Assassin’s Creed: Shadows protagonists can be LGBTQ+, hints developer
Ubisoft has confirmed that both Yasuke and Naoe can be played as LGBTQ+ in Assassin’s Creed: Shadows (Ubisoft)
Assassin’s Creed: Shadows developer Ubisoft has appeared to confirm that its dual protagonists, Naoe and Yasuke, can both be played as LGBTQ+ characters.
Assassin‘s Creed Shadows is the upcoming 14th game in the mainline franchise, which sees the Assassin Brotherhood work to defeat the Templars in a centuries-old struggle for power and control throughout various key periods of history.
The latest offering, which has already being branded ‘woke’ by right-wingers for having a Black protagonist, is set to be released in November this year, and follows Naoe (a shinobi) and Yasuke (a samurai) through an intertwined plot during 16th Century feudal Japan.
In a blog post (May 15) by the game’s developer studio, Ubisoft, the company has appeared to confirm that both protagonists in Assassin’s Creed: Shadows have the capability to be LGBTQ+ via the game’s role playing mechanics.
The post reads: “Naoe and Yasuke’s disparate personalities also lead them to have different relationships and rapports with other characters, and they don’t always feel the same way about people, nor do people always feel the same way about them.”
It goes on to confirm that, “Romantically, [the Assassin’s Creed: Shadows protagonists] will also attract and be attracted to different types of people. Through the pair, players will get to experience a multitude of relationships.”
With the franchise’s shift to a more ‘role-playing’ experience, players will presumably have the option to choose different outcomes for various situations, including tactical decisions, opportunities to build friendships – and romantic relationships.
This blog post does not mean that Naoe and Yasuke will be LGBTQ+ in every person’s play-through of Assassin’s Creed: Shadows, but rather that players who want the option to romance NPCs (non-playable characters) of the same gender as them will be able to do so.
Assassin’s Creed: Shadows is not the first game in the franchise to allow players to choose their character’s sexuality and romance options.
Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey, which was set in Ancient Greece, allowed players to choose either captain Alexios or Kassandra as their protagonist and have oiled up same-sex relations with the various twinks of the Adriatic Sea as Alexios, or several steamy sapphic love affairs in Athens as Kassandra.
Similarly, Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla let players have gay viking sex to their heart’s content with the NPCs of medieval England.
Victorian London-based Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate also introduced the franchise’s first trans character in 2015.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows will be available on 15 November.
