Skinship is out, says kotaku (new info on page 71)

[NekoKnight]

The amount of controversy regarding this game is ridiculous! Being able to romance the children characters (which I know was a thing in Awakening but nonetheless was still controversial), the whole Soleil debacle, being able to marry your own siblings (yes I know they're not blood related but people will and do still find it weird), the hot springs to some degree, the skinship/petting mechanic, it doesn't end! (FYI I'm not for or against any of these just stating the topics that have caused some controversy)

There is controversy because IS loaded the game with controversial material. Can you imagine if someone predicted skinship, brother-sister incest, all the waifu focus and the content of the Soleil support before Awakening? They'd be laughed out of the room. "IS would never be so audacious!" "Dream on, IS will never add all that otaku crap" etc.

[Kyza]

@AsherCrane

Yea that makes sense, I guess I'm just a bit shocked by the sheer amount of controversy surrounding this particular FE title. But as you said they're taking risks, testing the waters so-to-speak in order to find out what's not okay/what people don't want and what is okay/what they do want. Here's hoping IS is able to find some good middle-ground in the future as the series continues to grow.

Edited January 27, 2016 by Kyza

[Esme]

Which is why I ask...WHAT ARE YOU GETTING THE GAME FOR?!

I don't know about you, but I want a game with all the features intact-- just in a language I can read. I really don't think it's fair to cut totally optional content just because some people don't like it.

[Busterman64]

To play a new Fire Emblem game with all the features in it. While i want the game for its main draw, new FE, i want to be able to try all the features in the game if it so suits me. Theres...nothing wrong with wanting to play with the whistles and bells given to you in a product.

That's not the issue I have, the issue is that some people seem enraged at the small side things too much, making them not to get the game, and said small side things aren't a huge deal in the first place (...although, some are more than others...). The extra side stuff is nice and I don't have much of a issue with that stuff (for the most part).

[Loki Laufeyson]

There is controversy because IS loaded the game with controversial material. Can you imagine if someone predicted skinship, brother-sister incest, all the waifu focus and the content of the Soleil support before Awakening? They'd be laughed out of the room. "IS would never be so audacious!" "Dream on, IS will never add all that otaku crap" etc.

Honestly, i dont think this is the real issue. People would have just been "oooomg lmao! Lookit dis shit, you guys!" and left it at that. Once the game was out, people would have calmed down about it and everything and moved on. Nah, its mostly misinformation about said things that caused the shit storm. Social media freaking out and bad journalism.

[RikuDawn]

I mean if somebody wanted to buy the game just for the skinship, I wouldn't really care. It's their money. They'd still have to get through a bunch of stuff to able to use the skinship but I mean whatever. But I'm seeing people say they might buy the game because it's removed. And that just sounds ridiculous. If you have no actual interest in any part of the game and are only buying it because a feature you were upset about was removed, that's ridiculously stupid. And if you actually have interest in Fire Emblem and you were only planning not to buy it because skinship was in the game, that's pretty stupid too because you could've completely ignored it while still enjoying the rest of the game.

[NekoKnight]

Honestly, i dont think this is the real issue. People would have just been "oooomg lmao! Lookit dis shit, you guys!" and left it at that. Once the game was out, people would have calmed down about it and everything and moved on. Nah, its mostly misinformation about said things that caused the shit storm. Social media freaking out and bad journalism.

Some things were exaggerated and misinterpreted but other things remain controversial even after the truth is understood. I think it would be a mistake to deflect criticism of negative elements (not that that's what you're doing) just because some people overreacted.

I will be curious to see how people who didn't follow the development of the game react to the game's launch. Negative or positive, by sticking around here, we gave ourselves a unique lens for how we see the game.

[capmalachi]

That's not the issue I have, the issue is that some people seem enraged at the small side things too much, making them not to get the game, and said small side things aren't a huge deal in the first place (...although, some are more than others...). The extra side stuff is nice and I don't have much of a issue with that stuff (for the most part).

Let's say there are two games I want, both cost £30, but that's all I have. At first, it seems like game A might be slightly better than game B so I'm thinking I'll pick up that one. Later on, it transpires that one or more features have been cut from game A, and while individually they aren't major, game B still has all it's features intact and now looks like the more appealing option. I'm going to buy game B now, yes?

Also, as I said before, I don't really want to support business decisions I don't agree with, which in this case is removing perfectly reasonable content because some people have decided that because they don't like something, nobody can have it, even though it was always 100% optional.

