Total War: Three Kingdoms Writer Pete Stewart: Persona 5 “RIDDLED With Outdated Thinking And Offensive Stereotypes”
Total War: Three Kingdoms writer and Total War writer and narrative designer at Creative Assembly Pete Stewart weighed in on the recent Persona 5 controversy by declaring the game “riddled with outdated thinking and offensive stereotypes.”
Stewart took to Twitter to express his opinions. He wrote, “[Persona 5] is a wonderful game RIDDLED with outdated thinking and offensive stereotypes.”
He added, “I’m glad the localisation team are working to address this, and I applaud their efforts, but the fundamental change needs to occur at the development level, right at the source.”
P5 is a wonderful game RIDDLED with outdated thinking and offensive stereotypes.
I’m glad the localisation team are working to address this, and I applaud their efforts, but the fundamental change needs to occur at the development level, right at the source. https://t.co/F4rbYa8Vmt
— Pete Stewart 🏳️🌈 (@Peter5tewart) February 17, 2020
He would add in a subsequent tweet, “Localisation teams, industry-wide, should be praised for their work, especially in interpreting cultural idiosyncracies. However, their job should not be to paper-over problematic themes.”
He concluded, “It’s not their job to save a developer from their own wrong-headed thinking.”
Localisation teams, industry-wide, should be praised for their work, especially in interpreting cultural idiosyncrasies. However, their job should not be to paper-over problematic themes.
It’s not their job to save a developer from their own wrong-headed thinking.
— Pete Stewart 🏳️🌈 (@Peter5tewart) February 17, 2020
Stewart’s tweets come after Sega/Atlus project manager Yu Namba confirmed scenes involving two gay men would be censored in the upcoming western release of Persona 5 Royal.
Related: Western Release Of Persona 5 Royal To Censor Scenes Featuring Two Gay Men
“So basically, I’m just going to say it right now there are these two gay men who hit on Ryuji. I think the community had a very strong response to that, and you saw that, and that was definitely altered for Royal.”
Atlus Communications Manager Ari Advincula also confirmed to IGN that these scenes would be censored, “We actually were able to go through some of the lines that players may not have received as well, look at that feedback, and then [update it] for the current generation.”
You can see the uncensored version in the original Persona 5 below.
Stewart described the scenes writing, “Frankly it’s more than just stereotyped; the two gay men in question are made all-but synonymous with quasi-pedophilia.”
Frankly it’s more than just stereotyped; the two gay men in question are made all-but synonymous with quasi-pedophilia.
— Pete Stewart 🏳️🌈 (@Peter5tewart) February 17, 2020
Despite this recent controversy, the game was highly successful in its uncensored version. Persona 5, which came out in 2017, has reportedly sold 3.2 million copies worldwide as of December 2019. The game had an 8.7 User Score on Metacritic. Even critics gave the game a 93.
Persona 5 Royal has already shipped over 400,000 units in Japan.
What do you make of Stewart’s comments about Persona 5 and localization teams? Do you think Atlus should listen to him?
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