Assassin’s Creed Shadows lead says future AC games could have two heroes ‘if we have a good reason to do it’
Shadows’ team is also trying to focus more on parkour post-launch, the associate director says
The associate director of Assassin’s Creed Shadows says future games in the series could have two protagonists, despite the furore over Yasuke and Naoe.
Following its initial announcement, Assassin’s Creed Shadows received criticism from some corners of the internet, partly because one of the co-protagonists, Yasuke, is a Black samurai. Some accused Ubisoft of being ‘woke’ by featuring Yasuke in the game, even though Yasuke was an actual person in real life.
The game’s director Charles Benoit defended the decision, at the time, telling The Canadian Press last year that Yasuke was also chosen so that players “can discover Japan through the eyes of a foreigner” at the same time as he does.
Nevertheless, the decision led to anger from some sections of the video game community, which reportedly led to Ubisoft making preparations for potential harassment incidents that may have occurred after the game was released.
Although this wasn’t the first time an Assassin’s Creed game featured dual protagonists – Assassin’s Creed Syndicate let players control twins Jacob and Evie Frye – this didn’t spark the same response Shadows did.
Now, in an interview with GamesRadar, associate director Simon Lemay-Comtois says future games in the series could still feature two playable protagonists despite what happened with Shadows.
“Dual protagonists can be divisive along very strange lines, right?” he said. “It’s not just ‘well, I prefer a war, therefore I prefer Yasuke’. Some people just don’t like one character over the other, and they don’t like to spend time with one.
“It was true with Evie and Jacob, but with Naoe and Yasuke it’s more divisive. And we knew this. We knew going into it, but I think it can split our fan base a little too.
Noting that future developers would have to be cautious about a similar approach, he added: “I think the learning for us is that, yes, we could do more dual-protagonist games in the future – if we have a good reason to do it narratively and for the setting.”
Lemay-Comtois also advised that Assassin’s Creed development teams should “pay more attention to parkour in future games as its own pillar”, noting that there was currently an effort underway to bring parkour back to the forefront of the series.
“We’re trying to rectify that in post launch with Shadows and push that narrative internally to say parkour matters,” he explained. “Let’s really push parkour forward.”
