They said what in ASSASSINS CREED SHADOWS | Featurette

[@dwl3006]

It's so frustrating to see people who have no idea what they're talking about be given a platform, and what's worse is that they even believe themselves to be experts!

[@lelouchstrife1891]

basically Ghost of Tsushima your taking about on being stealthy than when your stealth is fucked you go all out fighting

[@Doggieworld3Show]

The Ghost is just a guy who was suspected to be dead

[@czarsv15]

"He was employed as a koshō (小姓, page or sword-bearer)" wikipedia keeps changing information, you won't see it anymore

[@robertpatter5509]

Don't use Wikipedia at all. They always were a bad source of information. Not new

[@imperialprodigy7325]

Wasn't accurate to begin with. Keep using poor and dishonest research to make yourself feel better.

[@Getsumei_Marson]

​@@imperialprodigy7325 wiki has liberal bias and can't really be trusted anyways

[@Ainomato]

Why didn't we just play already established Samurai/Shinobi figures like i don't know... Hattori Hanzo? Kotaro Fuuma?

[@abc4781]

Or instead of a real person we play as a fictional one just like every other protagonist in the series.

[@distortedsoul27]

Because then they couldn't get brownie points in the Western world.

[@gourdguru]

*"Why didn't we just play already established Samurai/Shinobi figures like i don't know... Hattori Hanzo? Kotaro Fuuma?"* in short, because you expect it. if you want it in more detailed terms: 1.) Hanzo and Fuuma, along with Goemon Ishikawa are the ninja equivalents of Miyamoto Musashi and Jubei Yagyu, people who are cultural folk heroes and are VERY thoroughly documented and also heavily romanticized, who've been in every piece of media whether foreign or domestic for decades. you know who they are, you've seen them in countless anime and chambara films, read about them in manga/comics, played as them in everything from samurai showdown to dynasty warriors series to mystical ninja. in essence, they're played out, oversaturated, have few grey areas in their histories to really flesh a new story hook from, and everything from their historic accounts to fantasies about them slaying demons with ninja magic have all been done to death. 2.) tired story hooks/setting. if you go with Hanzo for example, then we get lashed down to the Ieyasu Tokugawa rise to power side of the "Warring States/Sengoku Era" story, which has, again, been done to death. if you're a gamer or a western anime fan at all, you KNOW who Ieyasu is for the same reasons as listed for the others earlier, he's been in everything. by comparison, while nobunaga is also known from multiple appearances in pop culture over the decades, he's almost reliably typecast as a fairly one dimensional, borderline demonic villain figure. i've often jokingly called him "the Vlad the Impaler of Japan" due to his media portrayals. as a result, the global gamer community at large know him, but know very little about him beyond he was one of the first major military commanders in japan to utilize firearms tactically en masse, and almost unified the country. that leaves plenty of unknown area to explore, especially if they're gonna use Yasuke, since he's a blank slate that had ties to Nobunaga, and they can basically use him as our inside view of nobunaga's motives/aspirations/etc and to set up or witness any of their AC story hooks with an unrestricted actor the writing team could just basically freely write for/around.

[@The_Omnipotent_Lurk]

⁠​⁠@@gourdguruwhat a bunch of horseshee lmfao 🤦‍♂️ Hanzo Kotaro are oversaturated on the market? i wanna smoke the stuff you do. So throughly documented historical figures can’t be used in games now because we westerns apparently know about them already? Again with the assumptions these woke-ahh people i can’t 🤣 Every single one of you hobos reply’s surprisingly with the same stuff.

[@kweassa6204]

@@gourdguru ... in which case those characters as most ppl know, would be leaps and bounds more ahistoric than this Yasuke and the kunoichi, because when it comes to fiction those "established samurai/shinobi" images are even more bullshit. But then, if we do that, nobody's gonna complain, right? Even if when it's more ahistoric, more bullshit, and even more unrepresentative of the times.

[@roycehuepers4325]

Whats weird is they already did a similar thing to actual ninja in Ezio.. he was a nobleman who was trained in guerilla warfare and espionage. But could duel just as well in a society where they were expected to fight in such a way.. Most of the early games had such a character.

[@xntxzone]

The game developer never read about samurai revenge schemes

[@bernardorodero8374]

10 seconds into the video "we cannot mix samurai and shinobi" ok, everything is going to be wrong from there on

[@AntonyCummins]

Totally

[@richardbowman7116]

Its pretty obvious to me that aside from internet searches , these developers watched alot more anime than they read well written and researched books

[@Jaanikins]

Never ever trust Ubisoft. This franchise has been ruined since 2012. This will be shit from beginning to end.

[@PaxBisonica89]

The AC series have never sold better than they do now. But hey, you tried.

[@Thunder5963]

@@PaxBisonica89 What are you? An Ubisoft bot?

[@PaxBisonica89]

​@@Thunder5963no, I try to find stupidity. Which is the reason I encounter you so much.

[@Jaanikins]

@@PaxBisonica89 So the value of creativity, brilliant storytelling and gameplay is valued based on how well the game is sold? Do you apply the same logic to other bad games, films and tv shows that exist in the world but still made a hit in the box office? I don't care that the franchise is making lots of money, It's not because the game is good, it's because Ubisoft has broken it down into cash cow and milked it for every penny's worth and changed it to fit current trends. Consumers like you, are the reason why the franchise is bad now.

