Fuss over Japanese Culture in AC Shadows feels like a Double Standard

[***]

I have my own reasons for not liking this game, and personally, I don’t see the point in buying it. That said, I’d like to ask why people keep harping on about respecting Japanese culture as if it’s the biggest issue with AC: Shadows. This argument is ridiculous because AC has been veering into hardcore historical fiction for ages, and no one cares. Getting offended on behalf of or as the Japanese is just laughable. Have you ever watched anime? Played games made by Japanese developers? For over twenty years, they’ve been doing whatever they want with Western culture, and nobody seems to get upset about it. Can someone explain this hypocrisy to me?

[Call Sign: Raven]

Publicado originalmente por TheTrueFinalBoss:

Japanese Parliement and their prime minister talked about how disrespectful this game is to Japan

The fact they are this sensitive over a video game is telling. I recently saw a japanese politician openly criticizing how sensitive and underdeveloped Americans are. And very recently, Sakurai from Nintendo urges japanese devs not to Americanize games. Pot calls kettle black, imo.

[Stakanov]

Publicado originalmente por TheTrueFinalBoss:

Japanese Parliement and their prime minister talked about how disrespectful this game is to Japan

They're just corrupt clowns who want to make themselves look good to some people outside of Japan. They don't represent the Japanese people who want to play the game and their politicians should work for the betterment of the country instead of wasting their time on this kind of ridiculous subject.

[Lucifer Verone]

Publicado originalmente por ***:

Publicado originalmente por Lucifer Verone:

Its the standard set in the west not anywhere else....People in the west arent caring at all, they openly call Yasuke a samurai when he wasnt. They are completely fine with rewriting history and culture as long as they get a game. It is not like that outside the west. Nobody is out here disrespecting other cultures or religions. What you call double standard doest apply to anyone besides the west.

This is where I have to stop treating you seriously. It seems to me that you either haven’t played Japanese games or watched anime, or you’re deliberately ignoring the facts. The idea that only the West disrespects other cultures or religions is nonsense. Take the Fate series—it’s full of this: King Arthur is turned into a genderbent woman, Artoria Pendragon, rewriting a cornerstone of Western legend for the sake of a romantic subplot. Even worse, Jeanne d’Arc, a revered historical and Christian figure, is portrayed as an antagonist in Fate/Grand Order—a vengeful, twisted version called Jeanne Alter, far from the pious martyr of history. Then there’s Hellsing, where the Catholic Church’s Iscariot Organization is a fanatical, bloodthirsty sect clashing with everyone else. Shin Megami Tensei goes further, making the Christian God, YHVH, a tyrannical villain you fight against. Japanese media does this all the time—reinterpreting Western history, religion, and figures however they please. It’s not just the West rewriting culture for games; it’s a two-way street, and pretending otherwise is either ignorance or a lie.

Wow and now we go to lies? Cool so you dont understand the outrage that is clear. Imagine coming over here and putting out points like "King Arthur is turned into a genderbent woman" or " Catholic Church’s Iscariot Organization,bloodthirsty sect clashing with everyone else" in what universe do you live in? Tell me how is this insulting? I want a clear answer justifying this. Because if that is insulting then we have another conversation to go through. The difference between that and this is that they purposefully turn Yasuke into something he is not, this is bad for 1 of 2 reasons, they are rewriting the history of the Japanese people on purpose and presenting it as historical, the legacy and story of both the actual historical figure and the country, and they are putting him out to be something more, running around desecrating shrines. All this would have been different if they didnt make a MC an actual historical figure and changed his history. Just look at the forms here, complete uninformed people constantly saying the same thing 'Yasuke was samurai" ohh really? and you know this how? They completely changed the actual history and went completely one side. What you have mentioned in no way or from goes for historical accuracy, neither is it outright insulting and claiming to be true. Both cases are completely different the only reason you brought it up is because you want to be disingenuous in your arguments. Yasuke being a samurai is the lease of the insults UBI has done. Nothing about what you mention's even goes anywhere near the territory of "This is how it actually was, and this our historical representation of these characters".

[sgtCooper]

Ubisoft said that this game is based on the true story/history unlike other AC. That was the biggest point for the argument.

[Kinpatsu]

The weebs like to treat the Japanese culture as if it is the only special and untouchable culture in the world. These nerds are known for hating everything, they only like white dudes and unrealistic breasty girls, they hate everything that goes beyond that

[Broswick]

Why not just appeal to what the Japanese government is doing? Why ask a bunch of forum trolls about the legitimacy of the cultural criticism? The actual Japanese government thinks there's a problem here.

