No, Japan as a nation does not hate Shadows

[The Former]

Selective sampling. It's what happens when we want to prove something, so we only pull data that coincides with what we want to be true. Lately, people have been circulating three main things from Youtube regarding Japan's reaction to this game:

1. Official Japanese trailer got ratioed on "Japanese youtube". Problem: This video is readily available to people from any country. "Japanese youtube" is just Youtube. Type アサシン クリード シャドウズ into your Youtube search bar in any country, scroll down a bit, and you'll find the trailer in seconds. This does not prove Japan hates the game on its own.

2. Some videos from a Youtuber named Shohei Kondo. Problem: Shohei Kondo is an English-language Japanese Youtuber. He is Japanese, but his audience is Western and a Western audience wants to consume hate media for this game right now. At best, this proves one Japanese man hates the game.

3. The Japanese government's complaints. Problem: These are overblown; they amount to one nationalist representative raising an issue about destroying shrines in the game, and the Prime Minister responding to him. It's one short clip from a long session, highlighted again and again with titles like "Assassin's Creed Shadows DESTROYED by Japan Prime Minister!" when all he actually said was that it's important to protect shrines from vandalism in real life.

The other side of the coin...

Japanese preorder activity was huge for Shadows.

(Source)[tech4gamers.com] Not only was the game #2 on the Playstation Store in Japan shortly before launch, it was #1 on Amazon Japan on May 20. The controversies were well known and the trailer was already ratioed at this time. By the way, as of now, still Amazon's #2 on Xbox.[www.amazon.co.jp]

Japanese reviewers give it glowing praise.

(Source)[www.polygon.com] Now this one needs to be taken with a grain of salt, because Japanese media is just as susceptible as Western media to being tilted by developers. And yes, it comes from Polygon, which I know isn't the best source for anything, but it's this or making you translate a bunch of Japanese websites. Look at the content of the article; the publications and their quotes. That's what matters here, ignore the Polygon fluff.

Glowing PSN score.

(Source)[store.playstation.com] Playstation Store reviews are worldwide, but Japan was number nine in the world[finance.yahoo.com] in PS5 purchases in the July of 2023, surpassing the US. Playstation's birthplace and home are Japan, and a huge number of Japanese gamers play on it. If the game was widely preordered there, you'd think the worldwide reviews would reflect an angry player base. Veilguard's were pretty bad[store.playstation.com] which tells us the reviews aren't cooked on PSN.

Japanese engagement on Youtube simply isn't a lot.

(Source) The Atelier franchise is one of Japan's longest-running, and is widely beloved. Recently, Atelier Yumiya, the latest offering, dropped onto the market. March 21st, in fact! Yet we see similar numbers like... 22k views, 84 likes... 89k views, 666 likes... 49k views, 613 likes... Japanese people simply aren't on Youtube like the west is. Statistics[worldpopulationreview.com] show 78 million users, compared to America's 239 million. That's about 63% of the country, compared to 70%, and most of the interaction in Japan revolves around music. This Japanese language Ado video I pulled out of a hat got 75k views and 7.5k likes. That's considerably more interaction than Atelier Yumiya, a new release from a widely beloved franchise.

Youtube is not how Japanese popularity is measured.

Famitsu polls game sales every week and puts out rankings. Their last week of polling cut off right at March 21, so we won't be able to say with any kind of certainty until next week. If it makes Famitsu's top 30 (not especially common for 洋ゲー), we'll know for certain it's not a hated game. If it doesn't, we'll still wonder, but with all this contrary data, I think it's safe to say at the very least...

Conclusion

STOP SPEAKING FOR ENTIRE NATIONS USING ONE OR TWO VOICES. I can find plenty of Americans right here on Steam who hate the game, and yet user reviews rest comfortably at 81%, PSN user reviews (where there's no Ubisoft+ and third party keys aren't supported, so people actually dropped $70 for the game) are extremely positive. Five power tripping Youtubers do not a consensus make. So too, one English language Youtuber and one trailer with low interaction do not a consensus make. Japan may love the game or may not, but we won't know for sure until more comprehensive market data is available.

UPDATE: Famitsu launch numbers

(Source)[www.gematsu.com] Shadows has landed the number five spot this week according to Famitsu's numbers. 17.7k first week sales doesn't prove the game is a smash hit or anything, but 洋ゲー breaking into the top 30 isn't a guaranteed thing, let alone the top 5. I honestly expected low 20's at best.

So no, it doesn't prove Japan loves the game, but I'd say it does prove they don't hate it.

[Tiasmoon]

Nioh features many characters. Yasuke was just one of them, and a very minor part.
Its also an exception, not the rule.

