I recently read a quote (I thought it was Guillemot of Ubisoft but can't find it to verify) that (paraphrase) "There are enough white male leads in the world. We can do better." To me, that says "we're willing to sacrifice the integrity of a story in order to push an agenda." In this case, they are taking the Japanese culture which is one o🧔f the most rigid cultures in known history, and instead of embracing the rich history, they are plucking an incredibly obscure and terribly documented reference of a black foreigner in the service of a japanese lord, and placing him in a position that he would never socially risen to. Similarly, they are placing a female in the role of ninja/shinobi, again, a position that even if it had existed, would never have existed in the format they are portraying. Now, great stories are often pulled from the "impossible odds" and overcoming those challenges, but in light of all recent commentary, it becomes obvious that this is all disengenous pandering to the DEI agenda thus ma൩king for poor story telling, and it simply pulls you out of the immersion that you seek when you play a game. This is a story teller telling us who we HAVE to be in order to play their game. Its certainly their right to do so, but its really painting themselves into a corner of who this game will appeal to. Personally, I would prefer a character generator, or perhaps a list or premade characters to choose from. And while I'm wishing, a toggle to turn romance off, entirely.