Fath

Seems like a weird dynamic to have a CEO for a company of only 10 people, though I'm sure that's the last thing on their minds right now. Best of luck to those laid off as well as those remaining.

Also, when dealing with reselling not only someone else's IP, but one featuring the likeness of at least one former president, I certainly hope this guy's spending some of that kickstarter money on a decent lawyer, and that this article oversimplified things when it said he just had "the trademark" to the game.

@Damo It still sounds pretty slimy, in a Martin Shkreli sort of way. Covering costs is one thing, but making a profit is something else in this case.

If the kickstarter fails, is he just going to take his ball and go home? Even if the kickstarter succeeds, with charging for digital copies (what, is he going to license an emulator?), it doesn't sound like he's going to take kindly to the ROM being made publicly available.

@Vineleaf Same, I'd buy one too if NoA ever started selling the smaller model like a proper console, instead of in limited stock at the worst retailer only of the color I don't like in bundles I don't want or need.

@Vandy Many people with consistent opposing viewpoints != one person with a continuously flip-flopping viewpoint.

Me, I'd prefer things not be locked behind obfuscated DLC.

@ShikabaneHime13 People aren't really upset at the existence of the 3DS version, but rather that KT is forcing people into playing said version in order to access all the new content (the story and levels accompanying the new characters). It changes the discussion from "live and let live" to "I can't tolerate this."

1) Make a living from people paying attention to you
2) Put "poo" in all your Mario Maker level names
3) Go all little-guy internet drama when your levels get deleted
4) Get lots of attention on news sites
5) Profit

Pretty sweet deal.

@Yorumi Sadly, it seems to be really difficult to properly research or evaluate the quest changes without getting into plot-ruining spoilertown (I'd love to be proven wrong about this), which in itself makes this a pretty vicious change.

I don't exactly know the details myself, so what I have to say is worthless without confirmation, but it looks to me that the bad endings served a distinct purpose in the context of the main character's journey of personal growth and maturation.

Recall that Sony was able to overpower the Wii U before the PS4's launch by leaking juuuust enough info to make people's imaginations run wild. You can't out-spec a device that doesn't have specs yet.

Nintendo would do well to take a page from Sony's own playbook here.

@MadAdam81 [you know what, just ignore what was here at first entirely] I should have acknowledged that it's a complex give-and-take, and that there are upshots to multiple difficulties as well as downsides. That still means I take issue with this article's premise, though, which denies the downsides entirely.

I can see how my first post could have come off as abrasive by sticking to the downsides, as it bugs the hell out of me when people take the opposite position unconditionally.

I disagree with the premise of the article, by the reasoning that it lessens the significance of challenge in games when it's blatantly avoidable. The elegant obstacle course loses at least some of its meaning when there's a flower-lined path right next to it.

As evidence, I present that Nintendo's glory days were before all this Super Guide stuff, while they've only served to become the butt of the gaming community's jokes in the years, now, since they've gone down this road.

My heart goes out to the impaired, but aside from them, if "accessibility" was such a game-changer, you'd think the big N would be going gangbusters about now.

I want to say the red badge has been giving 3 plays in NA for a while now... though it hardly matters, as you'd be lucky to get even one per week.

@Tsuchinoko Anyone clueless enough to actually think that would have such a tenuous grasp of reality that a morbid article on this site would be the least of their problems.

Wonder if they'll be addressing the outrageous load times on Badge Arcade. It'd be nice if it took less time to load than to play.

Eh, this looks pretty fakey. Calling BS on this one.

Player's definition of "core audience": players who care the most about Nintendo's games.

Analyst's definition of "core audience": people who Nintendo cares the most about selling their games to.

@kenrulei Claiming death threats have been made over cleavage? I think you just demonstrated @Dezzy 's point about baseless assertions.

@dadajo It's the same thing, really, just in a different scale and form (if true). As the kids might say, #slipperyslope.

@Kobeskillz @mjharper Not only do promotional images suggest we Americans have to settle for a sleeve, but the CD is apparently a Gamestop exclusive on this side of the pond.

It's super lame

@bitleman You're welcome - look forward to even worse censorship/better marketing in future games!

Huh, so Bowser's first name is Doug? Who knew...

@Damo You're quite right... pokeballs are indeed red.

/nod

@Shirma_Akayaku Yup, it's fine to be generally cautious online! What I said earlier aside, I'll probably only be tying my Nintendo account to my NNID too, but just because I'm cantankerous that way when it comes to everthing being connected to everything else (social media, especially) .

@Shirma_Akayaku Spoiler alert: by now, your personal information has probably already been stolen. Quick googling comes up with a total number of breached records over time at somewhere between 800 million over the last 10 years, and 3 billion over the last 3 years. Literally nothing online can be regarded as safe these days.

Also, thieves probably don't really care about yor social media account. If you're storing your credit card and SSN on Twitter, you've got bigger problems than this.

ALSO also, Nintendo really doesn't have a reputation for getting hacked easily. Like, at all. I want to say probably ever. Scaremongering and FUD is counterproductive.

@DoctorOverbuild It's not so much about catching 'em all, it's about being the very best. Y'know, like no one ever was.

@tsukipon I respect your right to weigh the factors in play differently and reach a different conclusion than I do. Everyone wants to see the core of Fire Emblem succeed, one way or another.

@tsukipon Here, let me take a whack at it:
It's probably spot-on that this feature itself has gotten way too much coverage for its importance, or lack thereof, in the game - if it was left untouched, I'm sure it would hardly have even merited mention in most discussions, for better or worse.

