Context matters. The sign has nothing to do with the Ku Klux Klan thus it shouldn't be censored. Although censorship like this isn't such a big deal, it can be a slippery slope and might be used to justify further "benign" censorship.
This is something of a tough situation. Yes, the original name doesnt relate to the Klan in any way, but it wont stop somone getting offended and/or the likes of the mainstream gaming press to eventually catch wind of it and blow it up much bigger than it already is. For Tom and Xseed, they have to pick their battles when dealing with censorship and this is simply one battle that simply can;t be won easily.
I would argue that fighting censorship in any case at all is important. Letting anything slip devalues a work and pushes it closer towards being a standard to censor things. Also, KKK witches is hilarious, if you randomly see it as a name of an electronics store.
true, but it's all about familiarity. for example: if you announced on the streets that you just got seaman for the dreamcast, people would look at you as if you were a lunatic. in shot, normies will never understand us.
I've only played 1 of the games in this series but considering that it's about going around Akihabara, stripping opponent's, it's likely to be a game that only fans of anime/manga/JRPGS and stuff involving Asian culture who live in Western countries will play. Normies as you call them probably won't even know about this game, and even if they get it wouldn't pay much attention to the signs above shops. There's not much need for them to get it since it likely won't have anything to do with them resulting in this only resulting in irritated fans who for once want to play a Japanese game as it was originally intended, without a load of stuff being changed in localization by oversensitive people who get pissed at the slightest thing.
+Seosamh Moral busybodies will find any reason they can to attack a game like Akiba's Beat. If they can't attack it for promoting the KKK they'll just attack it for objectifying women (idk if Akiba's Beat has the stripping mechanics that were in Akiba's Trip) and it pisses me off when developers and publishers cave into these people. Panties were removed from skull girls and lab zero gave a bullshit reason for it when someone complained. The pillars of eternity tombstone joke The Tera Online Elin controversy There are many more examples but the point is, the more you give into these people the more they will push.
lol funny thing about that. I went on a cruise once when i was a teenager and, not literally of course, the teenager group on the ship was called the Cool Kids Club.
It's weird that games can't even matter-of-fact point out the existence of something like the KKK. They aren't giving any kind stance on it, just pointing out NKK is similar to KKK.
That's actually not the joke/reference that the KKK thing is making... Problem is the reference they were going for with it has been lost with the change as well. Change things is one thing, changing them so that you lose the entire point in a bid to avoid offense is just... silly.
kagelynx No all censorship is wrong. I don't care if they had a isis sign or not as it is just a fucking video game. People need to grow up and realize that no one cares about their feelings.
This is silly. Just because a business decision lines up with a localization misunderstanding... this guy is dying on a hill of principle for literally no reason.
A the people they are trying to not offend are offended by everything B if they continue changing things to not offend then they have to just not do the game as it will offend sjws who i grantee you will only play this game to look for things to be offended by so either they dont change it for a demographic with no interest in the game or they will start to censor more and more to protect the idiots feelings.
Rui Kirisame not even really worried about that, i'm just glad it's something as small as letter changes, and not some heavily censored cutscenes (like south part in eu, )
"Give them a inch and they will make it a mile" just saying if this is a really small change why even bother to change in the first place... XSEED please don't start this...
'Who the fuck cares?' -- What a strange argument... Clearly the people making the change to this tiny, out of the way sign care. To tell us we can't demonstrate interest when the developer and localisation team did makes no sense. In any case the artistic integrity behind the reference isn't maintained with the change, so their is an issue of artistic integrity at work here. It's one thing to change it, but when the reference the dev was originally going for was lost entirely... well, the artistic integrity of it goes out the window with the change. Further, the game basks in replicating the quirks of Akibahara (and Japan, by extension). A faithful part of that replication is the innocent misuse of English. That misuse of English isn't offensive if you actually understand what you are seeing is the result of cultural differences rather than malicious intent. And since this game is a niche title aimed at Japanophiles it is safe to say none of them are going to be uncultured enough to think it is a geniune KKK reference. Rather, they'd look at it, chuckle and say 'Yup. That's Japan alright.' There were two right plays here i. keep it as a quirk of cultural difference or ii. change it, but alter it so that the joke makes sense (incidentally it doesn't even make sense in Japanese now). The change we got is neither. No one has won because of this change.
