Fire Emblem Fates: Operation #TorrentialDownpour

This arm of the OP is something everyone has a chance to make a difference in.  The goal is simple: We want the investors and executives in Nintendo of Japan to sit up and pay attention.  We want them to understand that the story they're being fed, or that the business practice of altering that they believe in is unnecessary and obtrusive.  We want to finally begin to repeal the years and years and YEARS of unnecessary, over-sensitive edits of material made by localization, and for those developers to generate content with as little so-called "cultural" obstruction as possible.

 

And for all of that, we need to START with execs and investors paying attention to their profits.  And for that to happen, we need numbers.  We need you.  All of you.

 

If you are slighted by Nintendo's decisions regarding not just the alterations of Fire Emblem, but also that of Xenoblade Chronicles X, Fatal Frame 5 Maiden of Black Water, and over two decades of games, then we want your help.  You, as a customer, deserve to be heard.  And right now, the biggest, loudest message we can send directly to Nintendo with no filter is ALTERING where their profits sit.

 

What you'll need to do is buy your copy of Fire Emblem if online.  NOT the EU version, and NOT the US version.  Buy the Japanese version, and buy it retail if at all possible.  Next, photocopy or print a copy of the purchase invoice.  Afterward, write a brief, polite, personalized letter to Nintendo of Japan conveying the above message that you, as a paying customer, want the full and unedited experience the game has to offer.  As an extra step (do so if you can—there are resources that would help), make a copy of this message in Japanese.

 

On an envelope or postal tube, stuff your two message copies (English & Japanese) and pic of the game invoice (and even a pic of the game and invoice, if you feel like) inside, and send your letter to the following:

 

Tatsumi Kimishima, in care of Nintendo Corporation

Nintendo Company, Ltd. 11-1 Kamitoba-hokotate-cho, Minami-ku, Kyoto 601-8501 Japan

 

Send your letter as Certified Mail, and be sure to request a sign-on-delivery ticket so you know the letter was delivered.  Then, post the results.  Tell your friends, tell your forum haunts.  Tell anyone willing to listen.  You have a power as a customer, as we all do.  And if we all combine that power, we can make an impact that will finally start the conversation that the media is too cowardly to mediate or initiate, and the executives are too anxious to try on their own.  As customers free of chains like non-disclosure agreements and corporate subterfuge, this is now our responsibility to use the power to tell the merchants what we want, instead of having a filter team do it for us.

 

If you're not willing to buy a copy, what you can do is just as simple and follows the same principles.  Go to an online retailer—Amazon, Gamestop, etc.  What you'll want to do is open the Fire Emblem Fates, or even Bravely Second preorder pages, and then take a picture with your camera phones (taking care in that your location tracker data is OFF for that picture—safety first, please).  The next move will be hitting up Nintendo in your region's social media, sending in a physical letter, or both.  What the messages would contain, politely and seriously, is what features or designs or gimmicks or whathaveyou would have to be present in the game for you to buy it.  Please be mindful to treat this as if you were at an actual deal table.  You are telling Nintendo straight out what it would take to get you to put physical money on their product in support of it.  Your money is important, so be truthful.  Polite, but truthful.  

 

There are many reading this that are fans of other affected franchises.  Don't feel left out, as we're here with you.  Do you have a copy of that game?  Or even, do you have a copy of Awakening?  Xenoblade Chronicles?  How about Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water?  Bravely Default?  Know a title that has been censored or altered?  Take a picture.  If you still have the invoice, take that picture, too.  And send a letter to Japan.  Tell Nintendo what disappoints you about the alterations.  Proposition them on what it would take to ensure this never happens again in future titles or franchise sequels.  You're allowed to do that, since you loved the series enough to try and get pass the unnecessary alterations.

 

And finally, be sure to spread the word.  Polite and even-headed discourse is your best weapon of persuasion.  There are opponents to this entire idea of you, the customer, having a say in what is going on.  And that's, to be blunt, bullshit.  What we want is an undoctored product that holds the vision of the developers.  What we pay for is the gameplay and features those developers put serious man hours and even personal sacrifice in order to get into the hands of the players.  The minimal display of respect we could give those creators is to play the game as they originally intentioned.  

 

Don't be beaten down by the arguments.  They're based almost entirely in subjective values and hypocrisy (such as saying that you, a customer, don't belong in a conversation about what you will and will not buy.  The media works for YOU, not the other way around).  Take heart in that there are others that stand with you.  Help those people up and let's take this fight to the heart of the matter and clear up this extra flab for good.  

 

This guide will be continually updated with links to resources you can use in this campaign, including mailing addresses, merchant sites with brief descriptors on how useful they are, videos and articles, and more.  Centralize, organize, and focus on doing your small part, and we'll win this.