It's hugely disconcerting, though, that Nintendo's "localizers" are taking it upon themselves to cut out entire functions from games if they so much as rub them the wrong way (I'm so sorry for that pun). I wish I could be hyped about the game, as it seems awesome on the whole, but it would make me feel so dirty to support the tyranny of Nintendo's localization team. I don't want to feel dirty about buying great games .

...Anyway, glad to see this site finally getting its facts straight that the petting stuff is a different matter entirely to the S-rank stuff.

To this article: No.

You really could have just stopped at the second sentence: "Leave content untouched and cultures can collide and some gamers get confused or, worst case scenario, are offended."

The cost of leaving content intact is that some gamers might get offended. Deal with it; if that's the cost of avoiding censorship, well, offense is cheap. And make no mistake, it IS censorship when an entire feature is removed, and the petting minigame WAS removed - I don't know why you're still regurgitating the S-rank stuff, when that's a different (though similar) mechanic that's always been in the game. Get your facts straight.

Localization isn't a process of removal, it's about rebuilding context, subtlety, and vivacity that's lost in a rote translation. It's a fundamentally additive process. What Nintendo's been perpetrating lately isn't localization.

@ultraraichu Except how, y'know, this article is wrong, the petting feature's still just removed, and the feature they're describing is a related-but-different thing that was always in the game. But people would have to actually read the comments to know that.

Just to keep it fresh in the comments, the feature outlined here is different from the petting, not a new replacement for it.

The featured comment in the article at Siliconera addressing this sums it up well:
"It's a different feature. When you are married sometimes your spouse will be asleep in your quarters. You can just tap their face a little bit to wake them up. It's not the same as the regular petting, which includes dialogue during and after. For waking up, there's no dialogue when you do it and then the characters say something (text-only) about how rough you were with waking them up. So it's not partially removed, the normal skinship is out but it seems the marriage-related activities are still in the game the same way they were in the JP version."

@clvr It's not just you; as a native English speaker (American), I find the idea of a Pokemon movie featuring an "Exquisite Magiana" hilarious.

@R-L-A-George @Turbo857 We slay foes and monsters, perform dazzling feats of acrobatics and puzzle-solving, save princesses and paupers, go on all sorts of adventures both serious and storybook, and at the end of the day, haven't moved from our seat, haven't impacted the world in the slightest, and as often as not, haven't even talked to another human being.

Gaming is a profoundly useless endeavor - and if that's how we like to spend our time after a long day at work paying the bills, there's nothing wrong with that! But in that light, all attempts at damning a game as childish or frivolous are moot - a petting minigame in an SRPG holds no more or less intrinsic importance at the end of the day than any other part of that game or any other. If it's enjoyed, that's enough, and who am I, you, or NoA to pass judgement on what people enjoy?

@bitleman People are complaining that a feature has been removed, yes. Gaming as a whole is a childish and useless endeavor, yes. Censorship protects video game diversity? Hell no.

I've never heard somebody so excited about the A button as this announcer.

Important to note from the official translation that Platinum points are specifically redeemable for digital items, and reading between the lines, specifically not games. The picture shows things like mii outfits and 3DS themes.

So Platinum points are earned by non-monetary activities (jabbing at a smartphone or browsing the eShop), for goods with no monetary value, while it's the Gold points that are earned by spending money and redeemable for expensive goods.

Platinum = Silver.

Stable 3D and speedier menus have me sold on the New 3DS in concept, but yep, NoA can't be bothered to offer the model I need to see here. It's so tragic to see a big company like this develop an acute allergy to money like they have.

This change is stupid, and annoys me. I'm still getting the game, this time, but I won't keep buying into games that annoy me forever.

Saying the original was just a stereotype of an average Native American person is like saying a Knight class is a stereotype of an average European. People just know the bare minimum about European culture, unlike Native American culture, to be able to recognize a sword and armor as tools of war instead of everyday casual wear.

With how absurd it seems at times for him to be this mute mime in a world of talking people, I have to believe a Link with lines (VA'd or not) could be made to work, when it's appropriate.

But either way, I have to hope Aonuma's speculation on this won't be bearing fruit for a long, long time... it's terrifying to think that he might still be mulling over this fundamental detail with regards to the game we're currently waiting on!

@LexKitteh Given how totally perfect that name would be, I really have to wonder if it might be the actual original Japanese name for it.

@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.

@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.>

@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.

@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'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.

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.

@Jamotello @Spoony_Tech My old XL updated just fine, with 215 badges in my collection (the damned 'game' really takes an ungodly amount of time to start these days D: ) and half a dozen of the Rhythm Heaven ducks out on my Hanafuda-themed home screen, wedged in between 8 launcher badges, 3 badge-adorned folders, and 27 standard application tiles. Oh, and a DS game in the cart-slot tile, of course.

Take that as you will.

@sillygostly That's... still a pretty appealing tagline, all things considered!

@DekuOnion Yeah, that Gyrados looks hella doofy, it's hilarious.

@ericwithcheese2 Important to note that from your linked reddit thread, it appears the update isn't corrupting any user data, and the problem can be resolved through careful, but basic, manipulation of the SD card's files through a PC.

"Making changes is not unusual when we localize games, and we have indeed made changes in these games. When we localize a game we do so in order to make it appropriate for that particular territory. All our choices were made from that point of view."

Yes, Nintendo, that's EXACTLY THE PROBLEM. Making changes should be unusual, and when you localize a game, it should be in order to recapture in a new language the liveliness, subtlety, and context that gets lost in a 1:1 translation. Focusing on making the game "appropriate" is the wrong point of view, because it assumes as a starting point that the original game must be inappropriate!