Fire Emblem Fates Removes 'Petting' Feature in Western Localisation

Pre-order cancelled, this was a key part of my experience with a strategy game.

Eh, not a huge deal, honestly If I really want to take part in a feature like that, I could just go play some Senran Kagura. It's not necessary for a fire emblem game in my opinion.

@SageWaterDragon exactly.

Could somebody maybe ask NOA directly? This is Kotaku, after all. I'd like to see somebody independently confirm this before I dance any jigs.

Ah man, it would've been good for some laughs.

I'm slightly annoyed, but whatever. Don't know if I'd use it anyways.

Best grab some popcorn, this is gonna be a show.

For the record, it doesn't particularly bother me, but I can't help but wonder why it was removed.

Eh, fine by me. Tbh, that was kind of a weird feature to begin with.

I share the same feelings as @BaffleBlend, I would've tried it out for the hell of it. I don't mind its absence; it's not like I was going to get the game just for that mini-feature anyway. Where's that EU date at?

what do the folks from the land of the rising sun think this sort of smut adds to their games?

Or are the issues with the West?

@EdJericho I would argue with you but your K-On won me over.

This has gotten ridiculous. At this point it's not even worth getting the US version anymore (well at least for me). Hacking your 3DS has never been easier (you just scan a QR code, THAT'S LITERALLY IT), and you can just download the fan translation patch for the JPN version of the game and run it.

It's ridiculously easy to just import the game and run the translation patch.

Removing optional things is always negative. I wasn't gonna go anywhere near this weird thing but it's condescending to the people who were.

@EdJericho I'm available if you want to convince me why rubbing my characters faces is worth my time

To save you time I'd advise against you doing so, because I wouldn't even try it for more than 5 minutes if you paid me as much as the game costs. Which, because of greedy evil modern Nintendo is a significant amount for the limited edition!

A lot of people right now are asking for direct confirmation from Nintendo on if this is true or not because of the source being Kotaku , but if it is, I will actually just not be buying any of the Fates games.

I feel like, if Nintendo makes no official response on this in the next few days, it's probably true.

How dare they! If the developers want me to pet cartoon depictions of a woman like I would the cartoon depiction of an animal, then who are the censors to deprive them and me of that basic human right! This is a direct violation of my human rights and my rights as a fan of the series. They have lost a fan here!

In all seriousness I am begging for a European release date or even just a UK price. I've been keeping the money in the bank since they announced it and I want to know if I have too much/little to make a day one purchase.

Remove anything isn't good, but..whatever, not the kind of thing that I would play on my FE.

Guess I'll continue to rub myself.

@EdJericho my argument is the same as always. It doesn't matter. It really doesn't matter. The game will be just as good without it. Nothing of value has been lost

Forget it, I don't want the game anymore.

@SageWaterDragon
@EdJericho
Truth be told, both factions are equally snark-worthy. Such an option being integral to the game? Well, no. Did it need to be removed? The answer is still no, sorry. At least the cutscene that has been removed could have been potentially highly controversial due to the dubious morality it implied, with its negative traits not stressed enough to make the whole cutscene acceptable by western standards. That's not a reason for censorship to sugar-coat damn near everything.

I can just imagine the lawyers around a table going through and axing all of the risky stuff.

I don't know.
As a 40+ year old I find these "edgy" pieces don't appeal to me. Skimpy outfits? Really? Sounds like adolescent fare. Maybe we could focus on people as people instead of objects?
I really enjoyed the last Fire Emblem game, but I think I'll give this one a pass. I'm thinking the new Mario & Luigi RPG might be bit less juvenile in handling female characters.
btw...if you like strategy games and don't have SteamWorld Heist you are missing out! It should definitely keep you busy until Fates releases.

@AlexSora89 I agree with you, the only stuff they're censoring is optional stuff that really didn't matter and you never had to see to begin with. I mean I'm not cool with the fact Corrin can marry and have kids with his/her siblings, which on one side is definitely incest and the other would be considered by many to be incest, but like the rest of this stuff before it was changed, if I don't like like it, I don't have to experience it. Plain and simple.

But Nintendo used to tell us "Touching is Good". You mean there is a thing in the west where touch is bad. I like for the court to show me on a doll how petting can be a bad touch.

In any case not a real core game changer if they have it or not. Personally I forget about petting Pokemons in XY.

Now I'm wondering what are considered inappropriate in Japanese teen games that is ok in the west.

It's amusing how censorship apologists will even defend Nintendo removing something as harmless as this. There's really no justification for changes like this.

@AlexSora89 few things 'need' to happen in videogames. Nintendo simply looked at that and thought "err.... No. That's weird, don't want that sort of stuff in a Fire Emblem game-get out the axe Bill!" It's their videogame that they're publishing with their money and for us to decide what is and is not needed is to elevate ourselves above our position which is to just decide if the final product is worth the money. People who object will obviously not buy it and that's all they can do- let the rest of us have our fun with this SRPG game.

Eh, it was never going to make it here anyway. Not that I agree with it. Removing it was not the ideal solution. I guess Nintendo doesn't want to deal with the obnoxiously loud PC police and concerned mums.

Let's time I played Fates the only thing that the petting did was bulid support from the character, something you can do just fine by playing the damn game while not acting like an old profanity. I don't really get the whole outrage about this honestly. Call me an apologist, but you can't make me care about something that is so useless that I didn't even touch the mode for the entirety of my Hoshido run of the game on Lunatic. Now if Nintendo lowers the difficulty becasue of the western audience, then we have a large freaking problem. I'm sure /v/ is having a whole parade over this news though.
>Kotaku
Lol. A infant is a better news source than Kotaku and I can't possible think of any reason to re-report any of the bullcrap they say.

All I can say at this point anymore is that I find it extremely infuriating that there are actually people who actively defend practices like this and dare to mock people who are not okay with this. You're actively favoring censorship.

If the main game turned out to be rubbish i was kinda hoping for me to at least get my moneys worth out of the petting simulator. Really annoyed it got taken out.

@ASonic3582
Fun fact: incest as a theme has always been a thing in the FE-verse from day one. Look it up.

@TheLastLugia
"It's their videogame that they're publishing with their money and for us to decide what is and is not needed is to elevate ourselves above our position which is to just decide if the final product is worth the money."
Precisely. I'm not mad at this being cut per se, mind you (it's still better than lack of localization at all like in the pre-Melee days, not that it's saying much), but NoA needs to be aware that, no matter what, censorship will affect sales one way or another, as little as this effect may be. For one happy mom buying the game, there might be two twenty-somethings annoyed at the supposed need of a wholesome image that's being forced upon them yet again.

I am not at all surprised by this, and I find the fact I can say that incredibly disheartening. I get that the gameplay segment in question is largely inconsequential to the actual main story, or even to the support plotlines; but it's still gameplay being removed from a product, and I think that's unacceptable.

I understand -why- the change is being made - NoA has committed to a T-rating, and they need to remove the more titillating aspects of the game to achieve that; which is okay, I guess. I mean, I'd rather they didn't, but I'm also quite sure M-rated handheld games, while there are some success stories, generally have noticeably lower average sales than their T-rated counterparts. Businesses following the money is understandable, within reason.

My big worry now, however, is that the storyline itself has been changed to meet a T rating. Like, FE games generally handle some rather sensitive subjects, and Fates is apparently the darkest of the ones we've had localised, so hopefully NoA doesn't get the bright idea that the story needs to be changed to make the game "more acceptable" or "more marketable". Now -that- would be a major issue, and would convince me to reconsider giving Nintendo my money.

Hopefully, NoE's going to localise this themselves, and that's what's taking them so long. Less so the more inconsequential censorship is reversed, I doubt that will happen, more because I trust them to stay as true to the original script as they possibly can... well, I trust them to do that more than I'd trust NoA.

@Tuulenpoika can I be the one to inform you that this isn't censorship (and anyone else claiming that)? This didn't go so far as being erotic, this is simply a matter of a company changing their own work because it was weird and wrong in their opinion, which is of course the only one that matters since it's their product. That is what is known as 'editing'. There's a big difference, and individuals and companies edit their work all the time. Ever made a video on YouTube and decided part of it was wrong so cut it from the rest? Exact same principle. Glad to inform you and others, no need to thank me

It was a lousy and pointless feature anyway. Good riddance.

In all seriousness, though, if Kotaku turns out to be full of it on this now widely-reported bit of censorship, it's going to cause them to lose whatever little bit of credibility they might have had left.

I'm just going to reiterate my usual stance. That the developer has this kind of focus in the first place is the reason I don't play these games anymore. Though I'm still disappointed on behalf of the players who wanted to play the whole game.

@Tuulenpoika
I am not okay with it, but it is not as such censorship. Altering your own product to avoid complaints is a different thing from having a third party tell you what you can and cannot express.
Even the term self-censorship doesn't really apply, as that is when you modify your produt beforehand, in hopes to fly under the radar of a censorship body, and Nintendo are not really censored at all.

