My love letter to Japanese gaming and my thoughts on the current events surrounding it.

Recently Tecmo Koei said that Dead or Alive Xtreme 3 will not be coming to the EU or the west. The reason? Not lack of sales (because the games have sold well in the EU and the west) but because they fear the backlash they would get if they did release it overseas on social media and sites like Polygon and Kotaku. They aren’t the only company either.

Capcom announced that they would be censoring Street Fighter 5 due to fear of backlash, and Idea Factory stated that if they have to censor any of Compile Heart games they will not release them overseas. Even Monolith Software censored they’re release of Xenoblade Chronicles X, but it being a Nintendo game I figured it would have gotten some censorship. Not only that but just recently, as in last week as of this writing, Square Enix said that they would be removing the Honey Bee Inn from their remake of Final Fantasy 7 and other similar scenes because they want it to sell.

What’s the one thing these companies have in common? They are all Japanese. If any of you see the “reviews” of Japanese games lately you’ll see a trend. A majority of them get low, low scores and barely any of the “reviews” talk about the gameplay (the most important part of a game). Instead they complain about the character design, how awful the game’s premise is because it’s sexist or whatever word of the day that it is they are using.

A good example would be Polygons review of Bayonetta 2. The guy did review it, but literally in every other paragraph he mentioned how uncomfortable he was with playing it, that it was sexist and misogynistic and that he couldn’t really have any fun with it because it made him feel uncomfortable. Despite that he still gave it a good review. My problem wasn’t that he gave it a 7 out of 10 (I honestly don’t care), it was why did he review it then? Polygon must have known that the game would make him feel uncomfortable, so then why have him review it? My thought on the reason why? It was because he was uncomfortable with it.

Let’s go back to 2009 when the first Bayonetta was released. Game Informer reviewed it, calling it unique and that Bayonetta was a symbol of empowerment for women. They weren’t the only gaming media to call the character that. So then why is it now that the same media is calling the character sexist?

Let’s do another example of a Japanese game. Fire Emblem Fates for the 3DS. When the game was released in Japan, there was an uproar of an optional support scene in the game. I don’t clearly remember the details but it had to do with a female character getting brainwashed and falling for the player character. I did some digging around recently and came to find out that that report was HEAVILY exaggerated to the point where it was mostly made up, and yet that story keeps getting passed around as true because of sites like Kotaku and Tumblr. There is proof that it was falsified. You can read the translated script here: http://nichegamer.com/2015/07/the-story-behind-fire-emblem-fates-completely-falsified-gay-conversion/

Recently I got a game called Ultra Despair Girls: Dangan Ronpa Another Story and I think it’s a great game so far. It’s weird, dark, creepy and has a really good story, plus it’s fun. I have a hard time stopping myself from playing it most of the time. One thing I thought though while I was playing it was ‘what would the media have to say about this game?’ because the main character is afraid of everything.

The story is about a highschool girl who has gotten kidnapped. She’s finally set free, only to find out that a bunch of kids are killing all the adults and that she as well is being hunted by them at every step. Naturally, she would be afraid, anyone would, but the media would call this a ‘sexist pile of shit’. How do I know this?

The Tomb Raider reboot. The game that was a prequel to the Tomb Raider series. I have seen countless articles about how sexist Lara Croft is in the game because of her being afraid. I have not played the game myself since I’m not a big fan of the Tomb Raider series, but from what I read in it when she first kills someone, she starts to cry. A normal reaction from having to kill another human being, yet people call that sexist. Same thing when Ellie in The Last of Us killed someone who tried to rape her. After killing him she broke down and Joel comforted her. It wasn’t because she killed someone, but because of the act that that guy tried to force on her.

It seems simply being a character is sexist in and of itself now. If the female characters in these games have any shred of personality more than an Elder Scrolls player character, then they are considered sexist. American McGee said it best:
https://www.facebook.com/americanmcgee/posts/10152832790032075


Let me give one more example. Tri Force Heroes for the 3DS. Yes, even The Legend of Zelda isn’t free from this kind of thing. Tri Force Heroes is a spin off game of The Legend of Zelda series of games. It’s a harmless three-player co-op game with a light hearted storyline. Why is it called sexist? Because you can only play as a guy in the game and because the princess in it likes to wear dresses and likes the color pink. Yes that is the reason.
http://hiddentriforce.com/tri-force-heroes-is-sexist/


People wonder why so many Japanese games get either censored now or not released over here or in the EU. What do you think this tells people? It tells them that they are not allowed to create what they want to create. It tells them that their culture is wrong. That everything that they were raised to believe is wrong. So then why do they cater to these people then? Hideo Kojima said some stuff about it in an article:
http://www.pcgamer.com/hideo-kojima-says-japanese-games-are-a-hard-sell-to-global-audiences/