[~Inigo~]

Basically a playable version of FRobin's x Virion's chess game huh? I'm down.

Yas! That would be a lot nicer. Plus, they may be able to salvage some scenes. But other than that, it they did remove the feature, that's seems like an interesting choice. I mean, I am glad they did, but I feel like their priorities are a bit weird. They left Camilla completely un-altered, and yet they flat-out remove this? Well, it is Kotaku, so eh.

[SalShich10N]

people and animals are different things; furthermore have you read some of the s-rank conversations? it's pretty explicitly a metaphor for something.

i mean sex, by the way.

you're not being persecuted because "it's anime graphics" man, this would have had the same reaction with any other styling.

I am fine with it now. Europe decided to censor homosexuals on the european release now so the karma hammer has been unleashed.

[BlindCoco]

I am fine with it now. Europe decided to censor homosexuals on the european release now so the karma hammer has been unleashed.

This was proved false recently. ( https://www.reddit.com/r/fireemblem/comments/42yba5/oh_for_loptyrs_sake_regarding_same_sex_marriage/ )

Edited January 27, 2016 by BlindCoco

[Tryhard]

That's a rumour (in regards to Europe censor) that is most likely fake. Even the kotaku claims have more credit and legitimacy to them.

though maybe it's just replacing the skinship with netflix and chilling

Edited January 27, 2016 by Tryhard

[NoNameAtAll]

brother-sister incest

Genealogy of the Holy War exists so...actually, I wouldn't have put it past IS for that.

Mind you, half-siblings, but still.

Edited January 27, 2016 by NoNameAtAll

[ENS]

This was proved false recently. ( https://www.reddit.com/r/fireemblem/comments/42yba5/oh_for_loptyrs_sake_regarding_same_sex_marriage/ )

I will become famous.

[Melissa]

Is this feature being cut just because some people don't like it? Because that's stupid.

That's what appears to be the case

[CrimeanRoyalKnight]

I am fine with it now. Europe decided to censor homosexuals on the european release now so the karma hammer has been unleashed.

It has been proven false and there's at least 2 pages about it on this very thread, complete with Italian people who know Italian saying "This is crappy sounding Italian".

[Busterman64]

Genealogy of the Holy War exists so...actually, I wouldn't have put it past IS for that.

Mind you, half-siblings, but still.

Thus, one of the reasons it wasn't localized here in the states...even as good (and fun) as the game may be.

[Melissa]

It has been proven false and there's at least 2 pages about it on this very thread, complete with Italian people who know Italian saying "This is crappy sounding Italian".

It has?!!

[RedRob]

Genealogy of the Holy War exists so...actually, I wouldn't have put it past IS for that.

Mind you, half-siblings, but still.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/BrotherSisterIncest/FireEmblem

Apparently there was enough incest in the series for it to warrant its own page on TvTropes.

Though I find it interesting how Fates and Awakening are responsible for 2/3rds of the page.

I am also surprised at how Sacred Stones weren't even mentioned on the page, and that of all the controversial things in Fates, like the incest for example, skinship was the one removed. Which I suppose just adds more credence to the idea of Kotaku being full of crap.

[PuffPuff]

I would laugh if they really replaced skinshipping with something like that but its difficulty varies between characters you play with. I would imagine leon is like nightmare mode lol.

It would be logical to have it replaced with the Cipher game.

Due to gambling legislations, the slot machines in HeartGold and SoulSilver were replaced with Voltorb Flip in the international versions.

It has more strategy, yes, but it's still luck based in the end (Like how some games of Minesweeper end in a luck-based decision, but way more common) and even if you're good at it its a lot SLOWER than just funneling money into a slot machine, so it's generally not well-regarded. There are people who like it better, but they're generally the minority.

The game corner also let you buy tokens, so if you didn't feel like slots you could just buy tokens until you had enough for the prizes, but the Voltorb Flip replacement had no such money-to-token exchange, so you HAD to play the game.

That blew big time! Get the items through trade command from your Sinnoh games.

The feature never should have existed in the first place.

Nohr and Revelation need so much improvement and no excuse for why all characters don't have around the same number of supports .

Skinship is a waste of time, money and resources that should have been spent elsewhere.

Something that we don't need that other games get on the ball with what they are really supposed to be.

You guys may want to check this out.

That's been discussed already. It's an old screenshot, and it's still unknown if that exclamation point is still in the game or not, and if it's in the game, it is unknown if it still means skinship.