I honestly do not care if they add this or remove this, if the gameplay is good and game is fun, then i well just enjoy it, didn't stop me from playing Xenoblade X, won't stop me from playing Fire Emblem Fates.

@Ralizah Exactly. It's better if we wait to get our hands on the English version or till Gamexplain confirms before giving NoA another new one. We all know how unreliable Kotaku is so it's dumb to start the bitching now.

I will not buy Nintendo of America's products, and neither should you.

Uggh, I'm really not sure about how far this localisation should really go. For underage girls, yeah, surely. I know this is a silly part of the game but I don't like the idea of slashing out pieces of content for the sake of a T rating.

@TheLastLugia
@Pod
Might not be censorship by definition, but removing content nonetheless. The problem is that things are being removed from the original product.

Not much of a contribution here, but my feelings on all this can be summed up in one word:

Meh

Don't care....hated the marriage aspect of Awakening and the 4 step I hate you, you aren't horrible, I like you, lets get married and have kids relationship that I had to go through to get to the rest of the playable characters. Not to mention the completely overpowered mechanic of grouping up your fighters in order to get to marriage......but the petting thing seems optional so I wouldn't care if it was in either.

For those of you screaming the evils of censorship, I bet you do it to yourself multiple times every day and your behavior changes depending on who you are around (for example there are things I don't say around my parents out of respect but with my close friends I say anything that pops into my head)....what Nintendo is doing with localization is no different they are making adjustments to themselves in order to appeal to where they are.

Why is this so hard to believe. Of all the things they've censored in the last 5 years this is the one that's unquestionable.

And to all those saying they will now cancel their pre-orders did you really think this would be left in?

Already dropped the ball with this one once I figured out you need two games to enjoy the full story instead a New Game+ with a different faction. Don't come saying size is the matter because the graphics and map 2D art are really simple outside battles.

@Gerbwmu
Could be worse.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCd5LyExGyk

@Tuulenpoika
You can be certain that a lot of planned content never made it in to the product in the first place, and one might argue that back in the day we'd never/rarely know if content had been removed or changed between regions.

Now we hear about it before it's even happened, or we've even tried the features that are being affected.

I'm still with you though. Removing things like this for the package to be more "proper" for the audience smells a lot of demographics pandering and assumptions on behalf of others.

"we have not included any features which are considered inappropriate in Japan."

Uhh, I've been living in Japan for the past 8 years and I'm pretty sure it's not okay to pet random strangers, drug people, or for 13 year olds to wear skimpy bathing suits in public.

If NoA wants to reduce the usage of homebrew on their systems, they're not doing a good job.

@Spoony_Tech The feature is harmless. It's not like you're groping them. Why should we have expected it to be removed?

@CharleSketch Considering they killed a bunch of crap in 10.4 and forced people who got a soft brick to update to 10.4, I'll say they're doing a pretty good job.

LMAO.

@EdJericho obvious troll? Even though you were the one to post the baiting picture acting as if you're on some sort have some sort of moral high ground and that we're definitely the ones in the wrong? Well I'm sorry to break it to you but you don't have anything of the sort. Do you know what else you don't have? Your face rubbing simulator you were entitled to. You've made me sooooooooo sympathetic to your plight.
Not.

I've also just edited my own comment because I was unhappy with the quality of it and thought I had to change and remove a couple of words to make it a better peice overall. Sound familiar?

@Pod
I'm trying to imagine how the actual developers would feel about this. Things they made and poured their time and effort into getting edited and removed even though they were in the final release in their own country.

I should just go to sleep, I haven't been this mad over a game for a while. I just can't fathom why this is a thing in a time we live in, AND there's a huge group of people actually supporting all this, rather than calling out Nintendo's bullcrap policies.

@Gerbwmu I had a good laugh at myself when you mention the second part since I had adjusted the first part of my comment prior to pressing the Reply button to make it more acceptable to some people on the site (I think).
All I can I say it's related to octopus with knowledge.

Suddenly I don't feel like buying this game anymore, even though it was my most hyped game of 2016 for a long time

Expected sadly. I'm not getting the game but cutting content to me is simply unacceptable. I am so sick of Nintendo treating us like kids. I understand their main demographic is kids/families(And you know it is.), but I'm tired of daddy knows best Nintendo always trying to tell us what we do and don't want.

This is one of the many reasons I'm breaking away from Nintendo.

#NoA.

Hm. Sounds like a dumb feature anyway.

@AlexSora89 I know, I've played the others either on original systems or emulators, it's always bugged me, but it's never been a deal breaker. Just figured it'd be good to use a personal example.

Hopefully some of you are canceling your Special Edition orders so I can slip it and get it, LMAO.

@EdJericho I shall defend censoring til my death. In all honesty, I don't really care

Remember kids, it's okay to fap and ogle at various anatomy parts and put them on an unhealthy pedestal,
But it's not okay to romantically touch the ones you love.

To be honest, I was actually looking forward to the petting simulator. Looked like a fun way to strengthen relationships. I don't mind when small scenes or pieces dialog get removed or changed, but I absolutely hate it when an entire mode or feature of a game gets cut. Dissapointed, but still getting the game regardless as it's my most anticipated game.

FMA Dual Sympathy had a similar feature, but it is just the character telling you to stop until they start liking it. It's more of an easter egg.

@Chaoz They still failed to patch the internet exploit correctly (so people can still get homebrew on 3DS), and as far as I know, there weren't any cases of people's systems being soft-bricked on 10.4 (but feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, I just haven't heard that happening). By the way, I'd say @CharleSketch is correct on Nintendo not doing a good job of stopping homebrew, in general.

Homebrew usage has been rising on 3DS (and Wii U is about to overcome a hurdle that could permanently enable homebrew, so expect more homebrew usage on Wii U too).

Anyways, like I said in a previous post, people could just get & use the fan translation for the game through homebrew incredibly easy, if they wanted to.

While people question why I defend such a feature to begin with, this is my logic:
-Over 90 minutes of voiced dialog comes through this mode, it almost comes off as NOA being too lazy to pay the dubbing money and excusing it by calling the function controversial.
-For all we know, letting this slide might just make this only scratching the surface of what also might get censored, if not for the future of games NOA localize as a whole.
-So far, we don't even know if this is getting replaced. Believe it or not there is strategical use to be gotten from this mode. I heard a lot of people say this helped them get through the harder Nohr path by using this to increase support rates.

@EdJericho crying? Only tears that are coming out of my eyes are tears of mirth as a result of how personally people are taking this editing (not censorship) of Nintendo's. And I really hope you're not going to go through all that effort to get your face rubbing action, for your sake. If you are please inform me, so I can keep on crying with laughter!

@Shirma_Akayaku Browserhax is still working? That's news to me, I thought Nintendo killed it after 10.4 came along, at least that's what I heard. There are still plenty of people getting soft bricks also (I got about 10 to 12 soft bricks even when I was doing everything right) and a few full bricks.

@TheLastLugia And the award for "Most Passive-Agressive Emojis Used" goes to...

Petting in the recent Pokémon games seems to be okay at the E rating (EU: 7; AU: PG) (such as the rubbing of crotches of certain human-like Pokémon, the bare chests of female Machoke and Machamp, and Jynx's breasts while she makes a face that can be described as nothing short of ecstatic), but consensual contact between adults at a T rating (EU: 12; AU: M) is considered too racy? The Sims gets away with an awful lot of sexual content considering the surprisingly lenient age rating (at least by the ESRB's standards), and especially so considering that it's the only game that I know of that features depictions of teenage sexuality (they can make out in various states of undress, in hot tubs, on the couch, but making out in bed, even fully clothed is, stupidly enough, considered "too racy").

Considering how open Western cultures have become in matters of sexual deviancy in recent years, and the overall perverse nature of many modern games (GTA IV and V allow the player to "receive" services from whores for goodness sake!), I find this selective prudishness to be grossly hypocritical. Plus, I'm probably in the minority that actually likes dating sims and mechanics of the genre in games like this. It's fun, amusing and harmless, and does not in any way detract (nor enhance for that matter) relationships with actual human beings (minus perhaps that Japanese guy who married his virtual girlfriend in LovePlus). Narrative-driven video games are about experiencing the hypothetical. Whether one wishes to experience the joys of being a hypothetical mass murdering, philandering mobster scumbag in an open world action-adventure game or a joiner of Tetris pieces, some of us also want to be able to hypothetically experience relationships with hypothetical people that we perhaps would not ordinarily associate with.

The more I hear about these ridiculous excuses for blatant censorship, the less inclined I am to want to support this release. Frankly, these omissions are becoming rather ridiculous for such an expensive game. If age ratings are a problem, then they could have experimented by aiming for a T rating for the more beginners-friendly "Birthright" release and been open to an M rating for the more traditional and adult "Conquest" release. Either way, I doubt that the "offending" content would adversely affect the European or Australian classifications in any way, so I don't see why WE should also be affected by these ridiculous cuts. Project Rub (Feel the Magic XX/XY) and The Rub Rabbits had "rubbing" and touching and that was considered acceptable at the T rating (hell, both games were only rated PG in Australia), and the first game, from memory, even included a stage where you need to unzip a woman's dress to succeed and another where the player needs to massage a woman's bare back (while warding off scorpions?).