[@Leontemplar-yt6ff]

@Jaanikins they sold those rpg games based off the pre existing brand reputation, utilised big marketing etc. people were curious to see the changes of course they were going to sell copies lol. But Ubisoft make trash rpgs. No Character creator, No choice, No be a Templar or assassin, No Factions(like Skyrim’s Stormcloak,Dawnguard) No Homes to buy like Starfield etc.

[@thegeneral123]

I watched about 30 seconds of the Featurette and my first thoughts were. 1. They've done their research from a D&D handbook from the 1980s. 2. Mr Cummins is going to have a lot to say about all this! I was not disappointed with the retort!

[@CommanderJoir]

All I can think of from Assassin creed shadows is how the Hitman game series got it right without even trying to portray ninjas and shenobies. Taking different outfits to "fit in" the area.

[@Joegoulart]

Yasuke fails one of the ONLY three assassin's tenets: "hide in plain sight". It's simply IMPOSSIBLE for a black "samurai" to blend in feudal Japanese society, as it's shown in this very same trailer when the little girl is surprised when seeing Yasuke on the street.

[@pascalfernandes6957]

Yeah he isnt the assassin. He is an alle to ther caus

[@Subutai_Khan]

@@pascalfernandes6957Except he himself never allied with the Iga. He stayed with Oda Nobunaga and fought on after his lord’s death. He never betrayed the clan and was enslaved by the Jesuits after Nobunaga’s enemies captured him and sent him to the Jesuits. Watch Ubisoft censor the slave trade.

[@gurglinghermits3043]

@@Subutai_Khanwhy would ubisoft censor slavery when they’ve had multiple games addressing the trading of slaves? Don’t make sense B. AC is all about the chaos of freedom vs the ownership of order.

[@gurglinghermits3043]

I think that’s the point to some respect. Having dual protagonists it makes sense to have their gameplay styles contrast as much as possible. He should not be able to do the very “Assassiny” things if Naoe can.

[@Subutai_Khan]

@@gurglinghermits3043 If he is a protagonist we can play as he has to win. Historically as sad as it is to say as he was a fantastic samurai, he did not make it. If he does not get enslaved as he did in real life then it is probably going to just get ignored.

[@CGYI-zb3ho]

After UNITY, the AC collapsed.

[@PaxBisonica89]

Eh, the last two AC's sold the most in the series pal 😂

[@CGYI-zb3ho]

@@PaxBisonica89 … for me dude 😄

[@GnosisZX]

@@PaxBisonica89yes when they became Witcher wanna bes this isn’t assassins creed anymore

[@abc4781]

​@RonnyWelles lol bro that doesn't mean they're good assassin's creed games though.

[@GnosisZX]

Also unity has the best parkour in the series played it again recently and I’m amazed how smooth it is the controlled decente are incredible and fast

[@TalesofDawnandDusk]

A bit late to the party but I do translate Heian period literature into English and I do have a point to make and two cents to throw in. First, I know that during the Heian period the term saburai 侍ひ, (originally pronounced something like samburafi with the 'b' and 'f' becoming less pronounced over time) and referred not to warriors but to servants in general. Because the warriors were considered to be the social inferiors of the aristocracy for a long time and were often hired/utilized by them and they managed to accrue lots of power, the term kinda stuck. But, if I'm also not mistaken, (and I very well could be so correct me if I'm wrong) the samurai were never an official social class until after Nobunaga died. I don't know if it was Hideyoshi or Ieyasu who codified a lot of what it meant to be a "samurai" so I don't know if much of this, if any, actually applied to Yasuke. Yes he was a warrior who served under Nobunaga. He was granted honors and titles and even land. Was he a samurai? Well, I'm not super into the Sengoku period and I'm not sure how the term was used so I can't say, but if my memory serves me correctly, I don't think anyone was a "samurai" in the way most people think of them now; a member of a distinct warrior caste. Secondly, had this been made 5 to 10 years ago I would have been all for it. I've been wanting them to adapt the Yasuke story for a very long time. But over the past several years it's safe to assume that they didn't do this because they desperately felt this story needed to be told. No. It's just a fantastic chance to squeeze in some more of "the message" and maintain some level of legitimacy and deniability. And while it 'looks' great it's clearly lacking a soul. And that's depressing because the story of Yasuke deserves to be adapted and told by person/company that can actually put some heart into things. Lastly, oh wow look yet ANOTHER historical Japanese video game set in the Sengoku/Edo period because clearly Japan only had a couple of centuries where anything cool happened. It's not like there are stories like the rebellion of Taira no Masakado, or Fujiwara no Sumitomo, or that Japan has been adapting and retelling wonderful stories about the Gempei war for centuries, or that Japan has a rich collection of myths from the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki that could be adapted into some super cool movies and games. Nope! Japan only every did anything remarkable in the Sengoku/Edo period so I guess we're making another game set during that time and will never ever make anything set in another period of Japanese history . . . except for one game and that's Ghost of Tsushima, but we're also going to anachronistically shove in a bunch of Sengoku/Edo period visuals and ideas because we can't have things be too different from the Sengoku/Edo period because the Sengoku/Edo period is the best period.

