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[FluxWaveZ]

atlus says they censored for nintendo and nintendo says atlus censored on their own
yeah, I totally believe that

But the thing is that Nintendo never even said that, so I'm not sure where anyone is getting that from.

 

[Rabid Dwarf 76]

I really hate this. Why do they have to change things? The ages I understand but the outfits? Are they going to market this to children or something? When did bikinis become too scandalous for video games? What could people possibly be offended by? Sigh...Fuck you Nintendo.

 

[Zolo]

But the thing is that Nintendo never even said that, so I'm not sure where anyone is getting that from.

Reading comprehension. People hear about an article or see a quote and start making assumptions rather than understanding the article and what was said.

 

[sixteen-bit]

muh thot springs!

 

[MrHoot]

Again, not much riled up but still pondering how things are perceived by localization in the US and the west in general where unbelievable violence is given a pass but the show of skin and bit of fanservice is always considered way worse/immoral to the point of complete removal. Especially for a game as niche as this which already plays on the concept of idols, so aimed at a specific market. I'll always be baffled

It's such a weird clusterfuck.

• You have a game with a premise and setting based on Japanese pop culture that is a hard sell to foreigners
• Said game did terribly in Japan, so one can imagine how difficult selling it everywhere else will be
• They don't bother trying at dubbing the game, the most meaningful and obvious way of giving it mass market appeal in foreign markets
• But then they waste time and money making graphical adjustments to avoid mass-market culture clash... In a game where basically everything is already alien to foreign audiences
• And how the hell do you explain to your boss that you want to sell less DLC?

I understand the business reasons for the changes to something like Fire Emblem that actually received an extensive localization and was targeted towards a large audience, but I don't understand why Nintendo even bothered here.

And yeah, this.

For sure' it's fanservicey (For fack's sake it's freaking FE X SMT), but at least let the people who were actually interested in it have their bone.

 

[Joyful]

But the thing is that Nintendo never even said that, so I'm not sure where anyone is getting that from.

Reading comprehension. People hear about an article or see a quote and start making assumptions rather than understanding the article and what was said.

“Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE was localized by Atlus in a way that is consistent with the localization work they do on games they publish,” reads a statement from Nintendo of America. “It was a priority to ensure the game feels familiar and appeals to longtime Atlus fans. Any changes made to the in-game content were due to varying requirements and regulations in the many different territories Nintendo distributes its products.”


?

 

[SapphiCine]

I still don't understand what Nintendo is doing with this game. Making changes to Fire Emblem Fates made more sense, while this is the type of game they should just bring over warts and all*. Damn thing doesn't even have an English dub.






*Minus aging up some characters which is sensible, for legal reasons, and a benign change.

 

[FluxWaveZ]

“Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE was localized by Atlus in a way that is consistent with the localization work they do on games they publish,” reads a statement from Nintendo of America. “It was a priority to ensure the game feels familiar and appeals to longtime Atlus fans. Any changes made to the in-game content were due to varying requirements and regulations in the many different territories Nintendo distributes its products.”

?

Any changes made to the in-game content were due to varying requirements and regulations in the many different territories Nintendo distributes its products.

?

 

[Zolo]

“Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE was localized by Atlus in a way that is consistent with the localization work they do on games they publish,” reads a statement from Nintendo of America. “It was a priority to ensure the game feels familiar and appeals to longtime Atlus fans. Any changes made to the in-game content were due to varying requirements and regulations in the many different territories Nintendo distributes its products.”


?

They state Atlus is the localizer which they are and that any changes made were due to requirements and regulations. They don't specifically say that Atlus is the one deciding to make those changes, but they're trying to word it in a way that talks about how Atlus will be as good as a localization they do in other games while acknowledging there would be changes. They're obviously not going to say that they made the changes for image or personal ethic reasons because they don't want the flak for it.

 

[Phu]

I don't buy for a second that Atlus made all of these changes of their own accord.

 

[Ridley327]

I don't buy for a second that Atlus made all of these changes of their own accord.

They haven't.

The author at Nintendolife really needs to amend the article, since it's factually wrong in that aspect.

 

[MHWilliams]

I have only played the Japanese version so I'm unsure what was in the English build, but in the build that you played, was it through out the entirety of that gravure dungeon?

If you got the chance to finish it, I could ask questions pertaining to the plot, with or without spoilers, to get a better understanding and to clear up anything that may or may be considered a story change.

If this is too much of a spoiler, I will take it out but...

That dungeon revolves around a formerly famous photographer who gained recognition by being a photographer for one of the characters and making them a popular model and celebrity. The dude is consumed with his idea of not really be satisfied with his current working, trying to find a model or a job that gave him the same sense of artist satisfaction as the one that jump started his career.

