Pot Meet Kettle
Member
Alright ladies and gentlemen, I am of the opinion that discussion about this very interesting topic has been fragmented way too much to make the most out of its discussions, so I propose this thread where we will gather examples of censorship in videogames and look at them in their larger context.
F.A.Q.
B-b-but it isn't censorship if the developers did it / if the government didn't intervene / if I like it that way and feel it's an improvement!
That's a conveniently restrictive definition of censorship that ensures no cuts ever can 'count' since the onset of gaming. "But they can release it elsewhere!" doesn't count either since releasing a torrent isn't a sound way to run a business that can survive. Government bans can be also dismissed as restrictions on illegal content and justified just as easily. But since gaming media already accused Nintendo of "censorship" over regional changes (in the context of a same-sex marriage feature "cut" from the Western versions of Tomodachi Collection, even though it turned out the feature didn't exist to begin with) we can already drop the charade and count all cases of content already produced then cut under pressure, to be "censorship".
I like it that way! It's an improvement! The original "artistic vision" was worthless anyways!
While some games had their engines repurposed for Western markets for completely different games (like a Gundam Wing 2D fighter that became a Power Rangers themed game in the West, or some brawlers and racing games on the PS1), most games in this thread were marketed as direct adaptations of their original version with any mention of the cuts avoided as much as possible. The localization editors are also credited as part of the translation team, instead of co-writers. It is then fair to excuse the disappoinment of fans who expect unaltered versions.
Also, opinions are subjective.
That's just how localization works. You just want a "keikaku means plan" Babelfish translation.
Localization as adapting a language with different grammar that wouldn't translate well, explaining cultural references that would fly over the heads of an overseas audience, and wording it all in a way that sounds enjoyable to a native, is different from "Localization" that's all about cuts and changes to remove everything too foreign or from a different morality system, or 'enhancing' it with the localization editor's political and moral opinions.
As good examples of games that have excellent localizations from the first kind, that completely avoid the second kind of "localization", you can check Atlus's work on Utawarerumono : Mask of Truth, Xseed's Trails in the Sky translations, and Sega's Yakuza (6 and beyond). Persona 5 arguably counts as well as a translation that's very close to the Japanese text without being Babelfish/fansub quality as proponents of this argument would like us to believe.
You're just a weaboo who wants to see some flesh, watch some online porn already.
Censorship also affects Japanese games in their native markets, and Western games in their native markets. This impression can't be explained away by an idealization of the Japanese market, story tropes, and language patterns (honorifics, sound effects, politeness levels...) We'll make sure to point out enough examples supporting this in this thread.
Besides this, censorship extends well beyond sexual, or lewd content. It affects a lot more things, including storylines, characterization and game modes. This thread hopes to shine some light on some examples like these.
[internet scandal group] thread! Dogwhistling! Sealionsplaining! Dickwolfing! Bad faith! Everything is political!
It is my honest intention to dedicate this thread to discussing examples of game censorship, not campaigning against or defending political parties and their internet feuds.
If your dogwhistle sharingan can detect invisible hostile intentions, please make sure as common courtesy, to point out with a direct quote where you saw those political opinions instead of assuming the poster holds them or wants to talk about them.
Standing [for/against] [very unrelated political position] in [current year] is basic human decency, then how could you disagree with me about [this game's] localization, even mention its damned name, you... you [hate crime accusation] [assumed demographic] monster?!!
Lesser computer-generated hostile ad hominems like this would do wonders to elevate this topic's level.
Ad hominems are replies that derail a topic to talk about, insult, and harass the person who dared make the argument, instead of addressing the argument itself... that are a tactic to derail or stop discussions with minimal effort and good will)
How pitiful and miserable do you have to be to care this much about pixels TROLOLOL Cry harder
Computer-generated reply #2 seems to exist because whoever wrote it cares as much as us about the medium and issues like this. A heartfelt welcome is then extended to this topic, no matter how you stand on the topic, as long as you don't post something actionable by moderation here.
With this out of the way, let's talk a bit about game censorship.
History
Why are games censored
We shall make the distinction between different kinds of censorship.
For the sake of simplicity, we'll consider the obvious morality-driven, controversy-averse cuts that developers didn't really plan or wish for in their initial creative vision, as censorship. Games made very easy, missing game modes because the localization team broke the game, won't be considered for this topic (but feel free to start another one for these
)
We won't count when platform holders reject non-functional executables as censorship of their artistical expression.
