Game Director Swery Will Rewrite At Least One Scene In Deadly Premonition 2

An update patch: script, frame rate, and bugs—in that order it seems.

When you make these posts, please include what the content was.

This seems like a great game to wait to play.

@Severian The script has got to be the quickest and easiest thing to patch. Today I watched the Digital Foundry video on Deadly Premonition 2 and I think I agree with John when he said he's not sure they'll be able to fix the frame rate. It goes down to 4 frames per second sometimes!

I'm planning to play this on Switch someday. It would be great if they can get it running at 30fps, but even if they only get it out of the single digits and teens that would be great work. The longboarding in Sayonara Wild Hearts feels so right. It would be awesome if it felt anywhere close to that in this Japanese mind created Louisiana town (I know there's a big difference between a 60fps linear level vs this somewhat simplistic open world, but still).

Hadn’t heard anything about this but if they’re actually changing it, it really can’t have been good.

Man, I must not be hanging out with the right trans people, cause I haven't heard the mass outrage that usually accompanies a developer apologizing and changing the script on an already released game. It's starting to look like this needed a lot more time in the oven than it got - and apparently, more quality checks.

Hm, so it looks like several characters deadname a trans character in the game. I haven’t picked it up yet cause I’m skint but this one definitely depends on context. If it’s played for laughs like 99% of Japanese games I’ve played, then that’s just a bit unnecessary. If it’s plot relevant, ie. the trans character is deliberately misgendered by another character to show their prejudices then fair enough as long as it doesn’t border on torture porn.

After The Missing, yeah I didn't think Swery had any bad intentions with this...misguided, poorly thought out part of the narrative. I'm glad since I love Swery, I hope he always makes games. Based on what I heard it sounds like he was trying to do an homage to an equally questionable part of Twin Peaks, so this whole thing comes across as just writing that did not...work.

I dunno, this is a weird one. By being Deadly Premonition, it almost has to be bad on some level, but it seems like parts of it failed to even be that type of enjoyable bad. But its hard to tell how unintentional it all is. Especially the FPS, because I heard at first it was intentional until they said they were gonna fix it? I'm so confused.

Man...this game needed to be delayed.

At least he can admit to his own mistakes and improve off of those mistakes.

Of course this game was going to offend someone. As does almost anything these days. Someone, somewhere will be offended. I'm offended by the framerate, I hope they fix it.

I wish they'd patch the terrible performance while they're at it.

Deadly Premoniton 2: A blessing in disguise

That is one heck of a good disguise then 😂

"Swery" should apologize instead for not including the option to invert the y-axis: THAT is offensive.

What was the scene NL that caused this controversy? Can you at least do your job, NL? For once?

Complain about "censorship" all you like, but at least this'll teach Swery how to update his own game.

That way, he and his team will be able to develop a patch so that the game doesn't run like a PowerPoint streamed through Zoom on crappy WiFi.

...Right? Right?

@Ralizah Same. 30 FPS is fine. 10 or less is inexcusable.

@kreen

Was kinda disappointed about potential harmful stuff in Deadly Premonition 2, specially after Swery worked on The Missing, so I'm glad about these news

(Btw, he replied "trying hard" when asked about the framerate)

So fixing bad frame-frame is out of the question but if a fictional character is offensive we have to patch that ASAP?
Good grief.

@NullPointerExcep Swery games are always unsafe. That's kind of the point.

@kenyowa So he noticed a mistake and wants to fix it before a potential mass outrage. What's wrong with that?
Why is it that people only expect offenses to be removed after they do the offending? If one person told him about his mistake and he wants to remove it from his work, isn't that commendable?

This game is the poster child of "needs a patch"

loving the idea of a bunch of people refusing to patch a game over swery correcting himself, therefore locking them out of any possible performance patches. good on him for that one-two punch to fools

For any curious people : characters frequently misgender a trans person and use their birth name. This explicitly happens without relevance to the plot. (plot relevance could be :framing someone like a person who doesn't care about other peoples feelings, or is rude etc. )

So it's unnecessary and won't change anything to you personally, unless you're trans of course! Than you won't feel like ***** when playing. So pretty much just like in real life!

I support anyone's right to be who they want to be. My question is: to what extent do I have to participate in your self-image?

Philosophers and revolutionaries of old fought to express unpopular opinions. Now they fight to crush them.

Everyone is too sensitive. It's disgusting.

Before the screaming man babies of the world start crying 'censorship'; listening to marginalised groups to improve your representation of them is a creative artistic decision which makes games infinitely better. That's not censorship, that's called being a responsible functioning adult.

