To censor or not to sensor. (Localization for North America)

[Just_Oneofakind]

People are acting like this is the first for the series to have questionable content for supports and other optional stuff. Did you forget in Awakening, you had....

Female Robin and Chrom walking in on each other naked.

Male Morgan walking in on Kjelle naked in their S-Rank support conversations.

Male Robin catching Vaike trying to take peeks at the girls taking a bath.

The innuendo-laced conversations between Kjelle and Severa, including their Harvest Scramble conversations.

Henry taking Sumia's body so he can ride a pegasus.

Tharja and Nowi's Harvest Scramble conversations where Nowi was constantly talking about Tharja's figure, particularly Tharja's breasts.

Severa's plan to catch any peeping tom by using Nah as bait and have her be naked.

Miriel not caring about Lon'Qu's aversion to women by going as far as putting statues of women in his tent and suggesting that she'll use female monkeys next time.

[Reflex]

T

Rated

ESRB

[Dark Sage]

The M!Kamui x Soliel support is going to be censored for sure, there's really no way you can get away with something like that in the West. Amie and bathhouses are almost certainly going to be kept. The dialogue will probably be different/less risque but localizations frequently change lines and frankly, I prefer the game cater less to perverts than it does at present.

It's pretty difficult for an RPG like this to get an M rating, you either need a LOT of blood and gore, exposed genetalia/breasts, or really explicit or disturbing subject matter like rape. There's not blood in this game, there's some suggestive lines but no explicit nudity. You're worrying yourselves over nothing.

[Ragnell]

I'm more or less okay with some localization changes. And some changes are pretty likely given that this is the company that thought Tharja's bikini-clad behind was too risque for American audiences. No way a game asking you to strip and stroke Charlotte and Ophelia is getting by them unchanged.

For me it basically just boils down to cultural differences. When content is not an integral part of the game (like blatant fanservice), and it conflicts with the cultural values of an area, I don't see much issue with altering the game in that area. Many of the things people are bringing up are just mindless things there to please fans anyway; why not change it if it's going to turn off loads of fans. Japan embraces a lot of things that people in the West find cringey. As for huge mechanics like FE Amie, while I'm personally not at all interested in the mechanic no matter what, I figure the best way to please the most people is just to try and rework some of the lines so that it can stay and be presented in a way Westerners find less creepy (more like a massage, with downplayed sexual tension).

[MostAncientOnes]

While I am a big fan of the skinship and supports mechanic (even if some get awkward), the main reason why I don't want it to get censored is for the sheer principle of getting the game as it was originally intended. If Nintendo made a good game, I want the good game. If they made a shitty game, I want the shitty game. I want to be able to judge by myself what I think of the game, I don't want NoA doing it for me.

That Soliel dialogue just flat out sucks, and I'm in favor people fixing things that suck. I don't consider that aspect to be censorship.

[Captain Karnage]

I would be really surprised if they scrap skin shipping or the bath house considering a hefty amount of development time and money probably went into those. I personally don't think those things are really the issue, if we were to consider there is any issue all. It's pretty subjective I think. I personally think the main thing that is making them seem so "bad" is not the concept or actually gameplay aspects of the system. It's the dialogue attached, lol.

I honestly would not mind at all if the localization took some creative liberty to change the dialogue on a lot of the skin shipping and some "c-s" supports characters. It would probably appeal to a broader audience and end of the day. Nintendo and the developers are a company and a business. It's likely their aim to appeal to as many buyers as possible. That isn't to say there aren't any good supports..... There are a great supports, but also some really really questionable ones. Some even plain cringe worthy, although that may just be personal opinion haha. Many characters are also one note and have little development which is unfortunate. I'm sure that the characters who do have great supports will make up for the few shallow folk though.

Let's hope removing it causes issues within the game, making it to where nintendo has to keep it into the game

The M!Kamui x Soliel support is going to be censored for sure, there's really no way you can get away with something like that in the West. Amie and bathhouses are almost certainly going to be kept. The dialogue will probably be different/less risque but localizations frequently change lines and frankly, I prefer the game cater less to perverts than it does at present.

It's pretty difficult for an RPG like this to get an M rating, you either need a LOT of blood and gore, exposed genetalia/breasts, or really explicit or disturbing subject matter like rape. There's not blood in this game, there's some suggestive lines but no explicit nudity. You're worrying yourselves over nothing.

