Dragon Quest Vets Claim Comments On Censorship Were "Mistranslated"

as someone who comes from europe I also think sometimes the US regulations are super weird... So violence is absolutely ok but showing a little bit too much skin means the title gets an 18 ranking? Thats crazy to me.

There are many factors at play in all of this, but the majority can be explained with the quote, “You can satisfy some of the people all the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot satisfy all of the people all the time.”

Some of this is just cultural differences. Some of this is companies here in the US facing the tyranny of the minority, much how our politics are hijacked by the extreme minority. For them, there is no compromise and so they are trying to appease the ultra liberal left and the ultra conservative right at the same time (Type A and Type B, instead of Male and Female for the far left and modesty for the ultra right). In the end, we end up with a product so bland that doesn't really appeal to anyone.

As an American, we have an extremely violent society that glorifies greed, individuality, fame and power over everything else. We allowed ourselves to be manipulated by those seeking those things into thinking being treated like crap is good because we have it slightly better than [Enter ethnic or societal group].

We let our poorest kids starve at school (or give them subpar food) and call it good. We allow companies and individuals rent seek and abuse the poorest and then claim it's their own fault for not working harder. However, showing a female warrior in a bikini is somehow horrible because some flesh is showing (Apparently, these censors have not played any western RPG in a long time with their sexy female armor vs practical male armor issues).

Welcome to the "illegal skin" dystopia. Next step will be the censorship of all the paintings of the past centuries.

They're completely correct. Modern censorship is absolutely horrible. Hopefully someone can mod the game to reinstate the graphic art.

It's really not a big deal, at all.

Does exposed character skin enhance the gameplay?
No.
Does exposed character skin improve the story telling?
No.

If the game mechanics work and the gameplay feels like the original game, then it's fine.

it's all pixels and polygons anyway.

In Earthbound Zero, in JP you have a crow smoking and even in the English unreleased beta the US took that out.

Then subsequent versions even in JP also removed that.

Things that were once OK are not always OK.

"Censorship" is banning books because it doesn't fit a political message. "Censorship" is not adding extra clothes to a character.

If this is the hill you really want to die on, if this is the Big Issue in 2024 that warrants online harassment and hate for you though, then go for it. This is about 10,000 items down on my list of concerns about the USA right now lol.

The only real alarming thing is that so few of us now seem able to say "I don't agree but I see the other side of this issue", and if we can't do that about articles of clothing on 30-year-old fictional videogame characters, how are you going to do that on the actual issues that shape our future?

I side with the developers on this one.

I think that if game devs decided to leave something very mildly controversial like this uncensored, there would be a lot less outcry and controversy.

As games tend to be released worldwide now. We will see more of this. I think this change might be to do with european censorship not USA. It's down to a law change in one of the scandinavian countries which prevents images of character who are below 18 being made more sexy.

I think one of the dead or alive games had to be recalled and the manual edited to remove the ages of characters in parts of europe.

Watering down game content to suit the lowest common denominator can often make games bland. The same applies to any form of entertainment. A lot of the best art / entertainment I’ve experienced has pushed boundaries. It’s part of the immersion - taking you out of the real world. The current focus on making games for “modern” or “global” audiences is, in many cases, stripping games of their identity and making them bland. Playing “old” games reinforces this.

Anyone know if the PC version will also be censored? When the artist complains about his own work being censored and changed, no matter how small, you know it’s a problem.

@LadyCharlie If it’s “really not a big deal at all”, then there is no reason at all to change anything right?

It is an artists vision no matter how ridiculous it may seem to some. Pixels and polygons obviously have meaning. Changing art changes a game. There have been games that literally flopped because of art choices. Game play isn’t all you need. People want to enjoy the visuals of the world they are engaging with, same as they want to enjoy the audio. When you have a long established franchise, you don’t go mucking about with it to please the vocal minority that most of which weren’t going to buy in the first place, and those who would have would have bought it either way despite their few but loud voices.

@Darknyht Shh, don't tell them our secrets.

@DestructoDisk "People want to enjoy the visuals of the world they are engaging with..."

