Byleth, male and female, in Fire Emblem: Three Houses (Nintendo Intelligent Systems)
The Fire Emblem series is co-owned by Nintendo and Intelligent Systems, and its latest installment, Fire Emblem: Three Houses, hit the Switch last week, releasing to critical acclaim. Its protagonist is a professor named Byleth, an avatar who comes in male and female varieties. The male Byleth was voiced by Chris Niosi in Three Houses and mobile spin-off Fire Emblem Heroes (Byleth was recently added into the latter to coincide with the former’s launch).
Niosi has a longstanding career in voice acting and animating, but he’s also known to have a troubled past mistreating women. A new account went live about two weeks ago, and another account details how Niosi broke his NDA, informing others that he was voicing Byleth before Nintendo gave him permission to. Niosi followed up on this by publishing a post on his own Tumblr, wherein he issued apologies to several people he mistreated.
Since then, Heroes replaced Niosi’s voice clips as Byleth with a new batch provided by Zach Aguilar, and a new trailer for the mobile title highlighted the change. Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter, a Nintendo of America spokesperson confirmed the company would likewise patch Niosi’s clips out of Three Houses in a software update. “After assessing the situation, we decided to rerecord the character’s voiceovers in Fire Emblem: Three Houses and Fire Emblem Heroes with another actor,” the spokesperson said. “The new voiceovers will be included in a future patch.”
On July 27, Niosi posted a lengthy Twitter thread where he again apologized for his prior actions, noting how he is trying to better himself. We hope he’s successful.
I’ve returned to seeing my therapist and will continue to on a more-prominent basis than ever. I will be looking into anger management as a separate mental health service. I have also, for the first time, been diagnosed by a psychiatrist and am currently taking medication.
— Chris Niosi (@Kirbopher) July 27, 2019
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