Bravely Second "Tomahawk" Costume Change Confirmed For The West

Just wait - there will be censorship complains down in the comments section, but this time it makes sense to change (unlike most).

This is a strange change. Is the original in any way offensive to native Americans? Surely if you were a native American, you'd be more offended by the removal of your race, not to mention being replaced by Cowboys.

@Octoling What part of it makes sense? Because for me, it clearly doesn't.

@Moon Exactly my thoughts. Do they at least ask the people that it may offend if it's ok to use it. The idea of removing something because you think it may offend is sometimes more offensive than just using it. Not everyone are butthurt children on the internet.

I like the look of the cowboy but I liked the Tomahawk costume too.

As an unbiased European, I feel "offended" by the change itself, and not by the original content. At the very least, the Native American costume was a lot more unique.

It didn't really make sense to have one of the jobs be a racial stereotype while the rest of the jobs are more or less actual "jobs," like knight, priest, pirate... cat thing... time mage... okay... well... you get it.

"Meh." is what I thought when it was a rumor and "meh." is what I think now.

As a native cowboy i feel offended by this change.

I prefer the cowboy outfit, but this sort of PC tomfoolery has long, looooong since grown stale.

This is the strangest censoring I've seen in a game to date. Maybe because I'm not from the USA I don't quite see any problems with the Tomahawk class.

Hopefully the change works well ingame. xD

This change is kinda racist, to be honest. It's not like the costume was a Washington Redskins thing.

@Mode7 That's a good point. If there was a "white man" job it'd surely offend some people.

I guess that felt they could avoid complains about the costume by changing it. People seem easily offended by such things to be honest.

What I don't get is WHY people are still talking about this ?? I'm sure most of you are not even Native American. They don't need you to defend them, they can defend themselves if they feel this offended them !

I don't see sense in changing the class — indian costume is just that, an indian costume, are we going to get a dogmancer because cats get offended? No consequence of the radical indian-to-cowboy change actually shows how bland and generic can this job be — it doesn't even have enough character to be required for the game as it is

They could just have altered costume to be indian approved like Thunder in Killer Instinct.

Now we got exclusive class for west so as european i see no reason for complaining before i know what is the real difference between those two classes. or is it just costume for one character?

I "HATE" censoring stuff that shouldn't matter just to please people who don't even play video games. I know this is Square doing this one but I'm still annoyed at all of Nintendos choices to censor stuff.

I was not offended before, I'm not offended now, both look nice to me, and I really don't care if they change the name or the head outfit.

We can all say "it's not like this is as bad as the Washington Redskins name/logo", but I'm sure, even today, there are people saying "it's not like the Washington Redskins logo is as bad as old cowboy movies" and so on and so on. The fact of the matter is, none of us know if SquareEnix's North American or Western divisions have been in touch with Native American representatives - it's very likely that they've shown someone the material and received an opinion. These types of organizations are very common in the entertainment industry. It's becoming a common sentiment, and one I agree with, that representing an ethnic or racial group as a costume is unacceptable - at least when it's one you don't belong to. There will come a time, by the way, when this will generate outrage in Japan too. Then we won't even be having this discussion.

I actually think the original design is beautiful, so this is one time that censorship really bothers me.

It isnt a huge disappointment or anything, just lame. Censoring out something that I'm not sure had to ever be censored to begin with. I mean, Killer Instinct has Chief Thunder

@mode7 A tomahawk isnt a racial stereotype, It's a general purpose tool that native americans created. If anything, Cowboy is a bit more stereotypical because a cow herder doesnt even use guns.

I think the issue is more with the hypersexualised/fashionable look rather than it actually being Native American. It reminds me of the issue over No Doubt's Looking Hot video where Gwen Stefani was a hypersexualised Native American damsel-in-distress. That video was taken down in 24 hours.

Thank you for actually pointing out that it's not clear why this is offensive Damien. It usually annoys me how many writers just accept these sorts of things as somehow clearly rational.
With this and the boob slider in Xenoblade, Nintendo really are going too far with this stuff. They're censoring completely harmless things from their games.
So far it's been fairly trivial stuff so it's not that big a problem. If they continue with this attitude, sooner or later it's going to cause problems though.

I think it's worst to replace it by a Cowboy outfit than just slightly change it. Seriously it's worst than censorship if you replace a Native American by a Cowboy.

