So there’s been a lot of controversy behind the removal of the face rubbing feature from the western released version of Fire Emblem: Fates. A lot of people have expressed their disappointment over the loss of the feature all over the Internet. Personally, I love the fact that face rubbing has been removed from the Western release and it is a little baffling as to why so many people are up in arms over something as petty and as trivial over something like a petting mini-game. There have also been some really dumb arguments and talking points that have been made in defense of face-rubbing and it’s about time that someone who didn’t like it stepped up to the plate to debunk some of them.
Dumb Argument # 1: The Western release is automatically inferior because it has less content.
Quality and quantity are not synonyms. Less content should not automatically make something inferior and more quality should not make something automatically superior either. We have to judge each and every bit of content on its own merits before making a judgment on the entire game. This argument is also based on the assumption that face rubbing adds value to the game when I would make the argument that it doesn’t for reasons that I’ll explain later on. The lack of a petting minigame says nothing about the map design, the quality of the supports or the story which in my opinion are way more important aspects of the game. The point here is that you’re tossing the baby out with the bathwater here.
Dumb Argument # 2: This change was made for no good reason!
Really? You really cannot see why face rubbing was removed from the Western game? The answer is pretty simple. Japanese and Western cultures have different social mores. What may constitute as acceptable in Japanese culture may not necessarily constitute as acceptable in Western culture. This is a process known as localization. There’s already an amazing topic on reddit that someone else in our group posted that covered the different changes that previous Fire Emblem games went through:
I realize that there is a counterargument to this made by pro-face rubbers: The counterargument is that there’s a difference between changing some lines of dialogue and completely removing a mini-game. This is true, but the principle behind both is the same which is why this argument doesn’t work. Japanese audiences might find face petting acceptable, but Westerners like myself wouldn’t.
As a small experiment I’ve tried telling some of my family members and friends about face rubbing and they’ve all reacted similarly. Some react with disgust, some cringe, some of them find it weird and said that they wouldn’t buy a game with a feature like that in it and some even wondered why I would buy a game like that. When I told them that the feature had been removed they totally understood why and agreed with the decision.
You could argue that this isn’t a representative sample size but I hope you can understand the point I’m trying to make here. Western audiences would not take kindly to a minigame like this. There’s a lot of people in our group (including myself) who do not like this minigame and find it creepy and perverted. This would be a massive turn-off for some people so removing the game would be in the best interests of Nintendo.
Dumb Argument # 3: You can pet Machoke’s crotch but not a human’s face? Your argument is inconsistent therefore it is invalid.
Nice try there but unfortunately this isn’t going to work. For starters, I think both are inappropriate so there’s no inconsistency. Another problem with this is that Pokemon are kind of portrayed in a similar manner to pets so petting a Pokemon (in places that are appropriate like the face or the ears) isn’t all that different from petting a cat or a dog so it doesn’t seem like it’s all that weird. Petting a human being on the other hand is a completely different story.
Dumb Argument # 4: Face rubbing has characterization in it therefore you shouldn’t cut it out.
Are you seriously going to tell me that face rubbing was designed for the sole purpose of characterization? I’m calling bullcrap. This minigame was made because people like Pokemon Amie so if gets sales then it must be good right? RIGHT? I’ve heard from multiple people who’ve played this game that there isn’t much, if any, characterization to be had in the face rubbing mini-game. It’s like looking for a speck of gold in a gigantic pile of poop. Whatever specks are there, it isn’t worth going through a pile of poop to get to it.
I’m all for taking those bits of characterization and putting them in other parts of the game. Here’s an idea: Why not put them in the supports? From what I’ve heard Fates has pretty sub-par characterization and the supports aren’t anything special either so why not beef up the one mechanic that’s actually designed to bolster the characterization of the player’s units? Make quality supports first, that should be the priority.
Mangs already made a fantastic video on this subject and I highly recommend that you watch it if you haven’t already (it's in the link). I’d like to quote his video: “Where did we go wrong?” I’m really starting to believe the other “old grizzled veterans” that Awakening brought in the wrong crowd. Is face rubbing really all that important to the game? Will the story not make sense or will the game mechanics start to suck because we don’t have face rubbing? Think about that.
There was something that I forgot to mention in my last “Ten Tips” post. Whenever a new mechanic comes out that becomes popular there’s a huge demand for that mechanic to stay in and it becomes harder to cut it out of future titles. This basically means that future games have to have more and more content in order to have the necessary number of sales to stay relevant. If said content gets removed for any reason people will throw a complete temper tantrum over it and they create all sorts of problems for other people.
Have you ever seen how some new fans react whenever the idea of Casual mode’s removal gets discussed? It isn’t pretty. One particular fan on a different Fire Emblem forum threw the biggest temper tantrum I’ve ever seen. He called everyone who disagreed with him elitist and even said that he wouldn’t even play future Fire Emblem games if they removed Casual mode. Wow! I mean, just wow! It’s one thing to think that Casual mode is good for the series and that you personally may like it, but to become THAT attached to the mechanic to the point where you start throwing temper tantrums when people discuss removing it? Good grief! It’s people like that who make people like me embarrassed sometimes to call themselves a Fire Emblem fan.
The whole controversy behind face rubbing has validated that point. Face rubbing is by far the dumbest idea to have ever come out in the Fire Emblem series and it has done more to divide the fans than to bring them closer together. Also, the way that most people on the pro face rubbing side behaved was deplorable and reprehensible.
I’m also annoyed at how if you think that something is over-sexualized or that its bad to have fanservice in a game you’re instantly labeled a puritan or an elitist. People have different opinions and tastes and not everybody likes the same thing. Also, let’s not pretend that this is some SJW conspiracy here. I’m not an SJW and I have plenty of issues with feminism and social justice movements. You don’t have to be an SJW in order to be anti-face rubbing. You just need to have common sense and standards which doesn’t require a political ideology to have. I’m appalled that this was even a controversy to begin with. I’ll end with a quote from Mangs video here:
“What happened to the Fire Emblem community? When did Fire Emblem become waifu simulator 2000? Why can’t you guys be upset with things that actually matter?”
Thanks for the shoutout, and great post!
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome and thank you! :D
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