Nintendo Issues Official Statement on Side Quest Changes in Bravely Second

There was a rumor floating around regarding Bravely Second: End Layer that claimed that any endings beyond the "good" endings--endings to the option side quests--were removed. This caused quite a stir with people, and for good reason. I like the option of having a bad ending. I like regretting my choice... sometimes it makes me want to restart my save and try to gain the good ending. It just breathes more depth into games. Unfortunately, the rumor has been confirmed to be true by Nintendo, who issued an official statement on the issue, explaining the reason for the change. Here is the statement:

"Based on feedback received after Bravely Second: End Layer's release in Japan, the development team at Square Enix, in conjunction with Silicon Studio, decided to implement a number of revisions to the game for the purpose of improving its quality and creating a more enjoyable product.

One such change affects the game's optional side quests, where players encounter a conflict between two opposing parties and choose which party to side with.

When the game was released in Japan, each side quest would end with the team lamenting the decision they made, regardless of the player's decision. This was intended to help players empathise with the characters' situations, but overwhelming feedback from players indicated that they felt an unsatisfying disconnect between their intentions and the characters' reactions. In response, these side quest endings were amended to show the party readily coming to terms with their actions in a manner that does not cause the player undue regret for their decisions.

These changes do not affect the gameplay or the course of events in the game, and were made with the intention of improving the game experience for players."

Well, I hate to say it, but that's a bogus statement. The Japanese are a different group, and who knows how the Western group would react? After all, those that played through and enjoyed The Witcher series loved the fact that there are regretful decisions at every turn. You can easily restart the quest by loading up a different save file too. If players are so apt to score a good ending and absolutely refuse to get a bad one, then more than likely they would turn to guides. So why remove the option for those interested?