Assassin's Creed Shadows Yasuke romance controversy explored

Assassin's Creed Shadows has been wading through one controversy after another since long before launch, and the most recent one seems to be about one of Yasuke's romance options in-game. As far as we have found out, the samurai has two potential romance options, Lady Oichi and Ibuki.

The controversy we are discussing is about the latter.

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Assassin's Creed Shadows Yasuke and Ibuki optional romance has players divided

Ibuki in Assassin's Creed Shadows (Image via Sportskeeda Gaming || Ubisoft)

In AC Shadows, Yasuke and Ibuki's romance option becomes available during the Putting Down Roots quest. The former will give flowers to the latter, and players will get the dialogue option of choosing to be more than friends. Furthermore, the game identifies Ibuki as a non-binary character with they/them pronouns.

This has resulted in two sides of the conversation. On one side, players are upset with the introduction of a relationship between the black samurai and a non-binary person in feudal Japan. Meanwhile, the other side has pointed out this is an RPG experience and the romance is optional.

To add context to the second point, romance options are disabled in the game's Canon Mode, meaning players are simply getting to explore whichever choice they want.

What complicates the matter, however, is that many of the characters involved in these romance options, like Lady Oichi and Yasuke, are actual historical entities. Creative liberties in such cases may or may not go down well with the community at large even if the resulting work of art is depicted as historical fiction.

Coming at a time when a section of gamers are accusing developers and publishers of going "woke" based on what they perceive as forceful inclusions/diversity, Yasuke's romance options in Assassin's Creed Shadows have been met with raised eyebrows and much hue and cry.

Sadly, this hasn't been the only controversy the game has gotten embroiled in post-launch. Players initially had the ability to destroy the shrine modeled on the real-life Itatehyozu shrine. The act was met with uproar and even the Japanese Prime Minister weighed in on the matter. The game's subsequent Day One Patch finally fixed the issue, but the damage was done by then.