Trans women are women. Trans men are men. Non-binary identities are valid.

@Wargoose so close! The point isn't that trans people are pissed of when you get it wrong (it hurts, but that's not what this is about.)

It's when someone tells you : I'm not a squirell, I'm a human. And you respond with : ok squirell (or hazel, or nuttface.) THAT'S what this is about!

@JHDK Totally agree, all these cis-gendered gamers are so sensitive, whinging and crying about minor changes in a video game of all things which will make all the difference to trans people and zero difference to them. Total snowflakes. They should just suck it up and move on with their lives.

Whilst I would respect the wishes of a transgender person and avoid deadnaming someone, I think it's a bit scary to not acknowledge how easy it is to make a mistake or say the wrong thing. Jumping to the conclusion that someone is doing it with bad intentions is unfortunate.

As for not allowing fictional characters in a story to deadname someone, even out of spite, this I cannot agree with. Are the people upset with this saying that it is unacceptable to have transphobic characters in a fictional story? That seems like dangerously restrictive territory to me.

@garfreek I think I'm just confused by the need to identify as something else in the first place. But then I'm not Trans, and it's hard to put yourself in someone else's shoes sometimes.

I'm not gonna go out of my way to be rude to someone in real life. If someone I know wants to be called he/she, i'll go with the flow. At the end of the day, It's a 2 or 3 letter word, its not a hill that I'm gonna die on.

@ComradeThom Anyone who uses the term "cis" is not worth an argument. This is my last post on the matter. Hope you have a nice evening.

@Old-Red From what I understand, the main character of the game expresses support for trans people at one point, then starts deadnaming and misgendering a trans character (who is a villain I think?), and it's framed as if it's ok to do that because the trans character doesn't deserve to be gendered correctly. It doesn't sound like Swery actually had bad intentions but this part of the game was woefully mishandled.

@JHDK You were literally just saying people are too sensitive and now you're offended by the word 'cis'

So wait, the deadnaming in the game was not to show how the characters disrespected the transgender person in the game?

If offending was part of the narrative then keep it. Maybe flesh it out with an update. If not and it was completely and ignorantly unintentional, then yes, he should change it. That wouldn’t be bowing down to the SJW cucks. You’re just creating the environment you meant to have in the first place now that you have more insight.

I fully respect transgender people changing their names to recognize their gender (and being referred to with such), and have no opinion of note on this proposed revision itself, but the term "deadnaming" is some cringeworthy emo garbage.

I'd like to hope that a healthy transgendered person isn't so self-loathing that they view their past as a person that's been outright killed and buried. The past is a part of all of us, and we wouldn't be who we are without it, for all our strengths and beautiful flaws. That's just as true for trans people as it is for the rest of us.

@Dogorilla I think it’s just that cis is an overused word. The many times I’ve heard it it’s just been used as a dismissive term, like SJW.

@JHDK so anyone who uses the latin term 'cis' which means 'on this side of' isnt worth listening to? So experts and peer reviewed scientists arent worth listening to.

Maybe it is wrong to trust doctors who use the recognised medical terminology, but I'm pretty damn sure they are a better source of information than the unqualified slack jawed capital 'G' gamers who get upset by anything that they dont recognise in their limited life experiences.

Have a good day, ignoring experts and continuing in a blissful cloud of ignorance.

Wow, this comment section.

Just because the content doesn't offend YOU doesn't mean its offensive.

Video games are supposed to be inclusive and if mistakes were made then the developer has every right to fix it. Rather than moan that a slight change - which doesn't effect you - how about just accepting this change as a positive?

@brandonbwii It just means 'not transgender'. It's a factual term so I don't see how it can be overused.

@garfreek don't assume I agree with you because my skin colour happens to fit in your group of presumed victims you love to whiteknight.
Like those progressives who just assume any black man or woman voting replubican / trump is some sort of uncle tom. But hey come preach to us about your pronouns any time bro...

Wow. Apologize for what? Pathetic.

The guy made some mistakes in the script concerning names and pronouns referring to trans characters. He owned up to it, said it was unintentional and he meant no offence, apologised and said he would correct his mistakes as soon as possible. It is all very good, and commendable. This should have been all there was to the story. Thank you Swery, good on you!

Those crying against "censorship"... Get over yourselves. It's an honest mistake being corrected. Nothing is being censored.