Absence of Japanese songs, voice acting and name changes won't be counted if it's a legal licensing restriction. However cases where it was licensed and ready for release and the console holder said no (Sony, Konami, Castlevania Symphony of the Night) will count.
Computers
In the West, games were and are still unrestricted on computers, which remain an open platform, save for government, lawsuit recalls and license owner restrictions. This hasn't changed and acquiring uncut content online within those boundaries is still possible.
If you're talking about Steam, however, there are some restrictions. However it gradually changed.
itch.io on the other hand has threatened to "BAN" (sic) any developers who would dare to submit problematic games to their platform.
The Japanese side used to be unregulated and allow outright child porn and uncensored porn, relying on the fact that the market is underground and doujin distribution is limited. However, a high-profile serial murder case that was over-the-top in how depraved and disgusting it was, committed by an otaku, quickly threw into motion government regulation for the computer game market and not just console game market (CERO).
Nintendo
Nintendo should be considered from two different angles, as a publisher for their own first party games, and as a platform holder approving third-party games. It should be mentioned that as the former they were afforded to breach their own guidelines as the latter, at many times.
Nintendo started as a platform holder and the only party allowed to release games on their Famicom. As they were unable to meet consumer demand, they started a third party developer licensing program with the likes of Enix (Dragon Quest, Protopia), Namco (Pac-man) and Hudson (Bomberman) welcomed, with more and more developers later.
There were preferential treatment to who gets the bigger cartridge size to fit all game content and biggest shipment to ensure the best sales, and who got to manufacture their special chips (where Enix and Bullet-Proof Software led by the guy who played Go with Yamauchi, given the VIP course, and Squaresoft and Namco getting the short stick which was a major factor why they jumped ship for Sony) and then Nintendo of America came up with even more restrictions like how many games could be released yearly. This leads to some pretty major content cuts but since it was due to corporate politics and not because of the content itself, it won't be the focus here.
As a platform holder approving third party games, they had the following restrictions in Japan:
Europe mostly followed suit as a NoA subsidary, though they completely ignored it (for non-English translations based on English versions, and later for Terranigma)
After Nintendo's fall from grace with the PlayStation coming, they largely dropped these policies for third party publishers. However some recent cases need to be pointed out:
As a game publisher, either for their own games or other developers, Nintendo was a bit different, and carried on very similar policies:
Sega tried to compete with Nintendo, and game censorship was one aspect of their feuds. Howard Lincoln would try to embarrass Sega claiming mature games like Night Trap would never be on a Nintendo console, and Sega would allow an uncensored Mortal Kombat port making the Genesis the cool kids' console overnight (and it's no coincidence ex-Sega of America people who joined Sony continued a similar strategy with gratuitous profanity in their own games).
Sega of America had third parties cut the following:
Sega of Japan stuck to just nudity and sexual acts, but in a stunning reversal decided to allow that on the Saturn for a very short window of time (actual adult only games, though privates and some words were still not allowed), then banned it again.
NEC
Here we'll mention NEC's short lived attempts for console gaming, not their computers (PC-88, PC-98 that they didn't regulate). They are the PC Engine (TurboGrafx-16) and its CD add-on, as well as the PC-FX that was a massive failure. NEC didn't put the minimum work to be ahead of the curve (they would develop hardware already outdated by that year's standards, then delay it 2 years without adding anything to that concept) and banked on the FMV gaming fad, which meant their demise.
PC Engine wasn't very successful at first, but it became a hit with the CD expansion. Games that had voice acting and anime sequences were the most popular. So NEC took a hands-off approach.
Games had politically incorrect speech patterns (that had to be redacted from their later releases in Japanese, though to be fair that happened with other games from the same period Final Fantasy included), gratuitous gore, and blood.
There were some direct ports of erotic games (the Dragon Knight games) that kept the descriptions of the act in text form, or sometimes voice acted with appropriate performance. The visuals however had nudity slightly covered up, and no depiction of the visual act (or in the case of Steam Heart, stills from the uncensored computer version cutscene). Those erotic games were published by NEC themselves. Later for the PC-FX, even the visuals in full fidelity became allowed.
But, aside from the half-hearted attempt by NEC to tell developers to cover up nudity in their games, they had a very real ban on any game that wasn't "anime-esque" enough for the PC-FX, as anime cutscenes were deemed to showcase the hardware. That didn't... go well for them.
