The Western release of Fate/Grand Order is way behind from the original Japanese version. Although the updates have been picking up, some people have noticed a slight change in one of the characters in the Western release which have started a lot of discussions.
The recent Western trailer release for the popular smartphone game has shown to have the character Emiya Alter having lightened skin and lips. It is presumed that the change had to be done by the localization producer due to the character resembling blackface.
The tweet by CensoredGaming_ reveals the difference between the English version (top picture) and the Japanese version (bottom picture). The post also contains a screenshot of a statement from the game’s localization producer Albert Kao on Reddit which reads:
“When Emiya Alter came out, everybody was like ‘FUCK, what are you doing, Japan?’ Or when they just cross the line and be like, ‘hey, let’s combine like, loli and tentacles.’ Why, Japan?”
For objectionable things, NA will be like “please stop”. Sometimes JP agrees and changes it, sometimes they do it anyway. Which has happened, but he doesn’t have a good example he can talk about right now.
Sometimes he asks how people feel about Emiya Alter, and it’s generally not a favorable reaction. Even the relatively favorable reactions don’t think he’s ok to, say, post on the side of the Wells Fargo building. So for stuff like that, they have power to say “Japan, please stop, for the love of God.” (Related: Albert got permission to change the “Detroit Emiya” line, so that won’t be as bad…) They don’t want to dishonor artists’ intentions, but…
The English version of Fate/Grand Order has made a slight change to Emiya Alter's design to reduce similarities to blackface iconography. You can find a statement from the game's localization producer about this sort of thing below. pic.twitter.com/t9kVJ1geaf
— Censored Gaming (@CensoredGaming_) January 7, 2019
Since its release in 2015, Fate/Grand Order is one of the most popular series under the Fate franchise in which gained a couple of adaptations from anime, manga, stage play, an arcade game, etc. The game was also released for the United States and Canada in June 2017. The Japanese version of the game reached over 13 million downloads in May 2018 and 14 million as of August 2018.
The Arc 2 prologue was launched in the game’s Japanese version in late 2017, which was then followed with the first chapter released in April 2018. Game writer Kinoko Nasu said in a recent interview that the game “will end after Arc 2.”
Source: CensoredGaming_ (Twitter), Fate Grand Order (Reddit)
