It's something that's gotten a few people really worked up over the past few years--various Nintendo games getting altered in some way when they come to the US. Here's a brief list, but I might've missed some:

Fire Emblem: Awakening -- Tharja's swimsuit bottom covered by curtain

Super Smash Bros. for 3DS -- Tharja trophy removed

Fatal Frame 5 -- Underwear/bikini outfits removed, including in a story sequence (replaced with Nintendo character outfits as unlockables)

Xenoblade Chronicles X -- "Boob slider" removed, underage character outfit altered

Fire Emblem: Fates -- "Petting" minigame mostly removed except certain situations when married, purchasable "bikini" outfits removed

Bravely Second -- Native American style outfit changed to cowboy/cowgirl, some outfits covered up, art book pages modified to remove blood or scantily clad girls, bad endings for certain choice-driven sidequests removed (it's a little unclear if this is NOA or not, but they're publishing the game in the West so it might be)

Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE -- Covering revealing clothing

I thought it might be good to talk about the latest Nintendo controversy and see what you guys think. Is the localization team not doing their job well by altering content? Are the games better off without the extra sexuality? Is the principle more important than that? And is today's censorship any more or less acceptable than NOA's censorship in the 80s to mid-90s? Let's hear what you guys think! (and add to the list if I missed any recent examples)

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Good point, I remembered a censorship thread and searched and saw "censorship" and posted without much thought, but I think I was thinking of an older one that was more generalized.

With that said I'm at work now and can't get pictures but holy F the (admittedly minor, but very vocal) freakout over the NA Odin Sphere remake cover is hilarious. Look up the European and American covers and tell me if you can even SEE a difference.

@ploot Try to point out the censorship in persona and you'll get "Oh, the persona devs say it's actually to expose MORE of the characters! They're not covering anything up!" Even if Atlus were to say that Tokyo Mirage Sessions had straight up porn in it, Persona's fanbase would spread misinformation about it until you either believed the misinformation, or at least didn't try to correct anyone that believed it.

These are the people that tried to convince the general consumer-base that Nintendo was censoring Bayonetta, even after both Nintendo and Platinum had stated and demonstrated that not only had no censorship been taking place, Platinum had proposed a costume that Nintendo suggest they make even sexier. Even still, most "gamers" would believe at face value that Nintendo had "censored" Bayonetta, just for the sake of not having to deal with the high chance that they'll receive a wave of Nintendo-shaming to the face if they knew otherwise and tried to say so.

I dunno a lot of these same people had a heart attack over Tokyo Mirage and are now having a uh... minor heart attack over Odin Sphere's box cover.

I don't think this has too much to do with system wars. It's more related to... culture wars.

Alright here we go. Don't read the text below the images, it gives it away... just see if you can find the horrible "censorship". It's like those find the differences puzzles in newspapers and such.

Kinda hard to spot but the middle girl's... panty shot? Has been censored #odinsphere pic.twitter.com/n6Fd00UU2S

— Censored Gaming (@CensoredGaming_) June 8, 2016

Not sure how box artists stand for such wanton destruction of their "visions".

@Zero

I'm confused:

Who are the ridiculous parties in all of this?

Sometimes it sounds like "I can't believe they censored that...."
And other times its like "guys, calm down.."


I feel like I'm getting both of those from you.
"Not sure how box artists stand for such wanton destruction of their 'visions'" sounds like "people, please, its not a big deal," but if its "not a big deal," why are they even going through the trouble of editing anything? You said it yourself, thats BARELY a panty shot. My advice to everyone who has problems with these covers, specifically the last two: NEVER go to the mall.

The wanton destruction thing was a joke, of course. It's barely even a change! But people who get mad about this kind of thing tend to talk about how the changes totally ruin the original artist vision.

As for why they did it, who knows. Vague concerns about panty shots not going over so well with American parents I suppose.

@Zero

Right, its barely a change. But whose side are you more on?

How would anyone even know thats a panty shot? I leer at anime girls constantly and I don't even think that would've registered. (You should play Flower Knight Girl. Its AWESOME. Think "Bravely Default," but "good.")

I don't know that there are really two distinct SIDES but I've said my basic position on this stuff earlier in this thread a few times. I feel like a lot of changes make some sense, especially in context of a company like Nintendo trying to have this "family-friendly" image, though I think they go overboard and most parents wouldn't even know or care if say... Fatal Frame had some more sexiness or whatever. I think some changes seem pointless. Either way they changes are usually so minor and not really worth expending much energy on.

I think we can mostly all agree that changes like the Odin Sphere box art are pretty irrelevant.

@Mr_Mustache

I can't speak for anyone else but personally I'm on the side of amazement at how much of a non-issue it is.

It's such a minor thing I'm amazed they changed it.

It's such a minor change I'm amazed anyone even noticed let alone complained about it.

I'm not amazed that people noticed it. "Censorship" is the new THING in the uh... video game culture war (for lack of a better term) and some people are just searching and searching and searching for things to get up in arms about. Some people are relentless in their pursuit of things to get mad over. There is a whole site now that exists just to track changes like those above (their Twitter account is where I saw the Odin Sphere images) and it has a lot of followers who are ready to take any minor change and turn it into a THING.

Since I barely care about minor localization changes I most just find the reactions amusing.

How much this is actually about the changes themselves, who knows.

@Mr_Mustache

You've never even played Bravely Default...!

@GameDadGrant

And YOU'VE never played Flower Knight Girl!

And neither of you has played Undertale!

@Zero

You got that right!

Is THIS that Overwatch game? Someone had this as their signature on CheapAssGamer (Thanks, Zero!)

(Potentially NSFW -Zero)

Butt 1 Butt 2 Butt 3

Oh hey, I guess this is the new smut thread.

@Hero_Of_Hyrule

Just hopped over to your profile to see your join date (which is unavailable, didn't know why I thought it was there) because I don't even think you were here when the Smut Thread was going. (BTW, if thats "smut" to you? Holy cow..)

And to my surprise, in your "Games I'm Playing" section, 1 title:


Overwatch (PS4)



So you HAVE the answer to my question, yet opt to be snarky instead. Thanks, bud. Keep up the fantastic work.

I think he is being snarky because the picture is totally unnecessary and gratuitous and not even particularly work-safe. I'm going to turn it into a link. (Censorship?!!?!)

And yeah, that's Overwatch alright. I mean, the characters are from Overwatch. I suspect those particular images are edited from how things appear in game though, but I don't know about that.

@Zero

Turn it into a link? Ugh, yes, censorship. You took away Free Speech three times.
("seeeee youuuuuu, in No-vemmmmm-berrrrrrr")

How is that not work safe? Perhaps you should send a message to the bigwigs on CAG;
I wouldn't want you (or someone else) to stumble across that accidentally while at work.


Thats Overwatch, great. Thanks for an actual answer to a question.

EDIT- For consistency sake, you should go back to page 3 and change nate's super offensive pictures to links as well.

While the image doesn't offend me in the slightest personally, if I were at work, it would be a big problem. My boss' boss' boss sits in a position where he actually could potentially see my computer screen if he wanted to. I'd hate for him or anyone around me to see that, have no context, and make assumptions which wouldn't be good.

But that won't happen since work bans gaming links and shit. That's annoying but I can't get around it. Bah.

@DrFinkelstein

I know its not the same thing, but has anyone seen Rob Zombie's latest album cover? Something about a UFO?

Stumbled across it today at the House of Guitars. I wasn't prepared.