Chief Thunder from Killer Instinct has just shed a tear over this pointless change.

But I'm sure the "Nintendo can do no wrong" crowd as well as the PC police will eat this up and talk down to anyone who dares question this pointless censorship.

@Moon Many Native Americans are offended by this kind of thing the same as they are by the over the top Indian chief in something like Peter Pan or the mascot of popular football teams. Depending on how the individual acted while having this costume on it would be the same as having a black class who was a stereotype.

We don't generally find it offensive because Native Americans are a dying race and there aren't enough true survivors of the tribes left that most of us don't feel the need to censor this kind of thing.

It's been "censored" for the west because it is offensive to appropriate an entire culture as a "costume" or worse a gag or joke. American Indians have had to deal with this for over 200 years and in a modern world this shouldn't really continue. Does anyone here find "blackface" acceptable? Dressing as a Native person for entertainment is the equivalent.

I remember fondly the days were gamers were against censorship.

Eh, as a native European, I forbid every single Japanese and American company to ever use medieval costumes, ever. Have fun. I'll also retroactively sue Disney for their use of European fairy tales, how dare they?!

Good Heavens.

@Moon (Not Native American) If i was to take a guess, Tomahawk is not a "job", it is a weapon, that in this case is being used to describe a job, that is in reference to what is essentially a warrior, but a Native American one, and then dressing it up in Native American garbs. Its making a separation on the term warrior by race, hence the offense.

This is Nintendo of 2016 all over , Should Be called Law Enforcement Nintendo Department LEND , Nobody got offended except Nintendo . I'm more offended by the cliche western blonde hair blue eyed stereotypes in most adventure and rpg games but that story is for another day.

I am hating this current trend to remove and change content in case it offends anyone. I just want to play the game the developers designed without someone deciding it's inappropriate.

I respect our Native people but there really was no harm intended with that costume. Plus there are many Native inspired themes already in the West like: Tomahawk Man, Chicago Blackhawks, and various other forms of media.

@ThrowMeBarrel "Nobody got offended except Nintendo.": no, not at all. Nintendo is simply carefully avoiding media hysteria in the countries they release their games in, hence why those games release uncensored in Japan. This political correctness is typical of the US, it's there that the concept was born, before it contaminated parts of Europe through cultural dominance.

If you're upset at this decision, act to change your country's mentality. Nintendo would have been happy not caring about that stuff.

The Tomahawk outfit was far better.

If you look at the original outfit, it actually shows - shock, horror - some upper thigh, and we all know that's not allowed any more. Like the Bravo Bikini in the first game, a heterosexual male might have gained a slight sliver of enjoyment out of it - the greatest crime there is nowadays.

@BoilerBroJoe You're telling me that everyone will agree when there are no dissenting opinions? Thanks for stating the obvious, Joe!

I'd prefer to have those opinions stay. Why, you ask? It's because if your "tolerance" belief is innately superior, then it should win out through ethos and through logos, not just through pathos.

*minor edit - the last sentence flows so much better without "intervention of the state," so I took that out. No other changes to be noted.

_{Let's avoid making jokes that will clearly offend a lot of people, thanks. (Jazzer)}

@ThrowMeBarrel Nah, just resettling NoA near Liberty University (wherever the heck that is) should be enough.

Just make sure it stays away from both the West and East coasts.

This is something that has baffled me about the First Nations here in NA. People dress up as natives, do native themed events or including them in stuff, they are offending their culture so they get angry. No one wears native stuff, no themed native events and native stuff removed and change to not offend them, they get offended saying we are not including them enough. Really, it is a n lose lose situation. If they include stuff, the media or people blow it up, if they don't, then the media or people blow it up. It's no wonder we are so messed up here.

At this point I'm just sort of tired and know I'll not bother buying an NX, I can't support censorship and only will only not penalize it if it's to be compliant with the ESRB.

I mean damn people say they want representation and then get mad when it isn't their vision and others get mad when it isn't there how does a person win this insane game outside not playing at all?

@sonicmeerkat
That's definitely true. It's like when people say they want female characters in all games and then as soon as Call of Duty included them, a newspaper wrote an article about how the game is trying to encourage girls to be more violent (yes, that happened).
Everyone has to realize that a subsection of the media is set up to simply generate controversy for the sake of clicks/sales. It just seems utterly bizarre that developers would ever base their decisions on it. It would be so easy for them to simply poll their audience to see how something will be received.

