About

Yasuke Simulator is a parody samurai simulator video game developed by HistoryAccurateDevelopers in which players take on the role of the African samurai Yasuke in 1597 Japan. The game was released on March 20th, 2025, the same day as Assassin's Creed: Shadows, in which you also play as Yasuke, as a direct competitor. While the game claims to be a simulator, the term is used ironically, as Yasuke can do many things that are not accurate to the time period, including driving cars and using modern guns as weaponry. The game garnered significant attention online surrounding its release, with some claiming it's better than Assassin's Creed: Shadows. The game was also accused of being racist by those who saw it as a direct parody of and reaction to Ubisoft's choice to make the protagonist of AC: Shadows a Black samurai.

History

Trailer

On February 20th, 2025, YouTuber^[1] GurpsSingh01 uploaded the official trailer for the parody simulator game Yasuke Simulator, an action game in which players take on the role of Yasuke, an African samurai who lived in 1597. The trailer shows Yasuke doing several historically inaccurate things, including driving a car and using modern guns on enemies. The video gained over 55,000 views in a month.

On February 28th, YouTuber^[2] HistoryAccurateDevelopers, the company behind the game, posted the same trailer, garnering over 28,000 views in a month. The description of the trailer further describes the game and includes a sarcastic blurb hyping up the game's historical accuracy, reading:

📜Historically accuracy: The Yasuke Simulator team has done its research and went above and beyond to provide a totally historically accurate depiction of Feudal Japan with Yasuke the Samurai.

Release

On March 20th, 2025, Yasuke Simulator was released on Steam,^[3] coinciding with the release of Assassin's Creed: Shadows. The game garnered overwhelmingly positive reviews over the next few days. The HistoryAccurateDevelopers YouTube^[4] channel also began releasing the game's soundtrack that day, with the song "Yasuke The Black Samurai" garnering over 60,000 views in five days.

Online Presence

Even before it was released, Yasuke Simulator inspired discourse, memes and discussions online. On February 18th, 2025, a month prior to its release, X^[5] user @Pirat_Nation made a post about the game that garnered over 11,000 likes in a month. One of the top comments under the post encourages users to buy the game and get it to surpass AC: Shadows' player count.

On February 21st, YouTuber^[6] Hypnotic posted a video discussing the game and theories that it was made with racist intentions, garnering over 17,000 views in a month.

On March 20th, the day of the game's release, X^[7] user @Godaka53 posted footage of a part in the game in which the player must play a Squid Game-like round of "Red Light, Green Light," writing, "Were there any squid games during the historical Sengoku period?" garnering over 1,300 likes in five days.

That same day, X^[8] user @gamespark posted screenshots from the game that showcase its historical inaccuracy, writing, "Yasuke Simulator, which aims for 'overwhelming historical accuracy,' has been released. Steam user reviews have already been 'very positive,'" garnering over 25,000 likes in five days.

On March 21st, 2025, a now-deleted Redditor made a post to /r/Gamingunjerk^[9] in which they shared concern for their friend over their choice to buy and play Yasuke Simulator. The post reads, "My friend is playing it at the moment, and I'm pretty worried he's going down the right wing/reactionary pipeline. From what I've Googled only chuds are talking about the game, but when I checked Steam and some random streamer on Twitch it doesn't seem to be bigoted, at least not blatantly," garnering over 40 upvotes and 760 comments in four days.

On March 22nd, X^[10] user @Nore139 posted footage from the game in which Yasuke is seen riding a bike to Nobunaga, who is sitting on a toilet, writing, "In 1579, Samurai Yasuke straddles a bicycle and escapes a wall. There, he encounters Oda Nobunaga, who is sitting on a toilet seat, and apologizes, saying, 'Sorry about the bug.'" The post gained over 9,200 likes in three days.

On March 23rd, 2025, Twitch streamer Asmongold played the game on-stream, releasing a cut of his gameplay to YouTube^[11] the next day, garnering over 553,000 views in a day. On the day Asmongold held the stream, Redditor u/Chocolatine00 made a post to /r/Asmongold^[12] showing the game's view numbers on Twitch surpassing AC: Shadows', garnering over 2,000 upvotes in two days.

Search Interest

External References