One of the big controversies lately in Nintendo gaming is the ‘petting’ aspect of gameplay in Fire Emblem Fates. In the Japanese version of the game, players use the stylus to rub on a character’s face and develop a bond with that character—while the character makes moaning noises, we might add—and naturally, the news broke that this feature had been removed from the game for its western release.
Since that initial rumor, there has been debate ongoing as to whether this is true or not, or to what extent this facet of gameplay might have vanished.
Nintendo has finally come forward to give their own statement on the issue, thanks to Kotaku who reached out to the company:
“In certain circumstances, S-Level characters are able to wake up their spouses by blowing into the microphone or by tapping the screen to touch their hair, face or shoulder. These randomly triggered events are unrelated to the mini-game in the Japanese version.”
So the aspect of the game remains, but it’s only for characters with an S-Level bond. This also means the feature is not part of the petting ‘mini-game’ that caused so much commotion. It’s similar, but not the same. And that’s final. Now we know. Will this make anyone happy or just cause more ruckus? We’ll be over here, waiting.
