-from-sale-over-insensitive-design

“The game has nothing at all to do with the WW2 torrii gate”

Which is why it’s weird to include a WW2 monument as part of your marketing strategy in what they claimed to be a 100% historically accurate game.

Edit: There seems to be a misunderstanding. Nobody claimed there can’t have ever been another one legged torii gate. But the one legged torii has exactly one known inference and that is WW2. If a gate broke in the past they just fixed it and didn’t document it because it wasn’t important. The WW2 torii is the only with any significance.

@VoidPunk I read your link and it seems that it wasn't even Ubisoft that designed that? It was an outsourced art company, or am I missing something?

Either which way either or, I still do not see any connection.

If a gate broke in the past they just fixed it and didn’t document it because it wasn’t important.

Exactly. That's my point. Torri gates would have broke all the time - be it civil war, earthquakes, tsunamis, you name it. So it would be justified and very likely accurate to have a partially destroyed torri gate depicted in a game set hundreds of years prior to the one that people have become so offended about.

My issue isn't with the symbolic nature of the gate, by the way, but the hordes of folk that pretended like it ruined their day.

There are 2 types of AC fans these days - pre-Origins and post-Origins. Pre-Origins players like stealth and minimal-RPG, post-Origins players like more combat and RPG. It depends on where Shadows lands as to which fans will like it. It sounds like Shadows is trying for something in the middle so I suspect it'll land like Mirage did (which was marketed to pre-Origins fans). I think it'll do better than Mirage but not be anywhere near as good as Origins. People are tired of AC and its bloat. Valhalla did well numbers wise but I don't know that it did well in terms of people actually finishing it or even liking it that much. As such I think early #s will be weak but if people actually like it and finish it then we'll see the #s go up as more people buy it.

Since it won't be on GP or PS+ at release it'll lose out to a lot of core players who could help "sell" it. It'll be on Ubi+ but unless they have a sale on that service I doubt people will get the service long enough to play the game either. I think it'll be mediocre in terms of consumer reception even if critics like it. Once it does release on GP/PS+ then I think it'll do better but depending on when that happens will determine if Ubi actually benefits from it.

Personally I think critics will like it but it won't sell enough to help Ubi. It is only after Ubi releases to GP/PS+ that it'll start to become popular enough but those sales won't probably help Ubi either.

Every time a new video or information comes out, people talk about how far removed from Japanese history and culture it is!

This game is far less true to Japanese culture than fantasies like Ninja Gaiden or Naruto ...