Nintendo removes ‘gay conversion spiked drink plot’ from new game
Nintendo has confirmed that it is removing a plot line from a new game that allows the player to drug a lesbian woman’s drink with a magic potion.
In Fire Emblem: Fates, a tactical role playing game published by Nintendo for their 3DS system, the player’s character can form romantic relationships with any of the game’s characters and can even pursue same sex relationships.
However, the Japanese version of the game features a plot line where a lesbian character becomes distracted and flustered when she is with other women.
If the player’s character is male, this enables an option to drug her drink with a magic potion that makes her see male characters as female, and female characters as male in an attempt help her get used to female company.
This eventually leads to the lesbian character falling in love with and proposing to the player’s male character.
The plot line will remain in the Japanese version of the game.
However, according to a report on Nintendo World Report the gay conversion or drugging of characters will be removed from the UK and US releases, scheduled for later this year.
A Nintendo representative told Nintendo World Report: “In the version of the game that ships in the U.S. and Europe, there is no expression which might be considered as gay conversion or drugging that occurs between characters.”
The representative did not explain specifically how the game would be changed.
Nintendo has been criticised for its treatment of LGBT characters many times over the years, including back in 2013 when the company announced that they would be fixing a “bug” that allowed same-sex marriages in its life simulation game Tomodachi Life.
This sparked a campaign on social media in the hopes that Nintendo would officially incorporate same-sex marriage into the game, but Nintendo refused to do so.
However, the company has promised that same-sex relationships will appear in the games sequel.
Also, back in 2014 a senior producer at Nintendo announced that a popular character from the Mario series does not have a gender.