A game's themes has a lot of effect on the esrb rating, take a look at the CERO ratings of the SMT series and then the ESRB ratings

Anyways if we want to keep it in tact our best option is to complain,

I'm not joking, It's worked before on many other games and tv shows where fan demands have altered the end product

Jim Sterling did a video on it a while back if anyone is intrested

[Tessie Spoon]

People are acting like this is the first for the series to have questionable content for supports and other optional stuff. Did you forget in Awakening, you had....

Female Robin and Chrom walking in on each other naked.

Male Morgan walking in on Kjelle naked in their S-Rank support conversations.

Male Robin catching Vaike trying to take peeks at the girls taking a bath.

The innuendo-laced conversations between Kjelle and Severa, including their Harvest Scramble conversations.

Henry taking Sumia's body so he can ride a pegasus.

Tharja and Nowi's Harvest Scramble conversations where Nowi was constantly talking about Tharja's figure, particularly Tharja's breasts.

Severa's plan to catch any peeping tom by using Nah as bait and have her be naked.

Miriel not caring about Lon'Qu's aversion to women by going as far as putting statues of women in his tent and suggesting that she'll use female monkeys next time.

Yes, a lot of that stuff is pretty lewd. But, that was all in text, which gave it a free pass. Offensive things expressed through visuals are more likely to get censored than the same stuff in mere text (see: Tharja's bikini pic). If they saw no problem with getting jailbait naked but get squeamish over a fairly-well-grown woman in a bikini, then that makes the idea of censoring the erotic touching elements seem very plausible.

...personally, I'm against this sort of censorship. But I hope I explained the plausibility of the visual censoring.

@Reflex: Much like people, organizations can be very inconsistent with their rules. Otherwise, the aforementioned Tharja bikini pic would have gone uncensored like that blonde girl in your post. Whether it's the ESRB or localization team's fault...who knows?

Anyone got any sources on how the ESRB stood on the visual censorship in Awakening? If it turns out they didn't really care that much, then you know who to pin the actual blame on.

Edited July 2, 2015 by Tessie Spoon

[Phantom037]

I don't think they'll end up censoring the bathouse/FE amie thing (partly because I don't think NoA will let them get away with cutting a huge mechanic like that), but I think some smaller changes like toning down some of the Amie lines and rewriting M!Kamui/Soleil support would help make those areas more enjoyable. Removing most of Camilla's fanservice strut would also help go a long way in presenting her as a character instead of anime tiddies.

IS should just make a proper hentai game to get it all out of their system

[Giga Man]

I'll offer my two cents on two of the modes that people are concerned with. Now, I've seen my fair share of these modes and read a few translations of the things the characters say, but I don't read a lick of Japanese, so correct me if my analysis is inaccurate.

Let me begin by saying that I am 100% for keeping the game as it was originally intended.

The first issue I'm targetting is skinship. You gotta understand the context here. From what I've read, the skinship doesn't get suggestive until you're married with that character. Before, you were just touching their faces and you had a good laugh. After consent, you and your spouse are madly in love, and at a certain point, they just wanna fuck. As far as Pieri is concerned, you have to understand her character. She is a crazy ass bitch. She's immature and cries often, but has a blast killing people. If you decide you love her and want to marry her, you have to put up with her violent tendencies. She is socially frightening, and she wants you to be socially frightening with her or at least embrace it.

The second issue is the bathhouse. Really? Has anyone played the "Tales" series? Nearly every game I've seen/played has a hot springs scene or a collection of them. Hot springs in general are almost an unwritten requirement for anime-styled media whose goal is to attract that horny teenage to young adult demographic. It's EVERYWHERE! This mode is literally of zero concerns when maintaining a T-rating.

The only way I can see this getting an M-rating is if they literally have a character say, "Let's fuck. Right here, right now." All I see in the game so far is a T-rated game with a lot of descriptors. And, if a character does drop the F-bomb, that can easily be replaced with a less offensive word or a phrase that doesn't imply sex.

[Great Geargia Gateway]

They'll probably censor. The rest of the world has more morals when it comes to this subject.

[Tsunami922]

I think there will be something that gets censored. I'd really prefer if they didn't, though.

[NekoKnight]

I don't think fanservice to the degree it appears in Fates belongs in a Fire Emblem game but out of principle, I think the localization should stick to the original material as much as possible. If your intention is fanservice, then it's pointless to only meet that goal halfway by censorship.

I don't think the visuals will be censored (some of the DLC content might be) but the Amie lines will definitely be altered to be made tamer and probably remove incest undertones.

[Jave]

Now that I remember, they completely removed families having baths together in Tomodachi Life in the American localization.

So yeah, the bath scenes will likely be edited to some extent.

