Tuesday, March 1, 2016

Local Fuss

Most of any recent Nintendo game localization has had some controvesy one way or another. The big recent fuss is Fire Emblem Fates that came out last month. Now Fire Emblem is this big Nintendo RPG franchise that suddenly found an audience because it has dating sim elements. The game has this petting feature where you can use the touch screen to pet your potential partner when you are alone. Yes it's as creepy as it sounds and Nintendo decided to removed it somewhat for the English version.

Now removing it is one thing but someone from the localisation team had the nerve to say content change is all part of the localization process. I couldn't disagree more with that statement.

While I don't expect everything in the original Japanese version to be translated word-for word, I do expect the content to remain the same. Unfortunately in most cases, content change usually means content removed. Paying for a game that is late to be localized is not ideal but paying for a game that is localized late with content removed is a double-whammy. Thankfully only Yakuza 3 comes to mind when speaking of such.

Unfortunatelty this is the price to pay for playing foreign-made games.

Fatal Frame V removed the risque bonus costumes for the English version as expected but Nintendo/Tecmo made up for it by replacing them with new costumes. It's a fair trade as Nintendo could have simply remove the costume without any new addition like what happened for Crimson Butterfly Remake.

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