The writer and director of Deadly Premonition 2 has apologised over the game’s trans representation. In a tweet last night, Hidetaka ‘Swery’ Suehiro committed to a rewrite and “sanity check” of the offending material.
After the game’s release last week, fans expressed disappointment over the treatment of a transgender character. Many other characters, including protagonist Francis, frequently misgender and deadname that character, despite attempts to position Francis as an ally elsewhere in the game.
Good morning everyone.
I need to tell you about my apologies about DP2.
So I wrote message by myself with Google-sensei.
Please forgive my poor english skills.SWERY pic.twitter.com/x5fR114HnF
— Hidetaka SWERY Skywalker (@Swery65) July 13, 2020
In a Google-translated post on Twitter, Swery said that “I realized [as] pointed out from friends, I might have hurt transgender people in my scenario. It wasn’t intentional. I am really sorry for that. Some scenes will be sanity checked by a team that included diversity. And I will rewrite that scene ASAP.” Swery closes his statement by saying “I’m the one writing the scenario. So the characters are not responsible. My fault.”
It’s not clear how extensive the rewriting process will be, or how long it’ll take. Nevertheless, Swery’s attitude here is hopefully one that’ll be emulated elsewhere – his commitment to change, and the speed at which he’s acknowledged his own missteps, is something that the wider industry could certainly learn from.
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