Game Censorship & Localization General Thread

[sneedem&feedem]

On one hand, it sucks that even the JP versions are getting censored, on the other, only a boob slider on your character and the option to have the loli character in a microbikini got censored AFAIK, so nothing of value was lost.

It's more than just that.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/701151-xenoblade-chronicles-x/72947388

Spoiler: Xenoblade X changes according to Gamefaqs

Beyond the Logos Artificial Destiny Emancipator -> Builders of the Legacy After the Destruction of Earth (The original was a reference to the first Xenoblade, and the Monado. BLADE was meant to be this game's proverbial Xenoblade.)

Doll -> Skell (it's actually story important that they are called Dolls)
Unions -> Divisions
Overed -> Tyrant

Races

---

Growth -> Ganglion
Vyers -> Prone
Lars -> Wrothians

Unions
---

Colepedian -> Curators
Avalanche -> Harriers
Interceptor -> Interceptors
Companion -> Mediators
Arms Company -> Outfitters
Path Finder -> Pathfinders
Land Bank -> Prospectors
Testament -> Reclaimers (A Xenosaga reference, but was changed because 'muh religion')

Classes

---

Assault -> Striker
Command -> Commando
Forcer -> Enforcer
Samurai Gun -> Samurai Gunner
Shield Battler -> Shield Trooper
Sword Fang -> Winged Viper
Long Lancer -> Partisan Eagle
Psy Seeker -> Psycorruptor
General Sword -> Duelist
Heavy Striker -> Bastion Warrior
Star Crusader -> Astral Crusader
Elite Planner -> Mastermind
Galaxy Knight -> Galactic Knight

Locations

---

Land of Black Steel -> Cauldros
Land of White Wood -> Sylvalum
Primordial Wilderness -> Primordia
Noctilucent Forest -> Noctilum
Valley of Oblivion -> Oblivia

Dolls

---

Wels -> Verus (Originally a Xenogears reference)
Wels.CAIN -> Verus Cain (Again, same as just Wels)
Formula.ZERO -> Formula Zero
Urban.LINCOLN -> Urban Lincoln
Lailah.QUEEN -> Lailah Queen
Inferno.SKYDON -> Inferno Skydon
Mastema.WHITEREAPER -> Mastema White Reaper
Amdusias.HADES -> Amdusias Hades

Game Mechanics

---

Overclock Gear (OC Gear) -> Overdrive
Double Recast -> Secondary Cooldown
Triple Recast -> Tertiary Cooldown

Characters

---

Lynlee Ku -> Lin Lee Koo (Ching chong ping pong)

Arts

---

Cross Reload -> Primer
Blood Gear -> Blood Sacrifice
Burning Sword -> Incendiary Edge
Aggressive Mode -> Offensive Stance
Blade Cyclone -> Tornado Blade

And that's not bringing up the forced insertion of memes or cutting out serious dialogue to squeeze in a terrible joke.

As for the Dolls change, why is that important? Well, aside from it trying to shoehorn in a meme (thenks mr skelital), it removed a plot point.

MAJOR BLEEPING SPOILERS:

Dolls is important to the story. They are called Dolls, but why? Well, they have no will, no goal, and no destiny until their pilot starts it up. They are a reflection of the humans you play as, as you find out, they are all robots. Empty shells, dolls, who have no will, no goal, no destiny, until it's imposed upon them by a preset program.

Even if it was just the boob slider and one outfit, it still sets a bad precedent.

 

[Baraka Obama]

So are there any guides on how to decensor the Wii U edition of Xenoblade X?

I want that breast slider back.

 

[Fcret]

Everytime I see zoomers fellating Nintendo for 'being more based than Sony', I have to cringe.

Nintendo is the progenitor of this shit. The only reason retards think they're based is because tendies pull double shifts covering for them.

 

[visara]

Formula.ZERO -> Formula Zero
Urban.LINCOLN -> Urban Lincoln
Lailah.QUEEN -> Lailah Queen
Inferno.SKYDON -> Inferno Skydon
Mastema.WHITEREAPER -> Mastema White Reaper
Amdusias.HADES -> Amdusias Hades

I have no context for this game or anything in it, but it's a tiny change like this, which makes me a bit... wistful, I guess? The big changes/censorship/whatever might get me riled up, but not really sad in quite the same way.

Without looking it up, just thinking aloud about what the originals are: Techy/username sounding callsigns? "Cool" (to JP tastes) names and associated titles? Were the capital letters originally in English (romaji) and also allcaps, and/or what about the first part of the names? Why is it a period separating the two parts, and not a space (or anything else, like underscore, slash, etc)? And why is there no space in WHITEREAPER (and for that matter, why "white" reaper and not just any reaper?) Are these even people -- maybe project names, or computer viruses, or mech suits, or special moves?