[@Leontemplar-yt6ff]

Can you point to where it states he was given land

[@AntonyCummins]

Email me

[@AirborneSolja9]

A few years ago, they said Assassin's Creed would never do this, that they would "never have a setting in Japan". 🙄😏

[@rezaashary7180]

Would prefer to play as hattori hanzou fumma kotorou or sarutobi sasuke also if they want female shinobi (should been call kunoichi) they should choose either hatsume no tsubone or mochizuki chiyome

[@raven47172]

Hanzo and Chiyome are already established characters in the AC lore. Chiyome was an assassin but defected to the templars and Hanzo killed her because of it.

[@graycap111b5]

Assassin's Creed has always used completely fictional characters for the main protagonists. I hear Jack the Ripper was playable in a DLC but he's a special case: more fictional than historical with zero identification like a name, birth date, and death date. They could've been an individual or multiple unrelated people just called Jack the Ripper because of similar modus operandi Naoe was keeping with the trend. The shinobi you've named could become playable in DLC but that should be it. Still a shame the series that largely kept historical details intact went with a completely fictional image of the shinobi (at least for the trailer)... or was it expected?

[@Amatsuichi]

so we cant play a Japanese male samurai in a game from 1570s Sengoku Jidai era... well done, just well done

[@afonsoalmeida4975]

Go play ghost of tsushima then

[@iwouldntlikemeeither]

@@afonsoalmeida4975you seem hurt for a guy wanting to play as a Japanese man in you know Japan

[@afonsoalmeida4975]

@@iwouldntlikemeeither I seem hurt ? Dont you see all these people whining because of black character ? Its hilarious.

[@angelocallueng9650]

⁠@@afonsoalmeida4975The reason there’s an uproar is because all other AC games have introduced us characters that are “from” that region. Altair, Ezio, Connor, Kassandra etc. Then why not make the main protagonist be Japanese? This is the same issue why “The Great Wall (2016)” movie is looked down upon from an Asian perspectives. Just take a trail down history, Western media always emasculates Asians and show them as in inferior while showing foreign arms as the saviour and hero to the story. Yes, the counter argument is that AC universe is fictional. The game is not out but you can clearly tell there’s not enough research put on to this. Egypt had this similar issue with Netflix’s “Cleopatra”.

[@afonsoalmeida4975]

@@angelocallueng9650 why not ? Plenty of Japanese games put yasuke as a samurai

[@philipcrocker4835]

at least they used the term Shinobi and not Ninja

[@NZOMV]

Actually a great vid. No racist bias or altering of the facts we know of Sengoku Japan as well as Yasuke like a lot of videos recently, just truth and an honest opinion.

[@Mental_Shifting]

I would totally love to see a similar video about Ghost of Tsushima :D

[@GerebosG]

I hope @Ubisoft hires Antony, he is literally the living god of Japanophiles! Please make AC Great !

[@accelerator8558]

Remenber: ubisoft can deleted the games you already pay for, if they want

[@iNINJAgamer]

If she can’t wear a mask or have a true ninja outfit 🥷🏻… I’m going to be mad.

[@dannya1209]

I'm glad this debacle led me to your channel :)

[@bryanheck4852]

I mean lets not forget this is UBISOFT. The same company that rebooted Prince of Persia and instead of a persian man being the protagonists they made him an african man with a miles morales haircut.

[@skbproject5589]

There was this Samurai I read about, who was so talented in Judo, he developed a technique to disarm people, without using a weapon. It'd be a pretty cool if he was the main character of the game, it'd fit for an assassin to probably be a Judo fighter before a sword fighter. Or both. But judo woulda been cool.

[@lilSmurf69]

i bought assassins creed shodows already its actually called ghost of tsushima

[@michael.waddell]

Aww man I wish they got you involved

[@tenzinedmiston3349]

A very god review, the last 5 minutes or so was very nicely put and needs to expressed by more people! Well done Sir!!

[@Duke-Nukem0069]

I wanna say am a big fan, I own a long list of your books all four of the ninja manuals and other books of yours. I also want to say thank you for your hard work and determination being us this ancient wisdom and knowledge I very much appreciate it. I know it took soul you put into work, you’re a very rare gem.

[@ankoku9405]

Honestly, instead of going for the post Nobunaga succession storyline, they should have went for the events leading up to the Battle of Sekigahara. They could have set up the Jesuits (Templars) manipulating both the Toyotomi-Ishida and the Tokugawa and you cold have 2 Assassins, 1 on each side, doing tasks such as retrieving William Adams' cannon for use in the battle itself, in order to foil the Templars' plans. Or mix it up with 1 Assassin and 1 Native Templar, casting aside differences to end the chaos, but ultimately face each other in a duel. Alternatively, they could also go for a nameless Assassin with a mentor character in the Western Army, but over time, said mentor grows disillusioned with the Western army and defects to the Eastern Army, much like the 6 leaders who defected irl, which lead to the downfall of the Western army. Could have easily framed a scene where the pupil, chasing after the master in the heat of battle, trying to stem off defections, defeating the master ala pupil overcoming the master, but alas, the 6 defected. You could have the pupil pondering about seppuku, fade to black. 6 years later, Akaza Naoyasu, one of the 6 defectors, while surveying the Daimon River, gets ambushed and drowned by none other than said nameless Assassin, yadda yadda I have a duty to fulfill.

[@Leontemplar-yt6ff]

What do you aspect they have writers that got their job because dei.

[@sebastianearick4488]

This is similar to how I would've brought in Yasuke as a playable character if I was told I absolutely had to have him as a main character. Have his story play out normally based on the actual information(not what some random intern wrote) we have up until Nobunaga's death where he basically disappears. Then we have him picked up by the Assassins to fill in where he went.