*sits back

*sips tea

*smiles casually

Oh well... (Things happen.)

@Simbabbad No but this is where you are wrong , Japan despite having a load of quirky and weird ideas and big international businesses is actually quite a xenophobic country as a whole , The Japanese would go ape sh*t if a japanese person were to ridicule or misrepresent their own country in front of an international audience . The US is the LAST country to be afraid of portraying any stereotypes of ethnicity in media , Over here in the UK We have a wide range of media specifically for particular ethnicity groups . Nintendo needs to get out the dark ages , Although they are doing this out of good intentions it actually reveals more wider issues and the question is why not include different cultural references especially when countries like america have a wide ethnic background and not just white people as asia would like to believe. We don't see many character of black or indian or latin culture in japanese video games , a lot of japanese games are universally stereotyped and racist compared to western media .

Just curious...since they're giving the cowboy a stereotypical southern drawl, did the "Tomahawk" job come with a stereotypical Native American accent? Because that could've been issue. Either way, the Japanese (and many nations outside the U.S. ... this was especially apparent if you took the Capretz French classes in high school) view Native Americans as cartoon characters, because that's the way we've historically portrayed them. Same with cowboys, really. The difference is that cowboy is a job, Native Americans are a people and a culture.

@WiiHawk
Cowboy is a job? So the people who dressed like that changed into a suit and tie after they'd finished work?

The "savage" stereotype IS offensive. I'm not part of a tribe or anything, but I have family members that are and I have some native blood. When you present a caricature of a "priest" or a "merchant" you are generalizing an occupation. When you do it to a war painted "tomahawk" class, you are generalizing a group of people, and not in a positive way. The "savage" image is the reason so many were killed or forced to become "civilized."

For those of us in the USA and follow American Football, there was a big stink over the Redskins name that still goes on to this day. I'm sure NOA was keenly aware of this and used that as their reason to change it.

This change is stupid, and annoys me. I'm still getting the game, this time, but I won't keep buying into games that annoy me forever.

Saying the original was just a stereotype of an average Native American person is like saying a Knight class is a stereotype of an average European. People just know the bare minimum about European culture, unlike Native American culture, to be able to recognize a sword and armor as tools of war instead of everyday casual wear.

This change is completely unnecessary. The Tomohawk job looked great and if anything, was an homage to the Native Americans. Replacing said job with a Cowboy one is absurd and if ever anyone was to be offended; now would be an apt time. Censorship in general bothers me. Just leave the game as intended!

Welp, not buying this game anymore. I only had two reasons for buying Bravely Second in the first place. The main reason was that I played Bravely Default, so of course I'd want to try out the continuation. The second was for the Tomahawk costume. Since the story wasn't really overwhelming, and I just wanted to go full tomahawk team, I think I'll just say screw it and ditch the Bravely franchise. Or buy the JP superior version sometime.

How on Earth did Bayonetta 2 ever make it onto a Nintendo platform without significant censorship?

Well, wasn't buying this anyway, but sorry for the people who were.

@Mode7 Yeah, exactly! "Tomahawk" isn't a job, and Native people face tons of discrimination as it is.

By contrast, the Bishop is incredibly Catholic (prays multiple times as a skill; totally Catholic, haha), but: a) Catholics don't really face discrimination per se, and b) Bishop is a legit thing that Catholics can be. I'm Catholic and my reaction was just "prays twice, lol" because I can reasonably assume I won't face that sort of thing in real life.

@Ralizah Speaking of Bayonetta, I wonder if there's people screaming over her being toned down in Smash Bros? In that particular case, they actually did a really good job of toning her down without taking away her character in my opinion.

Everything offends me.

Native Americans replaced by cowboys. This news is about 150 years old is it not?

I would have been fine with it. They're not wearing headdresses or carrying a beer bottle. I'm also fine with it being out. The mere mention of Native American offends people. :/

That cowboy one is nice. This has no affect in my life what so ever. In fact if it wasn't for this site i never would have known.

I'm pretty sure most Native Americans just think it's laughable that Americans, especially European Americans, are still so riddled with guilt and irrational behavior that we can't figure out what we're doing.

