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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@Mr_Mustache It probably won't surprise you that I know a LOT of people who are not a fan of Maddox.

@Mr_Mustache
The only time I comment on the arguing is when it no longer seems like sensible conversation and it's just the two sides shouting the same point at each other over and over. It's honestly frustrating to see, which is why I do comment. I like it when people get along, when they aren't getting along then I start to not feel very at home.

@Zero"

You're right; that is not surprising.

@Pokefreak911

The thing is, people can have different opinions about certain things (which is what makes us human beings), and it doesn't necessarily mean that we hate each other. Maybe people hate me?, I can't say for sure, but I don't HATE anyone for their opinions. I don't LIKE the way some people act about certain things on here, but I don't hate them. I think its disrespectful to ignore/discredit/discard an entire post that someone worked just as hard on as you work on your posts -- it introduces an element of elitism (ie: my opinion matters more than yours to 'no thanks'), and thats not something that works when you're all supposed to be equals in the same pool. Yeah, we have "levels" here which are more or less for behind the scenes stuff, but talking down to someone in a message board format is never cool.

I'm sorry people disagreeing upsets you (and I know what you gave an example of is a more extreme version of 'a disagreement'). Like you, I don't want people to be unhappy either.


I know this isn't the regularly scheduled program, but I wanted to reply to you because I know how much it stinks to post something and no one writes back to you. Have a good one.

Zero said:

I was super leftist...

What? What is this?

@Mr_Mustache

I don't think everyone hates you. I'm part of EVERYONE, and I don't hate ya.

though you do need to start playing more handheld games!

@Mr_Mustache
I certainly don't hate you. I don't hate anyone here (well maybe Shadowlink :P) I just get frustrated with people.

And yeah It does tend to stink when people don't respond, but I am used to it.

@Pokefreak911

Dude, don't listen to Kris. He's a bad influence.

@GameDadGrant Quoting out of context! I said BEFORE I was super leftist, IE before the present.

I don't mean leftist as Communist, just... much further left than the average American. Something I didn't fully realize until things started happening like noticing a lot of people think Obama / Hillary are far left, etc. and I'm like wait, what does that make me? I'm way further left than they are. The American "left" is highly disappointing to me, to be quite honest.

But yeah I grew up in a diehard Catholic home and though I started moving away from that in my teens it was a long process. Up until my mid 20s or so I still had a fair amount of religious / conservative beliefs and ideas, especially about something like sex which I was still pretty judgmental about for a long, long time.

Anyway this is getting wildly off-topic and introducing a topic that could be potentially volatile at this point though, maybe a conversation for another time and place.

The latest "censorship" controversy.

I can't even anymore.

Watch out for the tiny line below her neck!

Might it have something to do with the larger ESRB rectangle potentially blocking the cat thing's head?

@TriforceBun That's exactly what Atlus said, but some people don't believe them. And are doing all kinds of weird image modifications of their own to prove they are lying.

@TriforceBun

Perhaps. What game is this?

I think it's more likely that they altered it to avoid that tiny tiny tiny bit of cleavage than to back away from the larger ESRB rectangle. But it also seems like such a small thing to "censor" that I would believe the rectangle-avoidance theory too. EDIT: @Zero oh, well then. If Atlus says so I believe them.

Personally I think they put the cat's head there to hide her giraffe-length neck!

Wake me when the perpetually outraged actually get outraged at important things.

@Zero Yeah, the placing on the US image looks better to me since it is obscuring less of a character.

This is just getting dumb, especially since this is Atlus who doesn't really try to cover things up like that.

@Zero
@nate38

Thats not even cleavage. Its just "cle."

@nate38

lol good point. Wow that's a bit funky.

Zero said:

The latest "censorship" controversy.

I can't even anymore.

I almost can't believe someone compared the two pictures and complained "Hey! I was gonna jerk off to that!"

Almost.

@Guillaume Yeah but you and I both know this is only marginally about the actual changes...

IMO the whole "censorship" "controversy" is a non-issue that's being artificially made into an issue because certain loud, angry, vitriolic fan-groups can't simply enjoy what games they get, and they can't let themselves buy a Wii U to enjoy Wii U games, so they have to convince themselves that those games are "bad because they're bad, that's why", or go against some human-right or artistic-integrity. That way, they can justify hating it regardless of how good a game it turns out to be.

At first, for "Shin Megami Tensei Cross Fire Emblem" was hated because judging entirely by the extremely early reveal, it could be dismissed as too boring and predictable. "Bunch of old SMT and FE protags, nothing new."

Then for the "SMT and FE Crossover Project" being a "betrayal" of fans expectations by NOT being boring and predictable. Too much new stuff, "where's the SMT? Where's the Fire Emblem?"

Then they attacked publications such as Dengeki Online for daring to call Genei Ibunroku Sharp-FE "The Best RPG of Recent Years" despite most other RPGs coming out of Japan being underage girl-stripping simulators with some shoestring-budget RPG-structure to connect one stripping sequence to the next.

Now, it's "censorship", because Tokyo Mirage Sessions devs are trying to separate TMS from the underage-girl-stripping-simulator subset of JRPGs, that some angry people seem to want to believe is the entire selling point of JRPGs today, to a "niche audience" that they are now offended on the behalf of.

When the same issues are brought up about other consoles' games it's met with a deluge of accusations of being a Nintendo-fanboy, among mantra-like recitations "oh it's not censorship, it's improvement" "oh, it's not censorship, that's what professional localization looks like" "oh it's not censorship, the fans wanted it that way. Aren't these dev's / pub's great for listening to the fans?"

As things stand, when those 'certain fans' start getting frothy about "That darn NOA localization" or "Nintendo censorship" it seems more like they're talking about a game that they feel so severely threatened by that it actually deserves success.

@Dark Weres
The above photo is the cover of Persona 5, which isn't a Nintendo game. Sort of goes against your theory.

Although, I don't know why it's up there since this thread is specifically supposed to be about Nintendo.