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Nintendo Comments on Changes in Western Localization of Fire Emblem Fates

Nintendo confirmed the removal of a controversial dialogue option from its North American and European release of the Fire Emblem Fates Nintendo 3DS game with the video game news site Siliconera on Friday.

Nintendo reiterated in the statement to Siliconera that there will be "no expression which might be considered as gay conversion or drugging that occurs between characters," before following up with a statement clarifying that the same-sex marriage options in the game will still be present. Nintendo commented:

Making changes is not unusual when we localize games, and we have indeed made changes in these games. When we localize a game we do so in order to make it appropriate for that particular territory. All our choices were made from that point of view.

In the Conquest edition a male main character created by the gamer can pair up with another male character (Niles) which ultimately leads to marriage. Similarly, in the Birthright edition, a female main character created by the gamer can pair up with and eventually marry another female character (Rhajat). Like married couples of the opposite gender, these same-sex couples enjoy the stat boosts that come with marriage, which means when they are paired up in battle they are stronger than when they are apart or paired up with another character.

In the third edition, Revelation, that will be released as DLC in the eShop on March 10, a same-sex marriage is possible regardless of the sex of your main character, as both Niles and Rhajat can be encountered in this edition.

The original removed conversation relates to a character named Soleil (pictured above right), who gets flustered around women. In a conversation with the male protagonist he slips a "magic potion" into her drink without her knowledge, so she magically sees men as women and vice-versa. The idea was to help her "practice" around women, so when the potion wears off she is no longer distracted around them. At the end, she falls in love with the male protagonist.

Nintendo shipped Fire Emblem Fates: Birthright and Fire Emblem Fates: Conquest in Japan on June 25, and will release the games on February 19 in the West. The games are the first games in the franchise to offer a same-sex marriage option.