[Disclaimer: This is the opinion of the author]
Nintendo strikes again with the censorship bat, and boy is it going to get ugly. For what may be the first time in history, Nintendo of America has altered a game so much, that they made the Japanese voice actors record separate lines for the American release. Fans should be f**king livid.
Look, I enjoy Japanese games and culture, but I've never been into the bubbly J-Pop or Idol scenes. I understand that it's a strange culture with limited appeal, but the target audience for this game is the same in Japan and North America. The fans that were interested in this game because of its super anime reveal (or after), wanted the standbys of Otaku culture that have been gutted from this release: Fan service, references to gravure idols, Japanese poses, etc. These aren't bad things, and they don't breach the T for Teen rating, so why is Nintendo doing this? It's certainly not going to pull in fans, and I know it has cost them more purchases than it gained.
I'm quite convinced Nintendo of America has no clue as to how to do their jobs. They have all the time in the world now, since they have all of three major releases planned for 2016, and they used it to f**k up one of their sparse releases on an unimaginable scale. Seriously, who is this aimed at? The fans you slapped in the face by creating a new, unwanted version for their countries? The professionally offended, that were never going to buy it in the first place? Little kids, who know nothing about Japan and abandoned your awful tech for smart devices?
Oh I know! The self-masturbatory portion of neogaf that likes to applaud censorship because they don't like Japanese or sexually suggestive content. Surely the haters paying lip service will bring in the big bucks, not the weebs like my now distraught wife. Fuck weebs, their opinions don't matter because you're offended by things they like, right?
Tokyo Mirage Sessions had two niche fanbases, Otaku and JRPG, and it just threw one of them under the bus harder than any fandom in localization history. At least with the terrible Fire Emblem: Fates localization there were groups working to fix the hack job done by the Treehouse, but Nintendo of America seems to have gone the extra mile to ensure these changes couldn't be fixed as easily. Will hackers be able to turn on the old dialogue and undo the outfit and pose changes, or will that not be on the disk for this game?
Rape, torture, murder, euthanization, and implied sex with a minor: Rated T for teen. I think Tokyo Mirage Sessions T-Rating was safe.
Also, before you try to say Atlus was in charge of localization, and not Nintendo, save it: Fire Emblem: Fates, Bravely Second, and Tokyo Mirage Sessions had their "questionable" content eviscerated by separate localization teams. The common thread? 4Kids Nintendo of America was in charge of publishing and/or distribution of all three games in the North American region.
If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it's not a dog some homeless person taught to waddle. It's a lame f**king duck, just like the NA release of Tokyo Mirage Sessions is going to be, sales wise.
