New ‘Assassin’s Creed’ Game Criticised In Japan Parliament

A samurai character allegedly destroys the interior of a Shinto shrine, according to a Japanese lawmaker who criticized the most recent video game in the popular “Assassin’s Creed” series on Wednesday.

The French company “Shadows” will be available on Thursday and features a story about feudal 16th-century Japan that is inspired by authentic samurai films and historical events.

However, a character is seen in a YouTube gameplay video destroying an altar and a traditional drum while bowing at priests.

Hiroyuki Kada, a member of the liberal-governing Liberal Democratic Party, stated in parliament that “it’s important to treat culture with respect.”

“I’m concerned that game attacks and destructive deeds may cause imitation nuisance behavior in the real world,” Kada said.

Additionally, read “Assassin’s Creed: Five Things to Know About It.”

The lawmaker also criticized the French game developer for using a shrine in his hometown of Hyogo without getting permission from the shrine itself.

Yasuke, one of the two playable protagonists, has already sparked a heated debate in “Shadows” both online and offline because of the casting of a black samurai as one of the two characters.

More than 100 000 people signed a Japanese petition challenging the samurai character’s depiction.

Game developers criticized a “lack of historical accuracy and cultural respect” in the petition’s text.

Japanese gamers have expressed fury over the fact that players can obliterate the interiors of revered shrines.

This reaction “should have been foreseen,” Yuichi Goza, an assistant professor at Kyoto’s International Research Center, told AFP last week.

Although I agree with France’s secularist tenets, Goza said it’s important to recognize that insults to religion can cause strong reactions.

In the past, Jean-Luc Melenchon, a radical leftist politician, criticized the 20-year “Assassin’s Creed” saga for how firebrand Maximilien Robespierre was depicted in the film’s setting of the French Revolution.

Other setbacks that occurred before Thursday included leaks of the game a month before its release, in addition to the delays that occurred.

Source: Channels TV