Shin Megami Tensei meets Fire Emblem.
It was an exciting prospect and when the concept behind Tokyo Mirage Sessions was first announced,
it had fans speculate over all of possibilities for this dream game.
I’m sure at least a few wondered if Altus’ famous Mara would make an appearance as well.
You know, Shin Megami Tensei’s popular penis-headed demon.
The final product however came as bit of a surprise.
Tokyo Mirage Sessions heavily revolves around Japanese idol culture.
This is an industry where young people are marketed for their cuteness, as they take
part in a range of media like singing, acting and modelling.
As is commonly the case with games that Nintendo brings over to the West, people were worried
that it would see censorship during localisation.
But, did you know that the original Japanese version was actually affected by censorship?
A face towel, decorated with art from the game, was offered as an exclusive pre-order
item by Japanese retailer WonderGOO.
WonderGOO revealed shortly afterwards though that the design would be changed, with many
in Japan suggesting it was due to the character’s revealing appearance.
The final version does seems to support this theory, with Tsubasa now wearing much more
clothing, but a proper official explanation has not been given.
There was also another change made to the Japanese release.
Whilst not censorship, it’s interesting to point out how one of Kiria’s costumes
was heavily altered prior to the game’s release.
Original trailers showed her wearing something much skimpier - you could literally get a
complete 360 degree view of her underwear, at all times.
For unknown reasons, this was later seen to have been altered during some point in the
development phase.
As for the Western release, concerns were added to by an ominous 4chan post.
Whilst at first the message seemed rather random, this quickly changed when, a few days
later, the title’s Western name of Tokyo Mirage Sessions was revealed for the first
time.
If you notice, the very first piece of information in the post was the title’s new name, prior
to it actually being announced.
This led a lot of credibility to all of the other information the post gave, things like
panties being turned into spats and the game not being dubbed in English and only having
Japanese voices.
It’s of course not known who leaked this info, but it turned out every single one of
them were correct.
Atlus were confirmed to be handling the localisation, whilst being overseen by the publishers Nintendo,
and alongside this was the confirmation of more and more censorship, every step along
the way of the game’s eventual release.
Also, yes, Western versions kept the Japanese voices and were not dubbed in English.
This is due to wanting to retain the feeling of the Japanese setting, as explained during
the Nintendo Direct trailer...
Whilst wanting to keep faithful to the Japanese setting, certain Japanese elements were however
still toned down when brought overseas.
As mentioned earlier, the game is heavily based on idol culture.
There are many performances in the game where the characters will sing and dance in a manner
comparable to the idols found in Japan.
But, despite the outfits resembling what Japanese idols actually wear, some of these were altered
in the West so that they reveal a lot less skin.
One of Tsubasa’s signature costumes is based on her appearance in a song simply entitled
Feel.
Outside of Japan, the outfit was redesigned so that she no longer exposes any cleavage.
Another of her costumes was left untouched though, despite revealing exactly the same
amount of cleavage as the censored one and it even being seen throughout the very same
song.
Oh, and it wasn’t just the costume.
The v lines around her waist were air brushed out – perhaps so that your eyes aren’t
drawn to her groin region so much or something.
Sorry Tsubasa.
Next up is the outfit from the song Fly - Your Wind.
It closely resembles a wedding dress, an item representing pureness.
Well, outside of Japan, all of Tsubasa’s body was painted the same colour as the dress.
Again, this was probably so that her cleavage is less noticeable.
So that’s additional clothes and ‘paint’ added to the list of ways that boobs have
been censored.
One boss though her breasts hidden by thick smoke instead.
This clings tightly to her chest and seems to refuse to let go.
Over in Japan, all traces of this random smoke are absent.
However, that footage is taken from a CGI cutscene, during actual gameplay the boss
is confusingly uncensored.
It's also interesting to note how revealing the other characters' outfits can get at times,
yet not being modified.
Another heavily censored theme in Tokyo Mirage Sessions revolves around gravure idols.
Differing from regular idols, with their appeal being based on cuteness, gravure idols specifically
try to sexual arouse their audience, meaning there work is explicitly much more erotic
in nature.