Thanks for nothing NoA. Ruining game after game recently.

@AlexSora89 Fun fact: no it hasn't. I'm not sure where this BS got started (tvtropes?).
There have been all of two games in the series that have incest: Genealogy of the Holy War and Fates.
Genealogy of the Holy War played it seriously and for drama, to show how screwed up that world really was (from an interview with the director).
Fates does it so those incest fetishists out there can implicitly screw their not-actually-blood-siblings.

Also, wow... .
I suppose I'll just sit here and be glad that Fates just took a major step away from current series direction.

Sounds weird anyway. Won't be missed by me.

I'll be honest, every time I see a headline about some part of a game being removed or altered, I just shrug. I'm still buying it, regardless of whether I get to play Fire Emblem-Amie (Fire Emblemtendogs?) or not.

@Snargledon I agree, who cares? Censorship honestly doesn't bother me, as the core game is still the same. Why skip or cancel a preorder over something this small?

@Tuulenpoika theres nothing wrong with actively favoring censorship... the hypocrisy on this site is palpable

this kind of change makes me want to buy it more, not less... obviously there were business reasons for these decisions.

I also think people need to remember the times not too long ago that changes were made to games and no one ever knew about it for years... fact of the matter is, all those features were japanese features... and these features are NA localized features... no one knew any the wiser and life was fine.
What's the diff? Whats the big deal? Let companies run how they want to run. Play games. have fun. get over it. the end. Love life.

not hard.

This makes me see it a little less as Weeaboo Emblem, I wish we could go back to the older styles while maintaining some new mechanics

Sad.

@ASonic3582
Glad to see someone who knows when Nintendo games get edgy. Because they do, as hard as they can deny it.

@Ralizah
Well said.

@CrazedCavalier
My point was that it still wouldn't be the first time Fire Emblem had incest. Besides, fancy meeting another troper here.

@TheLastLugia
Sorry to burst your bubble, but as far as I can remember editing out anything that's considered too spicy for a certain region's userbase is censorship. But I'm more than open to another definition, if you can give me a correct terminology.

@sillygostly
Good luck getting the pro-censorship NLers to acknowledge the twisted irony.

Again, before the censorshippers (I dunno how I came up with this word, but it's snappy) grab me by the throat, let me say that - as written in my first comment here - I know both sides (why are there sides in the first place? Who cares) have their own valid points: I'm not saying that censorship is ruining the game. But unlike the other "drugging" scene (which I'm actually glad has been cut), this change had no point whatsoever. A foreplay-level petting minigame being cut is one thing, pinching your in-game girlfriend's cheeks being perceived as "too spicy" is just cringeworthy.

Yeah, after the train wreck that the localization of this game has been, I'm just going to pass on it altogether. If anything I'll be importing a copy from JP, but I'm not a big fan of being treated like a child by mommy Nintendo.

I don't care about the feature, but that's some incredibly stupid censorship right there, as well as big in terms of what they're actually cutting out from the game, as it's an entire 'minigame' feature rather than some questionable dialogue. I mean, seriously, it's about caressing the characters' faces, not sticking fingers up their anuses. I don't see how that needed to be removed for a Teen rating whatsoever.

Just leave it to NoA to astonish us again with their willingness for unsolicited babysitting.

@Ralizah Because I've read if you have a S rank relationship with said character the touching is more sexual. Sorry the dialog becomes more sexual. I think Nintendo would just like to avoid this part of the game all the same.

https://twitter.com/NintendoNews/status/692053348569202693

People who support censorship on non children games are one of the big problems in the video game industry.

@AlexSora89 - that made me laugh

@AlexSora89 : I wouldn't expect the pro-censorshippers here to see sense (we've got to use that from now on =P). I've argued my point from various angles, citing recent precedents to substantiate my opinion on the matter. Classification boards should exist to PREVENT censorship (so that customers can, at a glance, decide for themselves whether the content is or isn't suitable for them), but lately it seems more like a means for publishers to attain the most "marketable" stamp of approval for their product.

What is even more absurd about these cuts, is that they seem to be incidental to the gameplay or otherwise OPTIONAL features that those who feel uncomfortable about can just easily avoid. I admit that I don't utilise EVERY possible feature in some games, but I certainly wouldn't call for their removal.

Even the prior controversial cut seems entirely unnecessary and I doubt that anybody would have called attention to it if the media hadn't beaten it up with emotive terms such as "conversion therapy" (and judging by the actual, albeit bizarre context of the scene, nothing of the sort appeared to have taken place), and even if that were the case, considering that this is a game set in a fictionalised history, I see no harm in portraying a small reality of real history, however unsavoury it may be. This is an art form after all, and we will never move forward as a people if we just block our eyes and ears and act as if certain atrocities or shameful portions of our history had not occurred at all. How can we learn from history if certain histories are erased? We are breeding a society in which we are repeating the mistakes of generations past and having the audacity to refer to these repeated mistakes as "progression".

Having said that, I am not completely anti-censorship. There are many transgressive movies, and a very small number of games that I think should never have been made, but this is principally due to the risk of such content resulting in a highly detrimental moral decay, from which absolutely no benefit can come about whatsoever (such as those that incite hatred toward others, or bring to mind unspeakable acts that would never have crossed a person's mind but are portrayed with such explicit detail onscreen).

@manu0 yup everything is ruined now. Gameplay, story, score, design all worthless because a lame mini game got cut.

I am so sick of outrage culture.

Why aren't they rubbing something else besides faces. Geez. This is an outrage.

@faint Seconded.

It's only a line of dialogue altered!
It's just a costume that's been changed!
So they got rid of a customization option, who cares!?
A minigame removed? That's fine!

What's next to be nixed?

@EllenJMiller

Pretty much this, Stuff just keeps getting removed and apologists just keep defending it. A terrible plague is affecting this generation badly.

@Royalblues
We do our best, sweetie.

@Gerbwmu
That was the plan.

@sillygostly
I was clapping for darn near your entire post. Well, not out loud given it will be 2 AM in twenty minutes here in Italy, but you get the point. I admit that, despite not using Pokémon-Amie, I'd still have been beyond annoyed if Nintendo decided to remove it in western version of Pokémon X, Y, Alpha Sapphire and Omega Ruby. It's more of a matter of principle than anything else - customers have the right to choose. Your last bit about things that should be censored reminded me of what I said in my previous comment about context, and how certain things need to be censored while others don't. More specifically, this reminds me of The Simpsons Guy, 2014's season premiere for Family Guy. There was a joke that was perceived as a rape joke (namely, Stewie's prank call to Moe consisting of "Your sister's been raped!"). Many cried foul, but despite being just as annoyed at Family Guy always going too far, I was actually amused at the line, with it being not a rape joke per se, but rather one of the episode's many jokes at the differences in the shows' standards. By the end of the episode, Bart doesn't want anything to do with Stewie ever again, Lisa is horrified at Meg carving the former's name into her own arm, and so on. The humor in the episode wasn't about Family Guy making The Simpsons' world more violent, but rather both shows making a point about what they consider black humor. Both shows can get pretty dark at times, but the extent of each darkness is way different from the other. We're talking about a show that reached its darkest point when Frank Grimes showed up ("The Boys Of Bummer" isn't canon to me, sorry) and another where a toddler gets pregnant with a dog's genes. Here's a bucket in case you want to throw up.
Back to our topic, the reason I talked about two animated shows is that we need context before screaming "won't someone think of the children?": we can't put everything on the same plane. There are layers for what we consider "wrong". The petting minigame can most likely get a bit risqué, but it's nothing compared to how wrong the scene that has been censored was.
And yes, "censorshippers" is better than "pro-censorship people" to me, as a word. We need someone to spread it.

However, I think I know how things have gone at the Treehouse.
Bill: "You were leaving that minigame in? You IDIOT!"
Treehouse staffer: "I don't think that can hurt anyone."
Bill: "Are you sure? Because it can hurt a lot."
Treehouse staffer: "This is stupid. How can it--[Bill starts pulling his cheek]--EEEEEIAAYAHAEYAHAAAAAAA--[Bill stops]--hey, what is wrong with you? That hurt!"
Bill: "Precisely."

Yet Pokemon Amie still exists. And believe me, there are people out there that would perceive that sexually...

I frankly don't care about the minigame.

@EllenJMiller
@ikki5
Given I quoted MA-rated shows...

If you know this South Park character, you know why this is a nice way to answer to Ellen J Miller and Ikki5.

@TomJ
We have no problems with people with standards as long as they have no problems with more open-minded people in turn.

@EdJericho I'm just pissed because this being remved because Live2D on the 3DS sounds really cool.
Guess I'll be saving $70, I was fine with the three-game split.
Or importing a JP copy and patching it with the fan translation. I was going to do that for new Love Plus+ anyway, so may as well.

