Atlus removed all the Gravure references and censored many of the outfits. Because of this, the models tend to be on the young side. For those that don't know, Gravure style is targeted towards male audiences meant to be provocative, but in kind of an playful or innocent way than aggressively sexual. Fans were pleased when they learned Atlus would be handling Western localization efforts, as opposed to Nintendo, which, as you have seen, are a bit more censor-happy.ĭespite leaving in the original Japanese audio and most of the cultural references, there was one aspect of Japanese culture that Atlus thought went a touch too far: that of Gravure modeling.
Such is the case with Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE, a cross between the Shin Megami Tensei series and Fire Emblem. Nothing pulls a fan's wallet out faster than a crossover between two of his favorite properties. Also, there are aliens in this one.Īctually, this might be the one case where the US version is more insane than the original.
In addition to American music and culture references, you now play as a member of a fictional government agency responsible for helping those in need… by motivating them via dance. In Elite Beat Agents its the same, except due to the original's reliance on Japanese music and culture references (and the fact that cheer squads aren't really a thing in the US as they are in Japan) it was reworked from the ground up. Cheer them up and give them the motivation to pick themselves up from whatever problems they are in.
You assist by cheering, done through a rhythm game using the DS's touchscreen and stylus. In the original, you play as an all-male cheer squad who travel around helping characters in hopeless situations who need help. Okay, so technically Elite Beat Agents is the spiritual successor of Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan! rather than a straight up western port, but the two games are so ridiculously close that its hard not to consider them the same.
Of course, there is a patch to uncensor it if you are really interested… just saying. To get to Steam, an All Ages version needed to be produced, getting rid of the explicit scenes, the nudity, and a few of the other questionable bits of fanservice that occurred throughout the story. And it doesn't help that the romance options are both fairly young looking. There is actually XP in this game for developing your character, and while most of the game still follows the Visual Novel style of sitting back and seeing how things play out, you have a fairly unprecedented amount of control on the order and how they do.Īnd, of course, being a Japanese VN, there are some pretty explicit scenes. There is strategy to it, with the main character having to attend classes to learn spells, go on quests, collect items to use on other missions, and so on. Littlewitch Romanesque: Editio Regia is unique among Visual Novels in that its gameplay involves more than simply making a few decisions when prompted and seeing what path that takes you down the story.
Here are 15 examples of Japanese games that had to be seriously changed for Western release.
Or perhaps are a little too heavy on the 'fanservice.' Some companies (particularly Nintendo) have taken a lot of heat over what fans view as uneccessary censorship, but we all have to admit that there are just some things that are never going to see the light of day on Western shelves. The ones that are a little over the top insane. These are all the standard jobs of a localization team.Īnd then there are those games. There's also the occasional issues with licensing in different regions, differences in the opinions of the player-bases about grind and difficulty, and of course cultural norms that just don't translate well. For another, pop culture references, word play, and colloquialisms would often be lost on a western audience and need to changed to something more region appropriate. But even then, 'localization' could be a difficult process.įor one thing, direct translations often sound like nonsense (as some particularly hilarious clips of old games demonstrate). During the days when Sega and Nintendo were the power players in the console wars Japanese localizations made up the large chunk of a gamer's library. The history of Japanese games coming to the west is a complicated one. Depending on where you're sitting, Japan's gaming industry is either a giant currently in then middle of a grand resurgence or incredibly stale and on a bullet train to obscurity.