Atlus Is In Charge Of Localising Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE In The West

No problem with that as long as the game makes a good translation release.

We knew this already. NoA will still censor it, though: "Any changes made to the in-game content were due to varying requirements and regulations in the many different territories Nintendo distributes its products."

list of changes please? i hope we don't lose too much this time

Good, NOA translations over the last few years have been awful.

Is this because NOA are sick of people getting hysterical about their localisation process or because they're now focussed on NX projects?

"Any changes made to the in-game content were due to varying requirements and regulations in the many different territories Nintendo distributes its products."

Well, we know this isn't true, as we've already seen things censored that really weren't that bad in the first place, and wouldn't have been censored if this wasn't a partnership with Nintendo. Atlus almost never censors anything in their games when it's purely their own project, or else a project they're publishing.

I would also like to point out that this is in line with what the leak about the censorship said. Which might mean we won't be getting the Hot Springs DLC.

That's definitely more comforting!

Atlus always localise their own games. Persona Q on 3DS was good. I'm sure this will be the same quality.

seeing as this is keeping its Japanese VO I wasn't worried about the translation that much

Sure. From experience, I've learned not to trust Nintendo PR that much so this statement doesn't really mean anything to me.

Atlus might be doing the translation in a way that NoA feels "is consistent" with their other releases, but they still have hands tied when it comes to other localization changes (example: changed character models, cut content, etc). And that's without even touching the fact that what NoA feels to be accurate and what actually is accurate often aren't the same things. NoA even give an out for making any changes desired in the statement so we know that there will be some unwanted modifications in the game.

This is still good news because (a) I generally prefer the translation work that Atlus does, and (b) it at least shows some awareness from NoA that people don't like the way localization is currently being handled. But it's still just PR instead of any meaningful change in their approach to deciding what is appropriate for Western audiences.

Curious to see how this reviews and if it's a game for me. Off topic ,I've been playing a lot of Fire Emblem Sacred Stones the past few days,my first ever FE game.It's safe to say I'm a fan,love it in fact. Last week i played through Super Metroid and for the first time the incredible Metroid Fusion,what a game that is. Anyway,after starting Fire Emblem and having a read online about Intelligent Systems ,I realised it was them who developed the 2 Metroid games also .I didn't know that. Isntantly became one of my favourite developers haha

This is good news as we won't have to do with the Trrhouse's schtick, but this feels like it is just Nintendo's way to shift the blame of the censorship onto someone else.

Hopefully Atlus can keep the game as intact as possible Although Ninty will still be calling the shots since they got FE in there o.o

Translation: "This game will be censored like others before it but don't blame us, Atlus are handling it. Even though we're the publisher, paying for it and we call the shots."

@SLIGEACH_EIRE Absolutely my take on this, word by word.

That's cool, less controversy.
I'm maybe the vocal minority but I still wish there was english audio. Kind of like Stella Glow.
Guess it have to stay true for the niche purest and sub fans that'll buy it. I can't hate on that.

@ultraraichu They just don't have the budget to allocate to a dub of a game that's not expected to sell a lot - it even sold poorly in Japan in spite of its pandering focus on the idol industry.

Having the original audio is cool by me and all, but I think it's pretty underhanded of them to use the circumstances to pretend they have the 'niche' fans in mind when keeping things as is. Especially since they have never done so before.

I'm still very excited to try this out. I originally wanted it to be more of a Fire Emblem type game, but this intrigues me. I'm gonna give it a go Hoping it'll be fun

Nintendo and Atlus will do a good job, sadly there won't be any memes like Triforce heroes.

I wonder if it'll change anything. If Nintendo's paying for it, they'll probably still direct them to do their super sanitised puritanism thing.
Audience must remain small innocent children!!!!

I trust Atlus a lot more than NoA when it comes to this sort of thing so that's a relief. Go ATLUS!

@Tsurii @LinkSword good point. I kind of figured that budget might of played a role in it as well, even though similar games get more sell in NA than JPN like Xenoblade, and a good amount of Atlus published games.
Kind of weird in a way, unless hidden digital sales play a bigger role.

@SMEXIZELDAMAN Are you looking to give people seizures with that avatar?