@sillygostly "Western idiots outraged at Japan sexualizing fictional characters, while sexualizing real children themselves!"
I forgot the exact line, but that's how it sounds.

We live in a world where five year-olds get to change their gender on a whim, but sixteen year-olds aren't okay to wear bikinis?
Sorry, that was me sighing at what went wrong.

@ikki5 Ya know, you seem to love using the word "apologist" a lot, yet you're often one of the biggest Sony apologists on here.

@AlexSora89 To embed the image, put the URL in between (IMG) (/IMG), though replace the parentheses with brackets.

@IceClimbers
Done. Thank you!

@IceClimbers "claps"

@ikki5 Those who complain about minor features are a big problem too

More moaning over a minutte feature getting cut. If I could get a dime for every post claiming censorship over the past few years, I'd be a millionaire.

@AlexSora89 And "petting" every one of your friends and siblings doesn't imply dubious morality by Western standards? This kind of behavior is best saved for romantic relationships.

Anyway, I have no problem with this feature getting removed. It has very little value to the game itself and is a very creepy feature that I wouldn't have touched with a 10 foot pole.

If Camilla is next, then I am done.

@BulbasaurusRex So because you don't like it, no one else should be able to enjoy it if they want to?

@BulbasaurusRex
What @thatguyEZ said. Wait, no, ending the comment like that would be mean.
Point is, there are other workarounds. Example: have the feature accessible only to the one character your unit is married to. Easy.

@Ralizah They need to get a T-rating.

@TomJ Lets be honest here, the award for "Worst of 2016" is obviously going to Federation Force.

@AlexSora89 : I don't watch Family Guy but I did watch that particular episode as a fan of The Simpsons, and the rape joke was just lame and distasteful, and that simple gag encapsulated just WHY I hate Family Guy as much as I do. Character development doesn't occur in that show at all, and they will throw out years of canon or whatever little character development there is just to make some stupid joke (and unfortunately, The Simpsons has also been guilty of that over the years, though to a far less extreme degree). BUT... do I completely object to its existence? No. There is an audience for this sort of thing, and regardless of my opinion of it, I can respect that, but I do not appreciate people telling me that there's something wrong with me because I happen to have different tastes. I guess I'm on the opposite end of the spectrum as I find King of the Hill to be far more engaging and a lot funnier (I recall having tears in my eyes by episode 4 when I first started watching the show).

I don't like the fact that comedies nowadays are expected to barf out 20 jokes a minute or that it MUST be consistently humourous in order to be a successful comedy. I appreciate comedy more so in the traditional (perhaps theatrical) sense in that it is a generally light-hearted, character-driven story with a happy, or otherwise hopeful ending. I am more interested in characters and themes that showcase the rich social, cultural, historical and moral tapestry of the human experience than plot necessarily. Interesting characters make interesting stories. While action adventures may be interesting on paper, one-dimensional characters render their journeys to be extraordinarily dull (in my opinion), hence why I generally do not watch Hollywood movies. The action genre I feel works better in a video game context as the player is engaging with the material and can relate their own fears or experiences to the game as opposed to having a one-dimensional hero fulfil that role.

In respect to games, I think it's ultimately up to the player to have some freedom in telling the story. I don't much care for games that act as interactive movies and force you to sit through endless cut scenes. Worse still, is that such games borrow the same clichés from Hollywood movies (which I don't care for). Again... not objecting to their existence, not calling for them to cease... but it's just not for me, which is why Japanese games and anime are a refreshing alternative to Western content, and I would appreciate the ability to enjoy such games as close to their original form as possible. If nothing else, to be able to appreciate or at least in some way understand a different culture.

Off topic: @JusticeColde I'm going to assume your avatar is of Travis Kelce. If it is, major gold stars for you! You're my friend for life!

On topic: If I don't care either way, but still plan to buy the game, does that make me an apologist as well? It seems like that word gets thrown around awful loosely...*

EDIT: *Had to edit "through" to "thrown". Dang autocorrect! Lol

@thatguyEZ If it crosses the line like this, no they shouldn't, at least if you want to preserve a T rating. You'd get locked up for it or at least punched in the face if you tried it in real life, so it's really no different from the major problem the drugging scene. It's also what separates it from Pokémon Amie, as there's nothing wrong with petting animals in a non-sexual way.

@AlexSora89 That would be an acceptable compromise, although wouldn't that be pointless seeing as how you have to max out the characters' affinity with each other to get them married in the first place?

Articles like these get whiners on both sides - people who gloat about censored things being rightly removed and people who cry and whine incessantly when the least bit of skin is covered in one version while bare in another. I'm not glad this feature was removed, but so often people just get furious over small things such as these. It's not infringing on your rights, around the world there are real censoring issues with information and some people here are whining about not being able to pet your family and friends in a strategy game.

Nintendo knew this wouldn't have broad appeal overseas, so they axed it. Good on them for making a decision that probably won't affect the game's sales for better or worse, but might just improve the reputation of the game for "casual" (I hate the term) players. I understand discontent with a feature being cutted, but people here are acting like Nintendo is overstepping boundaries when they are doing what they have done for years - adapting a game to better fit its release market. It's why that scene with Soleil was cut, rightly so, because it wouldn't transition well into western markets.

I'm buying the game regardless, and I just ranted a bunch while talking against overreactions. Sure that helps my credibility. If I were Nintendo Life's staff, I would lock up articles like this because we obviously aren't mature enough to handle this.

I don't care about the feature , it didn't have My wifu 4 lifu Lucina ;( if I can't be happy NO ONE CAN >:I

A lot of people seem to blame Nintendo for Bravely Default's changes, yet they weren't responsible at all - Square Enix was the one that demanded those changes.

@MercifulLemon7 You've just gotta buy the amiibo, then you can be a happy man

I personally don't care; still buying all three US editions.

@BulbasaurusRex ...it's not real life though, so not sure what the point of bringing up the face punching thing is. But I'm not really sure I see how this is crossing a line, I suppose if you're someone of Puritan where all sexual contact is crossing the line then sure. This is exactly the problem, at least in America, right now. We've gone from the right wanting to censor games to protect the kids, to the left wanting to censor games to protect people's feelings. If you're okay with momma Nintendo picking and choosing what they think you're ready to see that's fine, but most people are responsible enough to choose for themselves. This is also why Nintendo is considered to be such a joke by so many people in today's industry, it really seems like the company just doesn't know what it's doing.

I'm thankful. I didn't want to have the play these stupid Pokemon-Amie style things just to build up character relationships. I'd rather they not have wasted time on such a mechanic in the first place.

@Octoling they can't lock these articles, that would be
-gasp- censorship!

Considering this was an incredibly stupid addition to the game that literally added in nothing beneficial, it doesn't affect my enjoyment of this game. I get the feeling that if anything, it's inclusion would only serve to harm the games image in Western territories anyways. Especially since Nintendo always seems to have a bullseye on their backs regarding any localization changes when EVERY company does it. Yet somehow, only Nintendo gets hardped on.

It felt weird petting my Pokemon with a stylus, it would have been really creepy to have been doing it with human characters.

I'm all for anti-censorship, but this was a feature that has no place in a strategy RPG. I'm fine building supports and having characters bond, but touching another character just comes off a creepy.

Thank god it got removed. If you cancel you pre-order because a pointless feature like this got removed, then maybe Fire Emblem is not for you. Fire Emblem is a strategy RPG, not a fondling simulator.

I think I just realized something... but I need to know something before hand.

Is there any word on Fire Emblem Fates being affected / censored in Europe? Cuz if so, people might just end up importing it from there.

@BulbasaurusRex
As for your response to @thatguyEZ, remember that some Pokémon react positively when touched in the crotch. Just saying.
However, well, if the compromise can be reached, the mechanic can be reworked a little as well. I don't know, unlock a "SSS support", perhaps? Sky's the limit!

@sillygostly
That's what I said: the tastelessness of the joke is the joke. But yeah, I'm often very, very annoyed to how far Family Guy is willing to go (its creator, Seth MacFarlane, is most proud of his hate mail... go figure), and I agree with you on Mike Judge's comedic skills: he can go Simpsons-esque with King Of The Hill, do moronic comedy with Beavis And Butthead, or do contextualized moronic comedy with Idiocracy (seriously, that movie is pure genius in all of its glorious idiocy). What you're talking about afterwards is more of a difference between comedy and farce, and both can be executed well or not. My country, the well-known Boot of Europe, has an infamous tradition known as... well, there's no English word for it, but those are the Italian Christmas comedies, namely farcical films released every year in December. They all feature rapid-fire comedy, gratuitous fanservice, and a level of vulgarity NOT associated with Christmas - needlessly to say, the good ones among them are few and far between. Look up "Cinepanettoni" on Wikipedia, and be enlightened... or not. As for your last paragraph, yeah, that can be exemplified with the Hitman game series. Rated M, featuring a mercenary, with at least one guy to kill in each mission. Lots of violence and gore galore!... except not. Slaughtering innocents decreases the score, and being stealthy is key. Games like these perfectly show that, in many cases, what goes on on the screen is entirely up to the player.

