That Nintendo has a long tradition of changing their games for their western localization, removing content that could be deemed sensitive to the western market is nothing new. And the latest installment to the long running Fire Emblem franchise, Fire Emblem Fates, will also be hit by these localization changes. Nintendo does respond about this to Siliconera.
Nintendo’s response to this was (as quoted from Siliconera’s site): “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.”. It is still not absolutely certain what is going to be censured this time around. The only thing that is confirmed to be changed is a piece of dialogue where a girl who is attracted to women gets drugged by the male avatar (against her knowledge) to see men as women, and women as men for a while to train her to feel easier around women. In the end though, she falls for the players avatar when seeing him as a female, and is still in love with him once the trip is over, proposing to him after the experience. This might be seen as a very controversial topic here in the west by some as it might not too far-fetched to draw connections between this scene and gay conversion therapy that some religious organizations perform.
How this scene will be changed or what else might be changed for Fire Emblem Fates when it releases in Europe and America is still not clear. A likely bet that is very commonplace, not only by Nintendo, is that some characters will grow older as they cross the sea to not upset any laws over here.
What do you think about changes/censorship of localized games to adapt more to the laws and norms of the area where they are shipped? Are they always bad? Are there times when they are justified? Or is it something that is done too seldom? And what is your opinion about this change for the western version of Fire Emblem Fates? Leave your thoughts about this in the comment fields below!
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