The localization of games has always been a tricky business for publishers. Their goal is to make the game as a faithful to the original as possible, but that endeavor becomes difficult due to the need to adhere to the rules and regulations of the market it's entering. Often times, what flies in Japan doesn't always fly in the U.S. or other locations and it inevitably leads to certain things being removed, which in turn leads to fan outrage.
Nintendo of America in particular has found itself on the receiving end of this anger several times, the most recent one due to the localization of "Fire Emblem Fates." Yes, the game is great overall and has been a smashing success, but it's been hard for many to overlook shaky translations, the removal of petting from the MU's treehouse and the altering of certain dialogue.
Well, it looks like NoA has found itself under fire for changes made in the localization once again. This time the fallout is due to changes made to "Bravely Second: End Layer," sequel to 2014's "Bravely Default." Specifically, the situation centers around the alterations made to side quests which impact the way the quest line's conclusion plays out.
Originally, the side quests would have the players encounter a conflict between two opposing parties and the game would task them with choosing a side to join. Regardless of your decision and eventual outcome however, the main cast would lament the decision. However, players have found that the European localization appears to be change that approach.
Instead, everything plays out the same as usual until you you make the decision and the quest is over with. This time, players will receive a "good" ending regardless of what they pick, which is inconsistent with what's recorded in the quest log which explains the bad ending - thus, revealing that changes had been made.
The revelation enraged the community: it's one thing to change a game, but its another thing to make a change that's deemed superfluous. People were already annoyed with changes made to the character costumes - for example, the "Tomahawk" costume was changed to resemble a cowboy rather than a Native American outfit, so this only made a bad situation worse.
However, Nintendo has since spoken out about the side quest changes and revealed its rationale behind the changes.
"Based on feedback received after Bravely Second: End Layer's release in Japan, the development team at Square Enix, in conjunction with Silicon Studio, decided to implement a number of revisions to the game for the purpose of improving its quality and creating a more enjoyable product," Nintendo said in a statement.
"One such change affects the game's optional side quests, where players encounter a conflict between two opposing parties and choose which party to side with."
"When the game was released in Japan, each side quest would end with the team lamenting the decision they made, regardless of the player's decision," the statement continues. "This was intended to help players empathise with the characters' situation, but overwhelming feedback from players indicated that they felt an unsatisfying disconnect between their intentions and the characters' reactions. In response, these side quest endings were amended to show the party readily coming to terms with their actions in a manner that does not cause the player undue regret for their decisions."
"These changes do not affect the gameplay or the course of events in the game, and were made with the intention of improving the game experience for players."
So it turns out these changes had nothing to do with rules or regulations, but unsatisfied Japanese gamers. It's nice to see game companies listening to its fans, though it would have been in Nintendo's interest to issue a statement before the fallout began.
Either way, we'll have a chance to see just how much of a change these alterations make once "Bravely Second: End Layer" comes out for the Nintendo 3DS in the U.S. on April 15.
