Dragon Quest creator on III HD-2D Remake design changes and censorship

September 30: Dragon Quest creator Yuji Horii has weighed in on the character design changes and bits of censorship being made for Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake.

For those that are unaware, the original RPG let players choose between a male or female warrior. It’s the female design that fans have been discussed, as Square Enix made changes to cover up the design more – that’s shown in the image above. The original design is on the left while the new version is on the right.

Horii was speaking about the changes and censorship for Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake in an interview at the 2024 Tokyo Game Show. He was joined by Kazuhiko Torishima, who previously served as Shonen Jump’s editor-in-chief and former editor in charge of Dragon Ball.

Horii doesn’t seem to see a problem with the female hero’s design, but pointed out that showing too much skin could lead to a higher classification rating. Also, now the game has been changed so that players choose between “Type 1” and “Type 2” rather than having them labeled as a man and woman – which is also something he doesn’t understand. 

Torishima ended up sharing his own thoughts, bringing up sex education in America and feeling that the country’s “compliance is really narrow-minded.” He also believes this has had an effect on Japan.

Here’s the full transcript, as translated by Valute News:

Interviewer: There was a lot of buzz about the costumes. It became a topic of discussion because they weren’t exactly the same as they were back then.

Horii: Yeah, there were various regulations in place. Apparently, it’s not allowed to show too much skin.

Interviewer: Well, I don’t intent to dig too deep into that… It’s simply about the user immersing themselves in the fiction and going on an adventure. What’s wrong with it?

Horii: Hmm, I really don’t understand that either.

Interviewer: It’s a game, it’s fiction, and it’s a virtual experience, so as long as it’s enjoyable, I think that’s all that matters.

Horii: If there’s too much exposure, the age rating goes up…

Interviewer: We never even thought about that in the past…

Torishima: Under the name of compliance… It’s like an absolute god. An evil disguised as good. There’s no such thing as content that doesn’t make everyone uncomfortable. Because beauty and ugliness, good and evil, are different for everyone. There are a few things that absolutely must not be done. As long as you follow those, you’re free to do the rest.

So, um… There’s a religious concept for the west, especially in America, that influences their approach to sex education, right? Their approach to compliance is really narrow-minded. When selling magna in America, everything had to be categorized by age groups. For Shonen Jump manga, they couldn’t be sold unless they were rated for ages 13 and up. 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.

Horii: In Dragon Quest, you used to be able to choose between a male and female main character. But now, you can’t choose between a man and a woman anymore. We have to label them as Type 1 and Type 2. I really wonder, who’s even complaining about this?

Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake launches for Switch on November 14, 2024 and there’ll also be new versions of the series’ first two games next year. You can read about all of the news here.

Thanks to Greatsong1 for the tip.

October 4: The X account for KosoKoso Hoso Kyoku, of which the show was hosted, now says that statements were taken out of context and some parts were mistranslated. Ironically, the statement was only available in Japanese – there is no official English translation. With that said, you can read a rough translation of the response below. 

Regarding the live broadcast “~Denfa is live broadcast from Makuhari ~ Game Creators Special WITH Yu & Masirito’s KosoKoso Broadcasting Station”, which was implemented on Saturday, September 28, 2024, currently on SNS, some of the performers The statement was mistranslated by a third party other than the person involved when translating it into English, and the statement has been spread as a mistranslation.

Not only that, but some of the performers’ statements were particularly cut out, and the speaker was quoted as if he was expressing a negative opinion on a specific ideology or belief, and it was far from the true meaning of the statement and the original content and message of this video.

And the malicious videos and transcripts quoted above are spread on multiple YouTube channels and SNS accounts, and videos and articles that are accompanied by incorrect English translation subtitles and articles that are used as sources in Japan It has not only spread and spread to the outside of the country.

Mistranslation Applicable part

Positive: “Puritan”
Error: “Sex education”

Such a situation causes an unintentional misunderstanding by the speaker, and we are very sorry that there is a risk of damaging not only the performers themselves but also the rest on the relevant parties, and we strongly protest against the actions that led to such a situation. It’s something to do.

Therefore, please refrain from spreading articles based on mistranslations and arbitrary clipping videos that are different from the original content and message of the entire video.

In addition, from the above perspective, please refrain from the following actions that are carried out in a way that separates the intention of the speaker and the original content and message of this video

・The act of cutting out a video that the speaker did not intend and spreading the video
・Incomplete transcription and dissemination of transcription that cut out part of the video
・Dissemination of cropping videos and transcriptions with mistranslated subtitles
・The act of arbitrarily cutting out a part of the statement and quoting it as a statement that follows one’s own opinion in order to reinforce the legitimacy of one’s own opinion

In addition, please refrain from cutting out and spreading statements in videos and videos in a form that ignores the context before and after the statements are made and the nuances of statements similar to the above acts.

We appreciate your cooperation in considering the above for game fans and viewers around the world.

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