Hello, this is Jonathan Falu of Censored Gaming.
There have been a lot of games censored recently and in years past, with some getting explanations
such as wanting to keep a certain rating.
Others however have been quite puzzling.
With that in mind, I have compiled this list to show what I believe are the top 5 most
confusing censorship moments in video games.
An honourable mention goes to adding a curtain to the Tharja bikini scene in Fire Emblem
Awakening, which was, for some reason, only done in the US and not Europe and other territories.
Now, onto the list!
Number 5 goes to the Hydra Blood from Kingdom Hearts 2
In Kingdom Hearts 2, the Hydra from the movie Hercules makes an appearance as a boss.
In the Japanese version, the blood was green.
But for the English release, they replaced it with dark smoke.
This makes the list because the Hercules video game and the movie, both of which were rated
for children, kept the green blood intact.
The choice to censor it makes little sense given this information.
Number 4 goes to the censorship of skin in Street Fighter V
In Street Fighter V, Cammy’s default outfit is a bit skin-tight, meaning certain features
are bound to come into attention.
Capcom eventually made an update that took away the nipple, along with other decisions.
such as with Rainbow Mika's infamous butt slap being removed during development.
This one makes the list because, if Capcom was afraid of character models like this showing
off too much, then why make them like this at all?
Plus it’s hard to ignore some other content that could be seen in the same light that
was not changed at all, like with certain costumes.
However, it becomes easier to understand why the content was censored given the nature
of e-sports and television executives.
You may recall how a R. Mika user was forced to switch outfits during EVO 2016, for example,
which was broadcast live on ESPN.
Granted, this is only speculation, but even if this was not the case at all, the other
entries are even more confusing than Street Fighter V.
Number 3 goes to the Conker remake for the Xbox.
The original Conker for the Nintendo 64 contained a lot of mature content, making sure it fit
with its M-rating, such as a boss made of literal faeces, swearing, large breasts on
a plant, blood, and far more.
Eventually, the game made it to the Xbox, but for some reason, the game was censored
with many of the offensive dialogue bleeped out, such as the song with the poo monster.
It was eventually revealed that Microsoft was responsible for these changes.
This one is especially confusing given the Xbox brand's target audience, whilst back
in 2001, Nintendo was widely considered more family-friendly oriented and unlikely to have
a game like Conker.
One may argue that they wanted to keep a certain rating, but the game was still rated M and
none of the content seemed to border on going into a full Adults-Only rating.
Number 2 belongs to the bizarre censorship of skin in Tokyo Mirage Sessions.
This is a game that went to great lengths to censor many of the sexual and more provocative
elements, whether it be changing bikinis to street clothes, to getting the original Japanese
cast back to re-record 100s of lines of dialogue.
Somebody clearly wanted to remove these more adult themes, but there are segments of the
game where the girls are back in the bikinis.
In fact, one boss has her breasts initially covered by some black smoke, yet in the boss
fight, they can clearly be seen.
It was strange to see a ton of effort put into this, but then suddenly not changing
this stuff.
It sends a confusing message.
And the number 1 choice for the most confusing piece of censorship belongs to...replacing
swords with sticks in Dragon Ball Fusion.
Many things censored here had a focus on removing or blocking stuff like nudity or violence.
Yet, in my personal opinion, the strangest of all was changing the swords used in Dragon
Ball Fusions into sticks.
Not wooden swords.
Just sticks.
It is my most confusing censorship for a few reasons.
For starters, many of Nintendo’s games within the same rating as Dragon Ball Fusions do
have swords.
Examples include Fire Emblem, Smash Brothers, and The Legend of Zelda.
The game is also never too graphic to show missing limbs or the like in a battle, making
this all the more confusing.
If the idea was to be get it an E rating, then it already failed as it is rated T for
Teen.
The game also already features a ton of action already, like characters getting hit with
the power pole, being bombarded by energy blasts, and shot with guns.
It's also rather confusing to see iconic sword users, such as Future Trunks, without their
trademark weapon.
The Dragon Ball series is definitely no stranger to censorship or localization changes, yet
changing swords to stick is perhaps one of more bizarre changes made to the franchise.
And that’s my list.
Think there were more that I missed here?
Be sure to list them down below, and we may do more lists like this in the future.
This is Jonathan from Censored Gaming, and you take care of yourselves!