The game would have been a lot better received if a male Japanese protagonist wasn't erased to slot in a black man into a Japanese story. Im not even Japanese and it makes me upset that they did that, I can't imagine how disappointed Japanese men are going to feel playing a game about the history of their own country and they can only play as a Japanese woman or a foreigner.
AC has historically never had playable main characters that are based on real world people. Except this one. Makes it feel really not genuine.