Dragon Quest Veterans on Dealing with 'Ridiculous Country' USA Amid Censorship Row

"Who's even complaining about this?"

by · Push Square
Game Profile

https://images.pushsquare.com/44e79ac20900c/dragon-quest-iii-hd-2d-remake-cover.cover_small.jpg
Title:
Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake
System:
PlayStation 5
Also Available For:
Switch
Publisher:
Square Enix
Developer:
Square Enix
Genre:
RPG
Players:
1
Release Date:
PlayStation 5
https://static.pushsquare.com/themes/base/images/flags/us.gif 14th Nov 2024
https://static.pushsquare.com/themes/base/images/flags/eu.gif 14th Nov 2024
Series:
Dragon Quest
Also Known As:
Dragon Quest III Remake
Where to buy:
Pre Order on Amazon

Dragon Quest creator Yuji Horii and former Shonen Jump editor Kazuhiko Torishima – who played a pivotal role in the franchise’s inception with the late Akira Toriyama – have spoken candidly at the Tokyo Game Show about censorship to the upcoming Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake.

Earlier in the month fans spotted alterations to Toriyama’s iconic artwork, adding safety shorts and a tan coloured undershirt to the female warrior character. She’d previously gone into battle with little more than an armoured loincloth and brasserie.

In an interview, Horii admitted he doesn’t “understand” the tweaks either. He said: “If there’s too much exposure, the age rating goes up. It means we won’t be able to sell it as an all-ages product.”

Torishima interjected: “There’s a religious concept from the West, especially in America, that influences their approach to sex education, right? Their approach to compliance is really narrow-minded. When selling manga in America, everything had to be categorised by age groups. Because there’s a risk of lawsuits, the company also has to get insurance. Doing business with such a ridiculous country is really frustrating. Because of that, Japan also gets negatively influenced.”

These comments appeared to resonate with Horii, as he pointed to another change in the game, involving the character selector. In the original, you could pick between male and female protagonists, but the remake will see these options renamed Type A and Type B. “I really wonder who’s even complaining about this?” he pondered.

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To be honest, it’s quite fascinating to see Horii and Torishima speaking so candidly about this; perhaps they didn’t expect their comments to go viral on social media.

Ultimately, we don’t think the alterations are a particularly big deal, but it is a shame to see Toriyama’s art edited – especially in the year where he sadly passed away.

[source twitter.com]

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About Sammy Barker

As the Editor of Push Square, Sammy has over 15 years of experience analysing the world of PlayStation, from PS3 through PS5 and everything in between. He’s an expert on PS Studios and industry matters, as well as sports games and simulators. He also enjoys RPGs when he has the time to dedicate to them, and is a bit of a gacha whale.

Comments 73

They are all correct. The USA is ridiculous when it comes to censorship. The whining of a loud minority drowns out the indifference of the majority. Please note: most of us Do Not Care and prefer uncensored at all times.

I'll be honest I actually like Americans overall, and a lot of content I watch is American. But the level of censorship over there is crazy, so I kind of agree with Torishima about having to deal with a "ridiculous country"

He's right. None of it makes sense but it's got nothing to do with any religious concepts anymore. Instead today it's out of fear of offending anyone or being accused of not "being inclusive" especially when it comes to the gender removal.

Then again, what's the point complaining if they won't do anything about it? Go with the higher age rating and if they, like many, find the "body type" in place of gender stupid, remove it. Or does the publisher make these decisions?

I don't understand how this censorship works but I'm currently playing the Fairy Tail game and there's a LOT on show and it has the same age rating as DQ3HD, so was it really necessary to make those changes?

Same goes from Atelier Ryza 3 and Trails Through Daybreak two games I've recently played and there's a few characters that have a lot on show, plus all these games have swimsuits but they are all age rating 12+.

Extremely ridiculous adult content censorship in games in the USA, but we can have all the violence we want.

I mean let's be honest Japan has there own form of censorship too, we just don't notice as much being in the west.

This is why I am happy games like stellar blade and nikke release because they send me back to a time when games were much more innocent, now we can't even be "male" and "female" and beautiful characters are an anomaly now because all these things offend the "tolerant".

Sad that people can't have a choice in games anymore now we're all just forced to play androgynous, not very inclusive to me excluding the majority.

@UltimateOtaku91 I found that Fairy Tail RPG to be way more entertaining than I expected. It was quite fun and has me looking forward to the sequel.
And your point about the costumes in those 12+ games has me wondering if they’re aiming for an all ages rating? Not sure why that would affect sales unless some outlets only carry all ages games. As is almost always the case, a bit more information would be useful, but we’ll probably have to settle for a comment section full of repetitive grandstanding about censorship.