F.A.Q.
B-b-but it isn't censorship if the developers did it / if the government didn't intervene / if I like it that way and feel it's an improvement!
That's a conveniently restrictive definition of censorship that ensures no cuts ever can 'count' since the onset of gaming. "But they can release it elsewhere!" doesn't count either since releasing a torrent isn't a sound way to run a business that can survive. Government bans can be also dismissed as restrictions on illegal content and justified just as easily. But since gaming media already accused Nintendo of "censorship" over regional changes (in the context of a same-sex marriage feature "cut" from the Western versions of Tomodachi Collection, even though it turned out the feature didn't exist to begin with) we can already drop the charade and count all cases of content already produced then cut under pressure, to be "censorship".
I like it that way! It's an improvement! The original "artistic vision" was worthless anyways!
While some games had their engines repurposed for Western markets for completely different games (like a Gundam Wing 2D fighter that became a Power Rangers themed game in the West, or some brawlers and racing games on the PS1), most games in this thread were marketed as direct adaptations of their original version with any mention of the cuts avoided as much as possible. The localization editors are also credited as part of the translation team, instead of co-writers. It is then fair to excuse the disappoinment of fans who expect unaltered versions.
Also, opinions are subjective.
That's just how localization works. You just want a "keikaku means plan" Babelfish translation.
Localization as adapting a language with different grammar that wouldn't translate well, explaining cultural references that would fly over the heads of an overseas audience, and wording it all in a way that sounds enjoyable to a native, is different from "Localization" that's all about cuts and changes to remove everything too foreign or from a different morality system, or 'enhancing' it with the localization editor's political and moral opinions.
As good examples of games that have excellent localizations from the first kind, that completely avoid the second kind of "localization", you can check Atlus's work on Utawarerumono : Mask of Truth, Xseed's Trails in the Sky translations, and Sega's Yakuza (6 and beyond). Persona 5 arguably counts as well as a translation that's very close to the Japanese text without being Babelfish/fansub quality as proponents of this argument would like us to believe.
You're just a weaboo who wants to see some flesh, watch some online porn already.
Censorship also affects Japanese games in their native markets, and Western games in their native markets. This impression can't be explained away by an idealization of the Japanese market, story tropes, and language patterns (honorifics, sound effects, politeness levels...) We'll make sure to point out enough examples supporting this in this thread.
Besides this, censorship extends well beyond sexual, or lewd content. It affects a lot more things, including storylines, characterization and game modes. This thread hopes to shine some light on some examples like these.
[internet scandal group] thread! Dogwhistling! Sealionsplaining! Dickwolfing! Bad faith! Everything is political!
It is my honest intention to dedicate this thread to discussing examples of game censorship, not campaigning against or defending political parties and their internet feuds.
If your dogwhistle sharingan can detect invisible hostile intentions, please make sure as common courtesy, to point out with a direct quote where you saw those political opinions instead of assuming the poster holds them or wants to talk about them.
Standing [for/against] [very unrelated political position] in [current year] is basic human decency, then how could you disagree with me about [this game's] localization, even mention its damned name, you... you [hate crime accusation] [assumed demographic] monster?!!
Lesser computer-generated hostile ad hominems like this would do wonders to elevate this topic's level.
Ad hominems are replies that derail a topic to talk about, insult, and harass the person who dared make the argument, instead of addressing the argument itself... that are a tactic to derail or stop discussions with minimal effort and good will)
How pitiful and miserable do you have to be to care this much about pixels TROLOLOL Cry harder
Computer-generated reply #2 seems to exist because whoever wrote it cares as much as us about the medium and issues like this. A heartfelt welcome is then extended to this topic, no matter how you stand on the topic, as long as you don't post something actionable by moderation here.
With this out of the way, let's talk a bit about game censorship.
History
Why are games censored
We shall make the distinction between different kinds of censorship.
For the sake of simplicity, we'll consider the obvious morality-driven, controversy-averse cuts that developers didn't really plan or wish for in their initial creative vision, as censorship. Games made very easy, missing game modes because the localization team broke the game, won't be considered for this topic (but feel free to start another one for these
)We won't count when platform holders reject non-functional executables as censorship of their artistical expression.
Absence of Japanese songs, voice acting and name changes won't be counted if it's a legal licensing restriction. However cases where it was licensed and ready for release and the console holder said no (Sony, Konami, Castlevania Symphony of the Night) will count.
