Everything about censorship answered.

[Bitwolf]

So if you’re anything like me, you’ve heard of this games opening message that says something along the lines of “these games have been modified to fit the current changing Social standards”, and were instantly mortified that the games may have been censored and wanted to know what’s going on.

Well, it’s true, Square Enix did infact censor these games, IN 1989 While it is true that this port claims to have modified it for “current Social standards” (I’ll get back to this, don’t worry.) these games have never been “uncensored” in North America, not in the 90’s, and sure as hell not now. So if you see that message and think “welp, guess I’m playing the original cart/rom, because it’s uncensored.” Bad news for ya there.

(If you wish to know what was cut in the original version, this video contains all the changes made to the original and some from the new release, I time stamped it but if it fails go to 4:36 https://youtu.be/9HOr45WeVZo?t=276)

So what actually happened? Well for starters the Japanese version actually contains this message too, a slur was removed from the Japanese collection. Along with several references to other Japanese properties.

https://mobile.twitter.com/baku_zero/status/1338615071732162560

Now that’s not to say that the North American version didn’t change things further from the 89 one, here’s a list of changes that are known from the switch version.

-“Colt” became “pistol” and “redbull” became “redhorns”. These changes were made to avoid square getting the pants sued off of them.

-“catcraw” was corrected to “catclaw”

- A character now introduces themselves as a “flatfoot” rather than “detective”, the original Japanese had her introduce herself as a detective informally, so this change is likely an accuracy one (though I think “gumshoe” would have worked better)

-A late game soldier in 2 had their initials changed from “SS” to “SF”, likely to avoid comparisons to German WW2 soldiers. (Despite the sprite implying that’s what he actually is) https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/finalfantasy/images/3/35/FFLII_Commando.png/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/39?cb=20121215225011

-The “N. bomb” item is now the “A. Bomb”, while the reasons for its change might seem obvious, the next reason puts its reason into question.

-Atomic power plant is now just “powerplant”, weird how the bomb was changed to say “atomic” but they then removed that word from the power plant itself.

-“Color” was changed to “Pigment” most likely a joke about the fact the game boy has no color.

Did you notice something? Only one or two of those could really be considered a change to “fit changing societal norms” the rest are to avoid lawsuits and correct translation issues (of a already censored translation, mind you.

So why did they say the game is modified due to social norms when in the NA version it really wasn’t? Most likely they probably just translated the Japanese menu as is and didn’t think to modify the disclaimer to say that they just corrected a few issues, rather than leaving it implying further censorship to the NA translation.

So what do we do with all this?

Well after all that, I think that even if you don’t care that it’s censored, you still shouldn’t buy this version and instead play the wonderswan remake of 1 and the DS remakes of 2 and 3. They’re far superior in every way, and not censored. They were never officially released in English, but I’m sure you smart cookies can figure out how to play them on your big strong pc’s.

Oh and since I know this will cause inevitable discourse, please try to keep it civil, don’t give the mods a reason to nuke what it’s meant to be purely informative.

Sources:

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/298912-collection-of-saga-final-fantasy-legend/78936498

+ The video and twitter thread shown earlier.

[Nanarchiste]

Thank you very much for the answer, exactly what I wanted to know.

I think I will still take it to get a "copyrighted" copy of these games since I discovered them through emulation, but I definitely agree with you on this, anyone discovering the games today should definitely play the remakes instead, far more accessible and with a proper translation

[Lord Bidón]

Very informative.
Have a reward.

[Dr.Shadowds 🐉]

Thank bro you made it simple for everyone. Take this award.

[RPG Gamer Man]

Nice post. Thanks for posting this..i just asked this, and deleted my post when i seen you did this already.

As for correcting translation errors, i find those changes usually good. The censorship ones sometimes i find as dumb, but as OP said, squareenix avoiding being sued and getting stuff like that.

[Melodia]

None of what is changed, as listed, is actual censorship.

Now, bananas? That's censorship (though one that makes complete sense, and is pretty funny)

[Bitwolf]

Originally posted by Melodia:

None of what is changed, as listed, is actual censorship.

Now, bananas? That's censorship (though one that makes complete sense, and is pretty funny)

I would argue the removal of certain words is prime censorship, along with the removal of "SS" if you think its for the better however, thats up to you.

[Head Butt]

Interesting. Came here to find out. Props.

[Rex]

This is why publishers don't like PC. They know they can't force us to accept their BS as much as they can on consoles. I love this series but I'm not buying this.

[RPG Gamer Man]

Originally posted by Melodia:

None of what is changed, as listed, is actual censorship.

Now, bananas? That's censorship (though one that makes complete sense, and is pretty funny)

how is bananas a censorship? I do not understand that myself...care to elaborate about it?

[GalaxySchmoove]

... whatevs

[Bitwolf]

Originally posted by RPG Gamer Man:

Originally posted by Melodia:

None of what is changed, as listed, is actual censorship.

Now, bananas? That's censorship (though one that makes complete sense, and is pretty funny)

how is bananas a censorship? I do not understand that myself...care to elaborate about it?

In the original game, there's an opium trade going on, in the English version from 1998, its bananas.

[Dr.Shadowds 🐉]

I see OP edit, and tbh this isn't something to cry about as it just names that been altered, not anything else.

Also it up to the individual own personal choice if they choose to buy it, or not. If don't think it worth buying then don't buy it, if you think it worth it buy it whenever you want, it's that simple.

Not sure with the bananas.

[The Weirdist]

I don't care that it's "censored" and I don't care that you think I shouldn't buy them and instead acquire games I had not paid for and in a manner that most would consider to be illegal.

[The Weirdist]

Originally posted by gorba:

Does this mean Nintendo is going to call the GameBoy:

GameThey
GameName
GameZe

???

Hasn't been a new device called GameBoy since the Nintendo DS.

[Dr.Shadowds 🐉]

Originally posted by gorba:

Does this mean Nintendo is going to call the GameBoy:

GameThey
GameName
GameZe

???

Started with Game & Watch

Gameboy
Game Boy Pocket
Game Boy Color
Game Boy Advance
Game Boy Advance SP <--- Backlight best thing that happen.
Game Boy Micro
Nintendo DS
Nintendo DS Lite
Nintendo DSi
Nintendo DSi XL

Nintendo 3DS
Nintendo 3DS XL
Nintendo 2DS
New Nintendo 3DS
New Nintendo 3DS XL
New Nintendo 2DS <--- Why nintendo.

Nintendo Switch
Nintendo Switch Lite <--- Why nintendo.
Nintendo Switch OLED <--- Shoot yourself nintendo.