[The Former]

引用自 Tiasmoon：

Nioh features many characters. Yasuke was just one of them, and a very minor part.
Its also an exception, not the rule.

He's got his own DLC story arc in Sengoku Musou 5, and is a major playable character. So his point stands.

[Tiasmoon]

引用自 The Former：

I meant only to point out that saying the Atelier franchise is niche is proof that we're still approaching this from a Western perspective and hoping for identical outcomes overseas.

The idea that AC Shadows sold well is itself a 'western perspective'.

[Mizu]

引用自 Tiasmoon：

Nioh features many characters. Yasuke was just one of them, and a very minor part.
Its also an exception, not the rule.

You wasted a lot of effort with those lame excuses. Also, further beyond his direct appearances where a character in Japanese products is explicitly him? Who do you think inspired all those fictional black samurai such as the eponymous Afro Samurai of the anime series Afro Samurai or Nagoriyuki from the Guilty Gear game series? Yasuke is a pop culture figure in Japan and has been fascinating them for decades, cry about it more.

[Serpent]

引用自 The Former：

Selective sampling. It's what happens when we want to prove something, so we only pull data that coincides with what we want to be true. Lately, people have been circulating three main things from Youtube regarding Japan's reaction to this game:

1. Official Japanese trailer got ratioed on "Japanese youtube". Problem: This video is readily available to people from any country. "Japanese youtube" is just Youtube. Type アサシン クリード シャドウズ into your Youtube search bar in any country, scroll down a bit, and you'll find the trailer in seconds. This does not prove Japan hates the game on its own.

2. Some videos from a Youtuber named Shohei Kondo. Problem: Shohei Kondo is an English-language Japanese Youtuber. He is Japanese, but his audience is Western and a Western audience wants to consume hate media for this game right now. At best, this proves one Japanese man hates the game.

3. The Japanese government's complaints. Problem: These are overblown; they amount to one nationalist representative raising an issue about destroying shrines in the game, and the Prime Minister responding to him. It's one short clip from a long session, highlighted again and again with titles like "Assassin's Creed Shadows DESTROYED by Japan Prime Minister!" when all he actually said was that it's important to protect shrines from vandalism in real life.

The other side of the coin...

Japanese preorder activity was huge for Shadows.

(Source)[tech4gamers.com] Not only was the game #2 on the Playstation Store in Japan shortly before launch, it was #1 on Amazon Japan on May 20. The controversies were well known and the trailer was already ratioed at this time. By the way, as of now, still Amazon's #2 on Xbox.[www.amazon.co.jp]

Japanese reviewers give it glowing praise.

(Source)[www.polygon.com] Now this one needs to be taken with a grain of salt, because Japanese media is just as susceptible as Western media to being tilted by developers. And yes, it comes from Polygon, which I know isn't the best source for anything, but it's this or making you translate a bunch of Japanese websites. Look at the content of the article; the publications and their quotes. That's what matters here, ignore the Polygon fluff.

Glowing PSN score.

(Source)[store.playstation.com] Playstation Store reviews are worldwide, but Japan was number nine in the world[finance.yahoo.com] in PS5 purchases in the July of 2023, surpassing the US. Playstation's birthplace and home are Japan, and a huge number of Japanese gamers play on it. If the game was widely preordered there, you'd think the worldwide reviews would reflect an angry player base. Veilguard's were pretty bad[store.playstation.com] which tells us the reviews aren't cooked on PSN.

Japanese engagement on Youtube simply isn't a lot.

(Source) The Atelier franchise is one of Japan's longest-running, and is widely beloved. Recently, Atelier Yumiya, the latest offering, dropped onto the market. March 21st, in fact! Yet we see similar numbers like... 22k views, 84 likes... 89k views, 666 likes... 49k views, 613 likes... Japanese people simply aren't on Youtube like the west is. Statistics[worldpopulationreview.com] show 78 million users, compared to America's 239 million. That's about 63% of the country, compared to 70%, and most of the interaction in Japan revolves around music. This Japanese language Ado video I pulled out of a hat got 75k views and 7.5k likes. That's considerably more interaction than Atelier Yumiya, a new release from a widely beloved franchise.

Youtube is not how Japanese popularity is measured.

Famitsu polls game sales every week and puts out rankings. Their last week of polling cut off right at March 21, so we won't be able to say with any kind of certainty until next week. If it makes Famitsu's top 30 (not especially common for 洋ゲー), we'll know for certain it's not a hated game. If it doesn't, we'll still wonder, but with all this contrary data, I think it's safe to say at the very least...

