mFour years after its announcement, and after two last minute delays, the latest title from Ubisoft’s historic fiction series Assassin’s Creed will finally be released on Thursday. Set in Japan in 1579, the period of intense civil war ruled by feudal Oda Bunaga follows two characters overcoming bloody chaos. A female ninja named Fujiwarajima Island and an African slave Yasusuke became samurai. According to Ubisoft, Japan is the series’ most requested setting for many years.
“I’m on the ride [this] For the 16 years of the franchise, every time we start a new game, Japan comes out and asks if this is the time.” says executive producer Marc-Alexis Coté. “We have never pushed beyond the conceptual stage with Japan.”
The game comes at a critical time for Ubisoft after the disappointing performance of the expensive closure of last year’s titles Star Wars Outlaw, Skull and Bones, Prince of Persia: Lost Crown and live service shooter Xdefiant. There was also a stir against the black and female protagonists of the game. Criticize them as “awakening” And historically, it is inaccurate despite the fact that female warriors fought throughout the feudal era and that Yasuke, the black samurai of the game, is a historical figure.
That’s something the team wants to deal with. “In-house historians were some of the first to staff the production team,” says creative director Jonathan Dumont. “We have a continuous supply of huge data banks. As we gain a sense of the times, research efforts must either narrow down the details or understand more detailed cultural points, seeking the help of experts around the world, including Japan.”
There was also a field trip to key locations in the Kyoto and Osaka game, revealing elements the team hadn’t thought up. Coté recalls a local colleague traveling to Japan to showcase some technical breakthroughs the development team had made in light of the landscape. But they all shook their heads and said it wasn’t working. “I was like, ‘Why?!'” he says. “And they just replied: ‘That’s not the way light falls on the mountains in Japan.’ So, when our art director was there, I asked him to go and see the mountains in particular. He went and took a reference photo, but now he captured it.”
The team also had to render socks for individual characters. Because they are always painted with their footwear removed when they enter the building. “The expectations were much higher. That was a challenge.”
Like all previous Assassin’s Creed titles, Shadows uses authentic locations and historical figures to take the game’s time hopping story by storm. Takada, Fukuyama and Hill Castles are all replicated along with villages, harbors and countryside landscapes in Central Japan. However, as always, this is a game where you secretly defeat enemies first and foremost, first and foremost, secretly defeat them. In the demo played just before its release, the main character attacks Himeji Castle. Choose to play as Nae and use smoke bombs and quiet attacks to scalp shadows to escape detection. Ubisoft has put a huge effort into acquiring the nature of the nearby Tayama period and the IGA peasant class (possibly origins of modern ninja archetypes), but equally important is how good it feels to plunge out the roof and decapitate the enemy.
In many ways, the game appears to be portrayed from modern cultural portrayals, just like history as it is from the era and its warriors. “Japanese storytelling has a very impact on the development of the game and all Western art in general,” says Dumont. “The tale of Kurosaki’s Kagemsha, 13 Assassins, Zatachichi, Zekigahara, and Genji or Musashi on Yoshikawa Island, give a more obvious name [all] It helped shape the vision of the game. Even Studio Ghibli films like My Neighbor Totoro helped me understand the countryside and vegetation.”
It’s certainly an interesting time for Shadow to release. With multiple famous failures in recent live service games, players are eager to see an era of big single player adventures, and Obsidian’s recent RPGs have been reported. Meanwhile, the huge success of FX/Hulu’s Shōgun series has brought feudal Japan back to the cultural spotlight. And the story of how that standout British navigator John Blackthorne becomes high-class is somewhat of a reflection of that of Yasuke.
The game looks beautiful with complex environments, dramatic weather systems and incredibly bloody combat. Ubisoft survived a difficult time. Much depends on its most precious possessions.
Source: www.theguardian.com