Have too wait n see what is changed or taken out.

This gives me hope, but as others in this thread have said--This doesn't mean that NoA won't stick their grubby fingers in and still mess things up.

Thats good though I really wish there was a dub.

A lot of people here need to learn the difference between censorship and editing for content. When a rated R movie is edited to be aired on network TV, do you call that censorship?

@DiscoGentleman Thank you.

@DiscoGentleman Thank you for that. Gamers tend to forget that a lot goes on in the background of creating a video game and forget that what may fly in Japan, doesn't work the same way in other countries.

@SLIGEACH_EIRE A game about teenagers fighting evil in sexy swimwear is everyday media in Japan, but in the rest of the world it's seen as pedophilia. The game has to make changes to even be put up on store shelves.

Can we order the special edition in Europe yet? Nintendo won't post to Ireland, which is annoying.

@SLIGEACH_EIRE Not particularly. I've had this avatar for a long time and I love it

@DiscoGentleman Spot on.
Certain older gamers compare Nintendo's localization from "back in the days" to now like they reach a new low, yet it gotten a lot better. The only thing that makes an "bad" impact is the internet and being more connected, otherwise they'll like (or dislike) game for what it is in their region.

@DiscoGentleman Thank you. The sheer amount of exaggeration and saltiness about a lot of these things is cringe inducing.

@Tsurii "Plethora of bad memes"? Please. I think that crap belongs back in the toilet. Are their occasional references? Yes. And I'm willing to bet that there were references in the Japanese versions as well.

@DiscoGentleman keepin it real

@DiscoGentleman A rant it may have been, but it was needed.

So from what I can tell, it'll have illogical censorship AND cringeworthy honorifics left in the dialog.
At least this time the only dub is in Japanese, so I don't have to hear NAHNAWKO-CHAHN...NAHNAWKO-CHAHN and cringe when it's supposed to be a serious moment.

zero interest in actually playing this game, but man Chrom looks unbelievably badass!! Such a great character design.

Huh, I could've sworn I saw them in one of the trailers. Ever since I started the Persona games a few years back and this was revealed to be more in line with them, I had the fear that they would get left in.

@DiscoGentleman
Well done, and well said.

I am no fan of ungrounded censorship (key word, ungrounded). And no doubt the Treehouse has been a little heavy handed as of late.

However, it's not a "buy/not buy" issue. It's a "minorly annoyed/not annoyed" issue.

Boycotting fantastic games with excellent dialog and humor over a few lines not matching up, or a conversation (1 of 1,000 conversations mind you) being dropped in favor of something else, or a low-cut bikini covering up a little more skin... is extremely overreacting. It's a minor aggravation, yes, absolutely, and I will say as much. But, after that it should be dropped and people should move on, enjoy the game and have fun.

I've literally seen people who would rant for 15 straight articles about the most trivial localization changes, the whole time swearing off buying the game. Like guys, come on. I'll gripe with you the first time, but after that it's time to let it go. And certainly don't let such a thing become an excuse for not playing a game.

EDIT
I should clarify though that there are, hypothetically, situations where I might be inclined to boycott a game over censorship. But it would have to be extreme cases. The FE Fates debacle? Not even close. Now, had they like, removed marriage and children altogether... Ok. Ya. That would be a call to boycott and import the EU version along with an EU system to play it on. Because that would be an affront against gamers. But stylus tapping minigame modes that were never part of the core series to begin with, minor dialog changes, covering up skin in certain situations... By no means do I condone these actions, far from it, but they do not warrant such an extreme response. They are certainly in aggravation but register relatively low on the scale of bad things that can happen to a game (worst being not even getting localized,mfor example).

Well, they already "pre-censored" characters outfits before the JP release, in order to make it "easier" to localize in western countries.

So the damage has already been done.
http://www.dualshockers.com/2016/03/06/wii-u-exclusive-tokyo-mirage-sessions-fe-got-another-clothes-change-to-hide-the-heroines-cleavage/

@Uzuki is pedophilia if it's erotic. this is casual just like on a beach

@BRAINFOX dude it's called being polite. when was the last time a polite person was cringe-worthy

Good. Keep it away from the clowns at NOA as much as possible. Don't want half the game's content to be cut off there.

