Assassin’s Creed Shadows earns ire of Japanese people with inaccurate architecture, costumes and etiquette 

Ubisoft’s upcoming Sengoku period RPG Assassin’s Creed Shadows caused audiences to polarize around the decision to cast the historical Yasuke as a protagonist – some finding it erasive of Japanese people, others finding the blend of real life and fiction fascinating. On the other hand, the game has also gotten Japanese users almost unanimously annoyed with a series of glaring historical inaccuracies that are visible in the recently released trailer. 

The Assassin’s Creed series, while fictional, is known for a good deal of well-researched and accurate depictions of historical locations from around the world. After all, the 3D data of the Notre Dame created for Assassin’s Creed Unity was accurate enough to serve as reference for the cathedral’s restoration after it burned down in 2019. However, with the story moving to feudal Japan in Assassin’s Creed Shadows, it seems the developers are not managing to meet expectations for historical accuracy. 

A viral post on X, which has been viewed over 12 million times, singles out a scene from the Assassin’s Creed: Shadows trailer that seems to step on a series of cultural landmines. The offending sequence depicts lord Oda Nobunaga, one of the most influential figures of the time, in forum with his vassals. One of the biggest issues with this scene is the architecture – Japanese users aren’t really sure what kind of room this interior is supposed to be depicting.  

In terms of Japanese architecture, the ceilings of this room seem impossibly high, the sliding shoji and doors are extremely tall, and the tatami mats are of a nonstandard square shape (as opposed to rectangular), with non-uniform borders. Users have commented that the tatami mats look more like a “tatami-esque flooring” than the real thing. As opposed to most western styles of architecture, traditional Japanese architecture is based on the eye-level of a person seated on the floor, which is why the high ceiling immediately makes the supposedly traditional room look jarring. As a result, many users got the impression that Nobunaga and his generals are perhaps seated in a “high school dojo,” ready to do some judo throws. 

On the topic of “being seated,” this same scene from the Assassin’s Creed Shadows trailer also makes some serious etiquette-related faux pas. For starters, one of Nobunaga’s aides is seated at the same level as his lord, as opposed to joining everyone else on the lower level. Additionally, the generals appear to be sitting seiza-style, a sitting position that only became standard for warriors later in the Tokugawa period. For the given historical and cultural context, a cross-legged position would have been correct. Additionally, some of the supposedly noble men seem to be sitting on top of the borders between tatami mats, which suggests they don’t know their manners. 

Furthermore, the characters appearing before lord Nobunaga in the Assassin’s Creed Shadows trailer have their hair styled in top-knots characteristic of the Edo period, which came after the Sengoku period. In addition to the lackluster costume design, these decisions gave many users the impression of a “congregation of Edo period townsfolk” rather than a Sengoku period war council. On the topic of costumes, the Nobunaga family crest seen on Oda Nobunaga’s robe is pasted upside-down. 

Based on what has been revealed so far of Assassin’s Creed Shadows, Japanese users are expressing disappointment with the apparent lack of effort put into research and authenticity, especially compared to previous Assassin’s Creed titles. But most of all, people seem to be disenchanted with the apparent non-involvement of Japanese designers, experts or supervisors in the game’s development, as one user puts it, “Yeah, it’s just entertainment, and I’m not the type to nitpick, but the way this shows that there are no Japanese people on the team kind of makes me sad.”