In an apparent hint that both members of the Samurai-Ninja duo will be members of the LGBT community, Ubisoft has revealed that their upcoming Assassin’s Creed Shadows will allow its protagonists Yasuke and Naoe to romance “different types of people”.
The French developer provided this tease to Shadows‘ romance mechanics in an official May 15th press release published alongside the game’s first official trailer.
Therein providing details as to the game’s various gameplay and story elements, Ubisoft eventually turned to discuss the characters of Yasuke and Naoe themselves, in particular how “the pair provide the player with opposing perspectives on Nobunaga and the means he used to achieve his goal of unification.”
“The difference in their social stature is reflected in the world itself, which will respond differently to the player depending on who they are playing as,” explained the developer. “Naoe, for example, can present herself as a peasant and garner appropriate reactions; that is, if she wants to be seen at all. Yasuke, on the other hand, comes from a different land, but his status as a samurai garners respect from others, so people will bow to him on the streets.”
“Characters can have different expectations of the pair,” they added, “and in some cases, will prefer to deal with only one or the other.”
Ubisoft then turned to discuss how the pair’s “disparate personalities also lead them to have different relationships and rapports with other characters,” as “they don’t always feel the same way about people, nor do people always feel the same way about them.”
In terms of romance, they additionally noted that “both Yasuke and Naoe will also attract and be attracted to different types of people” and thus “through the pair, players will get to experience a multitude of relationships.”
To this end, the developer’s use of such vague terminology in describing the pair’s potential romantic interests suggests that not only will the game feature straight romance trees, but also gay ones – and potentially, especially given the current media ecosystem, non-binary or transgender ones as well.
Notably, Shadows will not be the first franchise entry to allow players to enter into a gay relationship.
In both Odyssey and Valhalla, players were presented with a variety of male and female romantic options, all of which were open to them regardless of which of the game’s respective gendered protagonists they chose to play as.
Ultimately, just who Yasuke and Naoe will be able to strike up a conversation with will be fully revealed when Assassin’s Creed Shadows leaps onto the PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S platforms this November 15th.