Is Fire Emblem Engage censored?

Is Fire Emblem Engage censored? If you're asking that question, you're likely pondering what changes could have been made to the worldwide release that could sway your purchasing decision. Anyone who has followed the history of the recent Fire Emblem games will already know how often the games are tweaked for a worldwide audience, but anyone new looking to get started with this one might not. Here's what's going on.

For all intents and purposes, we can't confirm nor deny if Fire Emblem Engage is censored in the West. Multiple details have slipped out ahead of the full release, with curious fans digging in deep and cross-referencing with previews and reviews to find any shred of evidence to back up their claims.

For what we do know about the game, check out our Fire Emblem Engage preview and review. The former covers the first eight chapters of the game, and the latter includes our final score and thoughts on the whole package.

Is Fire Emblem Engage censored?

Without the game being freely available, it's impossible to confirm the suggestions that Fire Emblem Engage is censored. But it also wouldn't surprise us. The series has a history of toning down the storylines of certain characters to avoid any heavy hints of underage advances and other aspects that could land Nintendo in hot water.

Though the Japanese developer can get away with certain things in its native country, some of the staples of the franchise could be viewed as out of touch outside of Japan, or would risk causing the classification boards like the ESRB to rate the game in a way that would negatively impact reach. In other words, it's not worth the headache just to appease a vocal minority of players who scoff at anything straying from the product the developer originally envisioned.

• Check out: Tips for starting Fire Emblem Engage

In the case of Fire Emblem Engage, there's reason to believe it'll follow in the footsteps of games like Fire Emblem Fates, where certain Support conversations are tweaked to avoid any suggestion that a character romances anyone who would be considered underage elsewhere. The "petting" minigame was removed from Fates, references to any drugs were removed, and lines of dialogue relating to Soleil's sexuality were altered as well.

Fire Emblem Engage vs Fire Emblem Fates censorship

In Fire Emblem Engage, we can at least confirm that swimsuits are present for male and female characters, you can freely move the camera for photo opportunities, and there's at least talk of a character being an ex-assassin that's left in-tact. Those are three examples of aspects that were tweaked in Fates.

The closest example of this in the new game would be with Anna, a young merchant girl who, when chosen to be an S-rank Support, will talk about making Alear, the main character, a business partner. Early leaks and rough translations suggest the Japanese version of the game has the two characters take on a more traditional relationship but, again, this is far from confirmed.

The point here is that Fire Emblem Engage, though unconfirmed by any member of the team, could be censored in some way in the West. But not in a way that changes how the game plays. The Support mechanic is still there, you can dress your characters up in all sorts of costumes, and it still plays exactly like any other Fire Emblem game.

It's not the first game to tweak some aspects to adhere to the societal expectations of some of the places it's sold in, and it won't be last. And if you didn't come looking for the answer, you never would have known there was a question there in the first place.