@MaverickHunterX I was about to mention that as well. This game was already censored.

@DiscoGentleman The bigger problem with the internet is how opinions can spread like wildfire despite being complete nonsense

@japongt What games had half their content cut?

@TingLz don't forget, face rubbing was basically the only thing worth doing in Fire Emblem Fates.

60 hours of interesting story and gameplay? Pft, who does that.

I'm pretty excited for this game, which is surprising since I have never played an Atlus game aside from a few demos. I always liked the demos I have played and have been meaning to pick some Atlus titles up, but I haven't gotten around to buying any video games since I came to school. This game looks like a good place to start and a good swan song for the Wii U (aside from Zelda).

I just want to get the collector´s edition of the game.

@DiscoGentleman I think the situation depends on the title in question, and the time period. And I don't think it's all about just some disgruntled people complaining.

For example, the Chrono Trigger localization back in the day censored the Japanese dialogue for Ayla, since she made some bisexual/loose comments towards Lucca and Marle at certain points. Whereas on the other hand, the Woolsey script seemed off or odd in those places, though curiously, one line about Ayla slapping Marle's butt and implying she was worthy of childbirth was left intact. Those sorts of changes are debatable whether they hold any importance or not.

Other titles, like Breath of Fire 2, had such botched translations that it was difficult to tell if anything was censored or not... maybe some crosses, due to the religious subject matter in the game, but Katt's and Nina's skimpy/lack of clothing weren't censored, even while other titles (like FF6) did censor such things. So while there was the classic Nintendo censorship of blood, religious references, sexuality and such, censorship back in the 90's was rampant in some ways, and random in others. This was true of Sega and Sony consoles, too- for instance, some titles like Xenogears, Breath of Fire 4, and Lunar 2 did not have their nudity censored, but their alcoholic drinks were.

Circa 2000-2009, it seemed like localization led to censorship much less often. When it happened, it was hardly ever heard of, and not circulated like it is today. So now that censorship instances are being circulated in the media, even though they haven't experienced a significant boom in practice, more people hear about it, and react to it much more harshly than 10-15 years ago.

Translation is obviously a tough job, but I don't think the complaints are levied towards the rank and file workers so much as the executives who make the decisions. (Except of course, in the rare case of hate campaigns.) It also doesn't help that the media these days (including Nintendo Life) now generates cash flow by reporting on such issues. It used to be very rare for any publication or site to bother reporting on something so seemingly trivial to them. Stirring up manufactured controversy is big business now.

So I wouldn't say this situation is as simple as some disgruntled people ruining other people's fun by complaining all the time. That's just a red herring. There is money to be made by inciting people to act that way.

So in other words, we're in for a trope filled, newer Persona style of translation... I had my fill of that after Persona 4, but I'll still look at the reviews for this one. It's not a title in the vein of Majin Tensei, so it's not a real SMT/FE crossover, and I simply much prefer the mainline/offshoots like Devil Survivor over the Persona line. For those who can stomach the overly saccharine theatrical highs and lows that this title is sure to bring, more power to you.

@SamirMalik Never said it was sexual. But the people in charge of the rating boards and mommy groups will see it as such. The DOA beach games are about a bunch of women having fun on the beach, but it could be seen as sexualizing. There's a reason why it's rated M/AO in most countries.

There's screens floating around already showing that, yes, it has been censored in the west.

Very pleased to say I haven't bought any game on any Nintendo system since Christmas, and until either this crap stops or region lock is removed entirely by Nintendo, I will continue not to.

@SamirMalik It breaks immersion for me when characters are calling each other this-kun, and that-chan as if westerners won't understand how Japanese high schoolers communicate without bits of the language awkwardly injected into the English script/text, especially when countless other franchises do perfectly fine at conveying that without resorting to what we see in the Persona series.
It's not enough to turn me off from a game/manga/series, but it is definitely something I could do without.

@BRAINFOX But that's apart of the cultural context. If a game takes place in Japan, it's going to have some linguistics of said culture in there. Don't you think it would be odd if a game was, say, based in Arabia but nobody says asalamulikum as a greeting? It's about keeping the characters in culture, even in subtle ways.