Released on Thursday, "Shadows" takes place in 16th-century feudal Japan, replete with imposing fortified cities and tranquil temples crafted by developers.
"They've done a really fantastic job with very accurate recreations," said Pierre-Francois Souyri, a historian among a dozen French and Japanese experts consulted for the game in a bid to weed out cliches and anachronisms.
Since being tapped in late 2021, Souyri says he has answered "a hundred or more questions" from the development team, ranging from how salt was produced to how puppet shows were staged.
Souyri adds that within the carefully crafted setting, "it's not too hard to come up with characters who find themselves having adventures" in "a very eventful period" marked by intense conflicts.
- Black samurai -
But one foundational choice by the creative team has provoked fierce debate online and beyond: casting a black samurai, Yasuke, as one of the two playable protagonists. The other is a young female ninja, Fujibayashi Naoe.
Irritation that an African character was depicted with the rank of samurai prompted a Japanese petition against the move, receiving more than 100,000 signatures.
The text blasted "lack of historical accuracy and cultural respect" by game developers.
Souyri was unimpressed by the criticism.
"It's the game's conceit to call him a samurai, it's not a doctoral thesis," he said.
Like other historians who have weighed in, he pointed out that Yasuke "is a person who really existed" -- although the historic evidence on his status "can be difficult to interpret".
Yuichi Gozai, assistant professor at the National Centre for Japanese Studies in Kyoto, disagreed.
"Nothing proves that Yasuke had such qualifications" making him a samurai, medieval history specialist Gozai said.
In surviving documents, "Yasuke stood out above all for the colour of his skin and his physical strength".
His patron, warlord Oda Nobunaga, likely "kept Yasuke by his side to show him off", Gozai believes.
Erupting even before "Shadows" had been released, the controversy over the black character's inclusion has been the fiercest surrounding any "Assassin's Creed" game.
The series has been attacked in the past, including by hard-left French politician Jean-Luc Melenchon for how firebrand Robespierre was depicted in "Assassin's Creed Unity", set during the French Revolution.
- Culture war battleground -
In a February report, the European Video Game Observatory noted that Ubisoft's announcement of Yasuke immediately "sparked a heated controversy amplified by social media".
The outfit blamed most of the uproar on "an American conservative moral crusade" waged by a hard core of "at least 728 interconnected accounts".
That group made up "only 0.8 percent of speakers on the topic of 'Assassin's Creed Shadows' in the US (but) account for 22.1 percent of all related coverage", the Observatory added.
The researchers said the behaviour "suggests an astroturfing campaign" that piggybacked on the broader culture-war battles going on during the US presidential election campaign.
"Our use of Yasuke has been instrumentalised by certain people to get their own message across... but that's not the message of the game," said Marc-Alexis Cote, executive producer of the "Assassin's Creed" franchise.
Nevertheless, within Japan depictions of the country's history remain a sensitive issue -- as shown by reactions to images showing a "Shadows" player damaging the interior of a temple.
"I understand France's secularist principles, but it's important to acknowledge that ill-considered insults about religion can spark strong reactions," Gozai said.
"This risk should have been foreseen."
Ubisoft itself had resisted for some time fans' demands to see an "Assassin's Creed" game set in Japan.
But recent successful games set in the feudal period, such as 2019's "Sekiro" or 2020's "Ghost of Tsushima", may have helped overcome the publisher's reticence.
"There's a combined effect of exoticism and familiarity which fascinates Westerners," historian Souyri said.
Many young people, especially in Western countries such as France and the United States, devour Japanese mangas and anime series.
But Gozai argues that "these depictions become counterproductive if they reinforce discrimination and prejudice towards Japan".
He calls "Shadows" a "clear example of these concerns being realised".
Five things to know about 'Assassin's Creed'
Paris (AFP) Mar 18, 2025 -
Claiming more than 230 million players worldwide and with a star-studded spin-off movie and Grammy Award under its belt, "Assassin's Creed" has become a video game juggernaut since its 2007 launch.
As fans await Thursday's release of the latest edition, "Assassin's Creed Shadows", AFP takes stock of the game's unique journey.
- History of violence -
From the bazaars of the Holy Land in the era of the Crusades to the snowy Nordic coasts of the Viking period, the "Assassin's Creed" series has served up a wild ride through time and space.
The first game, set during the Crusades, was inspired by Slovenian writer Vladimir Bartol's 1938 novel "Alamut".
For the latest edition from its publisher Ubisoft, the 14th instalment visits a period fans have long requested: 16th-century feudal Japan.
As always in the series, players are encouraged to sneak their way through heavily guarded strongholds to take down high-profile enemies from the shadows, with tools like grappling hooks, smoke bombs and a wrist-mounted dagger.
But open conflict can also be a viable option, with swords, bows, martial arts moves and firearms on offer.
A frame story common to each game places the player in the shoes of a near-future character unlocking the DNA-encoded memories of their ancestors via a powerful machine, meaning the possibilities for mayhem span the centuries.
- Immediate jackpot -
The series was a hit from the start, with the first game selling more than eight million copies worldwide between its 2007 release and 2009, when the second episode was launched.
And the longer it has gone on, the more popular it has become.
France-based Ubisoft said the 2020 release "Valhalla" was the most successful so far in the series, generating revenue of more than one billion euros ($1.1 billion at today's rates) in a first for the publisher.
"Valhalla" broke new ground in other ways too.
In February 2023, composer Stephanie Economou brought home the series' first Grammy music industry award for video game scores for "Dawn of Ragnarok", an extension to "Valhalla".
- Fast and loose? -
The games' sometimes free-wheeling takes on history have rarely been universally welcomed.
"Shadows" has stoked controversy with playable character Yasuke, a burly black samurai in the service of warlord Oda Nobunaga.
Historians agree that a real black man of that name lived in Japan during the period, but his samurai status is hotly contested including on social media.
The game's developers have defended their "creative freedom" to imagine the character.
In 2014, French leftist firebrand Jean-Luc Melenchon accused the makers of "Assassin's Creed Unity" of "propaganda against the people" in the episode set during the French Revolution.
Ubisoft says it employs "dozens of historians, sociologists and other social science researchers" to keep its history true to life.
- Starry cast, one-star reviews -
The "Assassin's Creed" saga followed the familiar path of successful video games into the cinema in 2016 with the release of a movie of the same name.
While the cast was stellar -- with Michael Fassbender and Marion Cotillard leading the line-up -- the reviews were less so, and rumours of a big-screen sequel have remained just that.
Ubisoft was undaunted though, and closed a deal with Netflix in 2021 to develop several series based on the franchise.
The saga also has spin-off comics and podcasts.
Ubisoft last month promised new content in the "Assassin's Creed" universe every year, but without specifying whether that would be games or other forms.
- Olympic spotlight -
A masked hero figure somersaulting across the rooftops of the French capital bearing the Olympic torch was a common thread linking together vignettes in the Paris Olympics opening ceremony in summer 2024.
The ceremonies' artistic director Thomas Jolly said this month that the character was directly inspired by "Unity".
"I love video games and I love Assassin's Creed," he said during a podcast recorded at Ubisoft's headquarters.
Jolly said Arno, the protagonist of "Unity", could stand alongside historical French pop culture favourites like "gentleman thief" Arsene Lupin.
Following the devastating 2019 fire at Paris's Notre Dame cathedral, Ubisoft made "Unity" free for a week on PC to allow players to explore the incredibly detailed recreation of the building within the game.
Several million took them up on the offer.
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