What does a female character wearing slightly less revealing clothing do to reduce the "visuals of the world"?
I'll give you the answer for free: nothing. This isn't an opinion, it's just the fact of the matter.

I don't see why it's necessary. It's already pretty T-rated to begin with?
Well, I at least know the GBC port was rated T, I'm guessing for having "Hell" enemies. (though the E10+ rating didn't exist at that time, so I don't know if "mild four letter words" are considered E10+ or T material)

Is this the end of the "puff puff"s too?

I do agree though that if you REALLY need to see just a bit more female skin, Dragon Quest III probably isn't the place you should be looking.

@LadyCharlie This is the classic argument used to support censorship. Perfectly reasonable, right? After all, it’s only a little skin.

It gets us to where we are today. Bland games that supposedly appeal to everyone. Watered down content.

In reality - it results in games that don’t really appeal to anyone (well, at least not anyone who wants to spend money on them).

We should go out of our way to protect and support freedom of expression in all forms of art and entertainment.

@jamess That extra skin doesn't make any meaningful change to the character unless you play Dragon Quest III to get horny. In which case there's probably better choices for that satiation.

@KingMike The art style is an important part of the games and a significant part of why they became popular. It appeals to the target demographic. Why is that a problem?

@jamess "We should go out of our way to protect and support freedom of expression in all forms of art and entertainment."

The problem is, a very visible portion of the gamertariat doesn't truly care about that. It's the lack of T&A that gets #TheGamers™ riled up, and they've gotten really good at making smokescreens to declare it's about anything but that. You and I both know it.

@LadyCharlie Yes that’s an element of it. And, to be clear, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. It’s perfectly normal. But it is more than that. It’s about supporting the the creation and realisation of artistic visions. Often those visions will be shocking and, at times, offensive to some. But all good. it’s what helps make art and entertainment interesting.

@jamess I do not agree nor will I ever. I've said what I wanted to say on the subject.

@LadyCharlie And that’s fine. Hopefully there are games you can enjoy, there are after all lots of games available old and new. I think the problem is that the current approach of censoring and suppressing certain types of content goes against what a lot of people actually want. It restricts choice. I believe ultimately the approach will fail for purely commercial reasons - what actually sells will prevail. But it will take the industry some time to get there.

"Type A" and "Type B" is a lame attempt at a solve, sure. They didn't have to do that at all if they weren't gonna commit-- especially if Horii was gonna act like a wounded Fox News anchor and whine about it.

There aren't any satisfactory answers here. Unless you could buy back the rights to the IP from Square Enix to release it yourself, you have to live with (ridiculous) compromises, and even if you could would you have the money and resources to remaster it and release to the masses? They have to live with it, we have to live with it, and it's either that or just play the original un-remastered game. I'm pretty sure there were compromises even then though. You can say "Japan is more permissive" but there are limits there too and I'm sure there was plenty left on the cutting room floor for either being too expansive, too hard to fit in, or too salacious. The only way to make an artistically pure vision is to be a studio of one.

@LadyCharlie “I'll give you the answer for free: nothing.”

This isn’t an opinion on your part. You are factually incorrect. Artist’s intent and world building isn’t “nothing”. Taking away elements of design erodes the complete concept. The creators of the game have expressed this is against their desires. Who are we to tell them what is and isn’t important in their games? You are able to have opinions on your personal feelings of the work and changes made to it. We all are. And a game can live or die by those opinions. However that is neither here nor there. Changes made to games, are in fact actually changes, and changes are factually something. There is no debate or opinion on that, that is just the nature of reality.

This game has had a lot of changes over the years, and these changes for the most part have been appreciated and accepted. The first Switch port many do not like however simply based on visuals. So visuals do in fact matter. That much is clear. Any sane person can accept your opinions and thoughts on the game, as I do myself. But let’s not sway from reality and bend truth to say that visuals don’t make a difference. Every small change makes a difference.

Doesn't give a ***** about Americans.

Blames both political extremes.

Refuses to elaborate.

Absolutely Based

@LadyCharlie I don't neccesarily agree with you since it is hard to generalize in topics like these. The fine limit of respecting the developer original intent vs adapting to what other cultures ask of you. Its a very thin line that will inevitably make some people angry.

