@luxuryheart: my perception is that, at least for American films, black representation is really really good. Specially if you compare it to native American, latin, east asian or south asian representation.

What I mean is, black people in USA represent around 12 to 15% of the population, but the percentage of famous actors in films is much bigger than that.

I think that's specially the case for actors that do advertisment.

The female character is less realistic than the black dude.

It should have been a black dude and japanese dude as main characters.

Female fighters were extremely rare in Japan history. Mostly taking arms as a last resource to defend their homes.

Even female samurais (women within that social class) were simply housewives.

@uninspiredcup: well if it's political and trying to push an agenda it will be ruined. Otherwise, it can actually be interesting.

After all, a guy from Africa, having dealt with slavery, travelling with Portuguese clergy through south and southeast Asia, and arriving to Japan to serve the original unifier of Japan after the Sengoku period seems really interesting.

I am normally on the side of the anti woke, but this is interesting and historically appropriate. Even if he wasn't formally a samurai, he did perform the same role.

I think the idea of having the perspective of black outsider taking a look at medieval japan, if they do it in a nuanced and realistic manner, will be great.

I just hope it doesn't have blockbuster movie style writing.

@sargentd: They are discussing the new assassin's Creed main character, which is based on an African servant that was given to Japan's unifier oda nobunaga by Portuguese Jesuits.

The guy was renamed yasuke by nobunaga and became his retainer. He is said to have been a great fighter and an exceptionally strong person. Apparently, nobunaga really liked him and he fought several battles for him.

I think there is a controversy here, because some people think featuring a black man as a main character in a game about ancient Japan is a political statement.

Usually I am closer to the camp that doesn't like wokism affecting story telling and I am very firmly on the camp of hating wokism distorting history.

But yasuke was a real historical figure who was a samurai in everything but name, and I also think his story as one of the first black people to set feet in Japan is really interesting and his inclusion is not necessarily political.

@mrbojangles25: fine, it's not correct. But it doesn't stand up to me as inappropriate, if he was filling the same role under a different title.

Anyway, I don't disagree that the game addressing this would make it more interesting, but even if they didn't I would not consider it a big distortion of history. Just a small embellishment.

Well samurais were simply the warrior class that served the lords in Japan up until the meiji period. Samurai literally meaning "those who serve"

Yasuke is in historical records taking parts in several battles in defense of no other than Oda nobunaga and is described as a very strong fighter. So calling him, a servent that knows how to bear arms, a samurai, is very appropriate.

But having said so, I would love to see more stories with realistic african historical settings, including warriors or other characters

I Will get them once they come to PC.

Probably one of the Total war games, but I don't remember exactly as my longest playing time happened when I was a teenager. ( My guess is either the original Rome, or medieval 2)

I like they are using India. Seems like an underused location.