Atlus has confirmed that certain scenes in Persona 5, which were considered homophobic and offensive by many fans, will be edited and altered in the Western release of Persona 5 Royal.
The publishers took grievance over the announcement while Persona 5 was first released, and given the time to think it over, have decided to edit both of these scenes for the game's coming near release.
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Publishers to modify the game to remove 'negative light'
Speaking to IGN, Atlus Communications Manager Ari Advincula explained that dialogues in positive scenes - mainly ones regarding Ryuji and effeminate male characters - would be modified so that those men wouldn't be in a "negative light."
"We were capable of going through a number of the lines that players won't have obtained as well, review the feedback, and then [update it] for the contemporary generation," Advincula stated. According to IGN, Atlus edited the Shibuya and seaside scenes to tone the issues down.
The dialogues in those scenes have been extensively criticized in Persona 5's Western release for plenty of reasons. Many fans recollect the depiction of those characters to be offensively stereotypical, supplying the maximum distinguished homophobic attitudes in Persona 5 as extraordinarily sexually aggressive (closer to a minor, no less) and intentionally ridiculous with intent of creating their "weirdness" the joke. The scene worsened by the reality that your protagonist provides in addition to insensitive responses to their actions.
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In an interview with GameSpot's Michael Higham, Sega, and Atlus senior project manager and localization expert Yu Namba said the localization team felt awkward about the scene and decided to examine if they could do something about the scenes for Persona 5 Royal's scene.
The characters' original depiction, according to Namba, is "more like predatory." He added the change in Royal reframes the situation, so the NPC characters are "extreme enthusiasts for something they are doing."
Atlus described Royal as "a chance to make it right"
While Atlus didn't share precisely how those scenes might be up to date in response to these complaints, Advincula asked if they could be addressed was one of the first things she did while joining the team. "That's essential to me, and I think it's vital to the network as well."
The localization team, according to Advincula, has an "inner content material review group," she described as "very on the pulse approximately what's right and what to do." She explained Royal was "a hazard to make it proper."
That stated, reports around Royal's Japanese launch late last year seemed to suggest those conversations were usually unaltered in Japanese, and nobody knows precisely what the updates for the Western release will appear.
Atlus also told IGN that fans shouldn't give up support for a Persona 5 port on Switch, asking them to maintain telling them they wanted it or they might by no means be capable of making it. Persona 5 Royal is out inside the West on March 31.
Namba explained that the change was not easy. He said the team took a lot of effort consulting from both the production and marketing department regarding how the publishers would react about it if they changed how things were in Persona 5 to a new approach.
