Monolith Soft CEO recently chatted to Kotaku about both Xenoblade Chronicles X's, as well
as the upcoming Xenoblade Chronicles 2's Western localisations.
Chronicles X had various changes made to it oversees and their words have given lots of
insight into this and have also given lots of other info about the localisation process,
including details on Xenoblade Chronicles 2.
To quote: “In terms of Xenoblade Chronicles X, there’s
been a few different changes that were made to the game, but my personality is such that
I’m not a stickler for products that I’ve already made, so I don’t really mind what
the final product turns out to be in that sense.
I really didn’t mind much at all, actually.”
“As a developer, I do feel like it’d be ideal to be able to adjust the content so
that it’s culturally acceptable, whether it’s in the US or in the EU.
For example, there was a discussion about the breast slider.
Jokingly, I said, ‘Well would it help if we had a crotch slider for the male?’
Obviously it was a joke, but they responded obviously it’s not gonna work out.
I do realize there’s a cultural difference between what Japanese people think and what
the rest of the world thinks.”
So here we have the Monolith Soft head, explain that they do not mind that the game was changed
and that he feels that it's good to adjust content to make it more culturally acceptable.
They also highlight how Nintendo told them that keeping the breast slider in the Western
versions of the game "wouldn't work out".
The next question is on whether he feels he is being censored or not, to which they reply:
“I think what’s important is that we make sure that the end user who actually plays
the game doesn’t have a bad experience.
If that change is going to help alleviate that, then I think we should definitely make
it.”
Following this, we have the new information that it will be Nintendo of Europe localizing
Xenoblade Chronicles 2, like the original.
Additionally, next we have a Nintendo Director, who works for Nintendo’s Japanese division
(NCL) talk about all of the different departments cooperate with localisation.
“When we have costumes or clothes that we have a little concern with, we share it with
NoE and NoA and they’ll say, ‘No, no, that’s fine’ or ‘You’re right, that’s
an issue.’
If it is an issue, we’ll go back and say we’ll say, ‘We adjusted it this way, what
do you think?’
There’s a lot of back and forth in that sense.
Rather than compromise, it’s like we’re all aiming for the same goal, of being able
to provide a good experience for everybody in all regions.
And we’re aiming to have a game that has very little difference between the regions.”
Next up, we even have Reggie themselves comment on the situation.
“The creators are always involved in anything that happens in the localization process.
In terms of what gets localized, there’s a simple collection of words that we use to
define how we think about this: It’s ‘cultural relevance’ and ‘understanding of the ratings
and ratings implications.’
– As an example, that a character’s age might be changed to avoid an M rating in a
game – A more severe rating could make the game
harder for Nintendo to sell, “which clearly is not in the best interest of the developers
or the business for that to happen” – Nintendo of America’s Treehouse localizers
travel to Japan about “every two months” to work with Japanese developers whose work
is being brought to America “It’s during those meetings that they
discuss the localization process, what’s being evaluated.
I am extremely comfortable with the process.
And again if you look at our executives that are involved, Nate Bihldorff and members of
this team, they have deep relationships with the developers and everything is being done
with the best intentions of the content showing itself the best way it can.”
And to finish, we have Monolith Soft's CEO offer some final words on Xenoblade 2.
“We’re really building [the game] as we’re in discussion.
Whereas for the past title, the Japanese version had already been pretty much close to completion
when this [localization] discussion started.”
“For past titles, because the Japanese version was done, our challenge was then to figure
out what it is we need to do to make sure this game is made available in overseas, as
well as, we’re able to sell this product.
In that sense, I was open to making any changes that were necessary to make sure everybody
can enjoy this game.”
As always, Censored Gaming will be watching Xenoblade 2's localisation very closely for
changes made due to these types of reasons.
Xenoblade 2 will launch in both Japan and the West simultaneously sometime at the end
of the year, exclusively for Nintendo Switch.