[slg]

>Still more accurate most of the time than a lot of historical video games at least.

This game is much closer to Trivial Pursuit than it is Assassin's Creed. The importance of accuracy depends on the type of game and when the point of the game is specifically testing the player's knowledge, a lack of accuracy is game-breaking.

[Cthulhu_]

And where the creators are on the spectrum between historical accuracy vs politics vs target audience; Asscreed is one that tries to balance it, sometimes it works, their most recent example has had major criticisms. Kingdom Come focuses on historical accuracy but since they found no records of e.g. Black people in medieval Bohemia they didn't include them in the first game, which did trigger some criticism - the game director being outspoken on the issue probably didn't help.

[h2zizzle]

The most recent example has had "major criticisms" because it centers a historical figure who happens to be black. (There was almost zero bellyaching about accuracy when the same figure showed up as a boss/side character in more fantastical takes on medieval Japan, including one in which he sics a ghost Atlas Bear on the PC.) There is a kernal of virtue wrt the issue of representation and appropriation, but most of the raging is driven by racism.

I do want to lend support to the idea that he series tries to balance accuracy with its gameplay/narrative foci, though. IIUC, they get a lot of details that Hollywood movies and even documentaries get wrong (by virtue of digital production). Origins and Odyssey included modes that allowed player to move through the world as if it were a living museum, reading passages about people and places as they were encountered.

Overall, it's nice when artists dealing with historical subjects understand that they're presenting imperfect models of the past, and state so, so that viewers can consider what might be accurate and what might not be.

[yomismoaqui]

They did "fix it" on Kingdom Come 2 and personally think they did a good job about how the reaction would be when meeting a dude with dark skin on that specific time and place.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/_OksWkD0VaY

[hot_gril]

I haven't heard of this, was mainly thinking about how Rome Total War (the original at least) misrepresented most factions and units in it, especially the Egyptians. There wasn't even an enjoyable reason for it.