PARIS — Perhaps only in France could a video game provoke an earnest philosophical debate over the decadence of the monarchy, the moral costs of democracy, the rise of the far right and the meaning of the state.

The French are fulminating over the game, Assassin’s Creed Unity, not because of excessive violence as Americans might, but over its historical inaccuracy and political slant. Critics on the left say the game undercuts a cherished narrative of the French Revolution — the miserable masses rising up against an indulged nobility.

Set in a meticulously rendered three-dimensional Paris during the French Revolution in 1789, the game is part of a popular series whose previous versions have been set during events like the Crusades and the American Revolution. The series, made by the French company Ubisoft, has sold nearly 80 million copies since it was introduced in 2007.

In the game’s latest incarnation, released last week, the hooded hero is Arno Victor Dorian. A young Frenchman whose father was assassinated at Versailles, he takes no small measure of glee as he jumps across the rooftops of Paris, including the Cathedral of Notre-Dame, mercilessly killing members of the nobility and other rivals with his “phantom blade” or pistol.