America and Japan have different cultures. Some changes are necessary so that they are more easily compatible. The original devs didn't mean to be offensive and they didn't know that the sign would be offensive to English-speaking audiences, and so a change was made. If the developers knew that the sign was going to be offensive in the west, they probably wouldn't have made it in the first place. The game isn't any worse off because of that and i doubt anyone would have made a fuss over it if it wasn't announced. The rest of the game was brought over well, so I say we praise the devs for the already-existing efforts to preserve the original work instead of flaming them for fixing a misunderstanding.
Eh, so long as it's not sex or violence being censored I really don't care. Glad to know I don't need to boycott this game though. The original was fun.
I mean this is the type of "localization" that actually makes sense, if a bit meaningless. I think there should be more of a defined line drawn between ""censorship" and "localization" even if they tend to go hand and hand. If they want to keep the reference why not just swap one of the letters from the original like KKN, or reference NKK directly presuming the licensing isn't an issue for a translation to the west? Unless the point was the joke of saying "KKK witches" like as if witches was a round about reference to grand wizards.
a fucking sign in a video game that you have to be pacifically looking for to find cost a man his legacy in a franchise beautiful just fucking beautiful
Hi Tom! I'm not bothered by the content or the censorship/localization(depending on how you frame it), just make sure that such changes like this stay to minor things like this. I don't want any slippery slopes.
Honestly, I'm on XSEED's side on this. Look at what happened with Pewdiepie. He's not a Nazi, but he still got labeled as one, it's the same logic here. The devs may not be affiliated with the KKK but you cannot expect the public to know it's just a parody. The public will take everything at *FACE VALUE* and that's the most important thing to remember here. If I found a KKK sign in a game that has nothing to do with it, I'd be a bit uncomfortable with it. BUT if it was a game about destroying the KKK then I'd be okay with it because it makes sense. Context, context, context!
Moar Desu I agree. Not to mention, if people just allow incidents like this to go unchecked, I could only imagine how many people will say or do things that they know will offend people, but will try to pass it off as a joke. We already have enough of those people now.
Well, PewDiePie also used the n-word on a live stream. Although I seriously doubt he’s a Nazi like some have accused him of being, the fact that he would use such a word shows insensitivity and possibly prejudice on his part. He may not be as bad as some people made him out to be, but that was still pretty bad. But I digress. In regards to censorship, I only support it if it is done for the right reasons. Lately, however, it has gotten out of hand, and with so many SJWs appearing in the video game industry lately, justifiable censorship is becoming a rarity. I feel that in this case, a minor detail was taken way out proportion.
I just finished this game last night and it made me wonder what other stuff may of been censored. there seems to be some content in the game that mentioned that made me wonder if they actually went beyond in the Japanese content. Also I wonder about the "XSEEDingly good" in game comment. I feel like that was just done for dubb reasons.
I wonder how long it will take for Tom to be fired ... ? He seems to be in conflict with his company, and they deal with it in the most childish way possible ("If you're ashamed of working on this game and don't want to be credited for it, that means you're ashamed of working in this company and won't be credited for any other game, ever !!!!"... Really? Are they still in kindergarten or something ?) The worst is that, if/when Tom eventually gets fired, pretty much noone will bat an eye. Yes there will be outraged people (including me) here on this channel, but the vast majority of people and players won't give a fuck - they won't even know about it... Until then, if you read this : Thank you Tom for doing your best against video game censorship, one of the many things that plague our beloved media. Thank you. (Oh, and dear XSEED : I won't buy Akiba's Beat because of this censorship. Not the western version anyway. I'll probably take the JP version)
Ultima: From what I can tell the entire debate has been very amicable between Tom and Xseed. After all, they publically let him go on record explaining the situation. He asked for permission to do it, and they agreed. He didn't start talking shit behind their back or put them on blast or anything like that. And he didn't have that policy dropped on him as he opted in knowing full well what he was getting into. I have a guess as to why they let him: they felt the change was unavoidable, but they also want to maintain positive relations with their fans by showing that people who work there did try hard to keep the game unchanged. Putting aside the issue of how/whether they should have changed the game, they played the PR game completely right with this one by showing people they are committed to quality localisations for the fans, even if they disagree about how to get there.