In the Japanese version, one of the game’s central characters is a former gravure model.
Maiko’s famous exploits of the past plays a big role in the story, but, in the West,
any similarities to this profession were changed to regular, fully clothed modelling
There’s a whole dungeon based around this, where Maiko is kidnapped by a photographer
of gravure models.
The first thing is that, outside of Japan, she is always shown sitting up instead of
lying down unconscious.
Then there are the hundreds of photos all over the walls of the dungeon, which were
naturally of girls in bikinis originally.
These were changed to being fully clothed, like all other art involving bikini modelling.
The chapter concludes with Tsubasa finally overcoming her nervousness around gravure
modelling, and stripping off her clothes to impress the photographer.
Overseas she overcomes the fear of simply regular modelling instead and wears a completely
different outfit, with a number of the poses that she makes also being made less suggestive.
The photographer then photos Maiko, Tsubasa and another party member, Eleonora, in a group
gravure session, as they confidently flaunt their stuff.
Keeping consistent with the other changes, the girls’ outfits and poses were completely
altered to remove the sexual nature of the scene.
However, not everything was kept consistent.
In a few parts of the English version Tsubasa will still wear her bikini, such as during
a certain soft drink commercial.
But, in most cases, the censored costumes various other appearances throughout the story
retain the same changes.
In fact, you can even choose to equip these outfits during battle, so the edits are noticeable
throughout the entire game.
Sticking with the censorship that can be found during battles, it should be expected that
during certain acrobatic actions the female characters perform, you’ll be able to see
their underwear.
In the localised version though, this part of the girls’ bodies was replaced with an
empty black void.
Then there are multiple enemies that were made to cover up outside of Japan.
For example, these human-like creatures had clothes added to their chest and waist.
Also, all DLC is available in West with the exception of the Hot Springs DLC – which
gives you a range of beach-themed outfits to dress your characters in.
But the DLC added more than costumes.
It also gave you a bunch of fully-voiced cutscenes to watch on the in-game TV.
These humorous scenes show the characters in a special hot spring TV show and no statement
has been made for why it isn’t available in the English versions
Alongside all of these changes, characters had their ages raised outside of Japan so
that there would be less concern over the stuff that the underage cast gets up to.
Eleonora is now 17 rather than 16, Itsuki, Touma and Tsubasa are 18 instead of 17, and
Yashiro is 19 whereas in Japan he is 18.
Despite not being dubbed in English, Nintendo even got the original Japanese cast back to
rerecord hundreds of lines of dialogue to match the age changes.
It wasn’t just the ages though, all dialogue referencing things like gravure modelling
were changed as well, leading to the alteration of a whooping 340 lines.
Then there’s of course countless textures changed in-game to match the censorship.
The girls’ earlier photo shoot is later turned into a magazine, which was completely
redesigned.
You will find advertisements for the songs all over the walls of the game, and so on
and so forth.
Why were these changes made though?
The explanation that has been given by Nintendo is that it’s “due to varying requirements
and regulations in the many different territories Nintendo distributes its products”.
It’s not quite clear what is meant be this, but, in regards to age ratings, Tokyo Mirage
Sessions was given a Teen rating in the US and a Twelve rating over in Europe.
Was the decision made by Atlus – the localisers, or Nintendo - the publishers and general overseers?
It is not known and Atlus’ PR manager has stressed that they aren’t allowed to talk
about it and only the publishers are.
Even the Special Edition’s art book was affected.
All designs censored in-game are altered in the book as well.
There are localisation changes however that were actually not changed in the art book.
For example, the Hee Ho Mart, a shop where you can buy items to use in battle, was instead
called HeeHaw Mart in Japan.
The art book interestingly keeps the Japanese name intact.
Basically, it was only the changes that are normally seen as censorship that were altered
- censorship being briefly defined here as the suppression of content that could be seen
as objectionable or offensive.
Some of the original creators have spoken positively of the changes, others have expressed
disappointment.
How does it make you feel though?
Knowing that your games are commonly getting watered down of stuff that could be seen as
objectionable in the West?
Whatever your stance, Censored Gaming will continue to be here to keep you up-to-date
on these changes.
Thank you for watching.