@thatguyEZ
Exactly, games are games and reality is reality. I've crashed my car and bike a few times, but never, never I was fantasizing about red shells being after my wheels and whatnot. As much as I love games and - I'm afraid - I can't live without them, fiction is nothing but a window for our brains to the imaginary, which exists on a plane we can't reach, thankfully I'd add.
Given I talked about Hitman, I'd also mention Grand Theft Auto: in those games, you're a crook and... not much else, usually. The slaughters and rampages that need the freakin' army to come to the rescue are triggered by none other than the players that can't seem to stick to the script. To further hammer the point down, GTA V gave us Trevor: the "GTA player incarnate", according to Rockstar. And lo and behold, that guy is a sociopath that's better off dead. Because his madness, while inspired by user feedback, is actually scripted and shown for the horrific state of mind it is. By putting reality in fiction, fiction can be imagined as part of our own reality, and that's a scary thought. Nightmares are nothing but bad, fictional stuff happening to us. But I digress, I didn't want to go philosphically off-topic: let's get the thread back on its rails!

Does this really prevent people from buying the game? It's literally not even a mini game, it's a feature in which you stroke your partner to help your relationship.

@Jayvir
@EdJericho
One says that Nintendo has a bullseye on their backs when their censorship alters a game, the other says that everyone defends Nintendo when they censor stuff. Just another way to prove how divisive this topic is.

@TheAceofMystery Or maybe its not about the feature in and of itself, and more about Nintendo treating their audience like children.

@thatguyEZ Well in that case, it isn't Nintendo's fault, you can thank all thr liberals, feminists, and SJW'S in America

@TheAceofMystery : In case you hadn't noticed, we are discussing censorship and the inconsistency in moral standards in the arts and different societies and cultures more broadly. Making assumptions such as what you've made and using vulgar language is not necessary nor is it contributing to the discussion in any meaningful way.

In after censorship apologists grab your cards

http://pastebin.com/hJM3gnBB

@TheAceofMystery I can agree with the sentiment, though I would tell Nintendo to suck it up. After all there's not much they'd be able to do other than not buy the game, and I'm sure as many people won't be buying it now after the train wreck this localization process has been.

@AlexSora89 Exactly. It's really kind of worrying seeing how many people have trouble discerning fantasy from reality in regards to video games.

@Shirma_Akayaku Yes.
You can just download the terrible, literal fan translation of the game.
Enjoy the awkward dialogue but at least you'll be able to pet your units right??

Not that I care but...... let me put an example The Japanese don't feel ofended by FALLOUT 4 because it treats themes of nuclear war an those things But I can't stop thinking that the localization team ....... or is really afraid of the SJW that they would loooove to feel offended by this......... or they belive that all the people in america are a bunch of pussysssss

Well...Good? I thought that feature was freakin' weird and to be frank it was one of the things putting me off from the game. Since it was necessary to do in order to gain boosts in battle between characters, I would have had to do it because I want those boosts. But eugh. The thought of petting an anime character's face while they look dreamily at you...Haha, nope. Uncomfortable. No way, sensei. I only want to pet pokemon on my 3ds.

@IceClimbers LOL What? I bought my PS3 last Christmas. In fact, this week probably marks my 5th week owning one? Christmas was a piece of garbage for Nintendo and so I finally had the money to buy Sony products which was a PS3 and a slew of PS3 games because all my money usually goes to Nintendo from the fall to Christmas. But I only bought one Nintendo game... Xenoblade... that's it. I havn't even talked that much, just more that Sony offered me more than what Nintendo did this year sand so all my money pretty much went to Soony... for the first time ever. Sony apologist? Lol, I think you have me confused with someone else. Either that, If I am the biggest "apologist" here for Sony, then everyone on this site must hate Sony with a passion.

As for why I choose apologist? Simple, Every god damn time Nintendo removes, censors, does something controversial, the same people are always here praising them and making shallow excuses for them even though their "optional" stuff, doesn't mean they have to use it if it is there. If Nintendo left it in, they'd be happy because what they want is there and the ones that want the stuff would be happy because everything is there. Both sides are happy. The way the apologists have it and talk, one side gets the shaft. This is what apologists never seem to understand and why they are inferior minded.

I'm sorry, but when did this game about WAR become a freaking dating simulater/petting zoo!? Ugh! I really am not liking the direction this franchise is heading in...

First the gay controversy thing (not going down that path), then they got rid of the weapon use limits, then they messed with the triangle, then they allowed you to PET your HUMAN WARRIORS so that you can raise their "friendship" or whatever.... (Very thankful that was cut out at least)

What are these Japs thinking!?

This game is going to be Awesome. This lame argument is making me more hyped. Let's put this in perspective. This is going to be an excellent game. If you liked Awakenings or any other FE game your going to get this. If not, your either cheap or you never played them in the first place. If your outraged about censorship. So am I, but that mini game seems really lame. I would've liked it in its original form and all, but in the end the gameplay always wins. At least with me anyway.

@Melkac It is an option if people want it. However, if the EU version isn't affected to the same degree that the US is, that's also a better option

EDIT: There have also been small discussions about just ripping or copying the dialogue directly from the English version and just putting it in the Japanese version, so that can improve the fan translation.

Man you guys never disappoint. Keep going.

@TwilightAngel
What can we say? We're gamers, showmanship runs in our veins!

However, I've looked it up. And aside from some blushing and some moaning, the minigame is rather cute.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EsZD1dKcdHw
What's all the fuzz about? With the right adjustment, this could appeal to the super-prudish western market.

i think it's cute when you're petting a pokemon or a pet
but petting a human, is odd, i find this strange to be in a game... that;s not pokemon or kid friendly to kids.
while it is cute, i still stand to my option that this mini game won't effect me, to ignore this game

Now you can call me pro-censorship, or an apologist, or whatever else, but I think a lot of people who are angry over this should try to see it from another angle.

Because, it's one thing to dislike a change, and voice your opinion, but some of the comments I've seen in this thread really are over the top. What are these people contributing to the game, aside from the desire to buy it and the 40 bucks to buy it with? If they no longer want the game after the content has been removed, no one's forcing them to buy it. They haven't paid for it yet. They didn't pay for the game to be made. The people who designed and/or paid for the game made the decision to remove things.

It's not even censorship, really. Nobody forced Nintendo to remove the content, they did it themselves, and they can because they own it.
And of course I understand why some of these people said the things they did. If this had been a feature in the game that I cared for, I might have quickly typed up an angry comment in a rage, but if I thought about it a bit more before I typed, I could have stopped myself, and I'm hoping some of the people here think about this a bit more as well.

@ikki5 In response to your comment #100,
Yes, there are problems, but I hope that you, and some of the other people in this thread, can see the more important, underlying problem in this case, and that would be the entitlement of the fans. Like I mentioned above, the fans who want to buy this game haven't even paid for it yet, but many are absolutely outraged at the removal. Doesn't that seem odd? And it happens all the time. The people who own the game made the removal, and THEY are perfectly entitled to.

And the people who feel that Nintendo is "babying them" when this sort of thing happens, I have to assume that they really just do not get it. They think that Nintendo is doing this because they care what content is suitable for their customers? While I can't read the minds of the localization team to see the real reason for the removal, this minigame was almost certainly removed to make it more appealing to a general audience, thus making Nintendo more money, and as the owners of the game, and the ones who funded it, they have every right to do so.

But, anyway, I know some people feel strongly about this, and I'm not trying to attack anyone. This is just kind of the way it is.

Damn it.

I think people should watch this video that touches a bit on Fire Emblem Fates and the controversy surrounding it (among other things as well).

Eh...its NoA....its what they do and I don't blame them. Atleast they are smart to release the game in the west.

@sillygostly
Your comment dissapeared. Was that intentional?

@EdJericho Crudbaskets! I'll get you next time you censor hater!

Still getting the game. I admit, I probably would have tried this mode out if it was included. I get why it was taken out, but it still kinda bugs when stuff gets changed/censored from its original Japanese release. Regardless what it is.

@Of_Folsense There is a massive flaw in your argument here:

"Like I mentioned above, the fans who want to buy this game haven't even paid for it yet, but many are absolutely outraged at the removal. Doesn't that seem odd? And it happens all the time. The people who own the game made the removal, and THEY are perfectly entitled to."

You are forgetting something. Nintendo is a business; those "entitled" fans that are outraged are the ones that are keeping Nintendo in Business. Yeah, sure, they are entitled to do whatever they want with their game but at the same time, if they keep doing stuff to outrage the fans, and then they (or some) will be out of a job.

