Overview
Fire Emblem Fates Localization Controversy refers to the online backlash that occurred over the localization changes in the English version of Fire Emblem Fates. The localization of the game was handled by the Nintendo Treehouse, Nintendo of America’s product development division. [1]
Background
Fire Emblem Fates is the fourteenth entry in the Fire Emblem series, a tactical role-playing game. On January 16th, 2015, Fire Emblem Fates was announced worldwide during the January 2015 Nintendo Direct. [2] The premise of the game features the main character, the avatar (default name Corrin (English) / Kamui (Japan)), must make a choice whether to side with their birth family in the kingdom of Hoshido, their adoptive family in the kingdom of Nohr, or refuse to side with either kingdom.
Notable Developments
Removal of Skinship
Skinship (also known by its fan nickname Fire Emblem Amie) is a minigame that appears in Fire Emblem Fates. The player can go to their Private Quarters and invite a character in their army, regardless of gender [3][4], to their home and face pet them by using the Nintendo 3DS touch screen to strengthen their bonds with the character.
On January 26th, 2016, Nathan Grayson published an article to Kotaku titled, “The Other Ways Nintendo Is Changing The English Version of Fire Emblem Fates.”[5] The article had stated that the face petting minigame had been removed from the English version of Fire Emblem Fates. The article had been updated on February 10th, 2016 with an exchange between Kotaku and Nintendo added for clarification (shown below).
Kotaku: I was told that a feature in which you can use the touch screen to directly touch/”pet” your characters is also out of the localized version. Is that the case?Nintendo: Yes, that is the case. You might have heard somewhat misinterpreted or exaggerated information about the Japanese original game, but even in the Japanese original version, we have not included any features which are considered inappropriate in Japan.”
The removal of Skinship was reported to various video game websites such as Nintendo Everything [6], Polygon [7], and the Fire Emblem fan site SerenesForest. [8]
Although face petting is not included in the English version of Fire Emblem Fates, the ability to invite someone to your home and receive support bonuses from them remains intact (shown below). [9]
Nintendo released a statement (shown below) to Kotaku [10] on February 15th, 2016 that players would be able to interact with S-level characters. However, these events were unrelated to the face petting minigame that was included Japanese version of Fire Emblem Fates.
“In certain circumstances, S-Level characters are able to wake up their spouses by blowing into the microphone or by tapping the screen to touch their hair, face or shoulder. These randomly triggered events are unrelated to the mini-game in the Japanese version.”
Exclusion of Dual Audio
On January 30th, 2016, Geniux submitted to the r/FireEmblem [11] subreddit a screenshot of an email response from Ash Erickson of Nintendo of America that Fire Emblem Fates will not have the Japanese audio track (shown below). As of February 20th, 2016, the post has accumulated 0 points (50% upvoted), and 91 comments.
On February 5th, 2016, Nintendo released a statement to Polygon [12] that Fire Emblem Fates would be released in North America in English only. Shortly after, edibubble submitted a post to the r/Games [13] subreddit reporting that the Japanese audio track would not be included in the English version of Fire Emblem Fates. The post has gained 712 points (82% upvoted), and 370 comments as of February 20th, 2016.
Although Nintendo did not comment on their reasoning behind the exclusion of the Japanese track, several people began theorizing on Nintendo’s decision. In the r/FireEmblem subreddit [14], vkrili submitted a post suggesting that Nintendo may not have included dual audio because of licensing issues with the Japanese voice actors involved in Fire Emblem Fates. As of February 20th, 2016, the post has accumulated 112 points (82% upvoted), and 111 comments.
Soleil & Male Avatar Support
After the Japanese release of Fire Emblem Fates on June 25th, 2015, a support conversation between the male avatar and soleil was translated and submitted to pastebin. [15] In the original support, Soleil gets distracted from fighting cute girls in the battlefield and it greatly affects her performance. She asks for the male avatar’s help, and the male avatar agrees by putting a magic powder in Soleil’s drink that lets her see men as women, and women as men.
The support came under controversy [16][17] during the summer of 2015 as the support was interpreted by some people as the male avatar drugging Soleil, and that Soleil was undergoing gay conversion therapy.
When asked about the Soleil support conversation, Nintendo released a statement to NintendoWorldReport (shown below) [18] that any implications of gay conversion or drugging will not be included the North American and European versions of Fire Emblem Fates.
“In the version of the game that ships in the U.S. and Europe, there is no expression which might be considered as gay conversion or drugging that occurs between characters.”
The localization keeps the basic premise of the support conversation (shown below) [19], but instead of using magic powder, the male avatar has Soleil wear a blindfold and asks for her to imagine him as a girl.
In a SerenesForest thread [20], reactions to the new support conversation in general is seen as an improvement to the original Japanese support conversation.
#TorrentialDownpour
#TorrentialDownpour [21] is a hashtag campaign launched in protest to the localization changes in Fire Emblem Fates (shown below, left) as early as January 27th, 2016. Prior to the campaign, the hashtag was used under a different context, by people tweeting about the weather conditions of where they live (shown below, right).
Petition
On June 25th, 2015, a petition [22] was submitted to Change.org requesting that Nintendo does not censor Fire Emblem: Fates for its released worldwide. As of February 20th, 2016, the petition has gained over 7,700 signatures.
External References
[1]NintendoWorldReport – The Treehouse Interview
[2]Youtube – Nintendo 3DS – Fire Emblem Teaser Trailer
[3]Youtube – Fire Emblem: IF – Aqua Skinship
[4]Youtube – Fire Emblem: IF – Joker Skinship
[5]Kotaku – The Other Ways Nintendo Is Changing The English Version of Fire Emblem Fates [UPDATE]
[6]Nintendo Everything – Fire Emblem Fates removes petting mini-game in the west
[7]Polygon – Fire Emblem Fates won’t feature ‘petting’ minigame
[8]SerenesForest – Fire Emblem Fates Localization Woahs and Woes
[9]Youtube – How ‘Skinship’ Works in Fire Emblem Fates’ English Release
[10]Kotaku – Important Fire Emblem Fates Petting Update
[11]r/FireEmblem – Fire Emblem Fates, no dual audio a 99.9% possibility
[12]Polygon – Fire Emblem Fates won’t have Japanese voice option in Western release
[13]r/Games – Fire Emblem Fates does NOT have dual audio; game will be English dub only
[14]r/FireEmblem – I believe that Nintendo would have included dual audio if they could have.
[15]Pastebin – Soleil/Mamui Supports
[16]Tumblr – A New Degree of Homophobia in Fire Emblem Fates
[17]International Business Times – Fire Emblem Fates homophobia: Bisexual character drugged to believe men are women and women are men
[18]NintendoWorldReport – Fire Emblem: Fates Changes Controversial Support Conversation in Western Regions
[19]Youtube – Fire Emblem Fates English Soleil Support Rank C-S
[20]SerenesForest – Someone posted Soleil’s English Support Conversation.
[21]Twitter – #TorrentialDownpour
[22]Change.org – Do not censor Fire Emblem: Fates for it’s worldwide release