@MegaManFan The Callisto Protocol was just not released in Japan because CERO refused to rate it.

Resident Evil is still heavily censored in Japan to remove most of the blood and gore.

Kid Icarus: Uprising got a rating bump because of one camera angle that could've been construed as an upskirt shot — in Japan.

And don't even get me started on the Saori Incident.

You're completely right. It's all so frustrating, but there's no satisfactory answer. Knowing what I know about Japanese game development, blaming everything on simple "Western interference" is just infantilizing; but what the hell am I supposed to do about it? I don't work at ESRB, CERO, or PEGI.

@Sketcz what are you going on about? This isn't about DEI. This is about people being snowflakes. Both the devs and the ones asking them to change their game.

This is absolutely a non-issue. Everyone recognizes the right for an artist to express themselves freely. Art is always offensive to someone somewhere.

If someone tells you to change your story or your characters to suit some pandering idealism tell them to shove it.

If you're trying to fit your game into a specific cultural rating requirement, stop complaining about it and just make the changes or go for the more adult rating, we'll still buy it. Probably will even make us more likely to buy it.

Everyone is tired of companies pandering to different groups. I say this as a member of a few of those groups.

The pandering is unwanted, unneeded, and almost as insulting as the people actually threatening violence against us because they both dehumanize us into either subhumans or corporate props.

@Sketcz Dude, calm down. It's just a drawing.

Should have been uncensored, and kept male and female instead of type A and type B.

Damn, I was never a fan of DQ but Yuuji Hori said everything really.

Lots of video games get affected by ratings from different rating systems across the world.
It's not just America, man. I'm more upset that a significant cutscene in Final Fantasy VI Advance got censored because of CERO. The fourth wall is broken the first time Celes appears when now the characters all look they're just actors rehearsing the lines. They can't animate anything they're saying because Celes getting punched unconscious was considered too violent for an "A" rating.

So, basically if America censors sex, Japan censors violence. Pretty sure there's been more than this example.
And rip Pokemon game corner because Europe and Australia censor fake gambling.
Every region (or at least their ratings boards) have their own thing they're worried about.

@KingMike So the first time you play the GBC game, and to be clear it's the only version I've played, you are given a personality test, and one of the tests makes you like a giant demon thing that breathes fire, and you can destroy the village, or leave it be, so presumably someone on the ratings board got that intro and realized you could be a giant fire breathing demon and destroy villages and that's why it got a t rating.

@Whatareyouonabout Also, this man is producing a commodity for a global corporation. He should know what he's getting into.
The corporation has decided they have a choice between crotch skin or a preferable rating. The corporation has chosen the rating.

Nobody is stopping these people from drawing all the crotch skin they want. They just can't sell it in this manner. These people want to have their cake and eat it too, and upset they can't.
If they really don't like it that much, they can make their own companies and do whatever they want. Many game companies have been formed by employees who decided they weren't happy with their former employer.

I read Japanese responses (Google translated) on X. I don't believe the comments were mistranslated.

@LadyCharlie So you're all for censorship then as long as it's progressive? 🙄

@jamess THIS!

@Sketcz Of course they'll always be people who say DEI is nothing to worry about, the same people who support censorship. 🤦‍♂️

@UK_Kev Why are they backtracking?

@UK_Kev Totally agree. I’m not going to spend 30 minutes checking every single word they said was accurately translated, better things to do. But the intent and meaning of their message was very clear - frustration and disdain about the environment we’re in where perfectly innocent artistic representations are needlessly censored. The main stream gaming press (Nintendo Life included) will jump on the “mistranslation” stance to protect Square Enix and their sales, and pursue their usual course of historical revisionism in an attempt to cover up what was actually said. It’s very transparent. And easy to counter - just don’t spend money on any of it.

Really, from now on in this world, I think we should post only full and complete videos of any interviews, debates, presentations, comments, posts, etc.

I mean, have snipped sections for the sake of a simple snapshot in a short article or whatever, but then always have the full thing linked right there too for everyone to investigate properly if they so desire. I've seen far too much of "This person said this" or "This person incited this" or "This person lied about this" or "This person is a [insert very serious accusation here]", almost all based on just intentionally misrepresented clips designed to push lies and manipulate people into certain views and beliefs, and I'm sick of it--because it clearly has exactly that effect on a whole lot of people.

