Some of Deadly Premonition 2: A Blessing in Disguises transphobic content has been patched out of the game following director Hidetaka Suehiros also known as Swery apology last week.
Suehiro previously said the scene, in which a character is repeatedly misgendered and deadnamed, would be rewritten. On Tuesday, he said the scene has been fixed. I didnt change the important point of the story of this work, and I was able to make changes only where I wanted to make corrections, Suehiro said. Therefore, I am confident that fans who were worried that this fix may change the essence of the game will be reassured.
On Reddit, a Deadly Premonition 2 player noted that all the deadnaming and misgendering got cleaned up from Yorks end by removing or editing lines though in the latter case theyre not voiced, they said.
This is in reference to a specific scene where a character, Lena Dauman, is misgendered and deadnamed (using the name she used before transitioning) by FBI agent Francis York Morgan. York does make a speech about accepting marginalized people, but later deadnames Lena in conversation with her, and then continues to misgender her. According to journalist and author Laura Kate Dale, the subtitles of the specific scene have changed. Theyve very awkwardly cut out the sentence where York deadnames Lena as a Gotcha, Dale wrote. Big pause, an awkward cut. But, Lena outs her own deadname a few seconds later, now totally unprompted, where before it was in response to York using it in the previous sentance [sic].
They’ve very awkwardly cut out the sentance where York deadnames Lena as a Gotcha. Big pause, an awkward cut.
But, Lena outs her own deadname a few seconds later, now totally unprompted, where before it was in response to York using it in the previous sentance.
Laura Kate Dale (@LaurakBuzz) July 21, 2020
Here they got rid of the worst line, but didnt fix anything surrounding it, Dale wrote.
Weve reached out to the developer for clarification on whats been removed and how remaining transphobic content will be addressed.
Deadly Premonition 2: A Blessing in Disguise was released July 10 on Nintendo Switch. Toybox producer Tomio Kanazawa said on Twitter that more patches will come soon to continue improving the game including camera inversion. Frame rate issues will be improved gradually, according to Suehiro.