I'm about as anti-censorship as anyone else here, but I think this change made logical sense, from a translation perspective. See, the Japanese players playing the game will know that the "KKK Witches" is a pun on NKK Switches, which is a real company that Japanese people are probably already familiar with. They'll see the joke, and they'll get it. However, when non-Japanese people play it and they see "KKK Witches", there's a lower chance that they'll know that it's supposed to be a pun on a foreign company called "NKK Switches", and the joke will just fly right over their heads. Instead, the first thing they'll think of is the KKK, and the joke is now lost, invoking a different response altogether. This means the translation has failed in attempting to convey the original intent, the original intent being a punny joke on a well-known company's name. That said, I think the way they handled it was rather clumsy. They changed it to "ACQ Witches", which is supposed to be a pun on the dev studio's name, Acquire. While this is the right idea, the problem is, how are people supposed to make that connection? The joke worked in Japanese, because Japanese gamers are already familiar with NKK Switches as a brand, possibly on a household level. It's probably a huge brand, for them to include it in the game as a punny reference. I can't say the same for Acquire, since I've never heard of them until now. How are western gamers going to know that "ACQ" is supposed to be a pun on "Acquire"? I sure as hell wouldn't. Personally, I think they should've approached it this way: change the sign's name to be a pun of a well-known western company's name, one that many people are already familiar with. Maybe something like "Home Despot" or something. The point here is to preserve the original intent behind the joke made in the Japanese version, by making a pun of some well-known western brand's name. By using the same joke, but instead replacing NKK Witches with a western brand, it will invoke the same response from both Japanese and non-Japanese gamers, which means the translation succeeded. Hope that makes sense. Sorry for the wall of text, I get pretty enthusiastic about translation-related things
I don't mind this kind of censorship. Even if it wasn't changed, I would've thought it was "Koopa Klown Kar Witches" as a reference to Mario, since I'm sure the Ku Klux Klan isn't common knowledge in Japan. This censoring is better than the type that changes story, characters, or lewd content.
TheHatredDevilMayCry I'm half black myself and I would see how one could see that as a reference to the Ku Klux Klan at a quick glance. I would then say "I doubt Japan has any connection to that." As for it being censorship or not, this would technically count as censorship as this was a change to the original game, but it's not a bad change in my book. It's not a change to any major plot details or gameplay. Just a covered up/changed background texture.
Censorship: "Ok guys KKK witches has to go, you see it's because.." Game: "No need to explain really, I get it, it was intentional on my part, sure it's a lame joke but I thought it was funny" Censorship: "Riiight, ok then, we have to remove it because of course we have." Game: "But why though, if this was in GTA it would be ok because, I dunno, it would be topical or some shit" Censorship: "Look, we just want to avoid anything that could potentially be damaging to the brand by triggering this so called offensive phenomenon, so we just avoid this shit altogether." People that are said to get offended: "I don't know what you are talking about, what is a videogame? I totally think that is disgusting and a bad influence because some people told me it was bad." People that actually paid with their hard earned money and are activelly invested in enjoying this piece of entertainment: "There's an everything racist in the white house that actually courted and appointed KKK fanatics for positions of power and this is what is going to ruin or children? The more you know." I just felt like venting a bit, sorry there
are you certain that even if the devs wanted to reference ku klux klan XSEED would have still censored it? the whole reason this change is a non-issue is because its not devs intention at all, and thus is not a censorship of devs vision
Just reading some of the comments and I noticed something about viewers of Censored Gaming... They don't like any form of localization... Since the original sign was not meant to reference the KKK and it could actually change the original meaning of it simply by staying the same it was worth localizing. This would be a change to preserve the original intent of the product. Now the localization company did the right thing for the wrong reasons. They changed it because it was offensive, not to preserve the original purpose and message of the sign. This area is an example of where localization is needed. Too bad they did it for the wrong reasons, causing it to be a mess when discussing if it should be changed. Censorship is almost always not ok. But localization is an important part of bringing over a game to a new audience. Direct translation is important, however sometimes there are better ways to get the message, or original purpose, of something by changing it. A good example of this is character ages. If you are going to do a story about sexual maturity... you should probably have the characters at the age of consent. If you don't change the age then you could have the meaning change to sexual predatory/deviance. So localizing the ages makes sense. You maintain the original purpose. If you change the story to fit the ages... well then the purpose is lost in order to fit an easily changeable variable. And if you don't change anything, then you can loosing the purpose to fit direct translation.