[@ulungprabowo]

​@@sebastianearick4488OMG you are correct! I feel this Yasuke thingy is not feel right at all, it is make AC not historical by having him fighting the enemies but yet he is historical character and this mix is just feels not right only to have him in the story, but if he is recruited after the Death of Nobunaga yes I could take it, it really match his diassapearance after Nobunaga defeated.

[@abc4781]

Id prefer taking a page out of Rise of the Ronin's book and base the game during the Bakumatsu and taking it a step further into the Meiji Era with the climax Being the Satsuma Rebellion.

[@raven47172]

What is wild is the AC series already has lore on the Assassin's in Japan. Hattori Hanzo was a member and so was his son. Also, the assassins were secretly responsible for the deaths of Nobunga and Hideyoshi in the series.

[@yagurainuzuka]

There´s only one question I have to ask lore wise. Why would Naoe and Yasuke even team up together. Remember Yasuke was under the banner of Oda they were enemies. The line we are the shadows that serve the light doesn´t really add up.

[@AntonyCummins]

I know it must be in the plot

[@Zael_Moonblade]

Yasuke was a Retainer not a Samurai. Some retainers could be Samurai sure but they were born into clans. Yasuke also spent a little less than 3 years in Japan.

[@MrTrip666]

Yes Antony! 😂 👌 i needed to see your reaction to this

[@funkadelicmayhem1765]

Anthony, The game is set around 1579. A video about the weapons and culture around that time would be amazing!

[@lokiwolfwhisperer518]

Since you are a Samurai and Ninja scholar I’d absolutely love a video on a character evaluation of Jin Sakai from Ghost of Tsushima how he went from essentially the idealised version of a samurai to a proto Shinobi.

[@AntonyCummins]

I need to see it. I will check

[@MrDemodeamo]

Omg how money hungry could they be to sell this much bullshitoos....!! great Video!...cheers!

[@iNINJAgamer]

Yea. I see his point. They could have made him his own game like what they did in Assassin’s Creed freedom cry for Adéwalé. And the girl ninja could have been an optional character when starting the game. Play as a man ninja or girl ninja. But they wanted to “be different” and not be compared to ghost of Tsushima. But people were still going to do it anyway. Let’s all hope the game is actually good and just do look good.

[@zednought7191]

I understand that this game is perhaps being historical accurate on a superficial level, but Ubisoft is promoting this as a true story. At least in the parts regarding Yasuke's standing. That's history revision to me. I have not, in my research, been able to affirm that Yasuke actually was a samurai. It's sort of important if Ubisoft are going to promote this as a true story. Maybe he was and maybe he wasn't. He existed but to, for certain, say that he was a samurai is not scientifically possible to confirm. I understand that this is entertainment, but (and it's a pretty huge but in my book) to mislead gamers is disturbing. Ubisoft could just call their story fictional. But they didn't.

[@angelthomas9255]

Antony, could you do a seperate video doing a deep dive through yasukes history? while even breaking down japanese words and explaining what they mean?

[@AntonyCummins]

I am doing research at the moment

[@angelthomas9255]

@@AntonyCummins Yes! I'm hyped 😁

[@Doggieworld3Show]

They need to bring the Tenchu series back and stop this movie game nonsense. Rikumaru and Ayame were agents of the Gohda high family.

[@kiyruchan9535]

I really miss the tenchu games

[@Doggieworld3Show]

@@kiyruchan9535 One day, one day. But I think Microsoft has the rights now....

[@kiyruchan9535]

@@Doggieworld3Show it's a shame them games were my childhood

[@signor_zuzzu]

To this day the best ninja game remains Dishonored

[@birdmanharvey4868]

There have been plenty of Japanese ninja games that's not historically accurate, because historically accurate to a point does not sell the reason shooting games do so good is because it can be fast paced and slow, also flashy. The reason the grappling hook is in the game is because it will make it more flashy. I get you want a super grounded ninja game, but that may never happen.

[@ShuajoX]

Which of your books go into detail on the tactics of samurai patrols and shinobo no mono infiltrations like you mentioned in the video? Or for that matter, gadgets like the grappling hooks and rope ladders? I've been buying loads of Japanese history books as of late and I'd love to read yours!

[@AntonyCummins]

Book of ninja

[@DamirSutton]

I didn’t so many people actually hate playing video games where the main protagonist is female.

[@demonhanzohattori]

I was really looking forward to this game. Me and my friends used to talk for YEARS about an Assassin’s Creed game focused on Ninjas… and here it is finally. Yet you play as a female Ninja and a black Samurai. Of course having historically accurate Ninja and Samurai is not politically correct enough for Ubisoft. Ghost of Tsushima thankfully was done right portraying Samurai, gracefully. Anthony Cummings has masterfully confirmed for me all the TRUE details I’ve suspected over the years on the Ninja. I feel the same frustration and pain he does on this. I have a similar background to him: lived in Japan, worked at Nova, sought out Ninjutsu training with the most prominent school of Taijutsu, obtained my Shodan and met the current Grandmaster as well. However, I always knew there was much more to the Shinobi than the museum style martial art I learned in training with other deshi. It may be a pipedream to hope for a truly accurate Shinobi focused game / movie. Will keep holding out for a true Shinobi game, but maybe Anthony will be involved in it’s production one day 🥷🏽.

