censorship?

[InmaDjinn Samalik]

Knowing this is a remaster of an old PSP game, is this going to get censored for the mythical modern audience?

[UF8]

psp games wouldn't have been uncensored in the first place...? because it's psp

[człowiek rozumny]

There isn't anything to censor in the first place. This game is really tame with no sexual content.

[Green Cat]

Originally posted by człowiek rozumny:

There isn't anything to censor in the first place. This game is really tame with no sexual content.

While I agree that most censorship cases involve sexual content (like showing panties vs. a black abyss vs. cutting the scene entirely), there are other types of censorship as well. I can't remember which game it was, but there was a comparison between the original and the remaster. In the original, a character said "stupid" (baka), but in the remaster, that part including the meaning, was there, but without the "stupid" part, so ensure it's more "politically correct"—basically censoring anything that might offend someone.

Rune Factory 3 Special on Steam vs. the original is another example. At first glance, it doesn’t seem censored, no terms or scenes removed, or any similar clear censorship... until you actually pay attention and notice the wording is weaker compared to the original. Why? Because the "Special" version is made to be more "English correct," which ends up reducing the Japanese cultural feel, character's quirk, their identity. A similar example is from an old Pokémon episode, where rice balls (onigiri) were translated as "donuts" so that kids in the U.S. at the time wouldn’t be confused about what Ash and the others were eating. (again, during that time, children did not know what an onigiri is since anime just started in USA)

I just listed a few examples, but there are tons of these cultural conversions. For instance, if a character says "sister" in the Japanese version, the English version will often replace it with the character’s name. On the flip side, when a character calls someone by name in English, the Japanese version may add a title instead—like turning "Emma" into "Emma-san" or "Emma-chan." Those who want to preserve Japanese culture in translations (random examples: Aneki, Imouto, Ane, Onee-san, Onee-chan, Onee-sama) tend to use more appropriate terms or nicknames. Japanese honorifics are also a big part of identity, with common ones like -san, -sama, -chan, and even -tan (for when someone sees a person as angelic).

All in all, the two main points I wanted to make clear:

Political correctness censorship—driven by the toxic side of "woke" culture (the kind that destroys while pretending to be good, not the real one that actually helps people)—is affecting tons of translations. Some games even have these kinds of people listed in the credits under "translator," but when checked, they don’t even know Japanese. They were only there to censor things to ensure no one gets offended.

Loss of meaning, charm, character identity, personality, and cultural specifics—Certain words or concepts are fine (like kimono, tsunami, kamikaze, kanata), but something like tsundere? NOPE. Instead, we get watered-down nonsense like "cold and hot" or other generic terms. Cultural elements also get erased (rice ball → donuts), all because the translation was done by "the cheapest person to hire". Including toxic woke translators who intentionally lower their fees just to ensure they can mass-censor works. One of the best examples is the Jobless Reincarnation light novel—it was so heavily censored that the publisher had to retranslate it. Why? Because the main character is a pervert, and of course, the toxic woke translator wanted to handle the translation—meaning they censored it at every step. This is one of the main reasons many light novel readers prefer fan translations. And for those who claim "just read it in Japanese!"— Learning Japanese is a full-time job for most people, meaning you are lucky to be able to learn it effortless or quickly. But at the same time, "read the original", is not wrong, because most translations never match the quality of the original.