Conclusion

STOP SPEAKING FOR ENTIRE NATIONS USING ONE OR TWO VOICES. I can find plenty of Americans right here on Steam who hate the game, and yet user reviews rest comfortably at 81%, PSN user reviews (where there's no Ubisoft+ and third party keys aren't supported, so people actually dropped $70 for the game) are extremely positive. Five power tripping Youtubers do not a consensus make. So too, one English language Youtuber and one trailer with low interaction do not a consensus make. Japan may love the game or may not, but we won't know for sure until more comprehensive market data is available.

Giving so much energy for something so meaning less (video game).

[Deathscare]

Private profile, you're probably some yes man doing damage control.

[Serpent]

引用自 Deathscare：

Private profile, you're probably some yes man doing damage control.

Dont know, but imagine doing all this research for something so meaningless. It's like people who made video on Youtube to show you how ACS failed. People give too much credit to video game, it's no something useful, it's only entertenment.

[Tiasmoon]

引用自 Mizu：

引用自 Tiasmoon：

Nioh features many characters. Yasuke was just one of them, and a very minor part.
Its also an exception, not the rule.

You wasted a lot of effort with those lame excuses. Also, further beyond his direct appearances where a character in Japanese products is explicitly him? Who do you think inspired all those fictional black samurai such as the eponymous Afro Samurai of the anime series Afro Samurai or Nagoriyuki from the Guilty Gear game series? Yasuke is a pop culture figure in Japan and has been fascinating them for decades, cry about it more.

I wrote very little. That's not a lot of effort.

Yasuke is not a pop culture figure. If you made a top 1000 of most recognisable characters in Japanese history or fiction, Yasuke would not be on it.

[Quagimus Decimus]

引用自 Serpent：

引用自 The Former：

Selective sampling. It's what happens when we want to prove something, so we only pull data that coincides with what we want to be true. Lately, people have been circulating three main things from Youtube regarding Japan's reaction to this game:

1. Official Japanese trailer got ratioed on "Japanese youtube". Problem: This video is readily available to people from any country. "Japanese youtube" is just Youtube. Type アサシン クリード シャドウズ into your Youtube search bar in any country, scroll down a bit, and you'll find the trailer in seconds. This does not prove Japan hates the game on its own.

2. Some videos from a Youtuber named Shohei Kondo. Problem: Shohei Kondo is an English-language Japanese Youtuber. He is Japanese, but his audience is Western and a Western audience wants to consume hate media for this game right now. At best, this proves one Japanese man hates the game.

3. The Japanese government's complaints. Problem: These are overblown; they amount to one nationalist representative raising an issue about destroying shrines in the game, and the Prime Minister responding to him. It's one short clip from a long session, highlighted again and again with titles like "Assassin's Creed Shadows DESTROYED by Japan Prime Minister!" when all he actually said was that it's important to protect shrines from vandalism in real life.

The other side of the coin...

Japanese preorder activity was huge for Shadows.

(Source)[tech4gamers.com] Not only was the game #2 on the Playstation Store in Japan shortly before launch, it was #1 on Amazon Japan on May 20. The controversies were well known and the trailer was already ratioed at this time. By the way, as of now, still Amazon's #2 on Xbox.[www.amazon.co.jp]

Japanese reviewers give it glowing praise.

(Source)[www.polygon.com] Now this one needs to be taken with a grain of salt, because Japanese media is just as susceptible as Western media to being tilted by developers. And yes, it comes from Polygon, which I know isn't the best source for anything, but it's this or making you translate a bunch of Japanese websites. Look at the content of the article; the publications and their quotes. That's what matters here, ignore the Polygon fluff.

Glowing PSN score.

(Source)[store.playstation.com] Playstation Store reviews are worldwide, but Japan was number nine in the world[finance.yahoo.com] in PS5 purchases in the July of 2023, surpassing the US. Playstation's birthplace and home are Japan, and a huge number of Japanese gamers play on it. If the game was widely preordered there, you'd think the worldwide reviews would reflect an angry player base. Veilguard's were pretty bad[store.playstation.com] which tells us the reviews aren't cooked on PSN.

Japanese engagement on Youtube simply isn't a lot.

(Source) The Atelier franchise is one of Japan's longest-running, and is widely beloved. Recently, Atelier Yumiya, the latest offering, dropped onto the market. March 21st, in fact! Yet we see similar numbers like... 22k views, 84 likes... 89k views, 666 likes... 49k views, 613 likes... Japanese people simply aren't on Youtube like the west is. Statistics[worldpopulationreview.com] show 78 million users, compared to America's 239 million. That's about 63% of the country, compared to 70%, and most of the interaction in Japan revolves around music. This Japanese language Ado video I pulled out of a hat got 75k views and 7.5k likes. That's considerably more interaction than Atelier Yumiya, a new release from a widely beloved franchise.