Now, for this "unneeded" thing that is in the game to appeal to the more "general" audience, tell me something, would you have bought this game if they left everything in it? Most probably, even more so, many people probably would not have known of these until they already bought the game because if this was never done, it probably would not have been advertised as much. But overall, I cannot see someone who was planning on getting the game to say "Hey, this minigame that is option will make me not get the game." It is not like the game is rated for children and I'd hope the people playing it are at the maturity to contain themselves but I guess that isn't the case. But removal of features/content, that is more likely to get less people to buy the game. Really, it Nintendo wanted to censor it, they should have done it before it was released to anyone instead of make this one version with all this stuff, to then remove it.

Now... as for this "entitled" talk you speak of... What makes you say we feel entitled? Because it is actually funny... and kind of pathetic when you really think about it. If you want to take a look at what entitlement really means then well, it means that one believes to be more deserving or they should get special treatment... Now, where your logic on the entitlement here falters here is we are asking... for the same as what another region got. Now... how is that entitlement? We are not asking to get more, we are not thinking we are better to deserve more but yet, we want the same as what the other regions got and that we want them to stop removing the content which is said to be optional meaning that, both sides can be happy with the content in there. Really, wouldn't it be the other way that you are the entitled one because you feel that only you should be the one happy here? That you are the one on the side that doesn't get the shaft? So tell me again, who is really entitled here? I'll assure you, we, the ones asking for a stop to censorship are not the entitled ones. I think you are confusing criticism/ genuine disappointment with entitlement.

Frankly, this feature is creepy. Glad to see it go.

EDIT: I don't even like being 'petted' on the face in real life. So I may be biased.

PRE ORDER CANCLEDDDDD11111

Anyone here ever read "The Giver" back in school? There was a lot of strange stuff going on in that book, but one of the things that sticks out in my mind is when the main character puts his hand on a friend's shoulder, to which they recoil in shock, because their perfect, emotionless society had taught them that people never touch each other. Ever.

After missing the special edition, just skipping this game entirely is becoming more and more palatable.

It's stupid that they removed the feature altogether (though I can see why they removed the drugging scene and incest), but is it really that big of a deal? It's a (insert profanity here) strategy game, if it needed some stupid dating feature to please you I find it just as sadistic as Sarkeesian. All hail the drama kings and queens.

I'm going to edit this post out entirely, because on review, I was much more crass than I needed to be, not nearly as smart as I thought I was, and didn't make any points here that weren't already made more eloquently in these comments. Go go self-censorship.

...Petting? What the heck (censored for Nintendo Life ) What is this some pervy JRPG by Nippon Ichi? Some fan service sell out like Persona 4 Golden? sigh Everyone whines about censorship. I'm whining about one of the best JRPG devs going down the tubes fast. I'm all for Fire Emblem trying new things, but gay shaming/drugging, petting, level grinding, and waifu-waifu onii-chan <3 <3 is NOT what I had in mind for the solid and distinct Fire Emblem series.

Anyone who believes this is 'censorship': If the creating company thinks that a piece of their own creation is regrettable, who is anyone to chastise them for editing their own work? This isn't 'censorship.' Censorship is when an authoritative body forces changes to content. This is willful editing... If you don't understand that distinction I don't know what to tell you, but not making this distinction really takes attention away from actual instances of censorship....

@Fath Newspapers aren't individual people either but they edit collectively to create the best content. Also see, film companies, and really the creation of any single piece of media or art by more than one person. Your point is irrelevant... Also, you don't know whose call it was to edit the game, don't act like you do.

@Fath And really, acknowledging your Nazi comparison jump doesn't make it any better. It's like saying 'I'm not racist but...' in regards to marginalizing the real suffering created by the Nazi Party. Seriously. Get a grip....

@Shirma_Akayaku Awakening was censored in Europe ON TOP of the censorship the Japanese version got in the transition to US (to be specific, several instances of queerbaiting were toned down and the bikini DLC pictures were censored with steam, making an unfortunate side-effect of implying they weren't bikini pictures at all).

So, no, your best bet for anti-censorship is importing the Complete version from Japan, or buying a Japanese 3DS or messing with emuNAND to access the Japanese eShop on an out of region 3DS (as otherwise you will only be able to play one campaign).

TLDR, live with it.

@sillygostly you, sir, win all the Internets for your posts.

I don't think cutting this "it only gets sexual with your spouse" feature from a T-rated game is justifiable in any way in a world where PKMN games featuring the same function - but not limiting the touching to the face - are E-rated.

N.B. When the fudge are we getting a release date for Yurop?

Censorship is not fun, but I didn't know all you guys were supreme weeaboos.

@Coldpancakes The game was created by the employees of Intelligent Systems and released. The game was then picked up for localization by the employees of Nintendo of America. In localization, aspects of the original game were removed. I don't think it's a stretch for me to conclude that the people who removed the features were not the creators of the game.

This isn't a case of a single newspaper collaboratively editing articles (though I'd argue that even that's a morally questionable example); this is more a case of if the New York Times had exclusive distribution rights to publish Al Jazeera in the US, and removed all references to Islam from its articles to avoid any potential backlash.

I always hate it content is removed for certain regions because someone deems it inappropriate. I can understand why they did it though. When they removed the apparent drugging scene, this news was reported in a lot of gaming sites and some other technology sites as well. Had these things remained, I bet the news would have reached a lot of other news websites as well and had a very negative backlash.

Still, I was on the fence about getting Fates. All this censorship is pushing me towards not getting this game. I want to play the game exactly how the developers designed it without other people in Nintendo decided that it's inappropriate.

@crimsontadpoles It was already old news when they made headlines with its removal, though - http://youtu.be/6iVFPheRegw is a video (that I don't necessarily agree with) of a guy discussing the controversy over the scene and how it was being misrepresented... from six months ago. It came, it went, and nobody gave a damn. Stupid stuff in video games doesn't make headlines - showing shame in what you're selling by censoring it does.

Bunch of baby's around here

@Fath I wish that was true, but I know some news websites here in the UK would have a field day with this stuff if it remained in the game, and they would twist and misrepresent the facts. People are quick to complain and get outraged. The Tomodachi Life controversy featured in many of the major news websites here.

Yay more complaining on something that's minor in a Fire Emblem experience. Your lost. I'm sure some of you will eat your words and will buy the game anyway. I don't care on what you'll gonna say at this point anymore.

Damn, I need to grab more popcorn.

I'm gonna grab my stylus and rub everyone inappropriately anyway 😋

localisation is a ridiculous concept.its insulting to think that the gamers here cant understand/handle weird Japanese stuff.if you cant,play western games,there are plenty.its absurd to chance things to make it more ok here.its destroys the original product.i want my product pure.why dont we all put mecha's,loli's and cute mascot characters in fallout and mass effect before shipping them to japan,sounds absurd no?SAME THING

@crimsontadpoles Your example only proves my point, though. Plenty of games on Nintendo systems have had relationship systems before; some of them have been same-sex excluding, and some probably inclusive (platonically, at least), all without controversy. This very game, Fire Emblem Fates, features both kinds of relationships, again, with the actual same-sex relationships pretty much devoid of controversy.

The only reason there was any controversy over Tomodachi Life was the suggestion (whether true or false) that same-sex relationships were originally in it, but were patched out - a scarlet letter of Nintendo's own writing, proclaiming that they had something to be ashamed of.

<edit: long-winded, off-topic, oversexed rant removed so as not to distract from the conversation. Yes, I appreciate the irony.>

These comments are a let down. I wanted angry people demanding more incest. I'll be back later.

Again with this? Stop it Nintendo. Pokemon X and Y are Rated E and allow for petting the Pokemon all over and Fire Emblem Fates is Rated T and had you petting characters on the face and it was removed? I don't understand the gaming world we live in anymore where removing content from the Japanese version is perfectly normal and fine to do. This is very disappointing.

@Coldpancakes I think you'll be pleased to glance at my edited version of comment #168. I'm sorry that my posting was much more rude on paper than it sounded in my head. I get overaggressive sometimes, and not having read through the entirety of this comment section, I didn't appreciate that the general flow here was more civilized than where I was coming in at.

Thanks for calling me out on it.

Ok, so I've played the Japanese version since it was released. And sure censorship sucks, but this feature really doesn't provide any depth to the game whatsoever. I mean, even if you find it interesting at first glance, you'll just end up hearing the characters saying the same thing over and over. It's just a silly extra.

Removing a bewb slider and a scene is still fine. But removing an entire feature? Pre order canceled. Shame, I was really looking forward to play it day 1. I'll just buy it used so Nintendo won't get a cent of my money.

Fire Emblem Awakening is one of the best 3DS games and I loved it so I'll get this one. They might be translating the games to the five main European languages at the moment. I wonder when will we get them, the different pricing configurations, special editions, etc.

Come on Nintendo, censor the whole game! Just give us a title screen and nothing more! Come on, you can do it!!!

They could have at least left in the petting thing between married couples, surely.

[raises glass]
Here's to a new 200-comment article!

@nintendomasterr Not only is it the normal thing to do among localization companies, but people actually come out and try to defend the concept of getting an objectively inferior product(less features). Its like the think the world revolves around them, and they're fine with train wrecks like this games localization. Until the day comes when something they like gets cut an they be crying foul from the rooftops.

