Recent reports have revealed that Nintendo is planning to replace Chris Niosi, the voice of the main protagonist in Fire Emblem: Three Houses, Bylteh, with another actor following allegations of abuse. Niosi is set to be replaced by voice actor Zach Aguilar (whose other works include One Punch Man).
Over the last week, several allegations of sexual harassment and abuse have been made against the voice actor. Niosi confirmed these allegations on a Tumblr post, where he apologises for how he treated people in his life horribly and how he had “abused friends.” His post contained very detailed apologies to multiple people and describes some of his actions in detail.
Following the announcement, Nisoi’s name was also been removed from the Fire Emblem Heroes character page and credits. A new trailer with Zach Aguilar now voicing the character was also released. Nintendo released a statement on the incident stating, “After assessing the situation, we decided to re-record the character’s voice-overs in Fire Emblem: Three Houses and Fire Emblem Heroes.” There will be a patch in the future that will include new voice-overs but there’s been no date set just yet.
The new voice-over shouldn’t take too long since Bylteh is mainly a silent protagonist, generally responding with grunts, except for when in battle, where he/she may spout a line. This isn’t the first time someone has been removed from a video game due to negative allegations. Sega recently removed Pierre Taki’s likeness and voice acting from the western release of Judgement after it was revealed he was involved in a drug scandal.
It shouldn’t take too long to record new lines for the game and the change probably won’t be too noticeable. Fire Emblem: Three Houses released on 26 July exclusively for the Nintendo Switch. It is the 16th game in the franchise and the first main Fire Emblem game released on the Switch.
What do about the think about the voice actor’s replacement?
