The celebration of International Ninja Day took place. If you weren’t aware, it’s a real event. Ubisoft couldn’t think of any better way to celebrate the event than to let the official Assassin’s Creed account share a small visual riddle for the entire community. The riddle was in the form of a series of images with a simple and somewhat amusing activity: ‘Can you discover the hidden shogun in these pictures?’ This was all done to celebrate the future Shadows of Assassin’s Creed game. They even went as far as saying that the replies had the right answers. More or less typical social media interaction, but at the end of the day, it was at least effective in involving the audience.
In case you didn’t catch it, Assassin’s Creed Shadows is the next installment of the very successful series that will finally take place in the feudal era of Japan. The players’ wish for a ninja game that has lasted for a decade has finally been granted. Hence, a ninja day post was simply the best marketing strategy they could have used. The game’s female shinobi, Naoe, was depicted in the pictures among the various dazzling, intricately-drawn environments—imagine thick bamboo forests, traditional Japanese buildings, and so forth. Naoe was also masterfully concealed within those places. It was a subtle but thrilling way to showcase the game’s excellent visual quality and the main aspiration of being a sneaky, invisible killer.
The gaming community responded to this in mixed ways as they usually do. Internet behavior is like that. But on the other hand, a few gamers found the activity quite entertaining. A user who referred to himself as MADkurious Gamer commented, ‘This is so fun!! Would love to see some hidden object gameplay like this incorporated into the next AC!’ The suggestion is actually very good. It is like a ‘Where’s Waldo?’ game but with a deadly assassin. Not only that but the official account even interactively responded back asking if they had spotted the ninja in every picture. MADkurious admitted he had overlooked it ‘lying down in the 3rd picture,’ and the Assassin’s Creed account responded cheerfully, ‘3 out of 4 isn’t bad! A little more practice and you will rank among the masters!’ It is a small thing but this kind of interaction is what hype is made of.
But what was I saying? Oh, yes, not everyone was engaging in the game. The ‘replies’ section transformed into, as usual, a mini forum for various complaints and wishes regarding the game. One user, Demian DeVile, was very sarcastic when he said, ‘Sadly, we don’t have and will never have a Ninja AC game…’ which is a rather strange standpoint to take considering the tweet is literally about the ninja-centric game Assassin’s Creed Shadows. Maybe he hadn’t heard the news? Or is he just that jaded?
Then there were always the requests for ports and better performance. Always. A user by the name of Cartwright even tagged the account and asked, ‘Can you patch the switch 2 version so Sakai runs above 18fps?’ To begin with, that is a very specific and painful frame rate. Secondly, it is a bit of a non-sequitur because the tweet is about neither Ghost of Tsushima (which has Jin Sakai) nor the Switch. It’s like a person venting about traffic at a birthday party. Just a different topic altogether.
Of course, demand for the Black Flag remake could not be missed in an Assassin’s Creed thread. User Ali Najim commented, ‘We want AC Black Flag Re-make 🏴☠️🥺’. The pirate dream never dies, man. It just never does. Another user, Reza, started a tirade about the repetitive nature of the series, which is indeed a valid criticism that has been directed at the franchise for years but expressed in the wrong context—of a fun ninja spotting post at that.
Finally, the official account did post the answer key, which revealed Naoe’s hiding places in each screenshot along with a helpful composite image. It was a nice conclusion to the little event. But the whole exchange underscores the strange, wonderful, and often chaotic relationship that a major game developer has with its players. On the one hand, you have a cool, simple marketing engagement coinciding with a specific day. On the other, the ‘replies’ section is a deluge of feedback, wishes, complaints, and random musings about entirely different games.
It also shows how desperately the people crave Assassin’s Creed Shadows. Just a ‘spot the ninja’ tweet can attract thousands of views and provoke comments covering everything from game performance to desired features. The excitement is real, and Ubisoft is gradually but determinedly, through various means, feeding it. Whether it’s hiding a shinobi in a screenshot or releasing a new trailer, no matter how small. The community also engages on platforms like PlayStation and Xbox.
