Team That Localised Fire Emblem: Awakening And Echoes Isn't Working On Three Houses

This is slightly worrying if only because the localisation of Echoes in particular was just so good, and Fates' localisation by Treehouse was simply mediocre (although that might just have been that the story of that game was beyond salvage)

Oh god please, anyone but them! Fates had a lot of issues and they made it even worse with their stupid changes and screw-ups. Anyone remember the Saizo + Beruka support? >.<

No dual audio support for Fates, after Awakening had it, despite it being the first FE to have a kingdom based on Japan is another highlight in their long list of failures.

Well that's a real shame, those guys do such an amazing job with it too.

I feel sorry for every Fire Emblem fan but hey Xenoblade 2 came out okay, maybe NoE is handling it.

On that note: Who do I blame for the crap Xenoblade X translation? 8-4 or NoA? Answer: Both. They named the mechs Hobos. Phef.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skell

I at least trust Nintendo to cut the petting crap. It's something.

@BranJ0 Yup echoes localisation and voice acting was very very good.

@BloodyMurder NoE would be neat to be honest!

@Snaplocket

Fates didn't have it and Treehouse was the localisation crew, if they do this game I'm gonna assume the worst to avoid being disappointed.

The Fates localisation was not the best. I hope Treehouse learned from their mistakes, i.e no censorship.

That's a shame, they did such a good job with Echoes!

Fates meanwhile.....well it was terrible

I didn't care for Awakening, Fates story wasn't great either.......so I'd prefer a better game in general I guess. But definitely want the game to be closer to Fates.....more challenge, more variety. Hopefully the story can match the game play this time around.

Seems like some of the missions, you lead groups of soldiers so I'm interested to see how that plays out.

If Nintendo want to censor a game, they'll censor it regardless of who is in charge of the English script.

I'm more concerned about the generally lack of quality in the Fire Emblem Switch trailer. It looked seriously dated, like a game from the Gamecube era.

8-4 and the Treehouse have shared a lot of people between them.

I want to poke my waifus, husbandos, children-o's, antagonistos, EVERYONE!!!

No-one shall be spared from my caress!!!

For everybody excusing Treehouse's awful localization on account of Fates already-bad story, let me remind you of Treehouse's history with the series. They removed the hardest difficulty from Path of Radiance, and removed an extended script with ~10% more content from its sequel. Fates was just the continuation of their blatant disrespect for the series. And don't get me started on their changes to TMS that they tried to blame on Atlus.

I don't care how much they may have improved or the work they do on other games. I don't trust them to work on a series they've continuously screwed up.

Oh no

I'm hearing conflicting reports on whether this is a good thing or a bad thing, so I'm going to buy this game twice to spite both camps.

@BranJ0 @NinjaSyao Awakening's localization was pretty bad too considering how much 8-4 butchered some of the support convos like Sumia + Chrom.

Also, two of the most beloved Fire Emblem games, Radiant Dawn and Path of Radiance were done by Treehouse.

@Nunya
I'm from NY. We use it all the time.

I hate the treehouse.
Nothing but a bunch if pansy arse social justice warriors.
Treehouse needs to be disbanded.

Who did the localization on Breath of the wild?

@Ernest_The_Crab

The fact that those games are loved is largely in spite of Treehouse, not because of them.

I think there's a lot of generalizations being made about both Treehouse and 8-4. Both have shown that they're capable of creating both fantastic and rather bad localization efforts. My biggest problem with Fates was how lifeless the dialogue felt compared to Awakeing and now Echoes, but Treehouse has shown that they're very capable of creating interesting translated dialogue. I'm not going to say I have confidence that they will, I certainly don't, but they have the capabilities to make a good localization with this game.

@BLD Yes it was bad but it's been 10 years since Radiant Dawn, I think you might need to let it go. The fact that we even got either of those games with how atrocious Japanese sales for both games were is a miracle. I also think we're well past those days, as Fates came over with almost all of it's actual gameplay in tact (Yes the translation is bad and the face petting is removed, but neither are as severe as an entire mode being removed).

Just started Echoes this week and loving it. The characters are much livelier than Fates so I'm guessing I have 8-4 to thank for that. If treehouse did KI:U and the Zelda games then clearly I'm usually usually happy with them.
Am pro-censorship at least in terms of sexualisation so that controversy doesn't bother me.

I really don't think any translation could have saved Fates. It needed a script rewrite from the ground up. I think it was mostly crippled by trying to extend 1 game into 3 full priced games, namely for the Japanese market, and forcing the story to oddly stretch 3 games when it ought to have been 1. I played Birthright to completion, then started Conquest and just threw it in the easiest "mash a to win" mode and tried to get through it as fast as possible...but it already wore me out by that point. The impetus to keep going was gone with the way the story was.

