My Thoughts on the Censorship of Fire Emblem Fates

Ah, Fire Emblem. A game series about war, bloodshed, and recently, touching your army members. Err, maybe not in America.

The American version of Fire Emblem Fates has been receiving some bad word of mouth as of late, with its removal of content and changes to the script. One of the most notable examples is a completely optional mode in the game called "Skinship" in the Japanese version. Skinship is a Japanese word used to described the development of closeness of a mother and child through physical contact, but is nowadays used as term to describe platonic bonding through touching of the face, holding hands, hugging, etc. The mode is essentially a petting minigame, but for your allies in combat. It was removed in the American version, most likely due to cultural differences between the America and Japan.

An example of skinship, a normal custom especially prevalent in K-Pop culture

On social media and on message boards, fans of Fire Emblem and cynics of censorship have been talking excessively about the changes, some even saying that they were going to get an incomplete game or cancelling their orders.
While the changes are disappointing, this change might actually be good for some. The petting minigame is a little long, and for people who want to get faster supports through the minigame, it can be quite tedious. The replacement for the mode is just voiced dialog from the character selected for skinship, which makes things go much faster. People are really making it more of a deal of it than it actually deserves. One could argue that Nintendo actually made the change so that people would talk about Fates more, but I believe it has more to do with the fact that rubbing your friend's face is an oddity to Americans.

Whatever the reason for the change, the game will still be full of tactical gameplay that the Fire Emblem series is known for. And even if you mostly got into Fire Emblem for love rather than war, you can still do special events with your character's spouse, such as waking them up with your stylus, which is somewhat similar to petting save for its longevity being much shorter. The removal of skinship will most likely not detriment the experience of game itself, even if it is a disappointment.