All for age restrictions. There stuff for adults that kids shouldn't view.

The new design looks kinda off, like she accidentally put her bra and top on in the wrong order.

I agree, some of the changes they have to implement in the game is ridiculous, especially when it comes to a remake of a game that released way way back.

I think it goes both ways. No one should've cared enough for it to get censored in the first place. And no one should care enough to complain about the censorship.

The absolutely hilarious part is that he points to the religious right in America, which is absolutely where censorship comes from even today. But there’ll probably still be whining about the ‘woke’.

Censorship is weird in general. Skimpy outfits need to be censored in the West and adult videos in Japan need to be pixelated even though in both cases everyone is likely to experience both of them in real life. It is what it is, different cultures, different histories. Would I prefer no censorship? Yes, but if companies think they can make more money by changing things like this, they will.

So that Type A and B thing was true…Damn. Seriously, what purpose does any of this crap serve? How does something like that even make the resting go up? Look at some other games that have plenty of exposure in character designs and it’s perfectly fine, and then there are some that get criticized to hell for it. I’ll never understand it.

japan has strict censorship when it comes to female parts in adult films lol

every country has there own forms of censorship

@Bentleyma I don’t particularly mind the shorts so much. But yeah, the top just looks ridiculous.

It's not even just the Americans, the whole west is starting to become broken with over the top censoring, you can find that in almost every country. France/UK/USA etc etc

And if you do a redesign do it right this looks horrible the bra on her top looks so stupid. The underskirt looks ok I still prefer the original you know what no it both looks stupid.

The original looks so much better if they want to go for a cover up then you need a whole new design or don't bother. The original looks so badass like a gladiator.

(edited bottom text)
If they would wanted to make it look better maken it like the Elite Gladiator armor of Guild Wars 1 and that probably would be to much for the Christians.

America: Where you can show on tv/movies getting violently murdered and sexual acts.

Also, America. Video games are too sexualized and violent.

The hypocrisy never ends.

I've never liked the idea of censorship. Never have, never will. It's just a stupid silly practice that serves no purpose other than to annoy people. Completely and utterly pointless.

Censorship varies per region. In Europe, excessive gore and blood has restrictions. In America, 17 year olds can enjoy all the gore and guts, but nudity has its limits. In Japan, there's rampant sexual content but male genitals are still censored so it makes sense that they find it odd to require designing some shorts on the girl before hopping into battle now.

It's hard to argue for censorship outside of special cases (racism, child nudity, etc.) since there's the fear that once you allow something to be censored, that leaves more for expanding it as history proved. A balance is most important, especially when it involves the marginalized. I fall more in line with it being equal, if we let ladies walk freely in battle in heels and underwear, then the men should fight in their underwear too so that men aren't being censored in appearance.

@Jefferson280 Welcome to PushSquare. The "religious right" prefer modesty with women. Covering them up to not show much skin as a means of control otherwise they're seen as impure and associated with sin. As for gaming, they hate the "pronoun and LGBTQIA agenda" being "forced down" everyone's throats... he's not wrong about their ideals. We can't have a character of color or woman in the lead without it being seen as "forced" or unnatural, which reflects a sad case of society today that doesn't want to see more depictions of others.

Meanwhile, the left side's reasoning for covering up is to prevent women from being seen as mere objects, a different version of morality to uplift them. And wanting to see more diversity so there's more for developers to express their creativity.

"America hates lewd and erotic stuff but blood and gore is totally okay. Meanwhile Japan loves lewd and erotic stuff but hates blood and gore"

I saw this quote and it's completely correct, each country has things they find more offensive than other countries. I would prefer everything be uncensored but that's just how things are when dealing with different cultures 🤷 (Japan also doesn't like drug & religious references)

@CieloAzure I totally agree massive murder blood no issues but a bit of skin no no we can't have that. Man it looks like the West is getting worse then the Middle East.

@Tecinthebrain But they make it worse it looks bloody horrible for some religious cooks. Blasting someone in the face is normal somehow.

I don't care about it...I didn't even notice until it was pointed out. Still going to play it. Can't wait for November!

@TruestoryYep Yeah, my guess is it's the brass at Square Enix making the final call on that. Still, he could probably press the issue if he really wanted it.

@MidnightDragonDX It does looks really bad especially the top looks so stupid if you do something like that it almost needs a full redesign and I can understand that this won't work on a old remastered game it really ruins it though.