Treehouse has high and low moments, but the ideological crusades about them "ruining" games gets old. TMS was an amazing game. It wasn't ruined by not getting the upskirt of Tsubasa. The replacement of the gravure scenes with swimsuit modeling made little contextual sense....but the former couldn't remain in for a Nintendo T rated game in the US, and there was little contextual way to use the existing scenes and dialog....maybe they could have done better, but they did what they did with what they had to work with and what ESRB would do. The kids gawking at Maiko's book kind of filled in the blanks for us anyway. It was fine until the weird "rap clothes" thing....but, whatever, that was like 30 seconds of the game. Maybe not Treehouses best moment, but not the game destroying travesty some make it out to be. Especially for a "this is going to bomb, get it out the door fast before WiiU burns, no budget for you!" game.

Fates had no such excuses. But it's not like the source material wasn't garbage to begin with.

@Nunya
The truth of the matter is NONE of them checked the dictionary to see if Skell meant anything. Sure its New York police slang but remember how Nintendo had to change the Inkling's taunt in Mario Kart 8 because it meant something offensive somewhere. Not being from New York doesn't magically make the word Skell not mean Homeless Drug Addict.
Not to mention that Mechs technically aren't Exoskeletons (because you ride them they are vehicles) but that's a moot point.

The name "Doll" actually has religious significance which was explained in the short story 24 hour happy people. (FYI, X had several supplementary short stories released via the website which localization didn't touch because reasons).
http://xenobladex.jp/24hhp/sp-24hhp20150416.html
https://docs.google.com/document/u/0/d/1BiXmC3fsjmMQnnFrxfOyTvjEmS9WsU8fjy0sAOSiPqw/pub#id.vnyv13vma96

For me personally, the name "Doll" for a robot immediately makes me think about Gundam Wing and the Mobile Dolls which works well given everyone here is a robot.
http://gundam.wikia.com/wiki/Mobile_Doll

For the love of god do NOT let Treehouse do anything. They are garbage at localization, and they should be ashamed for what they've done. This has me extremely worried.

@Blizzia Me too... I hate Treehouse with a passion.

Nintendo Treehouse And Fire Emblem don't go well with each other. If they really are involved I won't buy this game. I'll just play something else.
Well at least Resident Evil 2 Remake and Devil May Cry 5 is finally comming out!

I should point out that a translation is never going to be 100% true to the source material in its native language and purists will buy imports anyway. I think the Switch has a little more leg room in terms of perverted elements since it embraces mature games more than the 3DS. Unless you've lived in, and breathed, Japan for 5+ years, you're not going to be able to appreciate all the native puns/idioms referenced in the game. You'll likely get the fuller experience from the game in your native language. Also, the dev team was left with triple the amount of pages they asked for of unedited story from the author so even after all that editing, the story remained convoluted. Deadlines have to be met, and release dates have to be honoured. The small team at Treehouse was left compromised for time during the entire localisation process. If you want to blame someone, then blame Nintendo. XSeed take their time and always deliver a high-quality product even when that means delays. The Fates games and situation was just a mess. All that marketing put pressure on the localisation team to deliver by a strict deadline. I will say that it's not like Nintendo to put out low-quality product. I hope it's handled better in the future.

This is unfortunate. I find Treehouse localisations to be full of Americanisms and internet slang which take away a lot of the original meaning from the script. While it's true that not everything is going to translate over directly, as a British person their very Americanised scripts lose me sometimes.

Localization teams certainly make mistakes, but I doubt it'll affect my enjoyment of the game. Players have such high expectations when it comes to pure translations. I've met people who will complain because the localization team changed the word "yes" to "yeah" in a conversation.

Also, isn't this just pure speculation on whom the localization team is? Has NoA confirmed or denied it? If it's neutral, it's entirely possible it's a completely different localization company.

For all we know, it could be XSeed doing the localization.

Please don’t censor this game, Nintendo! Nobody cares if there’s sexual undertones or anything, it just makes the game more funny.

(...I was going to make a not-funny Treehouse joke, but decided not to.)

I don't have any opinions on Treehouse (still haven't played Fates yet), but I was actually reflecting just the other day on how good the Awakening translation was. It's the little things like giving Donnel a redneck accent and farm references that give me reason to enjoy their work so much.

It's a shame to hear they won't be doing the new one. I must say with what little I saw, it didn't feel quite the same as Awakening.

@Cosmos14 Would you prefer an M rated Fire Emblem that alienates a significant chunk of their Western audience, which don't forget isn't that big to begin with? Due to cultural differences, the stunts they pulled in Fates didn't raise the rating in Japan, but they certainly would have in the West. (It's the same reason the graveure shoot chapter was censored in the Western release of "Tokyo Mirage Sessions.") If you have issues with Fates's script, that's a legitimate complaint, but they had legitimate reasons for the censorship.

@BloodyMurder Perhaps "skell" wasn't the best choice, but I don't think "doll" would've been much better. It makes me think of the creepy Tails Doll character from "Sonic R." <shudder> I think they should've just called it a "mech."

