Topic: Fire Emblem: Fates

@DreamyViridi: I agree with you. 'Entire gameplay mechanics" lol. They're not making this look as serious as they think it is with their hyperbole and comparisons.

Good point. And yes, "inappropriate" has become one of the most over-used words. It means absolutely nothing without some sort of context.

I'm not anti-censorship either. If some sort of elected, semi-accountable body (like a government) decides something is harmful and can explain why, then I can usually support that. What's extremely concerning to me is that certain pressure groups have decided we're not allowed to have bikinis in games. Project Zero/Fatal Frame and Street Fighter V are the most worrying examples to me, as neither are aimed at children and both feature women that are definitely meant to be adults. I think gamers deserve to know exactly who is demanding this, and why. For example, is it feminists? If so, we deserve to know that publishers are prioritising them over their more historical customers. Let them support them, I say.

I may as well leave this here regarding FEF's localization.
https://mobile.twitter.com/Doctor_Cupcakes/status/66225804948...
https://mobile.twitter.com/Doctor_Cupcakes/status/66228866001...
https://mobile.twitter.com/Doctor_Cupcakes/status/66227031632...

@MetalKingShield: I don't think anyone is demanding anything, to be honest. There probably isn't a particular culprit we can point to as the people who are demanding censorship. Rather, a culture of fear and prudery appears to be taking over in the West.

@Ralizah - there must be some sort of values system behind it, though, whether political or religious. Publishers must believe they're catering to certain groups to even think of removing some of this stuff. I'm getting annoyed at NoA in particular just thinking they're automatically entitled to a sale. Well no, if you don't supply what people want, you're not entitled to it at all.

I think everyone is overreacting. Were you REALLY going to use these features in the game? If not, what are you complaining about? I can honestly say that as a huge FE fan, nothing of value was lost in this "censorship". I think some people need to get off their high horse and chill.

While I don't care for censorship out of principle, I must admit that Skinship contributed absolutely nothing to my three playthroughs of the Japanese versions. There's also the question of the Kotaku article's validity since the quote used as evidence is somewhat...suspect. Could go either way and I'm not losing sleep over it.

@TingLz: We're being treated like children and it's our job to tell Nintendo what they must do with their products. Apparently. -.-

@TomJ:

Whoa there. Don't put words in anyone's mouth.

I can oppose censorship for the sake of opposing censorship - it doesn't mean I am therefore looking to get my jollies by virtually touching a fictional character.

We were hearing this sort of thing all the time in regards to Xenoblade Chronicles X - "If you oppose the removal of the breast slider, why, you must want to perve over at adolescent girls. What sort of person would want to sexualise adolescent people? Those people who oppose censorship are all secretly peadophiles!"

Like I said, high horse. Nintendo has published more mature games like Bayonetta, but we want to complain about these (rather minor) removals from the game. The scene in question wasn't a very good one anyway and the skinship was laughable at best. And Xenoblade? I guess you wanted the 13 year old to wear a bikini?

There! You just proved my point!

Also, LOL at the two instances of friendly fire! @TheLastLugia was probably being sarcastic.

Couldn't have phrased this better myself. It was personally a feature I found weird and wouldn't use, and it's a completely optional feature to begin with that doesn't take away from anything with its removal.

I don't care about the removed feature but it will be interesting to see if the removals in the NoA localization are the sole reason the game is releasing in February for NA while it is TBA 2016 for EU.

Thank you for this. I don't mean to rag on anyone, but referring to the localized game as "leftover scraps" or a "censored mess" is really hyperbolic. Folks are talking about being "extremely concerned" about the lack of bikinis in video games. Is this really something that weighs heavily on your mind? Is it something that truly endangers the future of the video game medium? (And as an aside, video games most certainly don't lack bikinis, as anyone who played Metal Gear Solid V or Xenoblade Chronicles X in 2015 can tell you).

These sorts of hyperbolic claims just don't hold up for many reasons. One is that "censorship" is not censorship when the creator is making the changes. You can certainly argue about the merits of said changes, but no speech is being suppressed by outside forces, here. Likewise, the "puritan" argument falls flat. You're telling me that the same company that funded Bayonetta 2 — which has more lady angles than any video game I've ever witnessed — is putting underwear on 13 year-old girls and removing features that are blatant fanservice because they're puritans? I'd expect someone posting at a forum called Nintendo Life to know better.

Personally, I can enjoy the some cheesecake. I'm a Bayonetta fan, I love No More Heroes, and I don't necessarily view games like Lollipop Chainsaw as terribly harmful exploitation — it's hard to be exploitative when you're marketed toward grown adults and have your tongue firmly planted in cheek. And on the note of "tongue in cheek," the concept of tone is a key issue here; I don't miss underage underboob in a mecha sci-fi, g-strings in a straight-faced horror game or Skinship (really?) in a strategy RPG because they're all completely tone-deaf, and they share one common factor: they're all straight-up fanservice. And frankly, when I see people outraged over their removal, "but I want that fanservice" is inevitably at the core of the argument, veiled though it may be by claims of censors, puritans, or ugly ol' "social justice warriors."

Let's also keep in mind that these games are localizations, not straight translations. In Animal Crossing, jokes and puns are changed so that they hit home with local audiences. Right now, video games are under a lot of social scrutiny in the West, while Japan's sexual media culture is under a lot of fire; it's the localization team's job to adapt content for their audience. Can they make mistakes? Yes. Do they sometimes water down content in a way that can be pandering? Sure. But for the most part, I think Treehouse is among the best video game localization teams on the planet — as a testament to that, they're cognizant of the current social climate in American media. While that climate does inevitably lead to some over-correction and over-sensitivity, I think it's a necessary step toward making games more inclusive.

"But at what cost?," folks riding the "censorship" wave might ask. Apparently, at the cost of illegal titty, people-petting simulators and slightly homophobic date rape tales.

So that seems like a pretty good deal to me.

Curious, but is there anyone who supports this change who had played the original product?

Because so far I found no one.

@VelvetElvis: Bravo, that is a great take on things. If only everyone here was as practical as you eh?

Hopefully this dies down quicker than the amiibo outrage on the Twilight Princess thread so we can go back to talking about important things. LIKE THE EU RELEASE DATE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

@Seacliff: I played the fan translation if that counts for anything. It looks like this censorship talk is still going strong, as if we haven't talk about it more than enough at this point.

@Seacliff: I played the translation, but idc if this is gone or not.

I just heard it doesn't affect things like stat boost in battles, so meh.

Still, is sad to see a game getting a feature completely removed due to localization.

The bickering. Good Lord...

As others have mentioned, the core of the game is still in tact. Heck, I remember so many complaining about these fanservices being a problem in the first place.