Deadly Premonition 2 released more than ten days ago, and although the game has had generally good reviews, it has also had some controversy. The game’s frame rate was initially rather slow, which detracted from the gameplay, but aside from that, the game has also been the spotlight of a transphobia issue. This is in regards to a specific scene in which FBI Agent Francis York Morgan misgenders and deadnames Lena Dauman on multiple separate occasions throughout the game.
Director Suehiro Hidetaka, did reply to the issue of Transphobia via his Twitter account Hidetaka Swery Skywalker. Back on July 13th, Suehiro released a statement apologizing about the deadnaming and misgendering issues within the game and promised to rewrite the scenes. In his tweet, Hidetaka takes all the blame and asks players not to hate the characters stating that “I’m the one writing the scenario. So the characters are not responsible.”
While the new patch for Deadly Premonition 2 fixes both the frame rate issues as well as fixes the transphobic scenes, some argue that it isn’t enough, noting that only one line of dialogue has changed. Journalist and author Laura Kate Dale really sinks into the issue on Twitter, stating that “They’ve very awkwardly cut out the sentence where York deadnames Lena as a Gotcha.” Aside from deadnaming and misgendering, the scene also has a line that compares Dissociative Identity Disorder with being transgender, which is profoundly insulting to anyone in the trans community. It is unknown if Deadly Premonition 2 will require any more rewrites but given the backlash, it is possible that the game will require several more edits.