It was kind of a protracted demo, so you could wander through the demo and fight, but the characters were overleveled. The big dungeon mechanic seemed huge cameras that you had to go behind; if you walked in front of them, it'd teleport you back through the level.

And that does seem to be the basic gist of the boss, though as I said, the Nintendo rep fast-forwarded through the dialogue to prevent spoilers, so I only caught snippets. Then he turns into a SMT version of what looks to be Gangrel from Awakening?

EDIT: Gangrel and the boss in question.

 

[Andrew J.]

I approve of these editorial changes wholeheartedly, and expect they will have positive impacts on my enjoyment of the game.

 

[bomblord1]

The article is proving classical conditioning works in rats with ejaculation as the reward, that's why I pointed out this game isn't porn any significant number of people jack off to. And unless they do, the study is irrelevant because a positive reward (orgasm in this case) is crucial to the effect of conditioning you assert there to be. Again, barely relevant to the censorship discussion.

It's not art's job to care about people's brains either, by the way. But that's a larger topic.

The Donald Hilton and Clark Watts pornography study makes no specific mention to ejaculation as the reward. Only the viewing of pornographic images.

Under the human considerations they use the broad term "sexual reward" in regards to humans as opposed to specifically calling out ejaculation in the forming of sexual preferences although it should be noted based on the actual content of the study that some form of orgasm is implied. They also talk about the effect of how sexuality is viewed in there culture as having a direct affect on the shaping of human sexual behavior which is not in any way directly related to orgasm.

And I'm not getting into an argument about art and what it can or can't do. I'm just specifically addressing where a poster says video game sexuality has less affect on your personality than video game violence which is false.

 

[PillarEN]

I approve of these editorial changes wholeheartedly, and expect they will have positive impacts on my enjoyment of the game.

*Iwata laughs*

 

[Oersted]

*Iwata laughs*

You do know he is dead, right?

 

[Shun]

It was kind of a protracted demo, so you could wander through the demo and fight, but the characters were overleveled. The big dungeon mechanic seemed huge cameras that you had to go behind; if you walked in front of them, it'd teleport you back through the level.

And that does seem to be the basic gist of the boss, though as I said, the Nintendo rep fast-forwarded through the dialogue to prevent spoilers, so I only caught snippets. Then he turns into a SMT version of what looks to be Gangrel from Awakening?

EDIT: Gangrel and the boss in question.

Yeah Gangrel is the Mirage boss of that dungeon. I won't spoil who the actual character he is possessing is tho and what goes on in that particular dungeon.

Since it is spoiler free demo, I would hope that there aren't many changes for that section of the plot.

I already posted my thoughts on that dungeon and how important it was to the development of Tsubasa as a character earlier in the thread so I hope that localize that portion well.

I do hope that the positive points for this game outweigh these seemingly arbitrary localization decisions.

A great and unique game, and especially the development team behind it who made their dream project a reality, really shouldn't be punished because of it.

Thanks for the reply!

I would be open to answering questions for those interested in the game.

 

[dragn]

dont really care, just gimme da game

 

[Palculator]

Under the human considerations they use the broad term "sexual reward" in regards to humans as opposed to specifically calling out ejaculation in the forming of sexual preferences although it should be noted based on the actual content of the study that some form of orgasm is implied. They also talk about the effect of how sexuality is viewed in there culture as having a direct affect on the shaping of human sexual behavior which is not in any way directly related to orgasm.

And again, these considerations are there to motivate further research and don't prove anything. The actual study which presents real data to prove its claims is concerned with ejaculation in rats. That's it.

If you wanted to, I'm sure you could find studies that say the same about violence, by the way. As I said in my earlier post, this is more an issue of sample bias than it is of research and a massively complex topic is not going to be settled by a handful of studies.

Like I've maintained in every post: Barely relevant to the changes discussed here and I won't really indulge it further.

 

[Crocodile]

Like in the grand scheme of things these changes don't matter that much but

I'm not sure what caused Japanese companies to become so focused on making these localization changes in recent years. There doesn't seem to be an example of a game losing success based on complaints about underaged characters or TnA in general.

Although I guess with Nintendo it's the idea of fostering a "family-friendly" image.

Why keep changing things? Especially this one, it doesn't even have a dub. Who does Nintendo think this will appeal to? I just don't understand why these changes keep getting made. Yes, they're minimal and they change nothing integral to the game but I just don't get it. So many other localizers don't care and the games getting changed aren't even things that would typically fit with Nintendo's family friendly image anyways. I'll likely still get the game and the changes won't affect my decision but it's just becoming a little annoying.

