Yasuke is dull and uninspired to play

[Al3x!el]

For me he is just a troll pick to cheese everything without any depth and effort.

Attack patterns are verry basic and while you can mix some things up playing the girl, because of the gimicks and stealth kills, playing him is just straight forwart spam attacks and specials untill everything is dead.

Why is he even part of the game.. ?
Feels like they first build everything arround the main character and then added him for some weird reason.

For every one of you who feels the same I can surely say the game "rise of the ronin" has done it better than this. You can do all the fancy stuff there, no need to change character and the fighting system has some more depth to it.

[doomshadow612]

He’s a product of liberal western game studio that’s knee deep in corruption. What else did you expect? Activists coming up with something creative that doesn’t push the message? lol.

[Shin Happens]

While I like Yasuke as a character (i.e. the person as portrayed in the game) I sadly have to agree with everything you say regarding gameplay. This is the most unfun character in any AC game ever, because Yasuke is a one trick pony brawler who can do almost zero actual assassin stuff.

It's even worse because eventually Naoe progresses to the point that she becomes a combat master herself who can take down anyone, even entire mobs, in record time. Making Yasuke even more useless from a gameplay perspective.

If they wanted dual protagonists then Odyssey and Valhalla already had the perfect formula... why change it? This game would have benefited from making Naoe the sole protagonist and making Yasuke an ally with all of his stuff put in a sidequest chain where Naoe does all the gameplay bits though, maybe have co-op fights with AI controlled Yasuke be a thing for those parts. That would have been fun, I think.

Ignoring all the culture war bits... what were Ubisoft thinking here in regards to gameplay???? I don't get it. You literally cannot play the game as Yasuke because he can't climb most things and various parts of the gameworld are forever out of reach for him. So even if someone wanted to be Yasuke they are forced to play as Naoe for substantial parts of the game (the entire first 10-20 hours for example). And if you want to be Naoe... you are always interrupted by short but often pesky Yasuke gameplay bits and they often feel very forced, as if Ubi DEMANDS you play this character now. It's about freedom of choice, do not limit my freedom as a player, it was bad enough in Syndicate where you absolutely had to play as both characters even if you wanted to be just one of them. That they repeated this mistake here after Odyssey and Valhalla had the perfect solution for a dual protagonist is simply confusing.

I literally cannot understand the thought process behind all this. What were the game designers thinking? Did anyone who playtested this not tell Ubi that Yasuke is a very limited and therefore unfun character to play as?

[ZemX]

For all that people complain Ubisoft is so "woke" it's worth noting they were more willing to roll the dice on gamers accepting a black samurai than a solo female protagonist in a mainline AC game.

Chew on that for a bit.

[Shin Happens]

Originally posted by ZemX:

For all that people complain Ubisoft is so "woke" it's worth noting they were more willing to roll the dice on gamers accepting a black samurai than a solo female protagonist in a mainline AC game.

Chew on that for a bit.

Given their past comments about female protagonists in AC games this is indeed telling.... the game would have been a more coherent experience with Naoe as the sole playable character. She is all this game needs. Yasuke is literally side character material. He would have made for a great ally with his own questline.

[Al3x!el]

Yes, exactly.

Another thought on this is: the decision to split existing playstyles between two characters doesn't work well for me.

Switching roles pulls me out of the immersion, and it makes it even harder for me to identify with the gameplay.

Besides, it's just annoying to constantly bypass tasks that simply can't be completed with the character.

[Nyx]

Originally posted by Al3x!el:

For me he is just a troll pick to cheese everything without any depth and effort.

Attack patterns are verry basic and while you can mix some things up playing the girl, because of the gimicks and stealth kills, playing him is just straight forwart spam attacks and specials untill everything is dead.

Why is he even part of the game.. ?
Feels like they first build everything arround the main character and then added him for some weird reason.

For every one of you who feels the same I can surely say the game "rise of the ronin" has done it better than this. You can do all the fancy stuff there, no need to change character and the fighting system has some more depth to it.

So, to answer that, I will use the actual explanation given by the creative director: https://www.gamesradar.com/games/assassin-s-creed/assassins-creed-shadows-was-originally-envisioned-without-yasuke-but-ubisoft-wanted-the-full-feudal-fantasy-we-were-sort-of-making-a-stealth-tank-and-it-didnt-quite-work/
Basically, the devs were making Naoe too powerful, so they put him in the game so they could dilude all that power into him while keeping Naoe focused on stealth ninja stuff. So basically, his existence in the game made Naoe a better character, which we can all be grateful for.

[n1claren]

Yasuke is basically there for you to put an hour into for each 10 hours you play Naoe and you need to change things up a little... he's not a main character in any way, shape or form...

[Fichek]

Originally posted by Nyx:

Originally posted by Al3x!el:

For me he is just a troll pick to cheese everything without any depth and effort.

Attack patterns are verry basic and while you can mix some things up playing the girl, because of the gimicks and stealth kills, playing him is just straight forwart spam attacks and specials untill everything is dead.

Why is he even part of the game.. ?
Feels like they first build everything arround the main character and then added him for some weird reason.

For every one of you who feels the same I can surely say the game "rise of the ronin" has done it better than this. You can do all the fancy stuff there, no need to change character and the fighting system has some more depth to it.

So, to answer that, I will use the actual explanation given by the creative director: https://www.gamesradar.com/games/assassin-s-creed/assassins-creed-shadows-was-originally-envisioned-without-yasuke-but-ubisoft-wanted-the-full-feudal-fantasy-we-were-sort-of-making-a-stealth-tank-and-it-didnt-quite-work/
Basically, the devs were making Naoe too powerful, so they put him in the game so they could dilude all that power into him while keeping Naoe focused on stealth ninja stuff. So basically, his existence in the game made Naoe a better character, which we can all be grateful for.