Can't you see that he's trying to rid of the waterfall of comment drama.

It doesn't matter if it's there, or not. This feature shouldn't be in a war game in the first place that you certainly don't want to use if your playing it on classic. -.-

C'mon. Get serious people. We have a planet to save from Garon and Anakos' wrath.

OH MY GOD!

Both for the news and the amount of replies in this topic!

Which were trying our absolute best to kill it with fire.

You know, I really like what Sakurai said on the matter a few months back. For those who don't know he is a pretty big Fire Emblem fan. He has played since the first one came out. It is a bit of a long one, but what he says is very relevant.

I recently took a look at user reviews for Fire Emblem Fates, and what stood out to me was the overabundance of comments saying “I don’t need this; I don’t need that, either,” especially in comparison to reviews of other titles.

One such feature users commented on was the ability to invite your companions into your house and stroke their heads and faces to raise your affinity level. Basically, you bring them into your room—regardless of whether you’re married or not—and give them a rubdown. Even I chuckled to myself the first time I played: “What is this, Pokémon? Nintendogs!?” Some reviewers, however, went one step further and said, “We don’t need this!”

I’m not a big fan of dating sims myself, so I can’t say I don’t understand their disinterest to a certain extent. At the same time, however, the feature in question doesn’t have any impact on one’s ability to complete the game, so if it bothers you so much, then don’t use that feature.

Say you buy a boxed lunch and it happens to contain a variety of foods, including one you hate. Even if you love everything else about the meal, are you going to single out the one food you dislike and lambast the entire meal for it? What about the people who happen to love that food? Is a meal only worth it insofar as it caters to your each and every preference?

Developers include all sorts of bonus features simply because they want to provide a little something extra for the fans. Even if one were to remove these bonus features from the game, it doesn’t mean that would “make room” for something else. That isn’t how it works.

If you approach game development with a demerit-based mindset, it doesn’t leave much room for anything extra, and games become pretty dry—and that’s just no fun.

Even Smash Bros. is one big ball of bonus features, jam packed with unnecessary content. “I don’t need this; I don’t need that, either,” some may say. To take an extreme point of view, everything aside from Free-for-All Mode is technically “unnecessary”: all the items, all the Final Smashes, all the stages aside from Final Destination. But if you were to take all of those extra features away, all you would be left with is a bare-bones, niche-market game.

I think there are some people who actually want that sort of game. There’s something appealing about a minimalist approach. But I think it’s painfully obvious Smash Bros. is not being marketed toward that niche market. I’ve intended to create a fun and exciting party game—the exact opposite. I mean, parties themselves are “unnecessary” to begin with. That said, there’s plenty of value in a game jam-packed with extra content.

And while some people demand the removal of various “unnecessary” features, there are also plenty of others who feel the exact opposite about the same content. I think it’s perfectly fine for a game to include a variety of content, even if some of those features appeal to others more than yourself.

The bonus features used to plump up a game are admittedly not designed with all users in mind. People are going to play the way they find the most enjoyable, and some users find more enjoyment in certain features than other people do. At the same time, games are a form of entertainment, so I sincerely hope people realize that “user abstinence”—not using unwanted content—is also a valid option.

From a developer’s point of view, I suppose it’s better not to force users to play these extra features in order to beat a game. Making users play a bunch of minigames only invites unwanted criticism, and I think that makes sense.

However, so long as that bonus content isn’t integral to completing a game, I think developers should be free to create what they like. After all, even if you don’t use a certain feature, someone else out there might absolutely love it.

http://www.sourcegaming.info/2015/08/07/dont-need-this-dont-need-that-sakurais-famitsu-column-vol-485/

Old news. But yeah. He couldn't of said it anything better.

I love Sakurai as much as anyone but that's not how it works.

Games are the sum of their parts. If there's a bad mode or feature it affects my impression of the whole, even if I can ignore it. If there was an optional waifu lap dance mode I would think it was stupid and made the game worse. If there's a bad board game in Smash Bros it affects how I feel about the product as a whole.

I'm not disagreeing that developers should be free to make whatever they want, but consumers are free to criticize even optional content. Saying "why don't you just ignore it" is redundant because I'm sure the people complaining would have done that on their own.

Ever hear the saying "The customers always right?!"

Ok, well if that's true then I'm definitely not buying the game.

Get the Jap version.

