Fire Emblem Fates Will Introduce Same-Sex Marriage to the Series

StewShearerOld

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Jan 5, 2013
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Fire Emblem Fates Will Introduce Same-Sex Marriage to the Series


Fire Emblem Fates will make it possible for the player character to fall in love with and marry a member of the same sex.

While <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/tag/view/fire%20emblem?os=fire+emblem>Fire Emblem as a series boasts great tactical gameplay, the heart and soul of the series is arguably its focus on relationships. The soldiers in your army aren't just faceless cannon fodder, they're fully fledged characters who can bond with their comrades and, in many cases, fall in love, get married and even have children. As much as many fans adore this mechanic however, there have been some holes in its execution. Up until now, the game has only allowed for heterosexual romances. According to recent reports however, that's all about to change.

Speaking about the game, <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/tag/view/nintendo>Nintendo has confirmed that the next entry in the long-running RPG series will include options for the player character to pursue a same-sex relationship with another member of the cast. "We can confirm that <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/video-games/conferences/e3-2015/14133-Fire-Emblem-If-Now-Fire-Emblem-Fates-Coming-West-Next-Year>Fire Emblem Fates for Nintendo 3DS, which launches in Japan on June 25, 2015, and is coming to the U.S. and Europe in 2016, includes the possibility for a same-sex marriage to take place between the main character created by the gamer and another character in the game," said Nintendo.

Elaborating, the company stated that the same-sex relationship options will be restricted based on which version of the game you purchase. As previously reported, Fates will be split into two game which, Nintendo has now revealed, will be dubbed Conquest and Birthright in the United States and Europe. "In the Conquest edition of the game, there is a male character that the game's player may have his/her male main character marry after they bond in battle," explained the company. "Similarly, the Birthright edition features a female character that a female main character may marry after bonding in battle." Nintendo would go on to say that a "third edition" of the game containing both same-sex options will be made available as DLC "at a later stage."

Speaking personally as someone excited for Fates, I'm left feeling like Nintendo might be blundering a bit by dividing up the romance options. Don't get me wrong, I think its great that Fire Emblem is moving forward with same-sex relationships, especially when you consider how Nintendo has responded to this issue in the past. That said, putting one gender's same-sex option in one game but not another is something that could genuinely affect how much some gamers are able to enjoy the different versions. It also feels a bit cheap to me that gaining access to all of the romantic options will basically make it necessary to purchase DLC down the road. What do you guys think? Is Nintendo erring on this one or am I just being overly negative about what's otherwise actually fairly good news?

Source: <a href=http://www.polygon.com/2015/6/23/8836513/fire-emblem-fates-same-sex-relationships-nintendo>Polygon


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RaikuFA

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What about us bisexulal polygamists? I wanna marry both a guy and girl.

Nintendo's so backwards thinking.
 

Aerosteam

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Sep 22, 2011
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I don't mind if they're splitting up male same sex romance in one version and female on the other, they're splitting up the cast of characters after all so there's a chance that would happen.
 

Eclipse Dragon

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"In the Conquest edition of the game, there is a male character that the game's player may have his/her male main character marry after they bond in battle," explained the company. "Similarly, the Birthright edition features a female character that a female main character may marry after bonding in battle." Nintendo would go on to say that a "third edition" of the game containing both same-sex options will be made available as DLC "at a later stage."
That's.... a really strange way to do it.
Nintendo really seems to want people to buy all the versions.[footnote]or at least two if you can buy the third DLC without buying both Birthright and Conquest[/footnote]
 

ShenCS

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Just as a sidenote: Fire Emblem as a series has definitely allowed for homosexual relationships before (hell, they went so far as to make Ike, the main character of two of their games, gay), they just tend to be less obvious and require a bit of reading between the lines because apparently it was considered MORE problematic to depict than incest. What a strange time we lived through.

More on topic, it's rather distressing how far they seem to be going to make me not want to buy these games out of protest. The split game thing is STILL a blatant money grab and I'm furious that nobody else was complaining loud enough to make them pack that shit in for the international release. But now you CAN'T even say that each game offers a complete suite of options because they managed to cock this up to. Why? Why are they doing it like this? Awakening pulled the series from the brink of death and so they're trying to pull shit like this immediately? What the hell are they thinking?
If they had just been like: "Hey, here's that cool game you liked only different and three times as big, spare a copper?" I would be constantly having to buy new trousers with every update, but now? Urgh. I should not be questioning whether or not I want to support my absolute favourite video game franchise.
 