They were terraforming the land and building impressive towns for hundreds of years (thousands of years ago for some cultures). The area surrounding Washington DC was inhabited by a merchant tribe called the Piscataway, who essentially taught the lost child that was "Lord" Baltimore everything there was to know about Maryland, Northern Virginia, Southern Pennsylvania, and of course the place that would become our nation's capital. And of course, it cannot be reiterated enough that the US Constitution (and subsequent democratically based founding documents) was largely inspired by the terms (or "amendments", if you will) of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy's Great Law of Peace.

Many tribes had fully fledged nations by the end of the 15th century, when Spanish Conquistadors came to ravage (both intentionally and unintentionally) the American continents and their people. If we were to draw a map of tribal territories and state boundaries at the time, it would probably vary as much as all of Asia. Most of those depicted by the Tomahawk class here were Plains tribes, but even they had their own equivalents of governmental laws and structures in place, and some tribes even had lore rivaling those of Norse mythology. Some tribes, such as the Lakota, even had wise insights on governance through their culture: Authority itself held no instrinsic respect. Their culture and governance were entirely meritocratic, which is a fundamental tenet of democratic principles.

The problem here is that most of the people who plan out these costumes and approve them (or not) have absolutely no clue about Native American history, and absolutely no clue on the pulse of the modern surviving tribes. If you don't have any clue what you're referencing, then be more general about it. Celtic tribes two thousand years ago also wore leather clothes, and wielded axes (and probably throwing axes, too) against various empires, including the Roman Empire. The Celts were actually a lot like the Native Americans of two thousand years ago in many ways. Despite some of the savage things they did, they're most often referenced for the more brilliant parts of their cultures. That's all you have to do.

Stop floundering around worrying you're going to offend someone, and instead pay attention to history. If you learn, then you'll know why the Redskins team name and iconography are racist, but the depictions made in various video games (including Skies of Arcadia and Rogue Galaxy) can be poignant nods to history.

So why does Europe have to get this changed as well?

I don't know how many (if any) NLers also happen to have Native American ancestry to some extent, but frankly I think it doesn't look as offensive as, say, a blackface costume would be (just ask Jynx). Aside from the sad fact Native Americans have become a minority over the years, I wouldn't otherwise see anything offensive about the "Tomahawk" costume at all in the first place. Then again, I am European and maybe due to cultural differences some concepts might fly above my head.

I agree with comment #1, #22, etc. Maybe, just maybe this change isn't a case of censorship.

@PlywoodStick Whoa, I wish we had a like button for this post! Good history lesson for us non-Americans (I'm Canadian and I didn't know some of this).

I hadn't thought of the possibility that they could have done it respectfully with a little research and it would've been fine. You're probably very right.

Sigh, just...sigh.

Everybody should watch the movie "Bamboozled." It's not directly about video games, or even Native Americans, but it relates to every group of people that has been dehumanized by the media.

@World Yes, I think that the Tomahawk class could have been something which invokes a sense of honor and history for Native Americans. When I first read about the concept of "counting coup", and the intense proud feelings many tribes have for their warriors and military history, I learned that they often have a different concept of warfare than others. Yet, they share a core value of protecting the family unit which I think many Americans who serve in the military also have. So there is actually some hidden comradery of values to be found there between the traditional values of many tribes, and the traditional values of many European descended Americans, particularly in Southern "cowboys" and military families. That potential sharing of values can get lost when we focus too much on differences of appearance.

Native American tribes were at odds with each other on how to deal with the "cowboys", too. For example, there was actually a fairly even split between those who supported the North and the South in the American Civil War. Some tribes in the South even felt that despite the inherent racism of the American Confederacy, the North was a more threatening enemy because they were more likely to destroy their land for large city developments, dismantle and convert Native American cultures, and were largely unreceptive to American Indian (particularly Cherokee) ambassadors. (Not to mention the Andrew Jackson mandated Trail of Tears was a fresh gaping wound.) Ironically, there was a brief moment when "cowboys and (some) Indians" were actually fighting on the same side.

There's no reason Bravely Second couldn't have a Tomahawk and a Hawkeye fighting on the same side either, I think. Or perhaps even a cool dual tech move with the two?

I doubt any Native Americans would be offended by this but then again we do live in the age of butthurt where everyone is offended by everything. I wish we were still a society that could just say 'Sorry. Deal with it' when people got offended about things like we used to.