I agree with these posts. Why do this? Who is this trying to protect? We aren't babies. We don't have idol shit but we still have pop music and ALL that entails. This isn't a kids game, its an undubbed niche game. I dunno, censorship of things that aren't actually offensive to normal well-adjusted people never sits well with me. Its not needed and feels more like developers worried about "OMG we might offend someone" rather than taking a real look at what things are actually objectionable to people outside Japan and develop/write with that in mind (if they care).

 

[cm osi]

meh, fuck that. guess i'll buy used

 

[muteki]

They state Atlus is the localizer which they are and that any changes made were due to requirements and regulations. They don't specifically say that Atlus is the one deciding to make those changes, but they're trying to word it in a way that talks about how Atlus will be as good as a localization they do in other games while acknowledging there would be changes. They're obviously not going to say that they made the changes for image or personal ethic reasons because they don't want the flak for it.

They stop short of stating who is imposing the requirements and regulations, but people shouldn't assume all of those stem from the ESRB or similar ratings boards (for reasons already mentioned). Since Atlus hasn''t in recent history made similar edits in games they themselves publish, so that only leaves one other party.

 

[Thoraxes]

It's kinda weird seeing them do this much when they're not even dubbing the game. I'd just assumed because of that they were going to pander to the base they knew would get this game no matter what over trying to rope in more people.

I'm still getting it and thankful that we have JP audio, but the changes, especially now that they've upped the age of characters to 18, seems weird. Won't affect my enjoyment of the game though. I'll just youtube that stuff if I ever find myself wanting to wonder what the JP release was like.

 

[kayos90]

It's kinda weird seeing them do this much when they're not even dubbing the game. I'd just assumed because of that they were going to pander to the base they knew would get this game no matter what over trying to rope in more people.

I'm still getting it and thankful that we have JP audio, but the changes, especially now that they've upped the age of characters to 18, seems weird. Won't affect my enjoyment of the game though. I'll just youtube that stuff if I ever find myself wanting to wonder what the JP release was like.

If anything at least they're consistent.

 

[KnightHart]

It's such a weird clusterfuck.

• You have a game with a premise and setting based on Japanese pop culture that is a hard sell to foreigners
• Said game did terribly in Japan, so one can imagine how difficult selling it everywhere else will be
• They don't bother trying at dubbing the game, the most meaningful and obvious way of giving it mass market appeal in foreign markets
• But then they waste time and money making graphical adjustments to avoid mass-market culture clash... In a game where basically everything is already alien to foreign audiences
• And how the hell do you explain to your boss that you want to sell less DLC?

I understand the business reasons for the changes to something like Fire Emblem that actually received an extensive localization and was targeted towards a large audience, but I don't understand why Nintendo even bothered here.

Yeah this is basically what I was thinking of as well. I don't think anyone at Nintendo even knows what the audience for this game is for anymore. I'm just convinced that Nintendo doesn't even know what they're doing at all now a days. For fucks sake Nintendo can't even properly cash in on easy anime pandering, they're hopeless at this point.

 

[Eolz]

I miss when NOE did localizations, or at least took decisions about those.

 

[FunkyDealer]

I don't mind the age increase and dungeon change. But no hot springs? That sounds like less story and gameplay. Hot springs were hilarious in Persona 4, so it's a shame to see it gone here. Hopefully they'll eventually reconsider and release it.

What's the age rating on this game btw? Sounds like they're trying to lower it.

 

[PillarEN]

You do know he is dead, right?

Well, yeah. I'm just referencing the Iwata Asks. Didn't think I was being insensitive. but I apologize if it came off that way.

 

[Palculator]

Didn't think I was being insensitive. but I apologize if it came off that way.

You weren't, and the reference was clear, don't worry.

 

[-Horizon-]

I just want my hot springs dlc :/

Heck, just put it up on the store then. I'll pay extra for it.

 

[Koppai]

Again, not much riled up but still pondering how things are perceived by localization in the US and the west in general where unbelievable violence is given a pass but the show of skin and bit of fanservice is always considered way worse/immoral to the point of complete removal. Especially for a game as niche as this which already plays on the concept of idols, so aimed at a specific market. I'll always be baffled



And yeah, this.

For sure' it's fanservicey (For fack's sake it's freaking FE X SMT), but at least let the people who were actually interested in it have their bone.

Because dubs cost alot of money too...and they don't wanna take a chance on something like that.

 

[Delusibeta]

Because dubs cost alot of money too...and they don't wanna take a chance on something like that.

I expect that the amount of money Nintendo spent implementing these changes will be far larger than the amount of money saved by not doing an English dub.

 

[maniac-kun]

I dont believe artistic freedom should be censored.

 

[L95]

I expect that the amount of money Nintendo spent implementing these changes will be far larger than the amount of money saved by not doing an English dub.