So they actually really made a token black character, and then, additionally, they explained him as such. The irony just writes itself :/

[Al3x!el]

Originally posted by Nyx:

Originally posted by Al3x!el:

For me he is just a troll pick to cheese everything without any depth and effort.

Attack patterns are verry basic and while you can mix some things up playing the girl, because of the gimicks and stealth kills, playing him is just straight forwart spam attacks and specials untill everything is dead.

Why is he even part of the game.. ?
Feels like they first build everything arround the main character and then added him for some weird reason.

For every one of you who feels the same I can surely say the game "rise of the ronin" has done it better than this. You can do all the fancy stuff there, no need to change character and the fighting system has some more depth to it.

So, to answer that, I will use the actual explanation given by the creative director: https://www.gamesradar.com/games/assassin-s-creed/assassins-creed-shadows-was-originally-envisioned-without-yasuke-but-ubisoft-wanted-the-full-feudal-fantasy-we-were-sort-of-making-a-stealth-tank-and-it-didnt-quite-work/
Basically, the devs were making Naoe too powerful, so they put him in the game so they could dilude all that power into him while keeping Naoe focused on stealth ninja stuff. So basically, his existence in the game made Naoe a better character, which we can all be grateful for.

That's just bad game design if you ask me :/

[Nyx]

Originally posted by Fichek:

Originally posted by Nyx:

So, to answer that, I will use the actual explanation given by the creative director: https://www.gamesradar.com/games/assassin-s-creed/assassins-creed-shadows-was-originally-envisioned-without-yasuke-but-ubisoft-wanted-the-full-feudal-fantasy-we-were-sort-of-making-a-stealth-tank-and-it-didnt-quite-work/
Basically, the devs were making Naoe too powerful, so they put him in the game so they could dilude all that power into him while keeping Naoe focused on stealth ninja stuff. So basically, his existence in the game made Naoe a better character, which we can all be grateful for.

So they actually really made a token black character, and then, additionally, they explained him as such. The irony just writes itself :/

Did you read a different article or you're just making ♥♥♥♥ up? (Rethoric question)

[Nyx]

Originally posted by Al3x!el:

That's just bad game design if you ask me :/

What exactly, splitting the tanky ninja into two characters? I prefer it this way.

[Al3x!el]

Originally posted by Nyx:

Originally posted by Al3x!el:

That's just bad game design if you ask me :/

What exactly, splitting the tanky ninja into two characters? I prefer it this way.

Selling the illusion of a Samurai character while there is only a half baked version of it in the game. Not handing over the tools into a RPG system and letting the player deside how to play with the character they chose.

I feel like there many things done greatly about Naoe, she feels good to play and fits into the world, while Yasuke is just a poorly flashed out sidekick wich still gets a cover photo.

[ZemX]

Originally posted by Nyx:

Basically, the devs were making Naoe too powerful, so they put him in the game so they could dilude all that power into him while keeping Naoe focused on stealth ninja stuff. So basically, his existence in the game made Naoe a better character, which we can all be grateful for.

Color me skeptical.

Because it seems this isn't the first time the dev team set out to make a game with a solo female protagonist and then had a "change of heart" at some point in the development process. In fact, it might be at least the third time this has happened.

Yet somehow in the midst of all this they managed to push out a down-sized AC with a solo male protagonist who was mostly stealth focused in Mirage.

Don't get me wrong. I tend to approve of Ubisoft messing around with the formula each time. It makes each game different in an interesting way usually. I just find it odd that they seem to be able to make daring choices in many other ways... but not this one particular way.

[Nyx]

Originally posted by Al3x!el:

Originally posted by Nyx:

What exactly, splitting the tanky ninja into two characters? I prefer it this way.

Selling the illusion of a Samurai character while there is only a half baked version of it in the game. Not handing over the tools into a RPG system and letting the player deside how to play with the character they chose.

I feel like there many things done greatly about Naoe, she feels good to play and fits into the world, while Yasuke is just a poorly flashed out sidekick wich still gets a cover photo.

Ok, yeah, from the perspective of someone wanting a samurai, I can see how it can be bad. Since I only care about playing as the kunoichi, if making Yasuke allowed them to focus more on her stealth aspects, then it was a good inclusion to me.

[Harris]

I really dislike having to switch characters around just because of a passive-aggressive "You must play as Yasuke" or because of a bookcase a level designer arbitrarily put up to indicate the area as only available to Yasuke.

I really dislike the very presence of a samurai character because I blame the whole "focus, not a feature" of stealth and parkour on him.

I really dislike how Ubisoft felt the need to hammer home how Yasuke is a full-fledged samurai. How he is recognized as full samurai by everyone in Japan, how he literally uses his samurai status to get an audience with feudal lords... And he gets exactly zero prejudice for being a black man. On that note, I equally dislike how Ubisoft creates an imaginary world where a woman is seen as equal in a strictly male-dominated feudal society through characters like Naoe, Matsu, Katsuhime. When I am exposed to such narratives, I am starting to wonder: why was this made this way, what was the ultimate goal behind this?

Also, here's some food for thought. Even if we assume Yasuke was indeed a samurai for argument's sake, samurai without a lord becomes ronin. Essentially something in between a mercenary and a bandit? However, Yasuke does not get the ronin stigma while ALSO has no master to answer to, so is free to travel around Japan as he wishes. Comfy, isn't it?