One recent example of diverse storytelling is Assassin’s Creed: Shadows. When the game was first announced, I was dubious about Ubisoft’s prospects in the franchise since so many people have grown disillusioned or bored with it. However, after I watched the trailers and read up on its historical setting, Sengoku-period Japan at the end of the 16th Century, I was fascinated.
Assassin’s Creed: Shadows tells the stories of two characters: Fujibayashi Naoe and Yasuke. Naoe is a young assassin who pledges revenge on a mysterious group of powerful people who killed her father. While I love her story, Yasuke’s is far more fascinating because he was a real historical figure.
Yasuke was a slave to the Jesuits given to Oda Nobunaga, who later gave him the rank of samurai. While Yasuke’s real story ends in the aftermath of the Honno-ji Incident, in Shadows, he finds his way to Naoe’s side to avenge Nobunaga’s death.
Yasuke’s story in Shadows is about finding acceptance and peace in a tumultuous world that often does not want him. As the only black man in Japan at the time, he is isolated, yet he fights on for a cause he wholeheartedly believes in. It may not be “historically accurate,” but there isn’t much room to use that criticism in a franchise where you literally fight the Pope in the Vatican for a mind-controlling artifact.
