Assassin’s Creed Shadows’ Collector’s Edition merchandise criticized for historical and linguistic errors 

Assassin’s Creed Shadows has been prompting reactions from Japanese social media users again lately regarding historical inaccuracies in the extended gameplay walkthrough trailer and the merchandise. This time, it’s not about tatami mats but mistakes with the Oda Clan crest and Japanese kanji characters. These mistakes are present in the merch included in the game’s collector’s edition and puzzle box, leading commenters to accuse Ubisoft of having a lack of respect towards Japanese history and culture.  

When Assassin’s Creed Shadows first trailer dropped in May, attentive commenters were quick to point out various inaccuracies to do with the architecture. At the same time, others noticed that real-life warlord Oda Nobunaga’s clan crest was upside down on his coat. However, many more errors have been spotted in subsequent since- as detailed below. 

The Collector’s edition ended up becoming a big target of these criticisms due to numerous errors. For starters, the issues with clan crests crept onto the figure of Yasuke included in the edition. Yasuke is fighting for Oda Nobunaga- and his armor correctly bears the Oda family crest (known as the Oda Mokkou). However, his banner bears the Toyotomi paulownia family crest – which has been decried as a glaring mistake.  

It is worth noting however that although the Oda Mokkou is the crest most strongly associated with Nobunaga, he also used other crests. In fact, he was awarded the use of the Gosankiri crest when he was made Shogun in 1568, and there is even a woodblock print with him wearing this crest on his clothing (Source: Sengoku History). Although it looks odd with Yasuke’s banner and chestplate bearing different crests- Oda Nobunaga would have received permission to use the Gosankiri crest by the time of the game’s 1579 setting. This particular crest has been used by many Japanese families, personages and organizations throughout history (as shown in the Japanese crest database Iroha no Kamon). However, a Gosankiri enclosed in a circle becomes the crest of the Toyotomi clan- which is probably how the mistake occurred (Source: Toyotomi family crest on Iroha no Kamon). 

In addition, Ubisoft has been sending a special puzzle box to key content creators-with the idea of having them try to work out how to open it in their streams. However, it has been pointed out that one of the Japanese kanji characters on the box is written incorrectly (the 義 in 仁義 Jingi, honor and humanity) despite being written correctly in the word next to it (忠義 Chuugi, loyalty). 

On the topic of Japanese writing, Yasuke’s name (弥助) is written on the Collector’s Edition box. However, looking at it closely, people have pointed out that the second kanji character (助) – seems to be written as two separate kanji characters (目 and 力). This changes the meaning and reading completely.

Overall, when viewed at a glance these errors seem to have given commenters the overall impression that Ubisoft doesn’t care about getting the details correct in the Assassin Creed series’ first foray into a Japanese setting.