- Government Ban: Often a thing in third-world countries over political themes, but also in other countries over hate speech and iconography (Germany), child porn (almost everywhere) and other cases. For example, in Japan, fully exposed genitalia makes its content illegal as long as they didn't attempt to censor it (key word being "attempt"), and on the PS2 in Europe there was a game with real beachgoer girls exposing their boobs... and one "forgot" to mention she's underage short of a few months of 18, making the footage illegal. Also China has a lot of guidelines that will get games rejected.
- Legal Recall: The game has been forcefully recalled by courts over a litigation process. For example: Uniracers (a Pixar/Nintendo lawsuit), Tetris on the JP Megadrive (a Nintendo/Sega lawsuit)...
- License Owner Conditions: Whether a game is based on something else (movie/comics) must meet a certain rating, or not include specific content. Disney is notorious for this.
- Platform Holder Conditions: When a game has to avoid some content to be eligible for approval and release on that platform. Game will be reviewed by Sony/Nintendo... for compliance. Obviously not a thing on Android (since side-loading apps is possible) or PC (until Steam/GOG/itch.io came... and then recently on Steam those conditions were relaxed). These conditions often include the existence of a rating board's rating (Japan's CERO, Europe's PEGI and Germany's USK can reject a game), and that it is below a certain rating (ERSB M at most in the US, meaning AO games won't be allowed).
- Rating Board's Rating: These are advisory in most countries, and supposedly meant for parents and as such would exert market pressure on developers to self-censor until it meets a lower rating and is more marketable. A lot of their power is derived from being associated with platform holder conditions or license holder conditions, and some laws that restrict advertising and promoting games with higher ratings in public, on consumer-facing store shelves, online in the publisher's website, and so on.
- PR Concerns: Sometimes the publisher decides to issue a recall or cancel an entirely finished game perfectly willingly, fearing consumer backlash or a wider mainstream public relationship disaster that could be exploited to campaign for new laws or damage the company's image. Some platform holders (Nintendo, Sony) have blanket rules that allow them to remove any games at their discretion, though enforcement is a different beast (more on that later). A good example is Thrill Kill on the PS1, cancelled by EA shortly after acquiring the IP over its content.
- Marketing: When content is focus tested out of games for no real concern over ratings.
- Personal Translator Preference: This one is actually old, and often an issue conflated in the discussion about whether localization should be about being faithful to the original content or "spicing it up". However in recent years, some quite obvious examples emerged of localization editors bragging about "fixing up problematic Japanese entertainment".
Computers
In the West, games were and are still unrestricted on computers, which remain an open platform, save for government, lawsuit recalls and license owner restrictions. This hasn't changed and acquiring uncut content online within those boundaries is still possible.
If you're talking about Steam, however, there are some restrictions. However it gradually changed.
- Used to have a curation system. All game submissions are rejected by default. Valve picks and chooses which publishers are reputable and allows them in (a test that Falcom and Treasure failed). As for the rest, the users can vote through a process called Steam Greenlight for some new games, which then Valve will "consider approving".
- Greenlight is scrapped and regular game submission is approved. Volume of games is much bigger as a result. (Just for the record, Polygon laments this as a negative) However, controversial (political) games are removed, and lewd games are banned but allowed submission as censored, sex-free games with patches hosted elsewhere as a workaround. The messaging about lewd game approval wasn't clear at all, and Steam got stricter and stricter, barring developers from promoting the patches, sticking threads discussing them, and ultimately publishing those games at all. Some developers moved their games to G.O.G. as a form of protest.
- Steam now allows violent and lewd games, hidden by default but viewable through custom content filters, and with full sexual content (within US law). There was much outrage about this
itch.io on the other hand has threatened to "BAN" (sic) any developers who would dare to submit problematic games to their platform.
The Japanese side used to be unregulated and allow outright child porn and uncensored porn, relying on the fact that the market is underground and doujin distribution is limited. However, a high-profile serial murder case that was over-the-top in how depraved and disgusting it was, committed by an otaku, quickly threw into motion government regulation for the computer game market and not just console game market (CERO).
Nintendo
Nintendo should be considered from two different angles, as a publisher for their own first party games, and as a platform holder approving third-party games. It should be mentioned that as the former they were afforded to breach their own guidelines as the latter, at many times.