From the moment people are born they are told that they should express themselves, and no place is that bigger then on the internet. That story that you have? Show it to the world. Let them see what you can come up with. Your art, your game, your story; show it to everyone and let them see just how creative you are. And then these same people look at their art, their games and their stories and tell them that it doesn’t fit with them and the rest of the world, sometimes being hostile with them and calling them names and slurs, the same names and slurs that they tell people not to use as to not hurt anyones feelings. I have seen this time and time again. Calling all Japanese game devs horny old men, calling them sexist piles of trash, perverts and a whole slew of other names. And worst of all? Most of these people doesn’t even play video games. No wonder Japanese game devs don’t want to release anything over here.

People like me are told that we can’t see fiction from reality. That our sense are warped and we can’t see real things. These same people who get mad and upset over a fictional, computer created character. To use Hideo Kojima as another example. When he created the character Quiet in Metal Gear Solid 5, the character was instantly hated. Even when her character arc and personality had nothing to do with how she was dressed, that’s all people could see. They didn’t see a complicated, hurt character. All they saw was a set of breasts. These same people who say that people like me only see when I play a game.

People forget (or just don’t care) that these are real people. When you tell them that they can’t make something that they want to make, how do you think that feels? It hurts. It hurt to be told that you can’t make what you want to make. It hurts to have people unfairly judge something that you poured your heart into making. Something that you want to share with the world. Something that you are proud of.

Japanese game devs get an unfair treatment over in the west and EU by game media. What these people do is tell them that they need to conform to our culture and way of thinking. That their vision, their art, their story is garbage. What would I say to them if I was able to?

Don’t listen to these people. Be who you are. Make what you want to make. You have a creative vision that you want to show to the world. People might not like it. They might say hurtful things to you or about your game, but you are you. Don’t let someone else stop you from making what you want to make exactly how you want to make it. People like your games. They like your artwork, your character designs, your weird and creative stories and weird characters. Don’t let a select few people make your decisions for you. What you make is art, and you have every right to express your art.

There is a petition going on called 1,000,000 Gamers Strong for Japanese Gaming: https://www.change.org/p/koei-tecmo-capcom-namco-monolith-soft-ncsoft-1-million-gamers-strong-for-japanese-gaming

It’s an open love letter to Japanese game devs telling them not to let a select few people tell them how to make their own games. The Japanese game market is experiencing a crash like we did back in the 80’s. More people in Japan are playing mobile phone games than console games, so Japanese game devs are hard pressed to make a sale over in the west and EU.

I didn’t mean for this article to come off as an advertisement for the petition. I love Japanese games. I love to play them, I love the weird and different stories and characters, I love the art and character design and that’s why I feel so strongly about this kind of thing. This is no long about what is right. It’s about trying to push an agenda that tells you that you have to conform to what other people want and that is wrong. I hope these Japanese devs get this message that people do love their work.

 

:Hugs digital copy of Trails in the Sky FC & SC tightly:

Lol Legend of Zelda is sexist

Well I have to say Midna had some kind of twisted domanatrix thing going with Link in Twilight Princess so I call reverse sexism. You heard it here first folks, Midna is pushing the bondage theme in Twilight Princess. Seriously I think she wields a whip when on top of your wolf form.

 

Great speech, Heizen. I, for one, am a follower of a games story. Having to censor parts of the story bothers me, namely, what you said about what would be done to the Final Fantasy 7 remake. And Legend of Zelda: Tri-force Heroes, being fussed about because of classic hero-and-princess setup? That is wholesome, not sexist.
How can people complain about this, when GTA 5 and Duke Nukem Forever were allowed to be made and sold in America? (Note- Duke Nukem Forever was crappy, and did much worse than any of those other games, when it came to portraying women.)
Now I will have to [get back to] learn[ing] Japanese, if that means I can read what would be uncensored in Japan (provided the censorship is only done overseas).

 

I would say that made sense.

 

Son-of-a-... they better keep that part in there, that was part of the comedic relief in the story. Especially in the attempt to have Cloud dressed up and possibly get powdered up by the Honey Bee ladies.

Then the part of Don Corneo being threatened with the removal of his balls if he didn't tell Tifa, Aeris, and Cloud what they wanted to know. That was humorous too.

They need to release the story just like the original one (and add to it if they have more story that needs to be told). Nothing should ever get cut out because the "Japan market" was unhappy about something in the original version of the game. The Japanese market does not speak on behalf of the rest of the world and the sooner Japan companies realize that there is a bigger, much more rewarding market beyond their borders, the more money they can make from their original releases and the more fans they'll make happy which will outweigh their obnoxious, hate-mail type fans. Censored versions just simply suck far worse than their original versions.