Is this a deliberate act of humiliation or simply another case of cultural insensitivity? I’ll leave that call to you.

Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed: Shadows, widely regarded as the world’s most controversial video game, has once again captured attention, albeit indirectly. The game’s notoriety requires little introduction, now facing the tangible prospect of legal action from Japan over its disrespectful depiction of real, family-owned shrines.

A particularly striking example is the Itate Hyozu Shrine, a sacred Japanese site that Ubisoft included without permission, going so far as to render it destructible in-game.

Video evidence of Yasuke defacing shrines in Assassin’s Creed: Shadows has ignited widespread fury in Japan, with Sankei Shimbun reporting that shrine representatives, who didn’t give permission to Ubisoft to be featured in the game are now mulling over legal action.

This uproar recalls past gaming scandals, like the Church of England’s outrage over the unauthorized portrayal of Manchester Cathedral in Resistance: Fall of Man.

The broader controversy surrounding Ubisoft’s DEI-fueled choice to anchor a game set in Feudal Japan on Yasuke a historically marginal figure believed to have been stranded in Japan during the Sengoku Period as either a retainer or slave to Oda Nobunaga hardly needs rehashing.

Yasuke, a Black man, is thrust by Ubisoft into the role of a full-fledged samurai warrior, despite scant historical evidence beyond footnotes. This move reeks of revisionism, repurposing Japan’s storied past to fit a pro-diversity narrative. The sole “support” for Yasuke’s samurai status stems from Thomas Lockley, a Jewish-English author who conveniently self-cited in Wikipedia edits, edits he rewrote himself to bolster his two books claiming Yasuke’s long-lost samurai legacy.

Ubisoft eagerly latched onto this foundation to align with DEI and ESG sociopolitical trends to benefit financial investment. And as a benefit they get to deflect criticism by hiding behind a “historical” figure.

But that’s old news. The game, years in the making, doesn’t just stumble into insensitivity, it seems steeped in racial prejudice against Japan. Ubisoft enlisted a “historian” by the name of Sachi Schmidt-Hori, known for crafting homoerotic tales such as “Tales of Idolized Boys: Male-Male Love in Medieval Japanese Buddhist Narratives” which depicts sexual relations between adolescent boys and adult priests, undermining their claims of “respectful dedication” to Japan’s culture.

From letting players desecrate shrines to releasing a tie-in figure featuring a blasphemous, shattered torii gate, conflating Chinese and Japanese architecture and culture, and even sending Japanese creators sponsored packages riddled with historical and grammatical gaffes, the missteps pile up.

Then there’s the One Piece katana fiasco and anachronisms like cherry blossoms blooming alongside watermelons, a summer fruit absent from Japan until long after the Sengoku Period. These errors, paired with Ubisoft’s reliance on Lockley’s historic revisionist narrative of Yasuke, only further cement the fact that this game was made without an ounce of decency, let alone “authenticity.”

This mess has been dissected endlessly. Ubisoft’s finances are tanking after a string of high-budget flops, Star Wars Outlaws, Skull and Bones, and Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown bombed commercially, their Call of Duty rival XDefiant was just axed, and now Assassin’s Creed: Shadows looms on the horizon to finally put them out of their misery.

Gamers await its release not with excitement, but with grim anticipation of its certain failure, as Ubisoft has torched nearly every bridge since the game’s reveal. Twice delayed, first from October 2024 to February 2025 (coinciding with Black History Month), now to March 20, 2025, on the anniversary of the Tokyo Subway Sarin Attack, ostensibly for polish and to dodge heavy hitters like Monster Hunter Wilds and Kingdom Come Deliverance 2, the game faces mounting woes.

Beyond the looming threats of lawsuits, financial collapse, or a Tencent acquisition, Ubisoft now faces a fresh jab: a parody game called Yasuke Simulator has surfaced out of the blue.

This cheeky contender, starring Yasuke, seeks to rattle Ubisoft at its most vulnerable, primed to hijack their launch with over-the-top antics and a sly wink at the unfolding drama.

Meet Yasuke Simulator, a Steam release slated for March 20, coinciding with Assassin’s Creed: Shadows’ debut. Crafted by a studio with the tongue-in-cheek name “HistoryAccurateDevelopers,” the game dives headfirst into absurdity, poking fun at Ubisoft’s claims of “historical authenticity” with gleeful, unapologetic nonsense.

In Yasuke Simulator, Yasuke isn’t just a “forgotten samurai,” he’s a token of destruction who tears through history in sportscars, blasting enemies with guns. Needless to say that Yasuke Simulator is a revisionist fever dream cranked to maximum absurdity.

This game, obviously a jest, likely whipped up by a lone developer looking to milk the controversy while having a laugh doesn’t try to mimic Assassin’s Creed. While Assassin’s Creed: Shadows falls completely flat in its attempt to sell itself as a deep historical dive, Yasuke Simulator revels in its own ridiculousness.

It’s a rough-around-the-edges, over-the-top parody that doesn’t bother with authenticity beyond a sarcastic smirk.

Unlike Ubisoft’s convoluted messaging, Yasuke Simulator flaunts its satire proudly. Set in 1579, it casts players as Yasuke, an African warrior aiding Oda Nobunaga’s mission to unify Japan. But forget historical fidelity, here, Yasuke wields everything from multiple swords to firearms, powered by “ancestral” abilities that let him shred foes with style.

Scattered across the map are secret gear stashes, doubling down on the game’s dedication to unhinged fun over realism.

The developers cheekily boast they’ve gone “above and beyond” for a “totally historically accurate” take on feudal Japan, though Yasuke roaring through the Sengoku era in a car with a gun in hand exposes that claim as pure mockery of which it still does a better job at being less insensitive than what Ubisoft have spent years manufacturing.

Both titles drop on March 20: Assassin’s Creed: Shadows hits Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5, and PC, while Yasuke Simulator lands on Steam for a mere $4.99, which is cheaper than a Ubisoft microtransaction.

Is it a clever satire or just a blatant cash grab? This indie parody is capitalizing on Ubisoft’s ongoing controversies to gain traction. Developed with AI-generated assets and seemingly put together by a single person in just a few months, it has already climbed to the 1,219th spot on Steam’s wishlist rankings.

The game resonates with gamers frustrated by Ubisoft’s persistent focus on ideological messaging and identity pandering. Meanwhile, the lone developer beyond Yasuke Simulator stands to make a significant profit, as Ubisoft, struggling with multiple delays on Shadows and widespread layoffs teeters on the brink of financial collapse.