Nintendo started as a platform holder and the only party allowed to release games on their Famicom. As they were unable to meet consumer demand, they started a third party developer licensing program with the likes of Enix (Dragon Quest, Protopia), Namco (Pac-man) and Hudson (Bomberman) welcomed, with more and more developers later.
There were preferential treatment to who gets the bigger cartridge size to fit all game content and biggest shipment to ensure the best sales, and who got to manufacture their special chips (where Enix and Bullet-Proof Software led by the guy who played Go with Yamauchi, given the VIP course, and Squaresoft and Namco getting the short stick which was a major factor why they jumped ship for Sony) and then Nintendo of America came up with even more restrictions like how many games could be released yearly. This leads to some pretty major content cuts but since it was due to corporate politics and not because of the content itself, it won't be the focus here.
As a platform holder approving third party games, they had the following restrictions in Japan:
- Big restrictions over sexual and "vulgar" content, either visual or textual. Examples: SNES ports of Brandish, Dokyusei II, Dragon Knight IV, Super Variable Geo (entire story mode removed), Metal Slader Glory on NES compared to its prototype scenes (bath scenes) and later SNES port ("examine boob"). This was relaxed in the later days of the SNES but not completely dropped (except for Vivid Dolls on the N64 arcade, an actual pornographic game)
- Nudity. Nude women will have at least some two-pieces fabric for the Nintendo versions.
Europe mostly followed suit as a NoA subsidary, though they completely ignored it (for non-English translations based on English versions, and later for Terranigma)
- Nudity: What little was allowed by the Japanese versions was censored further.
- Alcohol, Bars: even extended to slurred drunken speech patterns.
- Smoking
- Drugs. However some games were allowed to mention them in the context of a war on drugs plot (that was also always completely different from the Japanese plot)
- Blood or Gore, with some notable exceptions. Relaxed as a result of Mortal Kombat bombing on SNES directly because of this policy.
- Profanity, Saying someone died/was killed... largely dropped by the time the PS1 hit and used that against Nintendo, as Ogre Battle 64 shows.
- Religion: Includes visual changes, like crosses and pentagrams. Textual as well: no mention of gods in any context (Panic Restaurent had the whole credits removed because of a "MAY GOD BE WITH YOU") while Hudson got away with euphemisms in Faxanadu (1988) Nintendo became much more strict and then dropped it in 1994 with Breath of Fire 2 and then Earthbound. Lots of games used "The Master" instead, and the Jack Bros (SMT) translation was butchered a lot.
- Political Advocacy. Technically in the list, but doesn't seem to have affected much of anything. Socks The Cat (a game parodying all sides of the US political scene) was a suspected casualty, but the game was cancelled for unrelated reasons even for its Genesis version. Contra/Protectobot and Guevara/Guerilla Wars were changed on other platforms for image issues since the original plot was highly impopular in the target markets (the Nicaragua situation for European markets, and the Cuban situation for the US market)
After Nintendo's fall from grace with the PlayStation coming, they largely dropped these policies for third party publishers. However some recent cases need to be pointed out:
- Nintendo used the escape clause about content that makes the platform holder look bad, to reject The Binding of Isaac 3DS port in 2013. Game journalism outrage ensued, and someone at Nintendo in charge for indies vowed to "sort out the situation". That particular version never released. However, a new version exclusive to the new3DS released in 2015.
- Namco Bandai's Dragon Ball Fusions (3DS, 2017) had all of its swords changed to wooden swords, despite no effect of it on ratings. It was confirmed this was at Nintendo of America's request and affected the EU/US regional versions of these games.
- Unconfirmed: A cancelled DS game for a tentative 2008 release date about a child escaping from WW2 concentration camps, that Regis Fils-Aimé alluded to in an interview denying games with such content will be ever allowed on a Nintendo console.
As a game publisher, either for their own games or other developers, Nintendo was a bit different, and carried on very similar policies:
- Alcohol: A weird go-and-forth between allowing it (Tales of Phantasia has an onsen and a beer scene with a sexual dream that were allowed in the European version but toned down in the US version, both by Nintendo) and removing it (Fire Emblem Echoes in all regions though it seems to be at the behest of the Western side, Story of Seasons in Europe only where Nintendo published it)
- Religious content: Whenever Nintendo of America is given a say (so not thing like the first Xenoblades) it replaces Christianity references in games, with nondescript roman ones (Bravely Default's priestesses are now vestals, and Xenoblades 2's entire mythos underwent a similar process) and in Zelda BOTW, that "the dark world denizens have forsaken religion and lost themselves to darkness" as a negative, and lots of other similar lines in the same game.