This is now beyond ridiculous, everyone should be able to experience the same game regardless of whether or not they want to use the features.

Killing people in a war is a ok.
Petting someone on the head is WW15.

Nice to see our where our attention is at?

Why dont they just make a porno already

That option was stupid. I'm glad it's gone.

@Shirma_Akayaku Yeah scan a QR code IF and only IF you have Cubic Ninja. physical copies go for ridiculous prices now

@Hy8ogen So you can't rub your stylus on a digital character soliciting remarks from them so you are cancelling? You clearly weren't very interested to begin with then. Silly me, I thought we loved FE because of the strategic gameplay.

It seems Nintendo of America is suffering a censorship epidemic with all of its niche games recently, with most of this spreading to Nintendo of Europe. Removing entire features and censorship of M or 16+/18+ games because you are too afraid of kids playing it is just mind numbingly stupid, and shows just how cowardly and out of touch with your audience you really are.

Even if Fates gets a 12+/T rating, I imagine that less than 5% that will buy the game day 1 will actually be under that age. Most of the Fire Emblem audience are older, having played previous games in the series. Most kids will be playing with tablets, xbox or playstation consoles and any game thats largely popular with their friends. Fire Emblem Fates isn't going to be one of those games. Most of the fanbase therefore, should handle features and scenes like this without much incident.

I'd like to stress that SJWs don't buy video games most of the time. Therefore, what they say about video games is IRRELEVANT. Which backlash do you want? The one from people who don't buy your game, or the ones that do? SJWs are never truly responsible for censorship in any media.The ones who should be held accountable are the developers, publishers or localisation teams that decide that they want to attempt to cater to an audience that doesn't want their games, or think that people can't handle uncomfortable scenarios in video games even such scenes are easily found in films, comics, books, etc.

That's fine by me Nintendo, keep censoring your games. I'll just move to other developers and publishers that don't censor their own games (even if they exist on Nintendo consoles). I'll make sure not to touch any of your games or your consoles again.

In short, i'm not buying Fates even though I really enjoyed Awakening, because Nintendo likes to treat their audience of all ages like blithering idiots. I'm tired of this nonsense.

@Shirma_Akayaku

That was a really insightful video. The issue was really blown out of proportion. And this mode was probably removed for the same reason.

I wouldn't have used it but I still hate censorship...

This feature should have never belonged in Fire Emblem in the first place though >.< Intelligent Systems, what are you doing to the franchise!!? sob

sigh I thought that if the gay marriage content had been kept in, so would the petting thing, but...nope. The drugging scene was okay IMO to get rid of, but removing this is just pretty senseless.

I think it'd be fun not to report any of these changes and see what the odds are any of the people who flip out about this stuff even noticed whatsoever.

I don't get to rub my onichan? PRE ORDER CANCELLED!

@MarioPhD I think they'd probably notice if an entire mode in the game was removed. Like in this case.

@MailOrderNinja Read and understand my comment before replying. Stop making a fool out of yourself.

@RainbowGazelle Perhaps the incredibly hardcore minute fraction of a percentage of people who have been actively seeking information about the game the entire time it's been out in Japan, but the casual "CENSORSHIP" whiners that come out of the woodwork on every one of these posts? My guess is not so much.

The gaming industry really needs a Donald Trump-like figurehead to stop these Cultural Marxists (SJWs) from ruining our games. Censorship is immoral!

I don't really care too much whether this particular... "feature"... Gets removed or not. That being said... Someone had to spend their work time to actually remove this, and I think that was a waste of time that could have been better spent elsewhere.

Oh boy, I can just imagine what they felt like after they were finished for the day...

Lame Censorship Dude: "I'm home, honey!"

Concerned Wife: "How was your day, dear?"

LCD: "..."

CW: "Oh no... Don't tell me they..."

LCD: "IT WAS HORRIBLE! I HAD TO REMOVE THE PETTING FEATURE FROM FIRE EMBLEM FATES! THAT WAS MY FAVORITE PART OF THE GAME! sobs"

CW: "Oh my God, that's... Wait, WHAT!?"

LCD: "Yeah! We can't pet teenage girls, younger sister imouto-chans, and big booby ladies any more! sucks thumb with teary eyes"

Pissed Off Wife: ".....I want a divorce."

@BLAZINOAH Bahahaha! Leave it to people like you on the internet to create the dumbest allegories and analogies in human history... I continue to be painfully amazed yet hilariously amused at some peoples' ignorance on the words they use.

@PtM
Thank you for summing up the pro-censorship arguments so bluntly.

The outrage over this is silly.

@MarioPhD Well, yeah, it's obviously pretty much impossible to know if something has been censored, if you haven't seen what it looked like before.

@Fath Yep, read that back in 8th grade. Didn't care to remember it too much, though, because the ending sucked after all that remembering of being a human being...

It's kind of the opposite here, though. It's an anime trope to be TOO touchy feely. The petting is just an extension of that.

@RainbowGazelle Which reinforces my own thinking that if it could be removed in this version, and nobody would think there was an element clearly missing that shouldn't have been omitted, does it really matter? My hunch is no, and people really get off on getting worked up about "censorship controversy" for the sake of it and little more. Not everyone, but I'd guess a good amount of the otherwise vocal minority care more about the controversy than the actual content, which is just silly.

@TheAceofMystery
BINGO! You win the interwebz for using the most buzzwords whilst adding nothing of value!! Yay!

@MarioPhD The fact is, Nintendo are still removing content. I don't think people should just lie down and accept that. There is much overreaction, yes, but I can see why removing content, even needless extras, would tick people off. At the very least, it means Japan gets more content for their money than the rest of the world.

Loved FE Awekening, but I'm so tired now of the tiny 3ds screens and I wasn't going to buy this anyway... Thanks for ignoring the Wii U, dear Nintendo; it seems you are too busy in important things lik this.
Meanwhile games like Divinity, Disgaea 5 and Wasteland 2 say "Hi".

@MarioPhD RPG fans would probably find out. People like those at Serenes Forest would DEFINITELY find out. We're pretty savvy groups, I wouldn't be surprised if not reporting on the issue before western releases would simply be postponing the inevitablly sparked discussions after release. May as well air out our dirty laundry before we make a final decision to purchase or not, right?

WHAT? THAT WAS THE BEST PART!!

@Fandabidozi LOL, that comment with your avatar is perfect!

@PlywoodStick I don't disagree, and I'm all for folks making informed purchasing decisions and all that jazz. I'm all for people being the consumer they want to be as well. I grow weary of seeing 200+ comment threads on every one of these posts, however, with the usual arguments being trotted out. I think this will be the tipping point for me to just ignore these posts, since I know nothing productive will come to me or anyone else involved.

In essence, it boils down to people being annoyed something got removed and seeing it as a loss, and me thinking it's perfectly fine to see something removed, and in some cases as a benefit. Neither side is going to change their mind, so there's really no point and nothing to be gained. It's fine for the posts to keep coming, but I think this is a sign for me that I'm no longer going to click, or if I do, I won't bother with the comments section whatsoever.

@Of_Folsense "This isn't really censorship"

Yeah, that's why they are removing parts of sexualized content, dumbing down homo sexuality stuff, etc.

As for buying the game, why should it matter for how many people would still buy it? The fact more remains that everyone would have bought it that was going to buy and they all would have been happy if the stuff was still in there however, with the censorship, some people may not buy it/ will be more disappointed with the removal on content. That is a dangerous way of thinking when it comes to it. "Oh, lets not have this product like this. Oh, but people will not buy it or be un happy. That's ok, that half will be." Like come on, Why purposely split an audience? That's just stupid. You are arguing that only one side should be happy and the other should be disappointed when really, both can be happy which is where I asked you how that makes us "entitled" because... really, calling us entitle for wanting the same... It's just stupid. lol The word entitled is far too much overused by apologists. There is nothing wrong and nothing entitled to wanting to have the same treatment as others when there is no reason to not have the same treatment. If you think there is, then it is a delusion in your head that you need get out of there.

Now, as for removing content, me thinking it lessens the quality of the product... well, in a way, it kind of does. Though it doesn't directly lessen the quality, it does lessen the product as you're taking a finished product and removing things (there is more than this minigame that has been removed btw). There is nothing really being added, stuff only being removed so you are getting a product with less for the same price.

For anyone disappointed in noa removing game content again:

https://mega.nz/#!eZ4BxBRD!tTnwWa012o65fe-jm6RC7P72fJsoEPsDjh5CXHpCY-M

Here is a link to the removed assets without sound.

and here are the sounds to download separately http://serenesforest.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=55242

You can use LIVE 2D viewer to emulate the "My Room" mode on your desktop using these assets.

Censhorship isn't good, but it's understandable. Remember, NoA has to make this game suitable for a 13 year old in the Americas.

Censorship on this game is getting out of hand...

Good, keep that trash out of here. It has no place in a Fire Emblem game.