@InsaneWade The redesign does looks horrible though especially the top part.

@AdamNovice
I think the difference is that they don't go out of their way to cry and complain on social media until it is censored for EVERYONE around the world. We do have a habit of thinking that our way is always the right way.

Imagine forcing the lead character artist on the remake to edit Toriyama's original design from '88.

'You want me to what now?'

@Flaming_Kaiser Yea, I get it, but again, I didn't notice it until it was pointed out and even if I did, wouldn't keep me from playing.

@UltimateOtaku91 Yeah I think it's really about ESRB and getting that E for Everyone rating meaning it must meet children's standards. Obviously none of this is necessary for older ratings. The gender thing is weird though. I've only seen the Type a or b things in Japanese games. Western games still seem to go with gender names, and I didn't think that's a kid unfriendly selection. Kids are familiar with boys vs "icky" girls lol. That's a bizarre one I can only assume is some weird misunderstanding in Japan about criteria.

Yeah, I'd guess that this mandate to cencor and change probably came from square-enix internal DEI (or equivalent) department or as a request from the localization company.

If we are to ever look upon games as a creative art form then we need to stop trying to cencor the creators or alter their work. It just gives off stupid "d'n'd-satanist-scare" and "jesus-against-violent-games" vibes.

Will JP version be uncensored?
Because if so then my wallet will vote with that version.

@CielloArc No, it's the same in Japan, too.

@MidnightDragonDX
Then my wallet will vote by buying it and refunding on Steam.

@CielloArc Seems like it'd be easier to just not buy it, but you do you.

@Jefferson280 Technically you’re advocating for censorship by whining about the erasure of male/female because I’m assuming that means that you don’t want any trans representation in gaming. Which is censorship.

You know, underwear was once painted over the sistine chapel's fresco...Toriyama and Michelangelo's work are now connected by censorship.

That said, calling another state "a ridiculous country" is a bit unsavory, especially considering the DQ team history with revisionism…but I agree with the sentiment that this is disrespectful of the source material, of art in general, and unnecessary. It's a pixellated character from a classic videogame, relax!

He's 100% right.
Way too much is dictated by the US and their overly prude society thats tied too closely to Christian beliefs.

The creators don't want it
The actual fans don't want it
But its forced to be changed to not upset some snowflake who will probably never consume the media.

@Jefferson280 Creating an account just to have a very public meltdown is incredible. Off you pop.

The worst thing about this is that no young kid is even going to play this. Does Square-Enix really think that the ruined kid generation is going to play a classic RPG. These kids have the attention span of a goldfish and they won't leave their crappy Fortnite.

@CielloArc If thet have English subs importing would not be such a bad idea.

@MidnightDragonDX I'm going to see if the Japanese version has English if so I'm going to import that version instead. I have seen the first redesign that make the underskirt and top fully black it looks so much better.

@RoomWithaMoose One should always complain about censorship, even if it’s something you don’t personally think is important. The next thing to be censored may be something YOU care about.

Censorship in general is to be avoided whenever possible. Overzealous censorship is how we lose episodes of tv shows because a future generation deemed them offensive, or because a political trend started happening, or other equally spurious reasons.

Never stand for censorship.

@Flaming_Kaiser You can change your party's models in game, so it's possible that the English version will have that. But again, you do you.

People with this weird left wing ideology think like Christian Zealots did in the 80s and 90s. It's really weird to be offended on someone else's behalf. Women are attractive, people are allowed to represent this for whatever reason.

@nessisonett I noticed that instead of refuting his point you simply told him he was having a meltdown, which is kind of odd.

@nessisonett I have actually seen you supporting censorship on this site.

@Fluberuper Yeah, He's often a baby. And when people call him out he reports them. It's only within reason to criticize people if he does it.

I kind of think this might have more to do with the Japanese not quite understanding American culture and being really clueless when it comes to right wing culture war *****.

It’s kind of surprising we are so strict with censorship yet when it comes to serious matters like crime and food safety we are nowhere as strict as Europe and Japan. I’m glad we got most of the Dragon Quest games. I really hope Dragon Quest 10 and Monsters Joker 3 will eventually get a release in the West.

Women should have full bodily autonomy and dress however they please (totally agree, honestly.)

....except in video games, where scantily clad big muscle men with their pecks out are okay but a woman expressing herself isn't.

We need to stop censoring the artistic vision.