Those mouthing off and waxing lyrical about what they think trans people should and should not call themselves, identify as, or choose to be referred as ... (to put it mildly, and give you the benefit of the doubt) go do some reading. Gender and identity is much more complex than you think and being deliberately insensitive and offensive is not cool and rebellious. Pick on people other than those who are in the most persecuted minorities and have enough ***** to deal with already.

They can keep the trans sex just as they are, no one cares. Just fix the framerate

its been one disaster after another for this game since launch, after watching the digital Foundry video how Nintendo life gave it a 7 is beyond me, loved the first but this day and age their is no need for a game to run so abysmally that it runs worse than the first.

credit to Swery for posting an apology

i do think this topic proves once again gamers are some of the most toxic and bigoted people out there

I identify as someone who enjoys a locked frame rate of at least 30fps. SWERY! Please do not offend my eyes!

As I'm against censorship of any kind, I'll stick with the original uncensored release.

Cancel culture strikes again.

Imagine being so mentally unstable that you are upset by a video game.

At this point we can assume that the game is not going to run well at all so why even bother with it? Poor frame rate is something that I will never accept no matter what the game is.

@RazumikhinPG It is commendable! But unlikely. Call me a cynic, but regardless of whether the scene in question now bothers Swery, it's the company that stands in the way of that change without a larger push for it. Then again, considering they have to put out a patch for the FPS anyway, the idea of tacking on this change becomes a lot more possible.

Man, this comment section really turned into a petri dish while I was sleeping.

Oh no! The horror! Someone was called the wrong pronoun!

Snowflakes. Sad.

The lack of empathy for the feelings of other humans in this thread is disgusting. Sad, really. Thanks for weeding yourselves out.

Game uses wrong pronoun: "who cares?"

Game corrects pronoun: "This is wrong! I'm offended! How dare they!"

I think some people need to consider who the real snowflakes are here.

It's also a fictional character. Did we ask the fictional character if using their birth name offends them?

@garfreek That seems like something that could be fixed in a small patch, without the need for a massive public apology. That's one of the big problems with this, in my opinion. They felt the need to have this big announcement, which is clearly just to show how "woke" they are for making these changes. And of course, when it comes to technical and performance issues.... crickets. It's pandering to the extreme.

@garfreek treat him as an individual not a category.

At this point I think the mods should just close this comment section. It's upsetting so many privileged straight cis males and we don't want that.

@RazumikhinPG eh, seeing as things usually go down with these topics on NL, they shouldn't have opened it in the first place.
But we all know how things go around here, let them rake in a hundred comments more and maybe they'll think about it.

@RazumikhinPG don't assume to know anyone's identities or their privilege.

Yet again, Nintendo Life outdoes itself with a disgusting cesspit of a comment section. 48 per cent of trans people in Britain have attempted suicide at least once; 84 per cent have thought about it. Statistics like that show the clear truth that all you sitting from your position of privilege and condemning trans people over their very right to exist are contributing to the problem. You are the problem and you will die out. One day maybe you’ll look back on the time you were a hateful jackass online or perhaps you’re so far up your own arsehole that you won’t.

Full credit to SWERY to the way he is handling this.

If you are being salty about the actual creator wanting to change something that won't make any difference to you but clearly is upsetting to other people then you have entitlement/empathy issues.

Other people getting upset about something you have no analogue for doesn't mean it can't be offensive.

Don't even cite censorship as an excuse to complain about this.
If the actual creator is in favour of the change... then this is the correction of a mistake rather than a compromise to his vision.

@nessisonett
What's a "deadname"? (english is not my first language)

@nessisonett

Totally agree , but not surprised with Nintendo life , more bothered about clicks than anything else.

@Cevil

Never understand that response , if you dont dislike them why would you disagree with some ones sexuality or life choices makes no sense

@RodSD64 it's when someone uses the birth name of a transsexual person. So if they were born as John but transitioned to female and now is called Jane. So John is now the deadname.

@Jester151 I didn't point fingers, silly. The people I was referring to know who they are. If you're not one of them, be quiet.

@Jester151
Thanks for the reply.

@Moistnado I agree! Do whatever it takes to improve the frame rate! I’d rather play a game that looks like SNES with 30 FPS than high quality graphics with 10 FPS!

@Cevil
As a long time fan of Uchikoshi's work, how exactly did that ruin the game?

Or are you saying that the fact that character was in the game ruined it for you?

@kreen

You win the award for the most bigoted and ill informed post of the day, we are in the 21 century and not Victorian times?

