The first protagonist of anAssassin’s Creedgame to be based on an actual, real historical figure is the samurai Yasuke inAssassin’s Creed Shadows. Using the few remaining historical accounts of Yasuke,Assassin’s Creed Shadowspaints a picture of an outsider, a man being a bridge between Sengoku-era Japan and the west.
Game Rant recently spoke with creative director Jonathan Dumont about Yasuke and the way Ubisoft is placing history in players' hands by making him one ofAssassin’s Creed Shadows' two protagonists. Naoe represents one perspective of Feudal Japan, while Yasuke references a completely different one.
Yasuke is Assassin’s Creed’s First Historical Protagonist
Though Yasuke is the first time a historical figure was anAssassin’s Creedprotagonist, Dumont was quick to point out that Yasuke is not the first time players could play as a historical figure. That honor goes to Leonidas, who wasplayable in a few scenes inAssassin’s Creed Odyssey. His role, though, was far more limited–Yasuke is the first historical protagonist. That opened a few doors for the team, according to Dumont:
“After we decided to support the two player fantasies of shinobi and samurai with separate and unique characters, therefore having a dual protagonist structure, we really liked what Yasuke could give us narratively. The unanswered questions around his life made him a very interesting and intriguing protagonist with a lot of mystery…The mystery surrounding Yasuke, including his origins and his after the Honno-Ji incident, made him a very intriguing character that allowed us to explore a lot of possibilities and gave us some flexibility to expand and fictionalize his narrative.”
Given there aren’t a lot of primary sources to draw from for Yasuke’s life outside the Honno-Ji incident, making him a protagonist was a compelling idea from Ubisoft. The opportunity to have players define a little of that unknown history while preservingthe reality of who Yasuke wasfits critically withAssassin’s Creed’s overall relationship with history. Beyond that, he is also valuable in relating the game to players in other ways, as the fish out of water in feudal Japan.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows’ Outsider
The first that the historical record knows of Yasuke comes in 1579 when he was in his twenties, beinggiven his name by Oda Nobunaga. It’s not entirely clear who he was before that–even his prior name is unknown–but theories suggest he came to Japan with a Jesuit missionary. This gives him a perspective as an outsider, potentially with ties to the west, that a player can use to help themselves acclimate to this place and time alongside their protagonist. Dumont said Yasuke is a man between worlds, entering into a new life as a samurai in Japan.
“Yasuke’s perspective as an outsider also gave us a different point of view that could be used as a bridge between the western world and Japan and create links within the Assassin’s Creed meta-story and lore. He is a man lost between two worlds. The way that Yasuke’s story is structured within the overall narrative of the game is very compelling in my opinion, and will have players discover him gradually and see how he is connected to the bigger picture.”
That growth into being a lethal samurai warrior is the time when most of the known information about Yasuke comes from, from sources like Matsudaira Ietada diary, letters of the Jesuit missionary Luís Fróis, and Oota Gyuuichi’s Nobunaga Official Chronicle. His entire recorded history takes up only four years, where he again disappears from the record of Sengoku Japan after Nobunaga’s death in 1582. Yasuke was only at his peak alongside Nobunaga for a brief time before the Honno-Ji incident, where Nobunaga was betrayed and died, after which the only account of Yasuke was him being escorted to a Jesuit missionary by the army of Nobunaga’s betrayer.
This givesAssassin’s Creed Shadowsa fascinating few yearsto explore the life of a real historical figure, and plenty of mysteries at that.
