There’s something beautiful about having a game exist that doesn’t try to be anything more than what it is — a fun, silly, heartfelt (literal) ride crafted by someone who genuinely wanted you to enjoy it. Is it rough around the edges? Absolutely. But in a weird way, it adds to the overall charm.
That’s Yasuke Simulator. The legendary game developed by HistoryAccurateDevelopers.
The description on Steam is equally as legendary:
Step into 1579 as Yasuke, the African samurai, and join Oda Nobunaga in his quest to unite Japan! Master precise katana combat, uncover secret gear, and unleash your ancestral power in this historically inspired action-packed journey through feudal Japan.
A little indie gem with what I'd have to imagine... a tiny budget, available for just like 4 bucks on Steam. It's now somehow — somehow — managed to pull in more viewers over on Twitch than Ubisoft’s mega-budgeted Assassin’s Creed: Shadows.
Yes, seriously...
Sure, a lot of that viewer count can be chalked up to Asmongold streaming it, which, I mean... obviously gave it a massive boost. But still — the fact that Yasuke Simulator was able to even enter the same conversation in the first place on the scale of a brand new Assassin’s Creed game speaks volumes. The contrast between the two is staggering.
I actually beat Yasuke Simulator on stream a couple days ago, and lol... let me tell you — I had a FANTASTIC time with it the entire way through. The music is legit top-notch, and while it’s far from perfect, it exudes something that many of these big-budget games forgot about or just don’t have anymore: soul. Seriously.
It has wit, tongue-in-cheek humor, and lines of dialogue that are so over-the-top, they’re meme-worthy in the best way possible. YOU ARE SAMURAI! It’s the kind of game where you can feel the developer (whoever the hell it was) just wanted to slap a smile on your face the whole time through.
Meanwhile, over at Ubisoft, we’ve got Assassin’s Creed: Shadows. A game that looks like it was created by three thousand cooks in a kitchen, each trying to throw their own ingredient in at the last minute. The budget? Officially unknown at this point, but the generally agreed-upon sentiment that I've been seeing floating around out there online estimates it somewhere between $250 to $350 million.
But what if I told you… there are (currently unsubstantiated) rumors floating around that the game actually cost upwards of $900 million?
Would you believe it?
A two-hour-plus end credits sequence
Over 3,000 credited employees
5+ years in development hell
Ballooned Marketing Budget
Endless rewrites and reworks
A parade of DEI checkboxes and useless consultants
A company with nearly 20,000 employees worldwide
And a game so infected with bloated nonsense that at this point... it’s barely recognizable as "fun"
If that number is even remotely true... Then YIKES — Ubisoft is so far past cooked it’s not even funny. They’re burnt to a crisp.
The writing's on the wall at this point. The industry is bloated. Top-heavy. Obsessed with performative activism (and activists), focus group nonsense, and cinematic fluff over actual gameplay. And when a low-budget indie game with a meme title and a shoestring dev team (at best) is pulling more engagement than your bloated AAA flagship release… it’s time to start asking the hard questions. I'm not even joking here.
Of course the concurrent player count is far lower. It's a tiny game that has about a 1.5 hour run time to complete. Compare that to the 50+ hour grind of AC: Shadows and there's simply.. no comparison on the charts:
At the end of the day, Yasuke Simulator is just more fun to play. At least for me it was. That’s what matters. That’s always what should’ve mattered. But in 2025, that core idea feels like a relic of a bygone era. The marketing of Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed Shadows has it showing up everywhere, in your face, and unavoidable. But that doesn't make it a great game. It never will.
Let’s hope more of these indie devs come along to remind everyone what real gaming joy feels like. Because Ubisoft?
It's starting to feel like they’re chasing ghosts... and they're running out of gas.
~Smash
Ah, nature is healing.
Justice. In a clown world, a clown game speaks the truth.