- "Cultural appropriation": Started with Shy-guys in Mario Party Advance 2003 and culminated with Bravely Second's localization cuts of the Tomahawk job. Though it seems Nintendo made a complete 180° on the matter for the Switch with Sombrero Mario (actually a throwback to an 1990 game with even more Mario cultural cosplays), to the relief of Mexican fans.
- "Fat Shaming": Comments on slender physique were too much in Fire Emblem Fates, as were referring to Queen Zora's predicament as a curse of fatness in Zelda ALBW. However since
- LGBT Content: Vivian was cut from the English (but not non-English translations) of Paper Mario 2 because it was supposedly an offensive way to portray transgenders. Starting from Fire Emblem Fates, Nintendo started to scrub the dialog clean from any character flaws for any characters belonging to these classes. For example, in SMO, Bowser will insult Mario every single time but will uncharacteristically compliment him and go "you're so beautiful" with the dress. That said, the policy got more relaxed with WarioWare Gold.
- Nudity and Sexual Content: Fire Emblem Fates had entire conversations, game modes, DLC chapters... completely cut, or rewritten at best. Tokyo Mirage Sessions went a step further, if that wasn't believable enough, with remaking an entire dungeon and asking the Japanese seiyuu to redub the censored lines in Japanese, to fit the new story, and even more ludicrous costume changes (the wedding dress is a classic). Less severely, Fatal Frame V by NoE still had the gravure model in sexual poses and the story to go along with it, but fully clothed her. Xenoblade X removed some boob sliders and problematic characterization. Not even Dragon Quest and its purely textual puff-puff jokes were safe, they were completely cut from the Nintendo-published localizations. That said, Xenoblades 2 made it with zero visual cuts this time around so a policy change may be assumed.
- "Dark, uncomfortable content" like Henry's backstory in Fire Emblem Awakening, the purged TMS gravure idol chapter, or major sidequests in Bravely Second where alternate endings where everyone dies were completely cut. Again, Nintendo had a 180° turn for this one with Octopath Travelers, and Xenoblades 2 (even though that one beats around the bush quite a lot for some such scenes, but to its credit doesn't completely purge the original message)
- Political content: A torture scene in Conker, over similarity with real WW2 Imperial Army practices.
- NoA liked to suggest content changes for the sake of it to get more localization budget "needed" for these changes, at least around the period Twilight Princess was being worked on, according to a supposed insider.
- Nintendo of Europe was restructured around 2001 over low Pokemon sales in Germany, complains about quality, and a lower market performance due to sub-par localizations (either English only, or shitty and delayed). This resulted in NoE gaining more independence and translating directly from Japanese for the non-English scripts, which helped reduce delays. Some minor controversies about censored local scripts compared to English were then swiftly resolved. Sales became better and better.
- Mario Party 8 has a controversy because a US term used was offensive in Britain. This causes NoE to do their own English localizations, often directly from Japanese and with much less content changes than the American version. Game journalists have complained many times about the existence of these translations, how they're redundant, dry, made for weebs by weebs... and eventually got their way.
- NoA due to historical reasons has a lot of power over regional releases. They use it to sabotage NCL's efforts to release mature games (Fatal Frame 4/2, Zangeki no Regliev, Pandora's Tower, Xenoblades, The Last Story...) on the Wii, but suffer a PR disaster in the meanwhile, so they announce them. They still sabotage Xenoblade 1. Xseed is allowed to publish two more games (in 2014) and somehow does well, and while on track for the third one (Devil's Third) NoA is angered by this success and decides to renege on the the contract and publish it themselves. Low promotion. Game has a shitty main campaign but a somewhat decent multiplayer, so they announce they will only run the servers for 3 months. Only 420 copies on release date. NoA is vicious. Even Itagaki let out hints about what he really feels about them in interviews later, but fortunately NCL gave him the half-million seller Momotaro Dentetsu to work on for the 3DS to keep the studio afloat.
- Tomodachi Collection situation happened.