It's hilarious how oversensitive our society has become.

@JesWood13
I know, right?

@sonicmeerkat Avoiding stereotypes would be nice.

So are we going to have cowboys that use axes instead of guns or are they actually making the appropriate changes? Why not change the name of the class to cowboy? What happens if Japan decides they want to add cowboys to Bravely Default 3?

Anyways I think it's stupid to remove the class. Sure, it's a little stereotypical, but it's not like the ninja class is the pinnacle of historical accuracy either.

I'm a white american and I take offense to this change. sarcasm

Good on them for showing good will to Native Americans.

Schools were sued last year by minorities claiming their team names were offensive to minorities including Native Americans.

This is one step closer until Gaming reflects diversity of the players.

@Dezzy You're just bing goofy. Cowboy, by definition: "A hired man, especially in the western United States, who tends cattle and performs many of his duties on horseback." Wearing the hat and the boots doesn't make you a cowboy.

localisation should not exists.all we need is subtitles.thats it.

How a character is portrayed should define whether or not something is offense rather than simply what they wear. Wearing a Native American costume isn't an insult against the culture. Blackface/yellow face in movies was on a different scale because they overtly slammed those characters with greatly exaggerated sterotypes and intentional acts of stupidity. They were intended to be laughed at. The characters from Bravely Second are not portrayed in a negative light nor do they cross any threshold of acceptability. There will always be some people who cry about stuff like this, but if they get butt hurt so easy tough crap. More often than not its just bleeding hearts who aren't even the race portrayed that whine just because they want attention. This game is too low key to really get much hate anyway (which it wouldn't happen) and ironically negativity creates positive hype/attention in a lot of cases lol.

So dumb. The thing is, more often than not its just a bunch of bleeding hearts who "support" the minority in question. But don't listen to me, I'm just privileged a white guy.

All these changes in localisation to avoid possible offence is really starting to bug me. I'm starting to consider not buying games that's on my "possibly buy" list if something has been censored in it. Since I'm undecided about if I want Bravely Second or Fire Emblem Fates, I might give these games a miss.

I have Cherokee in my heritage. I wasn't offended.

Admittedly, I'm pretty ignorant on the Native American background (or ANY history at all really xD;: )
But wasn't the issue here about the meaning behind the Headdress? (which is clearly NOT what the censored costume here depicts & funnily enough tossed in animal x-ing)

I'm with Moon in that I'd find having a race left out rather than just making a lil tweak to fix the actual problem area to be more offensive..

*Well put, @Darthllama!

Shame, it was a pretty cool looking class too..

@PlywoodStick Wow, that's really interesting! I really don't know enough about American history. But forget Bravely Second, now I just want a game based on this history!

Um, using a tribal/native american aesthetic isn't exactly new in rpgs of a fantasy bent. I would hope they're changing the class name to something befitting the new look.

Good tag line.

Also can people stop invoking the one drop rule? It is a logical fallacy to do so. If your great grandmother was a Native American and you have no understanding of the culture of the nation/tribe you descended from then you aren't who the localization team is concerned about offending. It is the people that are predominantly Native American or have a influencing connection to that culture. Not sure why that is so difficult to understand. I have Irish and French ancestors but know nothing (beyond what I've read) about those cultures so when someone does something offensive to them I don't weigh in. I let the people actually immersed in those cultures say something.

Also kudos to Nintendo for having the foresight to avoid a possible defamation suit levied against them. Native American tribes/nations can't stand how they are portrayed in the media...and rightfully so.

I'd rather have the native american than the cowboy, but really neither one fully fits into a fantasy rpg in my opinion. If you want a gun toting character then go for it, there are plenty of types in fantasy rpg games that dont have to sound like a southerner. If you want a native type character with melee then go for it as well. Again both of these have been done before. I think the only offending thing that may have existed in the tomahawk character was the headdress. Remove that and you can still have a native american type character and keep most people pretty happy.

So the cowboy class killed off the native American class. Isn't that somehow... more offensive?

@Xenocity The sports team names such as Redskins and Warriors, with traditional tribal headdresses and such (which are mostly utilized by Plains Tribes, and particularly not by Atlantic Ocean bordering tribes), are offensive for the same reasons we don't have any teams called the "Whiteskins" (or Skinheads) with a depiction of a modern Infantry soldier. If a national sports team used some goofy, cartoony looking guy (like "Chief Wahoo" for the Cleveland Indians) in a Marine helmet and with a stereotypical "skinhead" caricature, military families nationwide would be PISSED.

