‘ male protagonist Byleth following the allegations of abuse.”After assessing the situation, we decided to re-record the character’s voiceovers in Fire Emblem: Three Houses and Fire Emblem Heroes with another actor. The new voiceovers will be included in a future patch,” Nintendo of America says.
Original story from July 26, 2019, follows.
Chris Niosi, the voice actor of the male protagonist Byleth in Fire Emblem: Three Houses and Fire Emblem Heroes, has been replaced in Heroes following allegations of abuse that have recently surfaced.
As reported by USgamer, Niosi still remains the voice of Byleth in Fire Emblem: Three Houses for the Nintendo Switch as of this writing, but Zach Aguilar has replaced him in Fire Emblem: Heroes.
We have reached out to Nintendo as it has yet to comment or confirm that this was the cause of the change, but this move does follow a Twitter thread and Tumblr post that allege that Niosi has, among other things, been abusive and has broken many Non-disclosure agreements in the past.
Niosi has responded and apologized on his own Tumblr, and it remains to be seen if Aguilar or another actor will replace him in Three Houses in a post-launch patch.
This isn’t the only high-profile game to see a voice actor change, as Judgment’s Kyohei Hamura voice actor, Pierre Taki, was replaced following an indictment of drug use.
Fire Emblem: Three Houses released on the Nintendo Switch today, July 26, and in our review we said that it “offers an incredible amount of choice, and a story that deserves to be viewed from more than one angle.”
Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to [email protected].
Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN who really wishes people would just be better. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst.