[Underleft]

Their mistake was claiming it was based on historical accuracy, and then doubling down on it.

[Blue]

Publicado originalmente por sh3riff:

Some part of the world are more sensitive than others ..
You can clearly see that you can make fun of christianity in US but they wont try to make fun of other religion.
Japan cares about their people, culture, honor .. something the west is insanely lacking.

I personally dont see any problem with climbing the gates or destroying the shrines, there is no "off" button from real world, you cannot just disable it irl.
Though I understand their point of view, past few years Japan and Asia in general has problems with tourists pollution .. Americans goes to Japan to cause problems lots of time. Not really important or relevant but people do like to complain that the violence is caused by games.
In other games you can destroy churches, so no reason to NOT destroy shrines in Japan.
The problems are the lies too .. one part of Ubisoft is saying its fictional, not real. But the other part claims this is all real, historically accurate. And there is just so much. Google it. Past 2 years happened so much.

Problem is, game is extremely insulting to Japan in everything they do.
They cant speak Japanese, they cant write in Japanese, they take Chinese something and claim its Japanese, they take fake historical figures and turn them into saviors, a slave who did nothing, who was toy and they take real historical figure who was honorable and turn it into 304 because it is so "liberating" today in US. Plus their descendants are actually alive today.
If some random company went today and spread lies about you, you would sue them immediately for everything they have .. free money.

Some stuff is nitpicking, trying to find faults and connection where isnt one, some complains are legit.

I personally care about gameplay, visuals, effects, story .. dont care about controversy, just want to have fun. That being said, The game is insanely weak and bad.
Being a zealot has consequences .. no lies like AAAA or the most modern technology (when not even used properly) will help them.

it's fiction.

I haven't seen a comment from a dev where they say that

"This is 100% accurate to how japan was, without miss, without fictional liberties".

lol

Did you see the Wolfenstein games? Where... Germany won the world war?

Get outraged over that

"Yeah but its fic..." Yeah. its fiction.

[Terry86]

Publicado originalmente por ***:

I have my own reasons for not liking this game, and personally, I don’t see the point in buying it. That said, I’d like to ask why people keep harping on about respecting Japanese culture as if it’s the biggest issue with AC: Shadows. This argument is ridiculous because AC has been veering into hardcore historical fiction for ages, and no one cares. Getting offended on behalf of or as the Japanese is just laughable. Have you ever watched anime? Played games made by Japanese developers? For over twenty years, they’ve been doing whatever they want with Western culture, and nobody seems to get upset about it. Can someone explain this hypocrisy to me?

Check this list i made
https://steamcommunity.com/app/3159330/discussions/0/591766382100626679/?tscn=1742560151

[helba1]

As long as franchises like Afro Samurai and The Ambition of Oda Nobuna exist this is all just hot air.

Japanese media does all kind of bs with not just their own history and culture, but with others as well. People crying about it here have no leg to stand on.

[Broswick]

Publicado originalmente por helba1:

As long as franchises like Afro Samurai and The Ambition of Oda Nobuna exist this is all just hot air.

Japanese media does all kind of bs with not just their own history and culture, but with others as well. People crying about it here have no leg to stand on.

The Japanese are criticizing it. Should they have no say?

[Observer]

We should respect Japan because they sell lolicon literature and disrespect the west

[gatsu]

Publicado originalmente por Kmany:

Publicado originalmente por sgtCooper:

Ubisoft said that this game is based on the true story/history unlike other AC. That was the biggest point for the argument.

non binary japan.. I mean i have never met a person who did the non binary stuff.. i doubt they had it back in japan in the old days lol.

Anyway.. I dont know why i checked this out.. i will never play this game..

Talkt to grok3 or other AI and ask about nonbinary nonsense and personal gain in USA.
Then ask the same ♥♥♥♥ about country like Japan where there was no gain for pretending.
It will be crystal clear why there is no nonbinary nonsense in Japan.

[helba1]

Publicado originalmente por Broswick:

Publicado originalmente por helba1:

As long as franchises like Afro Samurai and The Ambition of Oda Nobuna exist this is all just hot air.

Japanese media does all kind of bs with not just their own history and culture, but with others as well. People crying about it here have no leg to stand on.

The Japanese are criticizing it. Should they have no say?

They can say something.
But that doesn't mean that they have a leg to stand on given their own media culture.

[dtrain77scots]

bro its not the culture its the character himself thats driving these knights crazy america has a clear problem right now and you gotta be blind to not see it gg shadows won its a good game despite the knight trying to destroy it because they were left out for a minority