And wouldn't removing their presence entirely after they were already in be considered far more insensitive than just reiterating them as an interesting character persona? (Or just "meh" about the stupidity of it all.)

It's kind of sad how this thread reveals the true racism and cultural bigotry of this fan base. Those saying "get over it" or "it's not as bad as blackface" are really just showing their ignorance.

They "Americanized" it to a comical extent.

Native American to Cowboy.

Hawk to Eagle.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/PoliticalCorrectnessGoneMad

@World Yeah, after seeing Valkyria Chronicles, I think historical or historical fiction games are a ripe field to explore!

So is this censhorship or is the change made based on context?

stands up, does tomahawk chop motion

OOOOOOOOOOOH OH-OHOHOOOOOOOOOH
OHOHOHOOOOOOOOOH
OHOHOHOOOOOOOOOH

@CosmoXY Totally agree. I was expecting some, but I'm a bit surprised there's so much of it in the comments here. Even seeing lines in the actual article like "it's not entirely clear why it would have caused upset in the first place."

I've never understood how you can tell somebody to 'get over it' when you haven't been through what they have. Or seeing lines here like 'Well, I'm an unbiased European, and I think it's fine'.

@Technosphile Hey... You okay there, buddy? You know we're all here for you. Just, uh... Let us know if... If you want to talk about something. You know. Just whatever is... Troubling you.

@IceClimbers Doubtful. It's not like her character model will be different between regions, and people understand that Bayonetta and Smash Bros. have different target demographics.

Based on the footage, I also think they did a good job of getting her into Smash without "sanitizing" her image too extensively.

@DatFunkySmell Every culture has its warriors what is the stereo type? People like this mutilate human creativity.

This is an odd one. Nope you westerners can't be racist anymore, it's time for Japan to get the racism!!!

My friend is Native American and he's like "what the heck?" We live in Texas and we don't much care for the Cowboy outfit either

@Technosphile Are you ok there bud? I can call a doctor if you want.
Anyway, even as a person that has some Native American blood, I still can't see how the Tomahawk costume can offend anyone. It is just a damn video game. It just seems pretty pointless.

@Moon I don't think a Native American tribe member would necessarily appreciate a non-Native American character in a game literally playing dress up as a Native American. Culture dress up is generally frowned upon in America given the history we have of white folk playing Native Americans in movies using heavy makeup, and of course of terrible minstrel shows with African Americans being portrayed via blackface.

@Freeon-Leon
"If there was a "white man job" it would surely offend some people"

That's a ridiculous comparison. This wasn't the "Native American" job class as in referring to race, this was the Tomohawk job class relating to a historically documented culture. Has nothing to do with race.

Just like Egyptians in Tomb Raider Temple of Osiris, it's a game that embraces history and the various cultures of the world.

This never had anything to do with race until people wanted to make it about race. The character is white for crying out loud!

@Chaoz
That's what I'm saying. My grandmother was half Cherokee. And this is not offensive in the slightest.

What has NL and the Japenese got in common?

They both like offending Native Americans.

Good. Lets not have potentially racist caricatures in the game

Why did they remove it? Do we really want the protagonist of Assassin's Creed 3 to be the most recent representation of Native Americans in video games?

@ShoryukenKid
I mean, I think it's great you're buddy feels that way, but certainly you can see that's anecdotal evidence, and doesn't necessarily reflect the opinions of the group at large, right?

Tomahawk is an axe it is not a Indian tribe. I am thinking this is a wee bit PC. Then i thought again, and began to think, what if the US were to make a game and it had a Japanese character class named Toyota. UK made a game with a US class named apple pie (yum I like pie)

I think it might be insensitive. Therefore I think they should change the class.

The original costume is basically like blackface for native Americans.. The characters are white and they dressup as native Americans. In real native clothing all of the beads have a significance, while costumes of them throw random patterns together. It is ironic that they changed it to cowboys, but at least that's just a career and not a whole race. I think of this as exclusive equal content for both of the versions.

If only the advocators of the change knew what irony was...

