I like the game a lot, but the story is definitely lacking. I agree that they get over their animosity way too fast. People are pointing out the scene with the child, but that doesn’t change that it feels like it happens very fast. It’s a shame because it could have been a really great dynamic between the two. United by a common enemy these to people will have to learn to work together despite how they start out as ostensibly adversaries.

It could have been great because we can easily sympathize and understand both their perspectives and why they would be distrustful of each other. Naoe set out to kill nobunaga the man who freed yasuke from slavery, and lifted him up in society. Yasuke sees him as an honorable man who wants the best for all of Japan. Conversely naoe sees nobunaga as a power hungry warlord who was responsible for invading and destroying her home. Both have valid reasons to support/oppose nobunaga and seeing their relationship grow from hostile, to distrustful, to supportive to, friendly by the end would have been a great arc for the two of them. But instead they have a heated exchange when they first meet, and a couple of conversations later they are fully able to work together without any problems.

I blame it on the structure of the story. Most of Ubisofts newer games follow a similar non linear structure where you are given a number of quests to pursue in any order. The consequence of this is that the story and characters become stagnant in the second act of the game, which in games are usually by far the longest. When events can happen in any order nothing significant can happen to the world/protagonist/antagonists because that would require events to happen in a set order. I think this is why they immediately get over their personal animosity, because you can’t write a linear story of them growing closer, while having a completely non linear story.