For Honor does not hold back when it comes to blood and violence. Accordingly, the executions depicted in the game are quite stunning. One of them was removed shortly after its release a month ago. When it reappeared in the game yesterday, it had been toned down – which dissatisfied the fans. It’s not about blood, but rather a spicy detail.
The focus of the change is the execution emote of the Valkyrie. The name “No touching” already indicates the direction: In the original emote, the opponent accidentally touches the Valkyrie’s breasts while stumbling. The Valkyrie then shows even less mercy, kneeing the opponent in the groin and executing them rigorously.
This emote was removed from For Honor again after a short time. Was it due to a bug? Or did someone sense a hint of “Rape Fiction” and report it? The rumor mill was churning.
After all: the developers quickly backtracked on Reddit and promised to reinsert the emote with the next patch. This has now happened – albeit with a small change.
The new execution does not please everyone
In the patch notes for 1.17, Ubisoft exclaims that they have finally fixed the “bug”. The primary change was to the appearance of a passage: the opponent no longer touches the Valkyrie’s breast, but only their shield. The rest of the animation remains the same.
It is not without a certain unintended comedy. The animation and reaction were designed around the breast touching. Now something seems to be missing. Many players are not pleased with the change.
As can be read on Steam and on Reddit, many are “disappointed” and find it a shame that “everything funny is gradually being removed from the game.” Especially since the game does not shy away from violence in any aspect and double entendres are not uncommon.
This is the “new, toned down” execution:
“It was inappropriate”
Apparently, the execution was indeed removed from the game because it was deemed inappropriate afterwards.
In a statement to Kotaku, Ubisoft explains as follows:
“The original animation simply featured inappropriate behavior between the Valkyrie and her opponent. We felt it was insensitive and therefore changed it. Unfortunately, the execution was hastily implemented into the game and we only noticed the mistake after an hour. In the future, we will pay more attention to ensure that such insensitive content does not reappear.”
“Touching breasts” is forbidden – “Kneeing in the groin” is allowed?
Guddy thinks: Is it worse to accidentally touch a breast than to intentionally knee someone in the groin? Especially since we are still talking about an execution; the opponent is going to suffer anyway.
The women in For Honor can defend themselves just as well as their male counterparts. An animation like before the change does not make them weaker or the game itself sexist.
I find the change a bit unfortunate. If anything, I would have removed the knee to the groin. The poor man (or alternatively the poor woman) is already hanging in the ropes. And it is also nice to see when such behavior is punished. Even though technically one should rather not resort to the axe …
What do you think of the change? Are you as outraged as the Reddit users?