Well, that means it is time to learn Japanese. I have a year to do so.

Frankly this could be good or bad depending on who they picked.

I really hope Nintendo has learned that there customers won't tolerate censorship. If they really want to know want their fans want they should really ask them directly. The Ideological busybodies at Kotaku and Polygon don't represent what gamers want.

@BulbasaurusRex I would rather play the game the way it was developed. Fire Emblem already stands out from other Nintendo IPs because of its themes (along with Xenoblade), and I doubt that the “petting” feature would have raised the rating to M. The people who play FE tend to be familiar with Japanese culture, and it’s a growing fanbase. Censoring features, not matter how banal, makes it seem like the West is not getting the complete version of the game.

@Cosmos14 Sorry, but I wouldn't, and too many players (or at least their parents) would agree with me for the localisers to ever take the risk. There's a difference between understanding Japanese culture and accepting their loose sexual standards.

The petting feature would indeed have caused an M rating, and we still got the full benefits of the gameplay mechanic, anyway, so there's nothing incomplete about the Western version. There was also a major issue with one of the support conversations involving shifting sexual orientation that was rightfully censored, as while it may or may not have risen the rating on its own, it was in extremely poor taste for Western sensibililities.

@G-Boy @Luke937 So I'm nobody, am I? There are far more customers they would lose (including me) by ending up with an M rated entry in a traditionally T rated series than they ever lose by self entitled busybodies attempting to boycott the game. So no, overall their customers do want censorship where and when it makes sense. There are a few times Nintendo has gone too far, but most of the time they make the right decisions.

Besides, they're much more accepting of potentially controversial content these days than they were back in the 90's when they were doing stuff like removing the excessive violence from "Mortal Kombat" and removing all traces of drugs and religious symbolism, no matter the intended audience of the game.

@BulbasaurusRex Many pro censorship people boycott games simply because they aren't changed. How about a compromise. Games have censorship and the censorship is enabled by default... but people also have the ability to disable the censorship in the options menu. That way everyone is happy.

@Luke937 Like I said, those boycotters are a much smaller chunk of the audience than they'd lose without the censorship.

That compromise is acceptable to me, but the ESRB would never accept it, even if you had to access the Switch's parental controls to change the option. You remember the controversy over Hot Coffee, don't you? That wasn't even a part of the game was normally accessible, but the ESRB wouldn't budge on the issue until the game was recalled and had the offending scene removed from the data.

Who's to say the game would sell less if censorship is optional. Why not release two different versions. One rated E10+ and the other rated T/M. See which one sells better. Censorship apologist don't want to give people that choice because they would choose "wrong". If you give people the option to turn the Censorship off it defeats the purpose of the censorship. Though I will concede that while censorship is detrimental in the U.S. it's mandatory in authoritarian countries like China, Turkey, Germany and Australia. Not because consumers want them censored but because they will get banned otherwise.

@BulbasaurusRex the fire emblem games are rated T. That rating would be sufficient to cover the game’s features, as there is no openly sexual content. I also would imagine that most teenagers these days are well familiar with the subject of sexual orientation, and that in-game dialogue would hardly make much of a difference (aside from developing a character a bit more). Still you’re entitled to your opinion and it’s not any less valid than mine.

@BulbasaurusRex The problem is that Nintendo sometimes has censored things that wouldn’t give games higher age ratings than in Japan by either PEGI or ESRB, like removing the hints of Vivian’s transsexuality in Paper Mario TTYD and the tapping mini game in Fire Emblem Fates. Most other companies are more lax than Nintendo when it comes to stuff like that.

For example, the Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney localization team has kept in all of the ”offensive” themes (except one single pedophile joke that would have raised the rating overseas), and it has never given the games higher age ratings than in Japan, so it has proved to not be an issue.

By the way, Fire Emblem Fates has a C (15 and up) rating in Japan, while the previous games in the series were rated A (All ages) and B (12 and up), so the only reason Nintendo had to censor the game and lower the rating was to get more money. The game was never intended to be rated T.

@BulbasaurusRex
Is that some kind of meme?

To be fair, Treehouse has done an excellent job in every translation I have seen. The fans tend to put out hate towards them without merit. They blamed Treehouse for some stuff in the Bravely Default series that was in the Japanese games. Fans are ignorant piles of garbage most of the time and put a lot of emphasis on the translations when it doesn't meet their internal expectations. Nintendo of America has one of the best in house teams translating in the treehouse team. They need to stop directly blaming translations just because they set expectations too high. They also think, ignorantly that since Nintendo Japan is translating that they would not change things like the censorship in Bravely Default. People think Nintendo of America makes those ignorant changes. Nintendo of Japan has always treated Nintendo of America like a special case. This is why Fire Emblem was not released stateside until GameBoyAdvance and why EarthBound 3 is not a game in America. At least put the blame where it belongs.