Square Enix Censorship: The CoNcast Episode 21

Posted on Wednesday 26th February 2014 at 15:33 by Rangers51

While we might have bombed out of covering it on CoN news, you may have heard from some other, obviously mediocre site that there was a bit of controversy around the recent Western release of Bravely Default. In short, a few characters received slightly older canonical ages, and a couple female characters found their character models with more clothing for the US and Europe than they had in Japan. Naturally, the response to this news ran the gamut from those who found it pointless to those who seemed to have a much creepier viewpoint on the whole thing.

Naturally, this got us thinking, so I woke up the day after spending some time with an IV in my arm and grabbed Tiddles, Stiltzkin and Death Penalty to spend some time talking about this newest (minor) controversy and some of the history of censorship in Final Fantasy games, whether forced by Nintendo or willfully taken on by Squenix localization teams. Not only were some of the choices interesting, I'd wager there are some you hadn't even heard of, so it's worth a download right now!

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Written by	Rangers51
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	Member Since: 1997-07-31
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Comments

Glenn Magus Harvey	Comment 1: 2014-04-18 15:22
	> Cloud's half-cloak I think I've learned to not even bother to try to make sense of Squenix character design. > the issue of "censorship" and aging-up female characters and giving them more clothing Honestly, I've kinda had it with accusations of censorship on stuff like this. There are real censorship issues, and then there's this. I recently spent some time arguing with someone who insisted that an indie developer had caved to public opinion in favor of censorship by choosing not to include sketchy (as in suggestive, but not explicit) fanart in the release of the second and third episodes of a VN series. The first episode had a couple sketchy pictures (and a couple sketchy captions on perfectly normal pictures) among a bunch of fanart and other extras in the game, unlocked after a playthrough; people complained and one of the devteam people said that he didn't really want to include them anyway but was compelled to for reasons he wouldn't disclose. But that person I was talking to still argued that the "creative vision" of the game was compromised, and that I shouldn't trust what the devteam person said because it was just PR. Not to mention that that devteam person actually said he would not change the first episode release either. So if anything, that was a stand against censorship... anyway... Honestly, I don't really care if they age-up or reclothe a character for cultural sensibilities. It's still basically the same character; the age doesn't really change anything significant, other than a bit of trivia. Let's be frank here, is there really any point to this specific case other than arguing whether it's more okay to lust after a fictional alleged 18-year-old or a fictional alleged 15-year-old who otherwise looks exactly identical? Is that even something worth arguing over? (in the absence of trying to tie this into a larger censorship or cultural sensitivity issue) And heck, if it's giving the characters more practical-looking clothing, I might be in favor of it. Maybe. Also, vaguely related: http://notalwaysright.com/?s=grand+theft > ambiguity http://gatherer.wizards.com/Handlers/Image...74317&type=card > Nintendo's censorship For what it's worth, Nintendo wasn't just responding to the ESRB or simply cultural sensibility. They were (1) also reacting to the video game crash of 1983, and (2) intent (and still intent these days) on being the brand for family-friendly gaming. evilsmile.jpg > Ultros's 5-ton weight Honestly, there's too many other things unrealistic about that scene that the idea of using another object didn't even cross my mind. > "When I was four, when I saw people kissing, I wouldn't even think about anything happening below the belt." Sometimes I wonder if stuff like this is only relevant to people who are sensitive to those implications in the first place, because only they would actually notice it... > listening to Luca from X-2 soundtrack IS WRONG LUCCA
His Shadow	Comment 2: 2014-06-07 16:54
	To be fair every region has cultural sensibilities one of the most recent ones was the kidnapping scene in FF6 removed because Japan's feelings towards kidnapping due to North Korean spies kidnapping Japanese families.
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