@JaxonH I know it's not offensive at all, but I'm sure there'd be some complainers anyway. I read a bit about what Tomahawk meant (because I know little about it) but the clothes are clearly based in native people and that can get labeled as a stereotype quite easily.

@joedick who knows really bro, the Internet is not the place to gage such things as only vocal minoritys are heard . There are much more offensive things out there imo.

Yeah, because replacing one cultural stereotype with another makes so much sense. [/sarcasm] If games like "Street Fighter" and "Soul Calibur" can get away with it, I don't see why you can't do it. Besides, "Punch-out!!" takes cultural stereotyping up to 11, and nobody's calling for those games to be banned.

@Xenocity People who identify solely as American Indian or Alaska Native make up approximately 0.97% of the US population, so if we want to accurately depict the 'diversity of players' there will be next to no American Indian characters in games. It seems people like you only care about the color of ones skin and not the content of their character, and that's pretty sick, not to mention racist.

@joedick What is 'you haven't been through what they have' supposed to mean? Have any of the descendants of American Indians alive today had to walk the trail of tears? No? So what are you talking about? American Indians are treated like any other person in modern day America. Discrimination in the workplace and the judicial system is illegal, and if they encounter racist people that's a problem with the individual racist and there is really nothing society can do about that. So why can't I tell someone whose offended to get over it? Are you of the opinion that they aren't strong enough to get over it on their own?

This is a stupid change and people who would be offended by this have bigger problems than a job class in a video game. And while this may not be Nintendo directly, this is a perfect example of why I won't be getting a NX until Nintendo stops carving up and mutilating games before they get here.

@TheWPCTraveler Quite the opposite. I'm saying that there were no dissenting opinions in Japan, which might be why the costume went through. Hitting up against the multicultural West would then be what caused this removal.

This isn't censorship. There's no state intervention. And the original vision of the artists has certainly been altered plenty of times within the Japanese company to suit corporate interests. The only difference is that this is one instance we actually know about.

I'm a firm supporter of free speech. But I think too many people interpret resistance to speech as suppression. Free speech does not entitle you to an audience that will not protest. Just as you guys have every right to protest this change, Native Americans and their supporters would have every right to protest these costumes. Apparently the company decided that those protesters are more powerful than you. And considering that indigenous anti-defamation leagues aren't exactly swimming in cash, I'd say it's a safe bet that that power represents the ethos of our society more than it does some kind of monied oligarchy. Again, no censorship going on here.

Honestly, none of us have any idea why this change was made. It could be the result of a tectonic shift in our society's values, or it could be some Western SquareEnix executive who really likes Stetsons. Either way, I absolutely encourage you to argue against this change if it's a sincerely held belief. That's what free speech means. But I also think that society is leaving those beliefs behind, and I'm totally fine with that.

Removing Indians and replacing them with Cowboys is like actual history.
I actually think they made it worse by replacing it. Maybe Japan thinks westerners hate Indians and we must love Cowboys because thats what they associate with America because of movies?

Seems weird.

I just came here to check the release date.

@BoilerBroJoe Sorry, by that, I meant that censorship and suppression of freedoms is still doable by entities other than government, though government is often a willing accomplice. Don't believe me? Try looking at our universities nowadays. Or that "oscarssowhite" thing. Or our media, who routinely censor things like the Cologne incident.
My own belief is that the original work should be, as much as possible within the constraints of the language. I don't want people to take my work the wrong way simply because some people had to change something so they get paid more.

To be fair, though, I am really considering learning how to read Japanese just so I could try my hand at this translation so I could perhaps see the viewpoint of the localizers. Or, you know, translate something myself.

I recognize, though, that changes can lead to something good, like the English dub of Ghost Stories - so good that it was actually brought back to Japan!

@Octoling This in no way makes sense.

@BoilerBroJoe Self imposed censorship to avoid an (anticipated) controversy is still censorship - no government required.

As always, @Plywood Stick is making sense, they could have made it into something respectful if they put forth the effort.

That said, I find it hilarious there are people saying they won't buy the game now. Over what, a costume? Er, right. Sure. Whatever. That'll teach 'em! eyeroll

"I didn't know that every American Indian dressed up in this way and carried a Tomahawk. Thank you Bravely Second for informing me that all American Indians are exactly this way and did not have varying jobs and purposes in their society."

If there are people who actually think this way or think that the game is suggesting this, then there is a problem.