[@TechnicalPluto]

Those who knew ninjutsu deeply did not leave their names for us to give fame to. Shallow skills and those that are deep are distinguished by title or the lack thereof. So the fact they are trying to weave a supposed known identity into a context of historical ninjutsu means you are getting the shallow shinobi at best. Have fun with that.

[@hitthefootballandthetarget1524]

Thank you for telling the truth about these Ubisoft "we own the japanese history" people...they don't know that we can google for ourself or watch youtube with your kind of information. I'll buy a PS5 for the Ghost of Tsochima game, which is having the feudal japanese feeling...

[@chriscolombie4135]

I don’t get why Ac doesn’t have a civilian outfit system they did that with liberation , it would make some of these secret assassins thing more grounded than a chick walking with armor, weapons stoping to get a message from a monk to give it to biggest man with the most distinct skin in the whole land 🤣💀

[@pharaohmedjaylawofmedjay2680]

I Feel The Same About Accuracy in Video Games Now Days

[@josmo506]

Go woke go broke...

[@PaxBisonica89]

Ah, the battle cry of racists worldwide

[@theafchefstable8284]

Bro at this point that's saying it's so cringe.... Guess what You're doing the same thing , but for your end of the spectrum and surprise , it's just as annoying.......

[@kaguth]

@@PaxBisonica89 I think that phrase is pretty cringe, but if you call all the people who say it racists you're just playing into their hands. I think the majority of extreme "anti-woke" people are not actually racist but just bitter and petty in a "you would be mad if I did this, so I'll be mad if you do this" sort of way.

[@JADub87]

These companies haven't been going broke though. Who have y'all folded? 😆💯

[@Boss_Fight_Index_muki]

While it prolly is DEI meddling; Yasuke, while not a samurai, was a vassal. In other words, a man who received land from a feudal lord in return for loyalty. _A black man was taken on as a vassal by Nobunaga-sama and received a stipend. His name was decided to be Yasuke. He was also given a short sword and a house. He was sometimes made to carry Nobunaga-sama's tools_ _The black man understood a little Japanese, and Nobunaga never tired of talking with him. And because he was strong and could do a few tricks, Nobunaga took great pleasure in protecting him and had him roam around the city of Kyoto with an attendant. Some people in the town thought that Nobunaga might make him as tono_ (a lord) source: the italicized passages are from the records of the Society of Jesus of Japan, where wikipedia got the info/

[@trancendedmindpalace]

I'm glad Yusuke is in the story but not in the way it appears he's involved.

[@kristoffernordlund8392]

I think your wrong with people not choosing the woman in games. If there is a choice between women and male I suspect 30-40% of males chose the women charakter. I have a hard time my self doing it, but when I asked why they do it the most common answer is "to have something nice to look at". I don't care if its a woman and a black guy, its characters in a game, and assassins creed has never tried to be realistic, they use historical named characters, though they never portray them in a realistic way. The problem with having a women and a black guy in a game is that people react to it, cause that gives the game free advertisement, and gives the company an out if the game goes bad, because then they can blame it on incels boycotting their game. And also if people focus on sex and color of people they don't focus on the real problems of the games, or the movies. Is the disney star wars trilogy bad because its about a woman becoming a jedi? or is it that there where no build up for her becoming a jedi? Slide of hand, so that you focus on something that isn't the real problem and missing what the real problem with the story is. So its a slide of hand trick, for what reason? Divide and conquer as always.

[@WazeAr]

I support you on this one. If play a lot games, male player will choose female character are much higher than male character. And having male and female character is not something strange too, since we already have it on Syndicate. I use Evie a lot rather than Jacob because her posture as Assassin's are much appealing. Also Darcy is still count as creed in WD: Legion. For setting, I don't mind black Samurai. It's a fiction. "Oh no!! ASC known as historical accurate." Yeah right, origin and Valhalla full of mythology that don't even related to real Egypt or Scandinavia.

[@Michal.Kajdan]

Oh man, Tenchu was such a cool game

[@WarsunGames]

15:40 He was literate. He was just not from that land. He was a Moor Not an African. Basic mistake by people who want to hide history.

[@abc4781]

Instead of using tge Sengoku Jidai, I'd prefer them taking a page out of Rise of the Ronin's book and basing the game during the Bakumatsu and then taking it a step further into the Meiji Era with the climax Being the Satsuma Rebellion.

[@echelon2k8]

You should have made more of an effort to have them get you onboard, Antony.

[@greghoyt4061]

Years ago, Ubi said that an AC “Rising Sun” would be way too obvious, despite how many fans of the series said they wanted one. Four years ago, Sucker Punch came along and essentially went “yoink” with the idea and released Ghost of Tsushima on the PlayStation to massive success. I find it rather odd that, now that it’s been released on PC (thus opening it up to a much wider audience), suddenly AC Shadows is getting plastered all over the place. It’s almost like Ubi saw how well Ghost did, went “oh s***, we missed the bus”, did the minimal amount of homework on Feudal Japan and focused more on pushing certain agendas (WITHOUT MAKING IT TOO OBVIOUS, OF COURSE!!!), and are now going “Hey everyone, we’re here! No, no, don’t look over there - look over here!” If you want a ninja game, just get Ghost of Tsushima. I just got it on Steam the other day and I have a long ways to go, but I’m saying it now: it’s far better than Shadows will be (not that the crowd here will need much convincing). Is it entirely accurate? No. There’s a number of (largely small and easily forgivable) inaccuracies. But, it’s accurate enough where it *needs* to be and provides an overall authentic enough experience of Feudal Japan with a complex and engaging story and an excellent combat system. You don’t have to switch between a stereotypical samurai in full armor and a swift and silent shinobi, either. Jin, the main character (and a samurai), handles both. As Antony has mentioned in a few of his uploads, a fair number of shinobi were in fact from the samurai caste. It’s agenda free, as well. Sucker Punch just focused on making a good game with a good story, and they succeeded.

