Theres factions?

[pp zn yo bh]

Is there something that explains the factions? am i missing something? am i retarded?
Im about 80 hours in and apparently there's factions. Who's the green guys? Who are the bad guys? why is everyone trying to kill me? What the holy hell is even happening??!!
I need an adult

[Shin Happens]

Japan at the time was a hot mess of warring states, You may call it "civil war". Nobunaga tried to unify Japan under his rule where many local daimyos lorded over their small patch of Japanese land. Until he got betrayed and died. He managed to unite ca. 50% of Japan (i.e. Honshu, the main island). The regions in Shadows were, at the time, already under control of Nobunaga and his quasi successor Hideyoshi.

Hideyoshi (who used to be one of Nobunaga's generals) eventually mostly accomplished the task and finished where Nobunaga left off. But then he died and Tokugawa had his own plans and did not heed Hideyoshi's wishes for his succession (i.e. his sole surviving very young son). So there was some more civil war, some more killing and fighting and Tokugawa eventually came out on top, united all of Japan proper and we got 220 odd years or so of peaceful (for the most part) united Japan until one fine day in the mid 19th century the Americans came knocking and forced them via military power to open up Japan for free trade (highly ironic in 2025).

There are no "real" good guys in Shadows. They all just want power. Tokugawa/Hideyoshi/Nobunaga were as cruel or ruthless as any of the other guys really.

Hideyoshi had his tea ceremony guy commit seppuku (he is in the game and Naoe meets him) after throwing a hissy fit over nothing. And even though Hideyoshi had once been a peasant who rose through the ranks all the way up to Imperial Regent he is the one who instituted the rigid class system, forbade peasants from owning weapons or ever becoming samurai (even if he accomplished all that for himself) and even made it illegal for them to leave their home region. Tokugawa eventually eradicated Hideyoshi's Toyotomi clan - and all these guys had been allies at one time or another.

As far as gameplay is concerned, there are no real factions as you had them in Odyssey or so. Naoe/Yasuke are free agents who do their own thing, you do not conquer regions, you do not help anyone conquer regions. And as mentioned the regions in Shadows were already under control of just one feudal lord, Nobunaga/Hideyoshi. Hideyoshi defeated this game's big bad (Akechi) shortly after Nobunaga's death, I believe mere 13 days after Nobunaga's death.

In short: everyone is trying to kill everyone because they either all want to lord over all of Japan or prevent said folks from lording over all of Japan.

[pp zn yo bh]

That is a really detailed and helpful answer actually. it would appear I have to brush up on my feudal Japan history. its an awesome and very detailed game.. I wish perhaps we just had a bit more explanation of things. OR Japanese History is complex and not for the faint of heart. thank you

[HorzaEdeo]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von pp zn yo bh:

That is a really detailed and helpful answer actually. it would appear I have to brush up on my feudal Japan history. its an awesome and very detailed game.. I wish perhaps we just had a bit more explanation of things. OR Japanese History is complex and not for the faint of heart. thank you

i've actually ordered a book about it to remind myself what's going on
off on a tangent, i really like how the faction colours are very natural and subdued in this

[Shin Happens]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von pp zn yo bh:

That is a really detailed and helpful answer actually. it would appear I have to brush up on my feudal Japan history. its an awesome and very detailed game.. I wish perhaps we just had a bit more explanation of things. OR Japanese History is complex and not for the faint of heart. thank you

You are welcome! My general feeling is if you know little or nothing about the history of Japan the game will leave you very, very confused as it does a lousy job of actually explaining what is going on. It does not help that the codex does not have a category for the dozens of characters you meet which explains who they were and in what relation they stood to each other.

