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There have been some PR-nightmares going on with Nintendo of America’s Treehouse division with “Fire Emblem Fate’s” localization and Rapp’s termination. Focusing on localization, we know that the head/face petting has been removed from FEF in the West. However, it has been brought to my attention that in Miitomo, you can head pet your Mii as well as a friend’s. And just to clarify it’s only the head (nothing more, nothing less). Even so, a question has been brought to mind: Why was head-petting cut from Fire Emblem Fates while Miitomo got a pass? I may have a few hypotheses to answer this thesis.

I never really understood why Nintendo had to remove the head-patting mini-game from the western localization of FEF? I mean, it´s harmless…

My first educated guess is that Treehouse didn’t even get their hands-on Miitomo during localization. As far as my research went, I found that the core developers of “Tomodachi Life” were brought in to work on Miitomo. And even though I haven´t played “Tomodachi Life” before, but I’ve read that some of the features were brought into the social app. Aside from Nintendo’s Entertainment Planning & Development the company DeNA was brought into its production. And for those who don´t know what DeNA Co., Ltd. is all about. DeNA is a company dedicated in the mobile market, and they have released games such as “Marvel: War of Heroes” and “Final Fantasy: Record Keeper“. Any ways, as I was saying. With DeNA collaborating with Nintendo to work on Miitomo it is possible that the project was in-house between the two.

Whatever the case is Nintendo fans got some head petting.

My second hypothesis is that Nintendo has a completely different view on censorship. It has been evident that some things were censored even back in the company’s early days as a video game developer and publisher. Though Nintendo came around from time to time when they lighten up on mature content. As quite a few games (both first and third parties) has been greenlit to be published by Nintendo, even though loud minorities have screamed out that they wanted the game (s) in question to be censored. And despite how Nich Maragos told “everyone” not to buy Senran Kagura someone at Nintendo had to give the thumbs up before the game could be published for the 3DS. So while Treehouse is under fire for SJW shenanigans the rest of Nintendo of America, and its parent company in Japan, does not share the same vision.

did treehouse butcher fire emblem fates with their sjw nonsense

I wonder how much more heat Treehouse will be able to take before the whole house burns down to the ground?

My final thoughts on this matter just come down to time restraints. The Japanese initial release/testing was on March 17, 2016. Everyone outside the country got Miitomo on March 31st. That is a 14 daytime period to ensure everything is ready for western localization. Even if the game was ready in English someone had to make sure everything was right. So whether or not Treehouse was involved with localization, there was no time to screw around to make “modifications” to the game. Sure, I am no programmer. However, I’m certain that it would take a bit of time to remove something, and test it to make sure it didn’t break anything else. With that in consideration, I doubt anyone would have risked Nintendo’s first mobile outing just for censorship.

Nintendo has had a rough year PR-wise.

Whether it’s time, viewpoints, or delegation this gave me something to consider. We need to remember that Nintendo is a company that needs to develop and publish games to appeal to its broad audience. And sadly enough, at the moment this does include the loud minorities that won’t buy the games even after the changes (censorship) have been made. Nevertheless, that doesn’t mean that all people within the company are as narrow-minded. Nintendo (despite everything that has happened) at least has an open mind. To take a quote, though a bit out of context, from a Nintendo game: ”Do not worry. One of them will understand. One of them must.”.

Source:
Fire Emblem Fates – Treehouse “lolcalization”

Credit:
Robin Ek – Editor
Immahnoob

***Disclaimer***
This is a personal opinion of the writer, and it doesn’t necessarily represent the other writers (nor The Gaming Ground´s) opinions.

David Lucas
The Gaming Ground
Twitter: @GamerFoxem