- NoA notices people are upset by their handling of games compared to European games, not only for English scripts (like the meme-filled Zelda localizations) but also the French and Spanish ones (the French Galaxy localization was so full of slurred street patterns and memes it gained infamy in Quebec and wide coverage on media, and some government officers even called it "an insulting attack on the French language") then their solution was to... interfere with NoE localizations, force them to wait for their Fire Emblem Fates to be finished and release it 8 months later, with the same American English script and European scripts translated faithfully from... the English script, memes included. No care whatsoever was put into ensuring there were no language offensive to the British. For Tokyo Mirage Sessions it was a similar story, only now they forced an English-only release in Europe.
- Some self-professed ideologues at Nintendo bragged on twitter about being friends with Tumblr blogs writing negative exagerrated translations about all the "rape" in Fire Emblem Fates to pressure Nintendo into censoring it, or about how problematic Japanese games are and "thanks god we can fix it". That said, various peoples coming forward over the years despite Nintendo's secrecy paint a different picture, and that this recent drive wasn't popular. After all, it all begun with a harassment campaign against Treehouse employees over Tomodachi Collection.
- Fire Emblem Fates' situation, as well as that of Tokyo Mirage Sessions (which had some content cuts compared to prerelease screenshots, some matching NoA's cuts) reaches Japan. It's an instant hot topic. Even game journalists and developers (Nintendo included) comment negatively on it.
- The content cuts are a PR disaster. NoA actually tries to shift blame to Square Enix (Bravely Second) and Atlus USA (Tokyo Mirage Sessions).
- Nintendo's Kimishima starts talking about ensuring content changes are discussed during development. However this in fact lead to the policies being relaxed on Switch considering Nintendo of Japan (NCL) WANTED to have adult, lewd, weaboo, etc. games on their system.
Sega tried to compete with Nintendo, and game censorship was one aspect of their feuds. Howard Lincoln would try to embarrass Sega claiming mature games like Night Trap would never be on a Nintendo console, and Sega would allow an uncensored Mortal Kombat port making the Genesis the cool kids' console overnight (and it's no coincidence ex-Sega of America people who joined Sony continued a similar strategy with gratuitous profanity in their own games).
Sega of America had third parties cut the following:
- References to religion, including crosses, "God", pentagrams, and so on (only Sega of America)
- Nudity and Sexual content, though much more relaxed than for Nintendo. The shading in some fully nude shots in Lunar was changed so only the silhouette is made out without the details (though 2's opening while altered got away with quite a lot), a monster with exposed cleavage got some vines covering her bust, summer clothes in some Sega first party games were covered up and some characters were removed from Street of Rage 3 (though interestingly, this was reportedly suggested by Sega's marketing team). The Shining series has a lot of panty jokes written out for example.
- Pornographic magazines (Dark Savior on Saturn, Shining Force 2)
- Blood, only initially
- Drugs
- Alcohol
Sega of Japan stuck to just nudity and sexual acts, but in a stunning reversal decided to allow that on the Saturn for a very short window of time (actual adult only games, though privates and some words were still not allowed), then banned it again.
NEC
Here we'll mention NEC's short lived attempts for console gaming, not their computers (PC-88, PC-98 that they didn't regulate). They are the PC Engine (TurboGrafx-16) and its CD add-on, as well as the PC-FX that was a massive failure. NEC didn't put the minimum work to be ahead of the curve (they would develop hardware already outdated by that year's standards, then delay it 2 years without adding anything to that concept) and banked on the FMV gaming fad, which meant their demise.
PC Engine wasn't very successful at first, but it became a hit with the CD expansion. Games that had voice acting and anime sequences were the most popular. So NEC took a hands-off approach.
Games had politically incorrect speech patterns (that had to be redacted from their later releases in Japanese, though to be fair that happened with other games from the same period Final Fantasy included), gratuitous gore, and blood.
There were some direct ports of erotic games (the Dragon Knight games) that kept the descriptions of the act in text form, or sometimes voice acted with appropriate performance. The visuals however had nudity slightly covered up, and no depiction of the visual act (or in the case of Steam Heart, stills from the uncensored computer version cutscene). Those erotic games were published by NEC themselves. Later for the PC-FX, even the visuals in full fidelity became allowed.
But, aside from the half-hearted attempt by NEC to tell developers to cover up nudity in their games, they had a very real ban on any game that wasn't "anime-esque" enough for the PC-FX, as anime cutscenes were deemed to showcase the hardware. That didn't... go well for them.