I am an American, but well traveled. I dare any British citizen or American citizen to go to any beach on mainland Europe during the summer. Topless, naked women everywhere and nobody cares.

Why? Because we're grown ups and everyones seen womens (and mens) body parts.

Edit : and, just to address "but think of the children!!" People, yes. Kids are on these beaches too being exposed to topless, naked women. Guess what? They turn out just fine

On the character art, I looked back and forth several times and didn't see the difference. Clear as day once I read the description, but they fooled me initially by making the items flesh colored.

What is this about Type A and Type B? You've been able to choose between "male" and "female" characters in games released in the US forever. Not like M or AO games, either...seems like all ratings. When did that change? I personally don't think it matters, but I am a bit surprised that it's evidently a thing.

I am only annoyed by the type a type b nonsense. The human species is sexually dimorphic and that is easily visible except in medical issues/genetic issues. I am still going to play whatever type is the female character.

As for bodily exposure I can’t take most of it seriously because most characters that are designed with half naked women and girls (as many male focused media love sexualizing the female body at young ages) are designed for boys and men to look at them sexually as opposed to a power fantasy which is why male characters are designed musclebound and (if) no shirt. If I walk around with no shirt on I will get arrested (or harassed … likely both) if a man walks around with no shirt on, nothing happens at all. The last time I could do that I was a toddler. Female and male bodies are not treated the same. Full stop. (I have not heard of a place where they are treated exactly the same. If it exists someone tell me and I will move.) We have countries where women have to be covered from head to toe and can’t speak in public. With legal/criminal and physical repercussions if they aren’t. Until that goes away forever I can’t take any argument about “censorship “ seriously as it isn’t in good faith and it never will be.

Let women and girls tell you what we find to be a power fantasy or practical for our bodies and heroines.

@Bigumamiflavor It appears Mr Nessisonett has blocked me simply for replying to your comment the other day. I've never had any direct confrontation, of any degree, with him whatsoever.

There's tolerance for you.

The bikini censorship looks really weird. It's not like kids never see women wearing bikini when they go to the beach or swimming pool with their families.

But as usual, censorship caters to people who doesn't even play the game and the west including USA has loud minority voices that gave impact to censorship in video games.

Now we got the woke group represented by Sweet Baby Inc who wants to "burn the gaming industry to the ground" aka censored a lot of good stuff, which i'm glad they failed to do it.
https://www.smashjt.com/post/crazed-sweet-baby-inc-employee-says-their-goal-is-burning-the-games-industry-to-the-ground

I'd say it IS a big deal. Creativity is being hampered by fear of back-lash and social expectations. That is a bad direction we're going in (and have been for quite a while of course).

@nessisonett what you wrote is incredibly true. I have nothing to add.

@Flaming_Kaiser I agree, the colors clash and now it looks she's wearing underwear armor over her clothes.

Censorship is bad. But the way some of you droll over these game characters is so weird. Especially since many of them are childlike.

I'm 41, I'm kind of over battle bikinis. With that said, adding the little shirt/shorts under these is just silly. Keep the originals or redesign the characters. The little cover ups are ridiculous.

“If there’s too much exposure, the age rating goes up. It means we won’t be able to sell it as an all-ages product.”

Sounds more like they are self-censoring to reach a lower age rating. Dragon Quest has historically been a rate T franchise by the ESRB, including the re-releases of "Dragon Warrior 3". If that is the case, this ridiculous design and censorship is an internal issue, not a prudish American issue.

@MidnightDragonDX I have to say after seeing the male armor it's stupid they made the female completely naked. The male character is so much more armored.

The did a redesign with the 3DS and that one looks so much better with black undergarments.

@RudeAnimat0r 42 here I saw one with black undergarments that looks quite nice though but I agree do a good design or do nothing this looks dumb

They should have also added the fact that alot of western game development is dying out because they make stuff that no one wants

Censorship in Japan is bad. A scene in the Japanese version of TLOU2 was cut. Some big games can’t even get a rating and release here like The Callisto Protocol, Dead Space remake, and Dead Island 2…

Yeah speaking as an American it’s not about religious censorship any more, the theory is that it’s offensive to women to have the dressed like that (objectifying) even tho they themselves pick out more revealing clothing than that to wear to the gym, etc

Videogames are art, and as such, they should be able to show whatever they want to show.

Horii and Torishima speaks the truth.

@nessisonett Tbf, I think you see complaints from extremists on both sides over this sort of thing.

@Lup "Videogames are art, and as such, they should be able to show whatever they want to show"

including underage characters' private parts? It's art, after all.

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