Aren't dubs expensive? All we've seen amount to texture edits and text changes so far, haven't we? Excluding DLC means they also don't need to translate associated stuff to it too. Or am I grossly missing something (which I'm good at doing feel free to tell me haha)

 

[Trojita]

Seriously screw this if they remove the Hot Spring DLC like rumored.

Also

I actually like that outfit the black hair girl is wearing.

This is an fe/smt/idol game that's confused about itself for fucks sake.

Reminder that Hyrule Warriors got a T rating with this.

NSFW: Reminder that Devil Survivor 2 got a T rating

 

[PillarEN]

Reminder that Hyrule Warriors got a T rating with this.

Oh... I'm surprised this made it into a Zelda game in the first place though I do agree it is T content. Just very PS2 era Samurai Wariors haha.

As for the Japan pics. See you would think it me much more lewd and in your face. Yeah they aren't wearing much but it's not something where I would be thinking "ooo this would be way too much for international audiences" I'd probably not even think about it at all.

 

[bomblord1]

They may be attempting to avoid a specific tag not necessarily the general rating (ie sexual content, partial nudity)

 

[Pro from Dover]

It was, Nintendo Life for whatever reason misread the statement. And the changes simply don't fit what Atlus has done in the past while they perfectly fit what Nintendo has done.

Here's the dungeon that they refer to in the OP

I dig the colorful splatter on the pics. At least they are keeping the Suggestive Themes.

 

[Mr. Pointy]

I think I'll pass on this one. I'm looking at these Nintendo localisations on a case by case basis, and the changes to the gravure dungeon and cut DLC turned me off. I've got FE Fates and a couple of other games on the back burner I want to get through anyway.

 

[Eolz]

I dig the colorful splatter on the pics. At least they are keeping the Suggestive Themes.

You find that suggestive?

 

[Palculator]

You find that suggestive?

Yes, it suggests localisation has been mishandled :^)

 

[Phu]

Nintendo should come up with a separate label or something to release games that aren't typical Nintendo experiences [like how Disney has Touchstone, or something they acquired like Marvel]. It's all the same company, but there's a different name on the front.

I don't get the 'family friendly' image argument [especially since they fail at it and sometimes go against it] but it's the only thing that seems to makes sense for these kinds of changes. They were willing to pair up one of their recent successes with a dark, mature franchise from a company known for their mature games but aren't even willing to commit to something even a tenth as bad as what it could have been. Could you imagine if this was just straight-up FExSMT, like everyone figured in the beginning? There's no way certain SMT elements would survive the Nintendo purge.

Not everything Disney gets stood next to Mickey Mouse. Activision can manage both Skylanders and CoD. Yet, Nintendo can't deal with swimwear.

Pretty sure I've said this before, but Nintendo didn't have to parade this around as their thing. They could've just said they're working with Atlus and then passed the baton off to them. It's clearly not a typical Fire Emblem experience and it's clearly something that blends into Atlus' lineup better. Even in the trailer they put up last week, they made sure to remind us the '#FE' stands for 'Fire Emblem' when that holds almost no weight considering how drastically different this game is from mainline FE. Within a few days of that trailer going up, Atlus put up a trailer for SMTIVA where a person gets severed in half and Angel appears in her nearly-naked chain+strap outfit.

 

[dreamlongdead]

Doing this for Teen and Mature rated games is simply unnecessary. This policy of censoring is just unacceptable in my eyes.

 

[llehuty]

Some of the things are questionable, but I can't blame them for not localizing the DLC. Taking into account the small amount of units this is going to move, I don't even want to think of the financial no-event that the DLC would be.

 

[FluxWaveZ]

Pretty sure I've said this before, but Nintendo didn't have to parade this around as their thing. They could've just said they're working with Atlus and then passed the baton off to them.

What do you mean by this? Nintendo is still publishing the game. #FE probably isn't one that Atlus would have wanted to publish or even create on their own.

 

[Verelios]

Who cares about the age change? It doesn't add or detract anything from the game.

 

[FluxWaveZ]

Some of the things are questionable, but I can't blame them for not localizing the DLC. Taking into account the small amount of units this is going to move, I don't even want to think of the financial no-event that the DLC would be.

How much would it cost them to release the DLC?

 

[The Giant]

Who cares. These small little insignificant changes isn't gonna make the game turn to shit.

 

[cj_iwakura]

My point is that the removed content wouldn't have changed the rating. For example, here's P4D

It has a T rating. It's also an Atlus game without any Nintendo influence on its localization.

Not to mention the shower scene. They got away with THAT, somehow.

Nintendo are really just being silly, like usual. Good thing I don't have the system or want the game.

 

[Nickle]

I wonder why they don't include the option to play the game without the original changes, it would satisfy those who like and dislike fanservice/censorship. Would a titty switch require much dev work/disk space?