[@ericaragon6482]

Hey Anthony have you heard of Oda Nobuyushi. He was a dentist and was associated with the renowned Iga clan. If you could shed some light on this fascinating story!!! Thanks Eric

[@AntonyCummins]

I’m will check

[@NinjaAimless]

To Little to Late comes to mind when I look at this choice now. Idk I’m kinda interested in this game honestly BUT I’d never pay full retail price for this for 1 Ghost Of Tsushima 😂 2 Why Would I Jump up to pay $200 to get this when I own the previously listed game 🤔.

[@marcell7533]

I want your game now, Cummins. 😊

[@WarsunGames]

38:23 This is where they got the name Oni from oni no kanabo. They where calling Yasuke an Oni.

[@SuperEnforcer88]

We even don't know If he was a samurai or not.

[@PeregrinTintenfish]

I think every Assassin's Creed has a different character.

[@henrikaugustsson4041]

Here’s my own idea. We know historically that Oda Nobunaga was assassinated by Akechi Mitsuhide. This could’ve been the perfect person to base the main character on. Mitsuhide was a samurai, and if we play a bit with history, he could’ve been recruited by the assassins to take down Nobunaga for the atrocities he had committed, or something like that. Maybe he had been given a Piece of Eden by the Portuguese and he was abusing its power to take over Japan. It could’ve been very interesting if they had done something like this. Mitsuhide could’ve lived a double life. One as a samurai Lord, and the other as an assassin. Instead they chose Yasuke, a man who sticks out like a sore thumb wherever he goes, who would be instantly recognised by anyone whatever he wore.

[@randallpetroelje3913]

Hey samurai is a Shinobi and Shinobi is a samurai😂❤

[@wingedhussar5528]

Is there a Japanese version of Don Shipley out there that exposes fake Samurai?

[@YeOldeMachine]

🤣 i like this guy

[@harrymanbach358]

I'll probably buy it when it's on the $20 bargain game aisle at Wal-Mart the same way I did with AC:Valhalla. And I'll have good chuckles at the historical and cultural inaccuracies the same way I did with AC:Valhalla. UBISOFT:just for shits and giggles.

[@Radical-Entertainment]

The last decent AC game was Black Flag also Yasuke is believed to be African so there's no proof of him being African it was Ubisoft who made him appear African and he can be a dark skin Vietnamese guy for all we know and the reason they thought he was African was because of his stature or just being so tall and I'm pretty sure Yasuke was killed by a poisoned arrow or disappeared I haven't read the book in almost a decade so I wonder how his story is gonna play out in AC Shadows I don't mind if it's changed honestly Yasuke life is pretty grim and depressing in real life

[@richardapai3676]

Well said Master! Well said! I better get back to The book of Ninja to bask in actual ninja knowledge rather than listen to Ubisoft nonsense.

[@MSDLT0XIC]

NGL I went into this thinking oh no he's one of "them" but I really liked the knowledge and insight of the samurai and the ideas you brought for the game. My only gripe is that you've never played the games and I think that knowledge would've made this video even better like you say coolness over historical accuracy Ubisoft does that with Assassins Creed how well they implement that is another story hahah AC players have always welcomed Female Assassins, Kassandra for example was the favoured character in odyssey same with Syndicate I am ok with the stealth side of the game being a female lead, and with how the isu (the race before the humans) works they could very well make Yasuke a god of war in this game and that excites me because it's a high possibility The character you mentioned near the end when you asked where is the guy that in the modern world that's Desmond and he's become something called the Reader and he's trying to save the world from dying Great video

[@iwouldntlikemeeither]

If i am the prime minister of Japan 🇯🇵 am banning this cultural appropriation of a game and sue Ubisoft if you want a real true samurai game with passion, knowledge and dedication just play “Ghost Of Tsushima” this game screams DEI the guy wasn’t even a dam samurai

[@PaxBisonica89]

You couldn't even serve the prime minister a cup of coffee 😂 "If I am the prime minister" he says 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

[@abc4781]

Lolnso fucking dramatic 😂

[@iwouldntlikemeeither]

@@PaxBisonica89cry some more won’t you 😢 it might help you reading another persons opinion

[@Thunder5963]

Ubisoft is just once again pissing down on historical facts. In the birthyear of Assassins Creed and later on they always mentioned that they love to take care about real history. And they did so and suddenly they didn't anymore. They don't want to listen. They just believe their own pop culture. Sad for Japan! Sad vor history. Maybe we get some time later a great game where real shinobi will be portrayed. And it will be just possible with you as an advisor.

[@PaxBisonica89]

"historical facts" Brother, in the last few games you played as a demi god fighting madusa and a minotaur, and in the other as the literal reincarnation of Odin 😂 And the "historical parts" are only used as starting/reference points, they literally mention this any time you boot up an AC game.

[@Thunder5963]

@@PaxBisonica89 You missed!