[SilverPants]

Now that I remember, they completely removed families having baths together in Tomodachi Life in the American localization.

So yeah, the bath scenes will likely be edited to some extent.

"Let's go hang out at the swimming pool guys. After that well have jelly donuts for lunch."

[Giga Man]

"Let's go hang out at the swimming pool guys. After that well have jelly donuts for lunch."

Classic 4kids.

_{Where is that line from again?}

[NekoKnight]

Classic 4kids.

_{Where is that line from again?}

Infamous Pokemon localization. Onigiri? What is that? Some kinda oriental food? Americans eat sandwiches and jelly donuts.

[RPGatWill]

I'll offer my two cents on two of the modes that people are concerned with. Now, I've seen my fair share of these modes and read a few translations of the things the characters say, but I don't read a lick of Japanese, so correct me if my analysis is inaccurate.

Let me begin by saying that I am 100% for keeping the game as it was originally intended.

The first issue I'm targetting is skinship. You gotta understand the context here. From what I've read, the skinship doesn't get suggestive until you're married with that character. Before, you were just touching their faces and you had a good laugh. After consent, you and your spouse are madly in love, and at a certain point, they just wanna fuck. As far as Pieri is concerned, you have to understand her character. She is a crazy ass bitch. She's immature and cries often, but has a blast killing people. If you decide you love her and want to marry her, you have to put up with her violent tendencies. She is socially frightening, and she wants you to be socially frightening with her or at least embrace it.

The second issue is the bathhouse. Really? Has anyone played the "Tales" series? Nearly every game I've seen/played has a hot springs scene or a collection of them. Hot springs in general are almost an unwritten requirement for anime-styled media whose goal is to attract that horny teenage to young adult demographic. It's EVERYWHERE! This mode is literally of zero concerns when maintaining a T-rating.

The only way I can see this getting an M-rating is if they literally have a character say, "Let's fuck. Right here, right now." All I see in the game so far is a T-rated game with a lot of descriptors. And, if a character does drop the F-bomb, that can easily be replaced with a less offensive word or a phrase that doesn't imply sex.

Was going to put a two cents in, but you covered my feeling on the subject nicely. So I'm just going to say I agree with you.

[Somnium]

Rune Factory 4 had hot springs too... o_o People had half naked sprites, and it was rated T. No one freaked out about it.

I'm not sure why that feature is so shocking to people in particular.

Maybe the Amie lines, but not really the hot springs.

[Sentinel07]

Now that I remember, they completely removed families having baths together in Tomodachi Life in the American localization.

So yeah, the bath scenes will likely be edited to some extent.

I don't think that will really have much of an effect though. Tomodachi Life was a much more "personal" kind of game, part of why it had a ginormous backlash on the old same-sex thing, more so than other games.

Fire Emblem is a fantasy game that caters to a different audience, so I don't think it'll be too much of an issue.

[Reflex]

Rune Factory 4 had hot springs too... o_o People had half naked sprites, and it was rated T. No one freaked out about it.

I'm not sure why that feature is so shocking to people in particular.

Maybe the Amie lines, but not really the hot springs.

Because most people complaining are 14 years old or stuck in their tiny bubble where no video games exist outside of Fire Emblem and ESRB is from the 80's when damn was automatically a high rating.

[ReaperGuardian]

I sometimes wonder what the voice-actors thought when they were speaking all those lines...

[Giga Man]

Me too. I especially want to read an interview with the English voice actors and what they thought of the skinship lines.

[capmalachi]

Even putting aside my 'don't censor anything' position, the arguments asking for the amie lines to be toned down don't make sense. There are hardly any lines that are actually remotely lewd, and what few there are are all spoken in the context of a married, sexually active couple alone in their bedroom together, touching each other. If anything the lines should be a whole lot dirtier.

[Water Mage]

This subject is from another thread, but I believe it matters in a discusson about censorship:

some gaming journalism sites are already making articles about the Soleil/MKamui support, claiming that Fates is taking a "cure your gays" attitude with this support.

Stupid, I know, but like I said in the other thread, this can get out of control fast.

Edited July 2, 2015 by Water Mage

[Jave]

I sometimes wonder what the voice-actors thought when they were speaking all those lines...

Me too. I especially want to read an interview with the English voice actors and what they thought of the skinship lines.

I don't think this is a big deal for VAs as much as people think. Assuming most of the FE14 english cast is made of FE13 VAs, these people also did work for games like Conception 2, which is an extremely fanservicy game with dialogue far more lewd than anything you'll see on Amie.