Youtube is not how Japanese popularity is measured.

Famitsu polls game sales every week and puts out rankings. Their last week of polling cut off right at March 21, so we won't be able to say with any kind of certainty until next week. If it makes Famitsu's top 30 (not especially common for 洋ゲー), we'll know for certain it's not a hated game. If it doesn't, we'll still wonder, but with all this contrary data, I think it's safe to say at the very least...

Conclusion

STOP SPEAKING FOR ENTIRE NATIONS USING ONE OR TWO VOICES. I can find plenty of Americans right here on Steam who hate the game, and yet user reviews rest comfortably at 81%, PSN user reviews (where there's no Ubisoft+ and third party keys aren't supported, so people actually dropped $70 for the game) are extremely positive. Five power tripping Youtubers do not a consensus make. So too, one English language Youtuber and one trailer with low interaction do not a consensus make. Japan may love the game or may not, but we won't know for sure until more comprehensive market data is available.

Giving so much energy for something so meaning less (video game).

must be a reddit mod

[Serpent]

引用自 Quagimus Decimus：

引用自 Serpent：

Giving so much energy for something so meaning less (video game).

must be a reddit mod

Make sense. It's like watching a political analysis from a Youtuber or reading something on R/politics. It's always bad and biased. And people have the audacity to complain about mainstream media.

[Mizu]

引用自 Tiasmoon：

引用自 Mizu：

You wasted a lot of effort with those lame excuses. Also, further beyond his direct appearances where a character in Japanese products is explicitly him? Who do you think inspired all those fictional black samurai such as the eponymous Afro Samurai of the anime series Afro Samurai or Nagoriyuki from the Guilty Gear game series? Yasuke is a pop culture figure in Japan and has been fascinating them for decades, cry about it more.

I wrote very little. That's not a lot of effort.

Yasuke is not a pop culture figure. If you made a top 1000 of most recognisable characters in Japanese history or fiction, Yasuke would not be on it.

Any effort to say nothing that actually helps your argument is a lot of effort. So far you haven't had a single thing to say that supports your argument he isn't a pop culture figure in Japan. Your argument is literally 'he isn't one because I don't want him to be' no matter how many examples people give of him directly appearing in things or inspiring characters that aren't him but are obvious homages to him.

[Serpent]

引用自 Mizu：

引用自 Tiasmoon：

I wrote very little. That's not a lot of effort.

Yasuke is not a pop culture figure. If you made a top 1000 of most recognisable characters in Japanese history or fiction, Yasuke would not be on it.

Any effort to say nothing that actually helps your argument is a lot of effort. So far you haven't had a single thing to say that supports your argument he isn't a pop culture figure in Japan. Your argument is literally 'he isn't one because I don't want him to be' no matter how many examples people give of him directly appearing in things or inspiring characters that aren't him but are obvious homages to him.

Who is Yasuke ? A fictional character who no one's care except Internet.

[agarest1]

ERR you do know several gaming store chains in Japan refuse to sell the game don't you?

[jmac2007]

"Official Japanese trailer got ratioed on "Japanese youtube". Problem: This video is readily available to people from any country. "

Problem: The video would not be ratioed if it had a lot of positive thumbs up likes on it. Japanese love video games. They easily could have swamped the down thumbs with up thumbs as there was at one point only 17K dislikes... At that time just over 400 likes. That is it. Just over 400 likes. Where are the Japanese gamers that supposedly love the game??

Heck they should have had a few thousand likes right? 401 is all that trailer got.

[Mizu]

引用自 jmac2007：

"Official Japanese trailer got ratioed on "Japanese youtube". Problem: This video is readily available to people from any country. "

Problem: The video would not be ratioed if it had a lot of positive thumbs up likes on it. Japanese love video games. They easily could have swamped the down thumbs with up thumbs as there was at one point only 17K dislikes... At that time just over 400 likes. That is it. Just over 400 likes. Where are the Japanese gamers that supposedly love the game??

Heck they should have had a few thousand likes right? 401 is all that trailer got.

The numbers are small because they aren't the real numbers. The app that 'brings back' the numbers doesn't have access to youtube's databases, it doesn't show the true numbers of the like and dislike system. It solely shows the likes and dislikes of people who have bothered downloading the app that claims to bring them back since those are the only likes and dislikes it can legally see being made. Which means the results are always going to skew negative because the majority of people who cared about Youtube hiding the numbers were people who loved bragging about how many dislikes things they hated received.