Gearhead mk2

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It is really weird to limit the options depending on the game, and I'm not sure how it'd work if there's a bi character present, but speaking as an asexual guy I'm excited by this. Awakening had some great totally-not-romance-honest supports between same sex characters so seeing them get official recognition is nice. Question though, won't this affect the age rating? I thought, in the US at least, any direct mention of a gay character got stuff slapped with an automatic 15 label.
 

Scarim Coral

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Is Conquest Nohr and Birthright is Hoshido?

Either way, yeah I agree making a single gay/ lesbian character depending which versions you get is not that forward especially when there is only ONE gay/ lesbian in the game. Ideally there should be a few more gay and lesbian characters and you, your avatar can persude whoever you want that to marry is if the character is gay/ lesbian in the first place.

In saying so I have a feeling who could be the gay character in Nohr/ Conquest althought I could be just sterotyping a little bit?
 

Fappy

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They should have just made 2 lesbian and 2 gay dudes and split them evenly between the versions. The way they're doing it is super weird.
 

Secondhand Revenant

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Just the way they put it is odd. I'm just imagining people being like "Oh which version did you get?" "The gay version." "Oh cool I got the lesbian version!"
 

Slycne

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I agree with the sentiment that this is odd, though a step forward is still good. I know you can get the DLC down the line, but sucks that you're out of luck initially if your preferred story perspective and romantic option don't line up.
 

Oroboros

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Gotta echo some of the other comments-not only is splitting the game itself into two (three if you count the DLC campaign) something of a rubbish move, but having one be the game with the male-male relationship and the other with the lesbian relationship seems pretty stupid.Having only one homosexual option option per gender is already kinda a bummer in a series that features relationship building so heavily, but putting each of those in a separate game? That seems pretty low, IMO.
 

EbonBehelit

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ShenCS said:
(hell, they went so far as to make Ike, the main character of two of their games, gay)
Errrrrr...... what?

On topic though, it seems odd that they'd partition player romance options by game version like this - it essentially makes the game split into gay/lesbian versions for those that care about it.

It's also a bit interesting to think that same-sex marriage is going to be a thing in a series aesthetically based on a time period where such a thing would've been tantamount to absolute heresy... not that I have the slightest issue with it mind you.
 

Karadalis

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Heh... gay relationships are now treated like pokemon...

If you want a scyther you better buy the red version.

Wonder if you can trade gay npcs if you have both versions XD
 

Hades

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There are only two characters that fall for the same sex. Those are also the two characters depicted as psychopath's. One is a sadist and the other drew clear inspiration from Awakenings Tharja.

Oh Nintendo, one step forward and one step back.
 

EternallyBored

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inu-kun said:
Wait, didn't they say there's gonna be character's children in the game? So I guess people will need to let go of 2 bonus characters for their fanfic.
This is pretty easily sidestepped by having the child character be adopted if the PC pursues the same sex romance option, there's no real reason that the gay couples can't have kids showing up after the timeskip. The only thing that would be different than heterosexual couples would be that it usually has the child inherit the hair color of one of the parents, but that's easily handled as well.

I don't how Nintendo will handle it, but there isn't any reason you need to miss out on child characters just for choosing one option.
 

Eclipse Dragon

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EbonBehelit said:
ShenCS said:
(hell, they went so far as to make Ike, the main character of two of their games, gay)
Errrrrr...... what?
They never bluntly said "I love you" but exhibit A [http://fireemblem.wikia.com/wiki/Soren/Supports]

Ike and Soren's support conversations fuel many ships.
[sub](Also Soren is devastating when he has A level support and Ike is the easiest of very few options to get that with)[/sub]
 

Baresark

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I personally am only annoyed how they are splitting the games cast like they are. I'm sure the story will be basically the same between the two. I am just annoyed about the Pokemon style game splitting we are looking at.
 

NPC009

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Aug 23, 2010
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Eclipse Dragon said:
EbonBehelit said:
ShenCS said:
(hell, they went so far as to make Ike, the main character of two of their games, gay)
Errrrrr...... what?
They never bluntly said "I love you" but exhibit A [http://fireemblem.wikia.com/wiki/Soren/Supports]

Ike and Soren's support conversations fuel many ships.
[sub](Also Soren is devastating when he has A level support and Ike is the easiest of very few options to get that with)[/sub]
Ike struck me more as asexual, but Soren... yeah.

I always think it's sad when they don't get A support, but when they do my brain does this [http://awkwardzombie.com/index.php?page=0&comic=011915] because spoilers.