I love stories about the idealized view of samurai, as well as cowboys and knights on that matter.
But none of that is historically accurate and people need to be aware of that. They were as dirty and awful as any person who can kill at will might be.
i like red dead redemption 2 because of that, it does a much better job than most cowboy stories at representing the time period and the people in it. not that it's free from inaccuracy for the sake of looking cool, of course, just that it's not always so rose-tinted
Well that's why the word "diaspora" exists, a Japanese American person will have different societal struggles than a Native Japanese person so their issues with cultural appropriation would be vastly different
Game lo key comments on how samurai of the age are shitty cops basically. Called In to handle situations with just their swords and wits and one mission kinda calls out how often the sword is the preferred option.
The issue is that the game never comments on it in terms of class. Without any historical knowledge, I don't think anyone who played could've guessed that the peasants are forced to give all their rice to the Samurai, or that they regularly treated them worse than mongols did.
to expand on the political ideologies of Kurosawa, it's interesting how people often forget how the first film he made after the end of the war was about how the nationalist-fascist government of ww2 japan was kind of the worst.
in his autobiography he also states that he also nearly started fights with the national-fascist censorship department when talking about how his films were not morally aligned with their standards.
(apparently it was Yasujiro Ozu that stopped him in time diverging the discussion
“It feels like it was made by outsiders looking into an otherwise complex culture through the flattening lens of an old black-and-white film”
Same can be said about the way most Japanese games portray African American characters or America in general.
While I agree, I think we can't condemn Sucker Punch for not adding politics to this particular game, like the article did. I think that devs should be free to go full militant or full rule of cool if they so wish
Though I have only seen people play it... from what I've seen, there is no way that these developers had anything but respect for Kurasawa and the countless Samurai dramas Japan has produced. Saying otherwise is clout chasing.
Japanese people : *genuinely enjoy the game and appreciate the developers' effort of representing Feudal Japan*
Journalists : "Can't let you do that gamers."
People complaining about this probably didn't play the game. Because there's politics in GoT from beginning to end (and lots of other topics that are very relatable).
A game can be political and still not accurately reflect history. In fact, few do, because most games present societal conflicts in an overly simplified and idealistic way.