Sound like the type of person who thought not too long ago that gay people should be chemically castrated and where sub human deviants.

@suikoden
Well -Juice- certainly seems to be....

They should have delayed this game. No game ever should release with single digit frame drops. Utterly ridiculous

People in this comment section (and on the internet in general) need to realize that disagreement is not violence. Anybody who has ever been in a fight knows the difference between words and violence. Not everybody has to agree and disagreeing does not automatically equal bigotry. Losing our ability to amicably disagree with one another is a big part of the reason why the world is in such poor shape today. If you believe deadnaming is such a sign of disrespect, you can convey that message without resorting to petty namecalling, or worse, attempting to "cancel" them for being wrong in your eyes. And on the other hand, some may not get the concept of deadnaming or why some percieve it as hurtful, as many people have never even met a transperson and not all transpeople find that offensive (I personally know at least one transperson who finds this business very tiresome) - but you do still need to treat all people with basic levels of respect no matter who they are or how they differ from you. It's not justifiable to belittle transpeople or their plight just because you disagree with Swery's decision to rewrite this character, and joking about this is only going to degrade the discourse surrounding this issue.

@nessisonett I see you in particular taking to the comment section to shame anybody who thinks differently than you on a regular basis. I agree the suicide rate in the trans community is a big problem - but do you really think you are changing any minds by rushing in here and throwing emotionally charged rhetoric around? Is this the place to have that discussion properly? Or is this the comment section of a Nintendo news website? Regardless, you can criticize constructively without alienating everybody you disagree with. You can try to educate instead of tearing down anybody who doesn't see it the way you do. Telling someone they're going to "die out" will only make them close their ears to what you're saying.

Tl;dr: Maybe it's for the best that Swery learned this lesson before he inadvertently hurt anybody with his portrayal of a trans character - but let's not pretend there isn't a ton of confusion surrounding this issue even for well-meaning people, and I hardly think Swery's ignorance of the subject equates to bigotry. There has to be some level of understanding of the artist's intent before we condemn them to the court of public opinion. Clearly he felt guilty once people let him know what deadnaming is and why it's controversial.

Edit: Apologies for this long post, but it really is the sort of issue that shouldn't be relegated to a short, careless response.

Equal human rights for all is not a matter of opinion. It is not something you can choose to agree or disagree with. Using "disagreement" as a way of denying people equal rights and "free speech" as a way of spewing hatred is not acceptable. To quote James Baldwin "We can disagree and still love each other unless your disagreement is rooted in my oppression and denial of my humanity and right to exist"

@ComradeThom it’s a bit too late for that

@monkeydude Opinions that infringe on others’ basic human rights aren’t worth giving the time of day. It’s really that simple.

@nessisonett Clearly it isn't, and your loaded discourse isn't helping anybody, much less the trans community. I would suggest you put aside the resentment you're so clearly carrying around - then you might be able to construct a reasoned argument that people will hear. Until then, discourse with you is utterly pointless.

100th comment 😂

It’s an M-rated survival horror game. Why are people surprised it has content that may upset people? I would think it would be designed to upset, as part of the genre.
I hate this censorship kiddie gloves stupid American culture. Internet age soccer moms. Also all it does is discourage developers from including transgender people in their work at all, to avoid another “controversy”.

Are those comments really serious? From what I've seen, there's been no real “controversy”, just some people noting that the main character would deadname (talk about/to a trans person using the name they had before transitioning) and misgender (refer to a trans person using different genders/pronouns than the one the person uses) a transgender character in the game. Things that most trans people would find offensive and that should be avoided in general. Given that apparently the character doing that has expressed support for transgender people, and that SWERY previously did a mostly-good, mostly-respectful game about a transgender person, it seems pretty obvious that he did want his writing to be respectful of trans people. He kinda failed at that, people told him so (and I've seen noone “cancel” him, it's simply not the subject), he acknowledged it, and said he'd fix it. So basically he's going to do a somewhat minor edit to better fit his original intentions.

It has absolutely nothing to do about censorship. It has absolutely nothing to do with altering the script from his original vision. It has absolutely nothing to do with caving in to any influence group. It's just listening and owning up to a mistake he did when writing the script the way he wanted to do.

Anyone bringing up censorship or whatnot would just have preferred the game to espouse their transphobic views, which I assume, given his past games, are not SWERY's.

Honestly this comment section is pretty appalling.