On the other hand, what are the translated set of names like? At first glance, they simply look like full names, that for some reason contain actual words (for the most part). Some of the responses from before still apply but it's much more subdued, at least for me.

I remember being a kid and playing poorly(?) translated/localized games (without knowing they were originally Japanese, at the time). And to put it briefly, the feeling the first set of names would have given me, is very different than the feeling the second set of names would have given me. Just the names alone, without reading any dialogue/plot or seeing any portraits or hearing any voices.

All that, and without even changing anything really -- this is practically the smallest change imaginable. Now imagine what happens when they DO appreciably change things.

 

[Peru oso donas]

"Oh yes censorship good when it agrees with me!!!"

Never give censorship even an inch, it will always ask for a mile.

I know that, but is it really worth getting worked up over watching little girls on bikinis?

 

[Two Dollars]

Everytime I see zoomers fellating Nintendo for 'being more based than Sony', I have to cringe.

Nintendo is the progenitor of this shit. The only reason retards think they're based is because tendies pull double shifts covering for them.

Even the travesty that is Nintendo Treehouse is still leagues better than Sony.

 

[Brain Power]

I know that, but is it really worth getting worked up over watching little girls on bikinis?

There's a lot more edits than just some outfits and a boob slider and you keep focusing on girls and bikinis.

 

[SuperShibuyaFighter]

I know that, but is it really worth getting worked up over watching little girls on bikinis?

If it is such a non issue then why did it need to be changed?

Never negotiate with censorship. The content isn't my focus, the principle is. Besides the main demographic is teens anyway, if you are so scared about getting a boner over a fictional teens, that is on you.

 

[Clarence Big Boss]

There's a lot more edits than just some outfits and a boob slider and you keep focusing on girls and bikinis.

Its almost as if he is projecting or something.

If it is such a non issue then why did it need to be changed?

They changed it because its too based for today's gaming standards. Thats the main reason why they keep remastering these games with the shitty Treehouse versions instead of the based JP Wii U versions. I dont think anyone in Japan is going to buy these shitty versions. They might as well get the Wii U versions. But Gaytendo shut down the Wii U/3DS eshop. And the physical copies in JP could be hard to get. Might as well do Piracy since Nintendo likes screwing us over.

 

[jeff7989]

I know I am many years late but I wanted to share one thing I noticed after watching some Nier Automata stream.
2B in original version doesn't sound bitchy, instead she has gentle, pleasant voice. I just might replay it with subtitles.
Laura Bailey can fuck off.
Edit. It was actually Kira Buckland, my point still stands though.

 

[Soggy Floppa]

Without looking it up, just thinking aloud about what the originals are: Techy/username sounding callsigns? "Cool" (to JP tastes) names and associated titles? Were the capital letters originally in English (romaji) and also allcaps, and/or what about the first part of the names? Why is it a period separating the two parts, and not a space (or anything else, like underscore, slash, etc)? And why is there no space in WHITEREAPER (and for that matter, why "white" reaper and not just any reaper?) Are these even people -- maybe project names, or computer viruses, or mech suits, or special moves?

They are names for the mech suits. Treehouse did a de-cooling of everything across the game like this, they swapped the game font out from a sci-fi font for the little english text to a generic looking sans serif font for the entire game

They even changed the words for already translated wording. Its the pointless name changes that bother me far more than the censorship, because they actively do not understand the game they are working on and remove important terms or references, either on purpose or not. Like the Xenogears and Xenosaga references, to the Dolls -> Skells, it dilutes the themes of the game's story and they keep doing it to the Xenoblade games. They did it to 2 to an even worse extent, just writing their own fanfiction for entire conversations, and they toned it back with 3 a little bit but it still is filled with fanfiction like the infamous 'non binary' stuff.

I see no reason to get up in arms about the censorship and changes now though, it already happened 9 years ago and people already threw up a big stink about it, and Nintendo did nothing because they don't care. They could undo the outfit censorship with this re-release, but thats probably not going to happen, but anything like re-translation would require far too much work like re-recording voice lines for the entire game which is most certainly never going to happen. All we can hope is that they stop being retarded and start respecting the source material for the next game that comes out.

 

[Clarence Big Boss]

I know I am many years late but I wanted to share one thing I noticed after watching some Nier Automata stream.
2B in original version doesn't sound bitchy, instead she has gentle, pleasant voice. I just might replay it with subtitles.
Laura Bailey can fuck off.

She is voiced by Yui Ishikawa. Same VA for Mikasa Ackerman in Attack On Titan. Her voice is soothing and yet serious. She is very talented.

