After the fallout of the censorship of “Fire Emblem Fates” and the controversies that came as a result, you’d think Nintendo of America would use the logical centers of their brains and not have that happen again. Unfortunately, Nintendo’s Treehouse doesn’t see it that way. As we can see from Twitter user @ramtower, also known as Richard Amtower, he sees the changing of characterization as no big deal, possibly even his duty, as shown in the following image.

Now, there could be more to this, as he later says:

“If we’d kept [Vagrant Story] as it was in the Japanese, it wouldn’t have a writing style that matched the art at all.”

However, this is in response to another twitter user who is not in the provided archive, as since then, Mr. Amtower has deleted the tweets.

So who is Mr. Amtower? Well, simply put, he’s a Localization Producer/Manager of Nintendo of America, responsible for the localization of such games like “Fire Emblem: Awakening” and, more recently, “Tokyo Mirage Sessions”. Also proud “SJW Feminist Gamer” and Zoey Quinn supporter.

Now, the “official” story seems to be that Atlus censored their own game before it even arrived to Nintendo of America, meaning they are doing it willingly right? Well, not necessarily. Hear me out for a second. Let’s say that it’s true, that Atlus did censor the game before Nintendo of America, and by extension, the Treehouse, got their grubby little hands on it. What if they didn’t have much choice? I mean think about it. All of us know NoA’s nasty habit of changing too much about a game for the sake of “localization.” (Let’s not forget “Waggity, Waggity, Waggity”). Atlus changing their game could be just to save the game from the practices of NoA. However, I was never one for believing articles shared by spam bots.

Now, is that a definite? No, of course not, although it is more than just a little suspicious. For the record, when I click it, it takes me to an article for a fraction of a second before taking me to a different, unrelated article. Whether this is connected to Nintendo or Atlus, we cannot say. However, it appears to many people that these bots were made to post in order to do damage control in the wake of “Tokyo Mirage”. So why the link takes them to a quickly vanishing article (in my case, at least) I cannot say. It could very well be some Internet troll.

Given the types of people who worked for, or still work for Nintendo Treehouse, such as Alison Rapp and currently Nich Maragos, I wouldn’t put this past them. If you don’t know Nich Maragos, he’s the guy who told people not to buy “Senran Kagura: Estival Versus” when it came out as a way of trying to defend Rapp after she was fired.

Back in February, Nich added onto a post comparing people who dislike censorship as religious nutjobs, completely unaware of the fact that these people are his potential audience, people who now, more than likely, will not be purchasing his game.

Furthermore, given Atlus’ history of strange themes they did not censor in previous games, such as Shadow Rise in “Persona 4”, it makes more sense that this is the work of Nintendo Treehouse.

To pull this tangled mess of an opinion piece together: Atlus is not known to censor themselves, obviously. I believe that if they actually did, which does not seem likely, it was the pressure of having to publish through Nintendo Treehouse, where it would probably be in worse shape if they let them handle it. I only hope Atlus comes out and speaks on the subject soon. However, until then remember, Nintendo Treehouse doesn’t try to push any agenda, whatsoever with their localizations and censorship.

And with that said, what´s your take on this matter? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section down below!

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

***Disclosure***
I am a fan of Atlus and their work. I also do not hate Nintendo, although I have a lack of trust in Nintendo of America and the Treehouse, specifically.

Credit:
Robin Ek – Editor
M*crotransaction Fan (@tamlin69)
Mildra (@MildraTheMonk)
Hom-Ru-Beoulve (@rugliabeoulve2)

Sources and resources:
http://nintendo.wikia.com/wiki/Rich_Amtower
https://twitter.com/tamlin69/status/773494984775462912
http://archive.is/Ldyak
http://archive.is/SQ1ku
http://archive.is/1Fam8
https://archive.is/NIAbd
http://thegg.net/opinion-editorial/treehouses-nich-maragos-tells-people-not-to-buy-any-senran-kagura-titles/
http://thegg.net/opinion-editorial/did-treehouse-butcher-fire-emblem-fates-with-their-sjw-nonsense-it-leans-towards-yes/

Justin Easler
Senior editor
The Gaming Ground
Twitter: @masterjayshay

More by Justin Easler:

• “Monster Energy Supercross – The Official Videogame 5” is coming to PC and consoles on March 17th, 2022
• Ubisoft’s E3 2019 press conference – A pretty decent presentation for the most part
• Square Enix E3 2019 press conference – Probably Square Enix’s strongest E3 in a long time
• Bethesda’s E3 2019 press conference – Some pretty awesome games but not so many surprises
• EA’s E3 2019 press conference – More of what you expect, yet still underwhelming

Tags: Atlus, Censorship, Fire Emblem Fates, Nintendo, Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE, Treehouse