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You can have hot gay samurai flings in Assassin’s Creed: Shadows. Set in 16th-century feudal Japan towards the end of the Sengoku period, the fourteenth mainline instalment of the long-running video game franchise from Ubisoft features dual protagonists Yaoe, a female Shinobi, and Yasuke, a samurai inspired by the real historical figure of the same name. The game was branded ‘woke’ as details of its protagonists emerged for being *checks notes* a Black man and a woman – and if conservatives didn’t like that, they’re certainly not going to like a few of the game’s romance options. As in previous instalments, Assassin’s Creed: Shadows has several NPCs (non-playable characters) that the player can choose to charm, leading to dialogue options (labelled with a heart) that get our protagonist a bit hot under the collar – and a good handful of these feature same-sex pairings. Though this list isn’t exhaustive, Yasuke is able to charm Hori Hidemasa, a retainer of Lord Nobunaga (one of the game’s key figures). Yasuke can complete a quest from Hori Hidemasa, picking the dialogue, “You are an unexpected gift.” Hidemasa then gives Yasuke a tender embrace and his helmet (the armoured one). Yasuke is also able to romance a character named Ibuki, who is non-binary. After Yasuke gets his Samurai charm on (and completes a quest line for Ibuki), the pair meet in a discreet clearing in a bamboo forest, and things get steamy. “I do not think I have ever seen you quite so tongue-tied,” Yasuke tells Ibuki, to which they reply: “Not yet, at least.” Ibuki then says: “Do you think someone might see us… Do you care?” and Yasuke says, “Not at all.” And it’s smooch city (and some heavy petting) from there on out. Interestingly, unlike in previous Assassin’s Creed games, Shadows assigns specific NPCs to each protagonist rather than allowing both to pursue the same romances. The option for queer romance makes good on developers’ promises, with Ubisoft confirming in May last year, “Romantically, [the Assassin’s Creed: Shadows protagonists] will also attract and be attracted to different types of people. Through the pair, players will get to experience a multitude of relationships.” Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla (2020) let players have gay viking seggs to their heart’s content with the NPCs of medieval England and Victorian London-based Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate also introduced the franchise’s first trans character in 2015.