Laura Bailey on the other hand isnt horrible. But she has done worse work. I still think her voice as Abby in LOU2 was awful. But that was probably because I hated the character so much.

 

[SuperShibuyaFighter]

I know I am many years late but I wanted to share one thing I noticed after watching some Nier Automata stream.
2B in original version doesn't sound bitchy, instead she has gentle, pleasant voice. I just might replay it with subtitles.
Laura Bailey can fuck off.

I have come to hate all English dubs in the last 5 years except Dragon Ball Z. Despite some of the scummiest people working on Dragon Ball Z's dub, it still holds a special place in my heart for getting me into anime. Plus I could never get into Grannyku, sorry Masako...

 

[斯尼 德之王]

If it is such a non issue then why did it need to be changed?

Because no sane human wants to see teenagers and little girls in bikinis.

Never negotiate with censorship. The content isn't my focus, the principle is. Besides the main demographic is teens anyway, if you are so scared about getting a boner over a fictional teens, that is on you.

So you're saying that it should be socially acceptable to sell porn to minors?

Seriously, anime retards are really fucking stupid.

 

[Peru oso donas]

They even changed the words for already translated wording. Its the pointless name changes that bother me far more than the censorship, because they actively do not understand the game they are working on and remove important terms or references, either on purpose or not. Like the Xenogears and Xenosaga references, to the Dolls -> Skells, it dilutes the themes of the game's story and they keep doing it to the Xenoblade games.

I think those changes have 2 possible answers:
1 and the most likely IMO: the translators get paid for changes, so they will change stuff that doesn't need changing for the sake of it just so they can inflate the change list and get paid more. FE Fates also was full of these, with some bizarre changes like someone called Harold being changed into Arthur.
2 which I don't think it's likely in this particular case but still relevant enough to be brought up: the translator has main writer syndrome and thinks that by changing the names of things he is improving the script, when he is most likely not.

 

[Brain Power]

Because no sane human wants to see teenagers and little girls in bikinis.



So you're saying that it should be socially acceptable to sell porn to minors?

Seriously, anime retards are really fucking stupid.

Who was talking about porn? No one until you brought it up.

Seriously, pro censorship retards are really fucking stupid.

 

[Clarence Big Boss]

Who was talking about porn? No one until you brought it up.

Seriously, pro censorship retards are really fucking stupid.

Notice how he also brought up minors specifically when buying porn. It's funny because SuperShibuyaFighter was talking about how Xenoblade X was aimed for teens (which it is, the game is rated T for Teen and CERO C 15+ in JP) and the game has no porn in it.

And the retard suddenly brings up minors buying porn like a pedophile. Like how tf do you jump to conclusions like that? Gotta be a symptom of porn brain rot.

 

[Fcret]

And the retard suddenly brings up minors buying porn like a pedophile. Like how tf do you jump to conclusions like that? Gotta be a symptom of porn brain rot.

Calling bikinis 'pornographic' is such a wild take. Zoomers might as well convert to Islam at this point.

 

[wtfNeedSignUp]

Everytime I see zoomers fellating Nintendo for 'being more based than Sony', I have to cringe.

Nintendo is the progenitor of this shit. The only reason retards think they're based is because tendies pull double shifts covering for them.

It's because Sony is the easy target, especially post TLOU2, while seemingly everyone consistently ignores Nintendo's pulling the same thing, sometimes years before the competition.

Also I do hope Xenoblade X 2 gets released someday

 

[Hermiöne Granger]

The pressure from UN against Japan to force censorship in animes, mangas and video games continue. Below is a translation from Japan to English from X/Twitter.

"On October 29, the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) published its "Concluding Observations on Japan's Ninth Periodic Report."

This was prepared following a face-to-face review of the "Ninth Report on the Implementation of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women," which was held on October 17th.

In this final opinion,
Concerns were expressed that "pornography, video games, manga and other animated products may incite violence against women and girls based on gender or sexual orientation."

It further recommended "effectively implementing existing legal measures and monitoring programs to address the production and distribution of pornography, video games and animation products that reinforce discriminatory gender stereotypes and reinforce sexual violence against women and girls."

However, the government (the Cabinet Office Gender Equality Bureau and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs) has confirmed the content of the face-to-face screening, but no questions were asked about "manga, anime, and games." Despite not being checked during the face-to-face screening, the company expressed its concerns.

This one-sided content denies the freedom of expression in manga, anime, and games, and calls for them to be cornered through legal action and surveillance, which is extremely unjust.

We will consider requesting that the sources and grounds be disclosed, and also requesting a retraction if this is not possible."

https://x.com/yamadataro43/status/1851290494669930984