Bravely Second Changes Tomahawk To Hawkeye In The West

One of Bravely Second’s asterisk holders has undergone a major change in western versions of the game.

Several months ago, there was a stir about a character in Bravely Second and some perhaps poor localization choices. Aimee, the character who offers the Tomahawk job asterisk in the Japanese version of the game, is dressed as a Native American, and has a backstory associating her with native culture. Early screenshots of the localization seemed to suggest that Aimee kept the class name of “Tomahawk” while changing her costume to that of a cowgirl…an incredibly insensitive localization change, if true.

Fortunately, we have confirmation today (from Siliconera) that they have also changed the job name to Hawkeye, completely removing any associating with Native American culture, and making Aimeeinto a straight-up, an Annie Oakley-style cowgirl. Though arguably this is still a tone-deaf change (removing native culture in favor of westernized cowboys), it was likely to avoid any backlash from those in North America who were unhappy with how Aimee is portrayed.

Whether you like the change or not, cries of censorship are, as always, unfounded. No one made Square Enix change this part of the game. It was, instead, a choice on the part of the developers and company to better connect with an intended audience. Of course, without seeing the character’s side by side, it’s hard to see how big an impact this will have on Aimee’s character or if it was totally unnecessary, or much-needed. Either way, North America and Europe are getting Hawkeye Aimee, with an accompany costume for all four party members in Bravely Second.

Bravely Second releases on February 26th in Europe, and on April 15th in North America for the Nintendo 3DS.