Assassin's Creed Shadows' Japanese setting has been "very, very tricky" because Ubisoft wants to be "respectful" and "avoid telling a culture about their own culture"

Naoe and Yasuke walk in the sunset in a screenshot from Assassin's Creed Shadows — (Image credit: Ubisoft)

With Assassin's Creed Shadows, Ubisoft is finally taking the series to a setting that fans have been begging for since the start, but feudal Japan has been "very, very tricky" for the devs, who "want to be respectful" and "avoid telling a culture about their own culture."

Speaking to GamesRadar+, Shadows' associate game director Simon Lemay-Comtois explains the unique challenge that came with the Japanese setting. First and foremost, he says that the team is "really good at taking a place that has not been put in a game and then putting it in a game" – something which doesn't apply to Japan, which has been "showcased in many, many, many medias" and "has its own culture of video game development" to boot.

"So we had to be very careful to handle it with care, to do our research, to due diligence, to double check with Japanese experts on astounding amounts of details," he explains, giving the example of the protagonists taking off their shoes when they enter their hideout.

"Japan has been, I would say, very, very tricky, and we want to be respectful about everything Japan. [...] We want to avoid telling a culture about their own culture," he continues. "That's one of the reasons as well why we have Yasuke as an outsider in the game. His perspective allows us to be a little more, I would say, free in terms of what Yasuke can do or say, as he's not from Japan and he doesn't know exactly everything. We were careful and attentive to feedback, and still, it's been a pretty constructive journey learning about Japan on the way."

In a separate interview, creative director Jonathan Dumont tells us that Ubisoft had to "be careful that we're not making a Japanese game. We're making an Assassin's Creed game set in Japan." This comes alongside the "pressure that we put on ourselves anyway," as the devs "want to make a good game set in Japan," and "our fans want it," too.

As for the game's overall quality, he says that the "delay has allowed us actually to fine-tune and perfect and debug further down so that we can deliver that experience." With that in mind, hopefully it'll be worth the wait when it launches on March 20.

Be sure to check out our Assassin's Creed Shadows big preview hub for more details about the game from our hands-on preview.

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I'm GamesRadar+'s Deputy News Editor, working alongside the rest of the news team to deliver cool gaming stories that we love. After spending more hours than I can count filling The University of Sheffield's student newspaper with Pokemon and indie game content, and picking up a degree in Journalism Studies, I started my career at GAMINGbible where I worked as a journalist for over a year and a half. I then became TechRadar Gaming's news writer, where I sourced stories and wrote about all sorts of intriguing topics. In my spare time, you're sure to find me on my Nintendo Switch or PS5 playing through story-driven RPGs like Xenoblade Chronicles and Persona 5 Royal, nuzlocking old Pokemon games, or going for a Victory Royale in Fortnite.