[@Tommy1977777]

Have you been able to read any of Dr Stephen Turnbulls work? I think you would find it revealing.

[@AntonyCummins]

Please watch my documentary the man who killed the ninja. Turnbulls work is now outdated

[@hahayessir400]

We already have ac in japan. Its ghost of tsushima. Which is better than ac shadows

[@robertpatter5509]

"You'll wake the neighbors. Ssssshhhh" lol

[@Subutai_Khan]

Your point about slaughtering people reminds me of a trope in most assassins creed games. They arbitrarily “desync” you (that means die since you are playing a game within a game cause of the animus.. That whole plot bit is annoying lol) if you kill too many civilians. I bet this will be the case here too. Even if Yasuke for instance is clearly insulted by a peasant or you are ordered to attack some place.

[@gourdguru]

i agree with most of what you say here, though you seem to keep going back to the gender thing as if it's a little more than a historical objection. i mean you aren't wrong about kunoichi uses/purpose, but they gave you a complete buffet line of things to critique, but that's the thing you _keep_ cycling back to, the female protagonist. stepping off of history and speaking gameplay-wise, you mentioned tenchu having a female character and then suggest men likely don't play as her, which i have to push back on, not because, as you said, "Well _I_ did...", but because mechanically, she was always the better choice. Rikimaru, the male ninja, was slow clunky and handled like a bob semple tank. Ayame, the kunoichi, was faster and more agile. pulling the "Well, _I_ did..." card, there was a game called "Red Ninja"/"Kunoichi" back in the day, around when the 3rd tenchu game came out, that featured a young girl ninja as the main protagonist, and i loved that game. going back to historicity/believability, i don't see a real issue with her. since we're setting the story around the destruction of Iga by Oda, you could argue that the Iga are offguard, the ranks are scattered, communications may be disrupted, the protagonist may be 'on their own' temporarily and basically stepping out of their usual comfort zone out of desperation/disconnection while making plays to regroup and counter-attack/infiltrate Oda's ranks, essentially filling roles they normally wouldn't as a result of iga's population and organization being decimated from the assault. Finally, just to point out a hypocrisy, you repeatedly go back to this gender of the protagonist point and specifically take a sidebar to say men rarely play female characters, nodding to a reluctance to play characters outside one sphere of relatability while saying they should have made a male ninja protagonist to appeal to the prime playerbase, then at the end while you go off vaguely about ubisoft getting political and "we all know what you're trying to do...", you argue that we don't need to be the same as our character in order to relate to them and say you have no problem relating to 'Blade' even though he's not white. Well, which is it? Can you play as a black man despite _not_ being black, because you can put yourself in his shoes even _without_ that identity relatability? Or can you _not_ play as a woman because you _aren't_ a woman, and as a man have an _aversion_ to playing a female character due to your disinterest/inability to put yourself in their shoes _without_ that identity relatability? You can't have it both ways, Antony. if your point about a male protagonist ninja from earlier is true, it undercuts this argument. if this argument is true, it undercuts your point about the need for a male shinobi. i just find it strange that they gave you SO MUCH to tear into them on, from the "ninjas are peasants" angle, the fact they openly said they were aping the sensational ninja movies of the 50's-80's at one point, the misuse of shuriken, the "unlimited grappling hook" trope, etc., they might as well have done Kuji-in ninja nonsense magic, but it seems a good 1/4th to 1/3rd of your objection isn't about the mistakes they made representing the ninja, but more just a vague objection over identity politics in a game you admit you have no vested interest or real prior knowledge of, when you could have just unpacked so much more, and grabbed the books behind you to cite evidence. but instead you keep coming back to this almost unconnected objection, and where it *is* relevant, fail to highlight it with evidence. you point out that a kunoichi is improper, but just sort of vaguely gesture at the why behind that without even a cursory unpacking. you comment that she shouldn't be walking around with a katana, this would have been a good time to cite sources on what she should use instead(small tanto hidden in sleeve/behind Obi, or Neko-Te/Tekagi for example, etc). Just seems for how often you circled back to this, that there was decidedly sparse clarification on the actual reasoning via your area of expertise, and it was more just politic and vibes based re-hashing.

[@LordReginaldMeowmont]

I knew you were going to post a response.

[@applesoda6308]

I'm Japanese. Many people are mixed up with samurai 侍 and bushi 武士 which are two different categories. Ninja could be included in bushi but certainly not samurai. And Yasuke was not samurai because only upper rank bushi was samurai before Edo period. It is doubtful if Yasuke was even a bushi since Yasuke had no surname, iBushi had to have a surname in the Japanese feudal class system. Nobunaga having not given Yasuke any surname means that Yasuke was not even a real bushi.

[@AntonyCummins]

I’m sorry that’s not true. Research has come on much further than that now.

