In April 2021, the game developer Ubisoft and manga publisher Shueisha posted the winners of a contest held in Japan, in which manga artists were to draw one-shots about some of Ubisoft's most popular franchises. From Far Cry to Watch Dogs to Assassin's Creed to The Division, mangaka used these games as the raw material to create their manga. Five winners were selected to have their stories published on the Jump+ website and app, where you can read them for free.
The first-place winner, Hiromu Nagase, created Happy Vaas Day, a story focusing on Vaas Montenegro from Far Cry 3 and how he became the drug-fueled pirate that the player meets in the game. It begins with Vaas reminiscing about his early life, living with his sister Citra and their mother, who has had a psychotic break after their father abandoned the family for another woman. On a normal, tense day for Vaas, Hoyt Volker takes over the island and begins selling the native people into slavery. To protect his sister, Vaas becomes a member of Volker's gang, helping to grow marijuana and keep everyone in check. The story reaches its climax when Vaas thinks he's found a way off the island for him and his sister, but his plans are foiled and he's forced to make his first kill.
Second place went to mangaka of the Far Cry one-shot Inside. The story followers a gamer as he plays Far Cry 4 and begins questioning whether the main character and player are really the hero or just another villain in the story. The narrator tells a friend about the game, pondering why it is he relates to the villain so much and whether it's scary to play a shooter game. He wonders if the original quests these games give the player is just an excuse to do whatever the player wants without regard or real consequence, leading to making choices that affect the NPCs as a whole for the sake of being the hero.
There are two Honorable Mentions: WRENCH MAKE SOME NOISE! and assassin's creed: cinders. WRENCH MAKE SOME NOISE! is set in the world of Watch Dogs 2 and follows Wrench as he attempts to gather the courage to ask cute waitress Naomi for her number. assassin's creed: cinders is an Assassin's Creed one-shot that tells what happens after Ezio's death, with Leonardi da Vinci paying a visit to Ezio's widow Sofia and reflecting on his and Ezio's lives and the final letter Ezio wrote for him.
The final one-shot is listed as an Ubi Special Award Winner called kuroneko yawa x UBISOFT. Set in present-day Kyoto, the mangaka is actually the main character, as he talks about how much he loves to immerse himself in the world of video games.
He also explains that his cat also loves the games so much that he travels with him into these worlds. This particular story is different from the others as it is divided into four small chapters, with each chapter focusing on a different franchise.