If that's true it will be a complete farce, since almost all Western European and Scandinavian countries have same sex marriage legalized far longer than America, and it's generally a non-issue here politically. The Netherlands has had same sex marriage since 2001.

Why would Vatican controversies have any sway over how a game is released in countries other than Italy? Here in the UK our own church has practically no power as an institution, let alone the Vatican.

If this is true then there will be a pretty large outrage coming.

*Fixed*

-----

As long as they keep the homo supports and replacing the skinship with something else...everything else will be fine for me. I just want to know the weapon, character, dialogue changes since that's all I care about in localization. Giving you smiles especially if the change to something was done better than the original Jap version. Were just overreacting and will laugh at all of this if the change is at least done in a better way, or that the skinship is kept. -.-

P.S: Localizing Mother 1 was the best thing they have done for over a decade and for once been happy for the official translation of it!

Edited January 27, 2016 by PuffPuff

[Busterman64]

I've been noticing something a lot more recently (not what I've been speaking about) and I have to ask this:

We in the states sometimes get the short end of the stick (when it comes to Japanese games being localized), so...why the heck does Europeans get an even shorter end of the stick than us? When games are localized for here, it gets censored and/or content is changed or removed. Europeans get that and then some...why? I mean, I know that what is accepted in one place/state isn't always in another, but why do they specifically get it even more so?

[Kyza]

It has?!!

In regards to the Homosexual content possibly being cut from the NoE version, yes it has pretty much been proven false. Now in regards to skinship being removed from the NoA version, we still don't know and probably won't know for absolute certain until probably about a week before release. Or if they decide to do a Nintendo Direct showcasing 'My Castle' and its features.

Edited January 27, 2016 by Kyza

[CrimeanRoyalKnight]

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/BrotherSisterIncest/FireEmblem

Apparently there was enough incest in the series for it to warrant its own page on TvTropes.

Though I find it interesting how Fates and Awakening are responsible for 2/3rds of the page.

I am also surprised at how Sacred Stones weren't even mentioned on the page, and that of all the controversial things in Fates, like the incest for example, skinship was the one removed. Which I suppose just adds more credence to the idea of Kotaku being full of crap.

Ah, it's simply because it's less popular than those two.

And you make a very good point there.

[SalShich10N]

I am fine with it now. Europe decided to censor homosexuals on the european release now so the karma hammer has been unleashed.

Ahh come on, that's no fun. I want to see this shitstorm take off way more than it already has.

Genealogy of the Holy War exists so...actually, I wouldn't have put it past IS for that.

Mind you, half-siblings, but still.

Celice x Julia is to this day my favorite Fire Emblem pairing.

[Kyza]

I've been noticing something a lot more recently (not what I've been speaking about) and I have to ask this:

We in the states sometimes get the short end of the stick (when it comes to Japanese games being localized), so...why the heck does Europeans get an even shorter end of the stick than us? When games are localized for here, it gets censored and/or content is changed or removed. Europeans get that and then some...why? I mean, I know that what is accepted in one place/state isn't always in another, but why do they specifically get it even more so?

Probably because NoA just has to appeal to the US while NoE has to appeal to a wide variety of countries that each have their own various views and vastly different cultures that NoE has to take into account. You can't make everyone happy but if you can make the vast majority happy then you win. However it's true, not many people like cut content, after all it's content that was originally placed into the game and then taken out, it's essentially a 'lesser experience' even if some of the things cut were a bit strange/controversial. Plus Fire Emblem is kind of a niche title to begin with, yes it's been somewhat steadily growing in popularity and has become more of a thing in recent years but it's still something that really only appeals to a select group of people. It's kind of funny because they take these risks to help the game escape from its niche and grow and appeal to more people and in turn end up having to cut a bunch of said risks to increase appeal, but it helps them figure out what they should and shouldn't do I suppose. As I stated earlier I hope IS is able to find a good balance that appeals to most and only upsets a few, though it might be awhile as they are currently still in the experimental stage. But yea, that is why things are cut, to appeal to more people who might be turned off by said controversial issues and thus help the community grow/make more sales. It might be lame to us who have been following this game for awhile now but to newcomers who are blissfully unaware of the cut content it's right up their alley. The game will still be good, I and many other fans and such will still buy it, play it and enjoy it, it'll just be a lesser experience for me is all knowing that certain content that I somewhat looked forward to has been cut. (granted we don't know the full details yet on what is and isn't in so I'll just be waiting here patiently with baited breath)

Edited January 27, 2016 by Kyza