[@applesoda6308]

@@AntonyCummins Samurai was upper class Bushi. Bushi ranges vastly but Samurai is elite bushi. Are you talking about Hattori Masanari （服部正成）who served Tokugawa Ieyasu? He is very rare case and him being high rank bushi does not mean all Ninja are samurai. You are totally mixing up with everything. Hattori Masanari was Hatamoto for Tokugawa but also associated with Ninja using Ninja for Tokugawa. Are you saying that all Ninja under Hattori were also samurai? No they are not. Do you speak and read Japanese? Can you read Japanese Wikipedia even?? (Even though Wikipedia is not all true) Anyway, Bushi 武士 is translated as samurai 侍 in English so English speakers get confused easily. You must be fluent in Japanese to understand our history and culture. I would not dare to preach westerners about western history or culture even though I can read western documents. もしかして日本語がネイティブ並みじゃないのに日本の歴史の専門家のように西洋人に語っているのですか？欧米にはそういう人が多いので間違った日本の歴史や文化が広まっているので本当ウンザリします。私個人の力でそういう誤情報の訂正は無理ですからね。もし日本語がネイティブなら、日本の歴史を語るのですから日本語で議論しましょう。

[@dwl3006]

Antony Cummins, I disagree with you about what you think warriors are supposed to be like. You can meet plenty of combat veterans today who are nice people, sometimes the nicest of people. Just don't get on their bad side, and you're fine. I think it's very presumptuous of you to assume everyone was a bastard back then. Yes, societies were pretty barbaric across the board back then, but that says little to nothing about individuals and individual conduct.

[@Leontemplar-yt6ff]

Antony will you be putting that yin yang book on audible anytime?

[@AntonyCummins]

No it’s not suitable

[@Ryan--G]

They would never release a game about Yasuke, purely because they know it wouldn't sell. At this point their strategy is to promise one thing but deliver another.

[@Leontemplar-yt6ff]

That’s why he gets with the Asian girl while slaughtering all the Asian boys as protagonist.

[@Seburo77]

I laughed so much with your video. Thank you. It's really a pity that they didn't use Yasuke's story properly. Well... :)

[@richardbowman7116]

Yeah, they should have hired you , or any number of serious consultants on the subject. Instead their showcase consultant is a woman that specialises in Man / Boy love during the era....okay....

[@alittlepuertoricanboy1993]

It's NOT even the Yasuke thing I care about neither, it's the tiresome "ninja vs samurai" thing that'll bug me more. Also, since they're using a female ninja of the Fujibayashi clan as a character, my question is, is Ubisoft drawing from the Bansenshukai???

[@AntonyCummins]

I agree. It’s strange

[@happykharl]

very interesting

[@vladgheneli]

finally, people are starting to see the true face of this crappy company

[@jmoo876]

Ghost mixed them perfectly. So try again

[@fnspidey3825]

Antony knows his stuff seriously.

[@-RONNIE]

Thanks for the video on the game

[@TheRogue144]

Thanks!

[@AntonyCummins]

This is amazing. Thank you very much

[@bandit6272]

Wow, and these same people probably have a problem with "cultural appropriation" and yet here they are putting Japanese people in the backseat in their own culture. Odd how this is the first time I'm aware of where an AC game doesn't have its main characters as native to the culture. Hmmm

[@l.j.galbreath3720]

How’re they putting Japanese people in the back seat of one if the protagonists and the first protagonist introduced in the fucking Trailer is a JAPANESE woman such ignorance

[@victorwashington3698]

Mr Cummins wild you consider doing a in depth video on yasuke form what what records and actual information there is about some say he was a samurai some say he was a retainer etc…. There is so much confusion that his story while interesting is is also very confusing.

[@victorwashington3698]

*would*

[@trancendedmindpalace]

Anthony to show you how STUPID Ubisoft is, why the F did they not just make HATTORI HANZO the main character?!? It would've A LOT more interesting and probably more accurate. GEEZ!

[@l.j.galbreath3720]

it’s never been about accuracy in Ac games keep in mind all of them are automatically fictional considering they have greek and norse gods, demi god as main protagonist in odyssey and alien technology.

[@l.j.galbreath3720]

you find this game not interesting because One of the main protagonists are black and the other is a woman?

[@trancendedmindpalace]

@@l.j.galbreath3720 Thats incorrect. The team that did the first Assassins Creed really tried for historical accuracy so long as it didnt interfere in a negative way with the game dynamics.

[@trancendedmindpalace]

@@l.j.galbreath3720 No just pointing out what would be more interesting IMO

[@creepy_assassin6234]

​@@l.j.galbreath3720that it inauthentically portrays 1) history 2) asian and japanese culture, and is disrespectful to the actual samurais of the time.

[@KuganeGaming]

If we assume that this game was based off the same kind of research as certain documentaries, then its just going to be filled with more "Ninjas, the assassins from Iga, sworn enemies of the Samurai" kind of stuff... And to be honest, almost every single conversation I have with people that are supposed to be well-versed in Japanese history seem to parrot that kind of narrative... So we will probably see the same in this game. I'll enjoy it anyway, though, very few games in this setting, and I guess for fantasy purposes it can be exciting to have a more mythical Japan I suppose.

[@FloridaMan1976]

Lmao, a samurai game with a main character diversity hire.

[@pascalfernandes6957]

Yasuke is a historic character

[@FloridaMan1976]

​@@pascalfernandes6957So what if he was real. 99.9% of players want their main samurai character to be actual Japanese.

[@Leontemplar-yt6ff]

@pascalfernandes6957 And what if they had a Portuguese /Japanese samurai options. Only a few references to Yasuke is hardly note worthy.

[@Ravens_Nest10]

@@pascalfernandes6957he was real but he wasn’t anything significant. He was the Japanese equivalent to a squire at most.

[@jaxthedisintegrator8096]

There are TWO main characters tho Lol, and she's japanese so 😃

[@williamhill9658]

This guy just REALLY wants to work for ubisoft....