What is the deal with the censorship?

[Jack Daniels]

This game is heavily censored, compared to the anime itself... Two sound examples, are:

1) Raikage not getting his arm burnt and cut off by Sasuke, in kage summit...
2) White Zetsu not having his skull crushed by the Raikage, during the meeting he interrupted...

There seem to be more "cut" and "softened" moments, but i now cannot pinpoint them all. Seriously, why did they dampen and water down the game so much? Ok, we know it is a game, and it cannot be both cannon and faithful to the plot past a certain borderline, but why did they have to make all these differences?

And as i mentioned story... Madara gets defeated at the hands of the 5 kage... Seriously... Really?!?

[Cat]

Likely because the anime gets aired all the same anyway and other Japanese anime can be way more violent, Naruto is for toddlers in comparison, but games not so much, add a little bit of blood and suddenly you need to slap on new tags and warnings and possibly make tweaks into the Australian version.

[Nosferatu]

welcome to the American market :P

[Jack Daniels]

Originally posted by Nosferatu:

welcome to the American market :P

+1 to that

[Evil Betty]

You say "censored", but censored implies it was originally one way in the game, and was changed before release. Like if the raikage actually had his arm cut off in the Japanese version of the game, but in the NA version there is some magical black bar covering it up, THAT would be censoring.

My guess would be there was technical/financial/convenience issues. For the Raikage to have his arm cut off, the devs would have to make a completely different model for him with his arm off. And the Raikage really only has his arm gone for a short time, so why bother in that regard.

Pretty much the same thing for the Zetsu, it was probably easier/cheaper to do it the way they did.

[Niltynhoo]

Hey

[Mizurazu]

Originally posted by Tobi:

Originally posted by Nosferatu:

welcome to the American market :P

+1 to that

-1

Actually games are way more censored in Japan than they are in America.
The japanese Demo on PSN store actually didn't include any blood by default while the American bersion did.
Metal Gear Rising has white blood in Japan. And Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes also had some censoring in Japan. And you virtually will not find any decapitation in Japanese games, like in Resident Evil.

[Contra]

Originally posted by Nosferatu:

welcome to the American market :P

he looks like nosferatu on crack....
The Darkness II refrence.

[Contra]

Originally posted by Reachie:

Originally posted by Tobi:

+1 to that

-1

Actually games are way more censored in Japan than they are in America.
The japanese Demo on PSN store actually didn't include any blood by default while the American bersion did.
Metal Gear Rising has white blood in Japan. And Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes also had some censoring in Japan. And you virtually will not find any decapitation in Japanese games, like in Resident Evil.

What about no more heroes? That game has plenty decapitiation.

[Cat]

I don't know, those cross-sea censorships are weird.
In anime blood is often exchanged for water in the American release.
Or say what happened to Pokemon, even mildly revealing, innocent "nudity" cards removed or changed. Or Street Fighter, in American release Poison wasn't allowed to be a trans ;P
Never heard of it going the other way (Japanese being sensitive and censoring) probably happens too but a lot of Japanese things definitely get censored when they make their way across.

In this case I do however believe it was made out of convenience- one release version for all countries, no friction against the game from any media on top of it game got rated 12+ which is fairly low, if it featured dismemberment it could be 15. Don't know how much developers still care over it, but it is true Naruto would have a lot of teenage fans. Innateight is also right about the extra hassle with models and all that for just a moment of gameplay (and people would probably want to have the no arm version too in free battle). All that trouble and for what? It doesn't even add anything to the anime or the game. I read the manga, watched the anime, didn't even notice this being different, and wouldn't care if I did.

[Evil Betty]

Originally posted by Colonel Stars & Stripes:

Originally posted by Reachie:

-1

Actually games are way more censored in Japan than they are in America.
The japanese Demo on PSN store actually didn't include any blood by default while the American version did.
Metal Gear Rising has white blood in Japan. And Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes also had some censoring in Japan. And you virtually will not find any decapitation in Japanese games, like in Resident Evil.

What about no more heroes? That game has plenty decapitation.

I'm not even sure they are allowed to censor Suda51 games. There's probably some law against it.

[Contra]

Originally posted by Innateight:

Originally posted by Colonel Stars & Stripes:

What about no more heroes? That game has plenty decapitation.

I'm not even sure they are allowed to censor Suda51 games. There's probably some law against it.

Theres a law that you cant censor suda51 games?
Such a law cannot be!
Thats like saying china gets video games that isnt mario.

[Mizurazu]

When it comes to Anime, yes they get often censore here, but that's becasue they try to air them on a kid friendly channel. One Piece 4kids ayone :p
Japan is weird when it comes to video games though. DmC was also censored in Japan, in violence AND sexual content. Looking at all these babes and blood in anime and such, it's hard to belive but Japan is actually pretty strict when it comes to gore and sex.

[Evil Betty]

Originally posted by Colonel Stars & Stripes:

Originally posted by Innateight:

I'm not even sure they are allowed to censor Suda51 games. There's probably some law against it.

Theres a law that you cant censor suda51 games?
Such a law cannot be!
Thats like saying china gets video games that isnt mario.

Although I was being sarcastic, can YOU thinking of anything censored in a Suda51 game? I sure as hell can't.

[Contra]

Originally posted by Innateight:

Originally posted by Colonel Stars & Stripes:

Theres a law that you cant censor suda51 games?
Such a law cannot be!
Thats like saying china gets video games that isnt mario.

Although I was being sarcastic, can YOU thinking of anything censored in a Suda51 game? I sure as hell can't.

They censored no more heroes in europe.
Everytime a character dies they turn to ash.
And its still an M game.....

[Contra]

Originally posted by Reachie:

When it comes to Anime, yes they get often censore here, but that's becasue they try to air them on a kid friendly channel. One Piece 4kids ayone :p
Japan is weird when it comes to video games though. DmC was also censored in Japan, in violence AND sexual content. Looking at all these babes and blood in anime and such, it's hard to belive but Japan is actually pretty strict when it comes to gore and sex.

Hentai.