@TheLastLugia yup.

@Hy8ogen I read it again and I'm confused. Said just what I thought it did. You are going to cancel preorder and buy game used so Nintendo can't get your money because a petting minigame was removed. I stand by my original comment. This minigame has nothing to do with the genre and shouldn't have been included anyway. Play a dating sim if it's so important to you.

@Soren. My thoughts exactly.

Petting omg. Awkward and do not care. Just like Pokemon amie or whatever. I don't wanna pet anyone via touchpad.

@AlexSora89 Ugh why would you send me a link to the minigame? That's disgusting.

@Metalinkster LMAO! I think that's going a bit overboard... But I was amused by your comment anyways!

Petting was indeed completely out of place and weird, but removing content from a game in order to appease SJWs is still removing content. They had better include another relatively useless, but functionally similar feature to replace it or give everyone the first entire DLC pack for free.

EDIT: You guys are using Kotaku as a source for this, so...grain of salt.

@Aurumonado Thank you for that... Uh... Public service. Yeah! Th-that!

@sillygostly - Excellent posts.

I used to think the golden rule of censorship was "Is this harmful?" Nowadays it seems everything is getting toned down without anyone being able to explain how that word "harm" comes into it. It's a shame games journalists don't take Nintendo to task and force them to explain who they're censoring the games for, and why. I'd also like to know why Europe all of a sudden has to endure NoA's censorship.

For what it's worth, I enjoyed Fire Emblem: Awakening a great deal and would have bought this too, but I 100% support a boycott. One of the things I loved about that game was the rapport you built with your team, including a romantic bond with the character of your choice. Intelligent Systems had the right instinct to build upon that, and it's a shame that their idea has been so diluted. Games should be fantasy and escapism - why does it matter what the real world rules are? I should be able to have 10 wives in a video game if I want!

When you play a game you're taking part in a story. There might be fights, arguments, sad scenes, dramatic scenes... and there should also be the possibility of sexual and romantic scenes. But increasingly, there's not. This is becoming a huge problem across all Western media, but particularly in video games - eroticism is the only thing that's ever censored now, and I think deep down most people must realise this. It's no exaggeration to say we're fast heading towards a time where you won't be able to express these themes at all.

@MetalKingShield It's largely the games journalists that are responsible for things that end up with Nintendo censoring things. They let controversies spread like wildfire without fact checking and using clickbaiting titles.

The last time I remember the media taking Nintendo to task was stating that Nintendo were "Banning gay marriage" because Tomodachi Life didn't have gay relationships. They largely twist and push the controversy that pressures companies like Nintendo to censor stuff in the first place, simply to protect their reputation.

This is such bad news for my wife. Now she's going to have to be the one to bear the brunt of my need for poking and prodding females with my 3DS stylus to build relationship points.

Oh wait, I don't have such a strange need. Monster Monpiece killed that.

Guys it's perfectly fine to position on Nintendo's side, it's likely to net the more sales overall, but show some respect for that "minority" who really liked or flat out didn't mind this feature.

Hey at least NoA is actually trying to make this a Fire Emblem game, instead of Waifu Simulator.

Anyway, NL ought to just put up a big ol' poll whenever this type of thing comes up. You either vote that you like the changes or you don't like them. And everyone would feel a lot better than whining about this or that vs. somebody else on the Internet.

@ikki5
I'm not really sure if you get what I'm saying. I am not siding with the pro-censorship group.

As for splitting the fan base, it was happening anyway with this game. You talk like there is nobody pleased that this has been taken out. There are plenty of people pleased with it. Especially many longtime fans of the series. Just look at the comment section.
But that's not even my point, really.

I didn't call anyone entitled JUST for wanting to be equal with Japan. I even said that's fine in my first comment. What I'm saying, and what I have been saying, it that many of these gamers feel that they are owed it, by Nintendo, and the underlying problem there is entitlement. I never said whether it was a smart move or not for Nintendo, because that's not my point.

Whether or not the removal lessens or increases the quality of the product is personal opinion, and as I was trying to demonstrate in my analogy with movies, that opinion will differ depending what audience you are a part of.

@TwilightAngel
Well, because a) maybe people needed to know what the buzz was about before commenting, b) some information can't hurt, and c) western players won't be able to enjoy the minigame anyway.

Really guys? Cancelling pre-order because of this creepy stuff?
I mean has anyone of these pre-order-cancellers or whatever seen actual footage of this “thing“. If anything this is a blessing for the FE franchise and every fan should know that. If you don't believe me just google “fire emblem petting“ and you will see why fire emblem is better off without it

@Ensemen
They never should have put in the feature to begin with, but removing actual gameplay content - regardless of what it is - entirely and (probably) not replacing it with anything is some NISA tier BS. I can guarantee every last one of the people saying it's "creepy" and "disturbing" would be using this feature for laughs and posting screencaps of them rubbing Marx/Xander's face on Miiverse had it not been removed.
As for cancelled preorders, at least those looking for the special editions will probably have a better chance at finding one now.

@Cainenghis
This, exactly this.

Nope. Don't want it. At this rate, it will be a watered-down, kiddie-gloved game that nobody will recognize. Meanwhile, EVERYTHING'S STILL AWESOME IN JAPAN!!! >

Never mind the people defending this, what annoys me is all the people who claim this "ruins the original intention" or some crap they tell themselves. As for my stance? I don't care. Is it intrusive to the overall story or gameplay? No. Did it need to be removed? Not necessarily, it was an optional feature so those that don't like it can skip it. Still, I won't loose an inch of sleep of not being able to pet MAH FICTIONAL ANIMU WAIFU! characters.

Although I have to wonder, why does Nintendo get more attention when making localization changes like this than Capcom does when they removed that close up of Rainbow Mika, or Sony's censoring of The Last of Us in the UK? People need to remember these are localizations, not translations. Their job isn't to make 1:1 clone of the source material, but to adapt it appropriately to the western market. You can disagree with said changes, but at the end of the day, these companies don't care about a vocal minority of whinny purists on the internet, they care about selling a product, and if it means making slight modifications to avoid potential controversy, then that's them. And you know what? That's fine, as long as the core gameplay, tone, and story are untouched. Call me when you see Nintendo doing 4kids levels of butchering, then we can talk.

At this rate all I have to say is this:

It's optional, so it doesn't really matter if it stays or not. I have moral values towards these things, but I choose to follow them by my in game decisions. For example: why is incest being in the game perfectly fine but a supposed (cause of translation) drugging scene is bad? Morally speaking, I don't like either, but I know people who do believe one, the other, or both are fine. If it stays, I can choose not to marry my in game siblings or drug Soliel if I don't want too and my main progress in any way. Actually, keeping all this stuff in and deciding who does and doesn't do it might be an interesting way to see the moralities of the fanbase. But again, as I've been saying since the female Link/Linkle debate, if it's not important enough to keep in unchanged, it's not important enough to change it either. You're allowed to have an opinion on it, but that shouldn't really affect your stance towards the game as a whole.

@zool It's Nintendo Treehouse.

They suck.

@BRAINFOX
Yeah i get your point. But the japanese culture is different from the western. In japan this petting minigame is considered fairly normal. But if someone sees you in the USA pettibg a virtual person you'll be considered creepy. So i think it's pretty logical to put it in the japanese version and cut it in the western one. I don't know how japanese people feel about this minigame but i suppose it's rather accepted by them. I bet most of them are happy about this inclusion while i think most of americans would laugh about it.

I think it's kinda funny how people cry how they're not getting their money's worth now their face-touching content might be removed. People who didn't want the face touching had to put up with it in the fanbase and thought the same how they might not get their money's worth because their's more content not revolving round the core of Fire Emblem but revolving around pandering Otaku.

Welcome to our level of the plain. Get equalized bruh.

@ikki5 Well said. As usual, you're always one of the people on this site with common sense.

yup preorder cancelled!!!! this is stealing!! also was one of my favorite features! YOU LAZY TRANSLATORS!

This is why I modded and jailbreak my 3ds. Now I can enjoy uncensored jap games for free

I'm wondering why some of the "hard core" FE fans are acting like this is a victory when the core content of the game hasn't been changed. How does removing optional content count as any type of victory? It could have been avoided in the first place. Personally I don't care either way. I already have one (white kingdom/birthright) in Japanese and have the SE already paid for.

What nintendo should have done is add the option of petting male characters too so people cannot complain about objectifying women etc. And also no homo lol

Don't know if anyone's still commenting here but here's what no petting looks like in the US version.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SW57zNOQvKg&feature=youtu.be

@Seacliff yea! i was gonna have fun being creepy in public with my 3ds on my lap screen facing away from me so they can see me stroking the old man. i don't want that taken away from me! 90 minutes of content? screw censorship! FE is already super waifu and husbandu, so why bother compromising the experience for the sake of those not fully into it

@ancientlii Well, it's been confirmed recently that the entire section of the game is still in, it just doesn't have touch controls. So at the very least the ~90 minutes of dialog is still in.