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In the 17 years since its launch, the Assassin’s Creed series has gathered fans all over the world, from Ancient Greece to Victorian London.

But despite many, many requests, he has never set foot in Japan. So far.

Assassin’s Creed: Shadows, previously codenamed Assassin’s Creed: Red, is the long-awaited entry in the franchise into the country’s 16th-century feudal Sengoku period.

Game director Charles Benoit tells BBC Newsbeat that for each new Assassin’s Creed game, the team weighs up potential settings and gauges feedback from fans of the series.

“So there’s a lot of people involved,” he says.

“We’re looking at certain past projects, future projects, and we think this time is the perfect time for Japan.”

Fans got their first look at the game this week via a cinematic trailer that introduced the dual characters Naoe – a female ninja – and Yasuke – who is based on a real-life figure often referred to as the “African Samurai”.

Charles says this allows the team to implement two styles of play. With Naoe, players are encouraged to take a more stealthy approach similar to games like Assassin’s Creed: Mirage, while Yasuke’s more combat-focused style is reminiscent of the Viking-inspired Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla.

The game’s trailer has created a lot of excitement for Shadows – and developer Ubisoft will be hoping for a hit after sales of its earlier release, 2024’s Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, were muted.

His other major release, the pirate-themed Skull & Bones – which began life as an Assassin’s Creed spin-off – was met with generally low review scores.

Shadow’s trailer also drew backlash from some gamers who criticized the choice of Yasuke as the main character instead of a native Japanese character.

Detractors accused these critics of being racist and pointed out that Yasuke was based on a real-life person.

Charles, speaking to Newsbeat ahead of the trailer’s release, says the developers are “putting a lot of emphasis on authenticity and making sure we’re portraying Japan and the culture correctly.”

“So when we started the project, we had a historian with us from day one,” he says.

He says the team also consulted with weapons experts and traveled to Japan to get a feel for the game’s scenery and locations.

It’s an approach that the Assassin’s Creed series has been leaning towards more and more in recent titles.

Last year’s Mirage entry, set in Golden Age Baghdad, featured a faithful recreation of the 9th-century Iraqi capital.

It also includes an Arabic language option, which the developers say is based on the dialect spoken in the city at the time.

Mirage was a notable change in direction for the series – a more focused game than the sprawling open-world Valhalla – that hewed closer to the earlier Assassin’s Creed titles.

But it didn’t escape the criticism often leveled at the franchise for becoming too samey and sticking to the same format.

Charles insists that Shadows will introduce new features to keep the game fresh, including a prone ability allowing the player to crawl towards objectives and “dynamic seasons” with changing weather that will affect gameplay from moment to moment.

“Heavy rain has a big impact on noise,” he says. “Covering your steps, somehow.”

“Perception is also affected by light and shadows.

“You can disappear into the shadows, you can turn off the light. So many different things are affected by the dynamic world,” he says.