If everyone could simply see the full truths of all of this stuff, I think a whole lot of people would have different opinions for sure. Then we could all form actual fair and unbiased opinions based on the real facts and such too, and actually have reasonable conversations and debates about, and, God knows, maybe even find some common ground and come up with real answers and solutions.

With interviews like this one, the overall sentiment doesn't seem like it would change much even after the correction--and I agree with that original sentiment portrayed in the interview as such--but the facts need to be the facts and nothing else.

I think with all the stuff going on in the world right now, and with how easy it is for anyone with bad intentions to create entirely false narratives around whatever and whomever they want, sometimes to potentially totally destructive effect, we need to push for the simple truths and facts more than ever.

Only when people have all the facts can they form fair and honest opinions and make the right decisions and choose the correct path forward. But they do indeed need the actual unmanipulated and clear facts as ground zero there.

I'm sure our gaming journalists can manage this at least.

@UK_Kev no offense but how do you know if Google translate is carrying the message the creators mean or whatever? There is a reason the fan-translation scene stops taking any project seriously when someone says "this was machine translated".

I use auto translation to read stuff sometimes but I also take Japanese, and it's easy to see how stuff can be translated"right" by still not deliver the nuance the speaker/writer was going for, if it's a complicated issue.

I would just always keep that in mind when you're reading anything translated honestly

@Sketcz Maybe it doesn't have the same loaded meaning in the UK, Idk, but in America "snowflake" is a really coded, trigger, political, mob-mentality word. Whatever camp you are in politically, I know you are great at expressing yourself and that word cheapens the points you're trying to make

People use it here for faux-toughness and it stops intelligent conversation in its tracks.

@RetroGames Totally agree with all of that. To me - what you’re describing should be the role of a journalist.

1. Establish the facts
2. Separately show varying interpretations of the facts (different viewpoints).
3. Reach a conclusion based on an analysis of the facts with supporting reasoning and the author’s own views.

I’m finding that this has become increasingly rare in all forms of journalism (i.e. not just games). A lot of journalism nowadays is pushing an agenda or a set of beliefs and twisting the facts to support it. At best it’s just biased, at worst it’s intentionally dishonest.

@GhaleonUnlimited
I can't know for certain. And I am aware of Google Translate not being 100% accurate. But would Google Translate get every Japanese comment wrong?

@jojobar
I'm American and I think it's all ridiculous too!

@jamess Exactly. You get it.

Wow, I wasn't aware this had gotten traction.

Japanese speaker here: His comments were absolutely taken out of context and partially mistranslated to serve an anti-DEI agenda. There are crazy Japanese people out there too, the same as a few weeks ago when Rachel Hutchinson's comments on Street Fighter were taken out of context.

Seriously, as if the creator's own words and concern about what he actually meant weren't evidence enough this was true!

@UK_Kev If it was translated accurately it's possible he simply didn't clarify what he meant...or he backtracked due to someone else telling him to.

@jamess We see agenda pieces in major publications and new websites all the time. Unfortunately very little of these places are geared to providing the truth and context.

Who cares what the guy said about it. It's not like the armor design suddenly became some progressive, woke-glorifying armor. It's the same exact armor, but with shorts underneath. All the tropes of the scantily clad, ineffective-yet-sexy armor that doesn't protect anything vital are still there. So what was the point of the change? Someone whose job is probably unnecessary thought it would net less revenue if they kept the original design? They should have just kept it all like it was originally made.

Modern censorship isn't anything except stupid, and this is a glowing example.

Let's be real: most of you complaining are just thirsty individuals who don't care about actual censorship. If it was the reverse and the artist wanted the character covered up, would you defend it? No, you wouldn't. You'd just call the artist woke or DEI hire or some other nonsense.

Horii is here complaining about American censorship when he lives in the same country where Solid Snake had to get tickle tortured in the JP release of Peace Walker because of Japanese ratings about violence. The clothing isn't impacting a major story scene or anything.