@georgesdandre

if anything i would say its the opposite of censorship if the result wasn't what the dev intended and is now changing it to fit his original vision with the added bonus of inclusivity and whatnot.

i agree as well that gender identity can be a very complex subject and it is nice that you asked people to look up more about it, rather than calling people ignorant or privileged.

@monkeydude no need to apologise, you managed to explain it in a good way, usually i end up with a case of the brain farts and tend to go all over the place.

@Collette well, yes actually. If it's minor things like not being called something you don't want to. That's like step one!

I could write a word for almost any minority here that gets me banned. As a minority you should know words can hurt, you should know its frustrating to constantly have to defend who you are and receive hate for that.

So why are there people that receive all this ***** and still say : "you want to be called a woman well o.k. SIR!"

I don't get that logic.

Also, the Nlife Media group is pushing hard to be the next ResetEra. I miss game news, and Alex Olney's "Hello lovely people" .

@georgesdandre Disagreement isn't oppression. Otherwise you're oppressing me by disagreeing with the entirety of my worldviews.

I'm still supporting this game when I can. The fact that he admitted misguidedness in this scenario is very big of him. I also believe they are working hard to fix the game. I'll be purchasing it when I have the cash, but it seems like it can wait for a moment.

@Collette that's where the general problem with my statement is then. Assuming, and acting on that assumption.
When you, and the other user don't see yourselves as minorities. So my apologies for that.

I also see the problem with white Knighting and stuff. But I also think there's a strength in collectively (everyone, not only minorities) confronting people when they lack basic human decency.

Discussions over big topics, fine we're not all there yet. But why should the simple act of asking to be yourself, be addressed like that and living life that way be an issue?!

I refuse to let anyone in my vicinity use a racial slur, misgender someone on purpose or call someone a dirty queer. And I don't understand why that's so hard for other people to do as well!

(I'm not taking about canceling, that's just unhelpful and childish. But sitting down and saying why they shouldn't, definitely!)

@nessisonett Sad as these suicide rates are, not all of transgender suicides stem from them being ousted or being discriminated against. There may be a lot of underlying problems, some that led them to seek a gender change as a solution.

@Mii_duck Both! both are snowflakes in their own right.

As Tom Waits sang: "Life's made of trouble, hardship and struggle."
I am sick of people trying to polish life's bumps and warts away as if life was a skating ring and social justice is it's Zamboni.
Just take the smooth with the rough like people always have done.

This is not me saying "oh people are being discriminated against and they have to take it cuz that's part of life's 'rough'."
I mean that not every misgender or something, every remark comes from a deep rooted place of hatred and evil and yes sometimes people are just A-holes and you won't change their hearts with picket signs and fancy slogans.
Just find people who respect you, who are tolerant towards you and who are worthy of being your friends.
And if you get misgendered on the way by accident or on purpose, don't make a show of it, shrug it off or confront them in a civil manner and focus on the good stuff like videogames, music, good company and great food.

People need to focus a lot more on what they have in common rather than what makes them different.

@khululy You’re right in that this particular case doesn’t come from a place of hatred in the slightest. Swery’s already made a game about a transgender person and clearly doesn’t hold hateful views which is why he’s changing this script way before there was even a hint of an outcry. As long as people on this site feel the need to belittle every single person that doesn’t fit their norm, I’ll argue back. It’s better at least trying to make people see that voicing their views loudly and aggressively is harmful towards an already marginalised group that see media like video games as a form of escape than doing nothing and letting it slide.

@ReaperExTenebris of course they are. They are pathetic.

For goodness sake. He made an honest mistake, he's upset that he hurt people. He's gonna fix it with a little patch and wants people to know it wasn't intentional. Cue the usual culture war freaks blowing everything out of proportion.

@Collette true, and I'm going to stop it. It takes a lot out of my own, and it's a bit childish. Thanks for the insight.

(And I do a lot in real life though, and that's a hell of a lot easier and friendly than internet debate.)

@Collette that's what I meant. Thanks for your time, and showing me what I should probably change!

@Collette The Missing. It’s a really good game by the way.

@Collette I really don’t want to spoil it but there’s more going on to the story and you find out later on that JJ is a trans woman, explaining a lot of the trauma she had suffered but it’s really a very good take on something that’s just not often talked about or portrayed in the media.

Too much nonsense here. Most people who are reasonable will always want to respect someone's wishes and feelings. Few will ignore that in favour of their ignorance and misunderstanding, but it does happen. However, most people arguing far left or right are just joining one side or the other, militantly because that's mostly what is presented and supported by the great predictive algorithm machine that is social media. A path for fools to get trapped down.