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The X Button - Costume Changes

transformation was completely cut out of the American version and took away the sense of curiosity and then horror that you felt when you began to to fight her.

So i guess in the end it's not okay, because what they really should be doing is completely redesigning the outfit to make there character still stand out.

I always find it incredibly hypocritical that we live in a time where critics and journalists are trying to push the whole 'games are art' mentality by comparing them to film, books, and television, yet have absolutely zero problem supporting or being indifferent to video games being censored or altered. At this stage, I would say video games are not art if it is that acceptable to alter them. Or even for someone like Jason Schreier to be so unprofessional and insulting to creators whom he disagrees with. Video games certainly have a long way to go before they can be compared to books and film. The community can not preach about wanting video games to be taken seriously on one hand while insulting and trying to change the games they disagree with with the other.

The people that would buy that game, would not want to have it censored. Those that would be offended by that game, are not the ones who are going to be buying it.

So it is political correctness. They are doing their market no favors by censoring it.

Square Enix recognized that the U.S. has different social mores concerning sexualized designs than Japan, and reacted accordingly, and people don't seem to get that.

How many years has it been since Xenosaga Ep. III came out? I ask because bringing up the removal of the blood from that one scene still elicits blinding, searing rage. I should probably get over it at some point.

Maybe I'm being too sensitive, but I take more issue with the fact that Ringabel's costume has been removed than anything else. Sure, I tend to fall more on the "all censorship is wrong" side of the camp and thus would prefer that it all be left alone, but slight editing of costumes is rather minuscule compared to the complete excision of a costume. They could just as easily have lengthened his speedo and turned it into a pair of swim shorts, yet they chose to get rid of it altogether. It's sexist at the very least, homophobic at worst.

Monster Monpiece Censorship
Not that I was gonna get this in the first place, but if your are gonna cut out a good 10% of the game's content when the game's main selling point is its otaku fanservice, you'd be better off just not localizing the game at all.

Censorship: One piece of censorship that annoyed me personally was the American version of "Onimusha".

My Japanese girlfriend brought a Japanese Playstation 2 for me when she came to visit in 2001. One of the games was Onimusha. Great game that included English language spoken, but not localized so certain things were a little harder to read because some was in Japanese.

I bought an American PS2 with the express purpose of experiencing the game in English and I find certain things had been censored, like the wasp ladies transformation. It got cut out. In the Japanese version, she squats on the floor in a loose robe, spreads her legs and the back end of a wasp comes out from between her legs like a massive erection or baby. and her breasts turn into armor or something. Erotic horror, Japanese style. The transformation was completely cut out of the American version and took away the sense of curiosity and then horror that you felt when you began to to fight her.

Guile wrote:

I always find it incredibly hypocritical that we live in a time where critics and journalists are trying to push the whole 'games are art' mentality by comparing them to film, books, and television, yet have absolutely zero problem supporting or being indifferent to video games being censored or altered. At this stage, I would say video games are not art if it is that acceptable to alter them. Or even for someone like Jason Schreier to be so unprofessional and insulting to creators whom he disagrees with. Video games certainly have a long way to go before they can be compared to books and film. The community can not preach about wanting video games to be taken seriously on one hand while insulting and trying to change the games they disagree with with the other.

You do know that there are movies that are changed when they are released internationally? And you know there are people involved in the production of books called editors?

TarsTarkas wrote:

The people that would buy that game, would not want to have it censored. Those that would be offended by that game, are not the ones who are going to be buying it. So it is political correctness. They are doing their market no favors by censoring it.

No, that's very wrong. The people who buy the game don't give an F. They actually would rather not have almost naked little girls. They don't care if there exists, or ever existed, a form of the game that's different than theirs. The only people who care are creeps, weirdos, and people who are absolutely against censorship.

Good Lord, what's wrong with you? King copy writing various words? Why? It's freedom of speech and...I don't know, it's downright ridiculous. Yeah, Candy Crush is evil.

And the book example is just ignorant. The editing step that writers undergo is still part of the creative process, and can relate to anything regarding content, to editing down the length, to coherency of the plot, etc.

I suggest you understand how other creative industries work before drawing up such inaccurate analogies.

The costumes being used in the Western version of Bravely Default don't bother me too much because they are actual designs that were drawn up during the creation of the game. It's not like they specifically went and made these recently when the localization process began

The point is that an author can have their original vision changed by an editor/publisher before it is released. Is it really that different a situation to a game having some changes before the English version is released?

It's not like they claimed you were getting the exact same product that Japan did. Understandably, some people may be upset about this, but there is nothing inherently wrong with them having a different version here.