I can highly recommend Shogun, whatever version you prefer, either the book by James Clavell or the 1980s mini series or the 2024 remake / retelling on Hulu (I would maybe check out the 1980s version first). Shogun is a sequel to the events in Shadows and tells the story of English sailor William Adams as he strands in Japan with his crew, has the culture shock of his life but eventually learns to love the country and culture and earns the favour of Tokugawa and becomes a samurai (sounds familiar? ;-) ) Shogun covers the final stages of Tokugawa taking over all of Japan and thus it is basically the perfect sequel to Shadows. Now the story of Shogun changes all the names, i.e. Adams becomes John Blackthorne and Tokugawa is called Toranaga, this was done for artistic license and it's of course a mostly fictionalised retelling of history, but the basic events are very much inspired by actual Japanese history and many of the characters in the story are modeled after their real world counterparts.

Unlike Yasuke Adams' status as samurai is not contested or ambiguous and he lived the rest of his life in Japan under the service of the Tokugawa clan, had a Japanese wife and two kids with her.

Until Japan became peak xenophobic, forbade foreigners from entering the country entirely and limited access of overseas Dutch traders to a few select sea ports (the Jesuits were expelled and Christianity became illegal). They even expelled all mixed race Japanese from the country (not that there were all that many probably) and this almost certainly included the two kids of Adams (Adams was already dead by then) since all their records stop after the decree by the then Shogun, Japan deported mixed race Japanese to what is now Indonesia.

[RodroG]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Shin Happens:

Japan at the time was a hot mess of warring states, You may call it "civil war". Nobunaga tried to unify Japan under his rule where many local daimyos lorded over their small patch of Japanese land. Until he got betrayed and died. He managed to unite ca. 50% of Japan (i.e. Honshu, the main island). The regions in Shadows were, at the time, already under control of Nobunaga and his quasi successor Hideyoshi.

Hideyoshi (who used to be one of Nobunaga's generals) eventually mostly accomplished the task and finished where Nobunaga left off. But then he died and Tokugawa had his own plans and did not heed Hideyoshi's wishes for his succession (i.e. his sole surviving very young son). So there was some more civil war, some more killing and fighting and Tokugawa eventually came out on top, united all of Japan proper and we got 220 odd years or so of peaceful (for the most part) united Japan until one fine day in the mid 19th century the Americans came knocking and forced them via military power to open up Japan for free trade (highly ironic in 2025).

There are no "real" good guys in Shadows. They all just want power. Tokugawa/Hideyoshi/Nobunaga were as cruel or ruthless as any of the other guys really.

Hideyoshi had his tea ceremony guy commit seppuku (he is in the game and Naoe meets him) after throwing a hissy fit over nothing. And even though Hideyoshi had once been a peasant who rose through the ranks all the way up to Imperial Regent he is the one who instituted the rigid class system, forbade peasants from owning weapons or ever becoming samurai (even if he accomplished all that for himself) and even made it illegal for them to leave their home region. Tokugawa eventually eradicated Hideyoshi's Toyotomi clan - and all these guys had been allies at one time or another.

As far as gameplay is concerned, there are no real factions as you had them in Odyssey or so. Naoe/Yasuke are free agents who do their own thing, you do not conquer regions, you do not help anyone conquer regions. And as mentioned the regions in Shadows were already under control of just one feudal lord, Nobunaga/Hideyoshi. Hideyoshi defeated this game's big bad (Akechi) shortly after Nobunaga's death, I believe mere 13 days after Nobunaga's death.

In short: everyone is trying to kill everyone because they either all want to lord over all of Japan or prevent said folks from lording over all of Japan.

Thank you for this. It's a useful and interesting contribution to better understanding what's happening in the game and what happened in the historical period it might represent. I also agree that the game's Codex does not help contextualize and link the characters you meet during your playthrough.

[Exoni]

Really like your text Great stuff.But after playing nearly all Assassins games i think this is the worst i can not gel with it boring lacking game play drawn out poor fighting

[ZemX]

The background history is interesting but it should have been just that... background. It's the setting. Not the story. Except they kind of decided to bring it to the fore and the main bad guys, instead of being a secret conspiracy organization working towards some nefarious common goal (which let's face it is the point of AC games usually) is instead just a group of people all trying to work their own power scheme, including the main big bad.

There's no big mystery. The plot reveals lack any real impact. The game is enjoyable to play but the story is just... there.