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Today we’ll be taking a look at Yu-Gi-Oh!
The Duelists of the Roses, which was a game for the PlayStation 2 that added a very unique
twist to the regular Yu-Gi-Oh card battling mechanics.
Rather than the traditional duels seen in the anime, trading card game and most other
video games, here gameplay uses a grid based system that’s similar in nature to chess.
The game also moves away from the norm with its story, with it being set in 15th century
England and loosely based on the real life Wars of The Roses.
The Duelists of the Roses was a huge commercial success for Konami and sold over a million
copies worldwide.
But, like the channel has reported on numerous times in the past, Yu-Gi-Oh is a franchise
that tends to see many different changes when it is brought from Japan to other parts of
the world.
And so this video will be taking a look at some of these changes that were made to The
Duelists of the Roses outside of Japan.
The first thing to bring up can be seen on the game’s title screen, with the Japanese
version on the left having quite a different design to the English release.
Furthermore, you may also notice that the Japanese game’s name has a number 2 at the
end of it.
This is due to a curious change that was made to the game overseas where it was marketed
as a completely new game, whereas over in Japan it was actually marketed as a sequel
to Yu-Gi-Oh Forbidden Memories for the PlayStation 1.
Moving on to the battles, unfortunately western versions of the game ended up missing out
on quite a bit of flavour text from the numerous Deck Leaders.
In the Japanese version, the deck leaders would have dialogue when duels begin, when
you win and when you lose.
There is also "Deck Leader Advice" text whenever you remain idle for a period of time.
All of this was removed overseas and this was likely to try and cut down on the translation
work.
There were also various changes made to graphics to remove religious references, which is something
the Yu-Gi-Oh franchise is known for doing outside of Japan due to differing attitudes
towards religious sensitivity.
For instance, the symbol of the White Rose, which represents one of the game’s 2 factions,
was originally a religious-looking white cross symbol over in Japan.
In the English release this was changed to a sword symbol and this is something that
you’ll be able to find displayed throughout many different parts of the game.
This philosophy also saw any hexagram symbols removed, such as this hexagram that can be
found at the centre of Stonehenge.
The character Shadi also had a type of cross symbol displayed on his hat, with this being
removed outside of Japan as well.
Next up is a change that will likely be surprising for those of you already familiar with the
English version of the game.
Following defeating the leader of the Yorkists, Richard the Third, you are shown this cutscene
which depicts the final battle of the Wars of the Roses.
It then cuts to a caption which says “some time later” and then the scene displays
Richard’s fallen helmet – signifying his defeat in battle.
Then, in the distance, you can see the victors taking the helmet and crowing the new leader.
Over in Japan however, this scene was very different.
Whilst it starts the same showing the Wars of the Roses final moments, it then cuts to
an entirely different depiction of the defeated Richard.
In the Japanese version, you can actually seen Richard’s mangled corpse, complete
with a pool of blood coming out of his torso… the scene then continues to pan, before finally
coming back to the close up of the fallen helmet.
The changes don’t end there though.
In the next scene, the camera shows other fallen warriors from the battle and then the
final shot of the victors in the background is left zoomed out, unlike the English version.
That is by no means the biggest change made to the English release of the game however.
As Yu-Gi-Oh fans will already be familiar with, many of the actual cards get changed
for the English versions of Yu-Gi-Oh media to tone down anything that could be seen as
inappropriate for younger audiences.
This is a practice that has been in place ever since the franchises’ anime and trading
card game beginnings back in the early 2000s and is something that continues even up until
the present day.
Thus, in instances where things would be toned in other media, the game received similar
changes and, considering there’s almost a 1000 cards, there’s many many different
changes that can be found.
Furthermore, considering Duelist of the Roses displayed 3D models for all of the cards – the
changes are even more apparent than it just affecting the card artwork.
There’s far too many to go into them all here, but for some examples, here are 10 from
one of the game’s starter decks.
The game has a variety of different starter decks that you can pick, but here we’ll
be taking a look at the Injection Fairy Lily starter deck, where Injection Fairy Lily herself
actually also had some changes made outside of Japan.
As shown with the Japanese version on the left and the English on the right, the red
liquid in the needle was changed to green overseas due to it resembling blood and violent
imagery concerns.
Furthermore, the red cross symbol on her hat was changed to a heart.
This is due to the Red Cross organization owning the copyright for this symbol and not
wanting to run into any legal issues.
Next is LaMoon where her top was extended all the way up her torso to reduce the suggestive
imagery and make it more child friendly.
Then there’s Ill Witch who was actually naked in the Japanese version, albeit highly
transparent and lacking any graphic details.
The English version though removed the transparency effect and gave her clothing.
Kanan the Swordmistress had her armour redesigned outside of Japan so that it lacked protruding
cup shaped plates on the chest area.
And Nekogal #1 originally only wore a thong in the Japanese version, whereas overseas
the thong is kept but worn over spats, keeping things much more modest outside of Japan.
Next up is Harpie Lady, a fan favourite, who has like other appearance in the west, had
her entire upper body covered in clothing.
Lunar Queen Elzaim for some reason not only had her outfit lengthened and bust reduced,
but her clothing was also recoloured pink outside of Japan instead of a peach-like colour.
And then for the last three examples, first is Dancing Elf, who had her outfit lengthened
to cover more of her cleavage area.
This is followed by Ice Water, who was given a different top outside of Japan to keep her
upper body more covered up.
And then the last example is Red Archery Girl who’s a mermaid and had much more clothing
added to her upper body and had her lower body scales extended upwards to cover her
hips and belly button.
One other thing to point out as well is that similar changes were made to the actual card
artwork as well, as shown here.
What do you think about the changes made to The Duelists of the Roses outside Japan?
As always, please let us know your thoughts in the comments below and, once again, a big
thanks to our faithful sponsors at NordVPN.
There will be a link in the description if you want to go check their big discount out
and, until next time, thank you for watching.