Keep in mind that one of the signs in the game is "Home Erect Genitals" and THAT was allowed to say. Reference to Penises? A-OK! Reference to silly dudes in white ghost outfits" THAT'S OFFENSIVE! Anyway, for me this isn't a deal breaker for the game, but it does put XSEED in the same category as Idea Factory International at this moment with their treatment of Megatagmesion Blanc + Neptune VS Zombies. Make a stance against censorship only to ultimately censor a very small part of one of their games. In this case, while I understand the urge to censor the sign, it does set a bad precedent (as Tom said) especially with the reason being "People might find it offensive." Guess what XSEED, people find the Senran Kagura franchise offensive but you don't censor those games! And in fact, a LARGE part of your fanbase is BUILT on the principle of releasing 100% uncensored games because of your faithful localization of franchises such as Senran Kagura. The people who would buy your games are the sort of people who wouldn't care that there is something "offensive" hidden away, or advertised on the front cover, in your game. Seriously, Akiba's Beat is the sequel to Akiba's Trip, where you rip the clothes off of your enemies! I don't think your fans will care about the KKK witches. But the silliest part about this is that now that we know that sign is in the game, PEOPLE WILL BE HUNTING FOR IT and post it all over the internet when they find it. And finally, to Tom, if you are reading this, know that 90% of us are on your side, even if this instance of "censorship" doesn't bother them. I've seen three games I was really looking forward to absolutely ruined by shoddy localization and unnecessary censorship (Bravely Second, Tokyo Mirage Sessions, and the granddaddy of them all Fire Emblem Fates), so it is reassuring that someone like you is fighting for an end to video game censorship. And know that the people who are attacking you for your stance are the same people who defended Fates as being just "Localized," shit on Persona 5 because it kept a Japanese reference in a Japanese game about Japanese students living in Japan, and who generally want to see the Senran Kagura series die in obscurity. Keep on fighting and hopefully we will see your name in the credits soon.
I'm tired of seeing developers afraid all the time and trying to be politically correct. Furthermore, outside the United States this debate is quite unimportant.
I'll be honest this type of thing bugs me not so much this low tier censorship(it shouldn't matter if it was there in the first place) but how the company handled it hurting your employees for censorship is more wrong than censorship itself which is as bad as the concept of "unlearning"
For those criticizing the ones who take offense to KKK let me ask you this as Americans... Ask someone Black or Indigenous American, or anyone with dark skinned about how them or their ancestors feel or their experiences with said group. Yeah, in Japan it won't hold much of any weight because the Ku Klux Klan didn't exist there. However you have to remember that said hate group x terrorist organization exists in the USA, where the acronym KKK would not be funny to any brown or dark skinned minority
Didn't have to look at The Simpson's or other media for an example. Kingdom of Kupa Keep was the main faction of South Park and the Stick of Truth, and it gave me quite a sensible chuckle at the time.
The signage being the result of benign Japanese cultural forces is really important as we go into the Olympics, because the real Tokyo is going to have to grapple with how to explain the presence of swastikas everywhere to an uneducated western public. I wonder, how do people feel the country should approach that 'Nazi reference' in real life? Is that answer different from how the developer should approach it with their game? If so, why? It's easy to say 'oh, it's a game, no one cares', but when the exact same issue is happening in reality suddenly it's not so easy.
Thanks Tom for fighting for good localization on games and censorship on games. I kinda can understand KKK, but if that's not relevant to the main story and just a shop you'll pass by and get some items imho it should have been left, also I think rather than censorship this is more on localization because of culture and the sensitive people around this time and era. Don't worry when it comes out on steam it'll be patched for sure. lol
OMG what a controversy. I'm with you on the censureship issues in games but you guys really go out of your way sometimes . you know why this was changed, big deal, nothing to see here.
Why do they even care? The type of people that will hate on these games would still most likely not buy it anyway. People that sensitive aren't your fan base, everything that is Japanese is your fan base X-Seed. Grow a pair!
The joke here is supposed to be unintentionally offensives acronyms, so if KKK is a bit too much, then it could have been changed to ASS, FUK, and others. ACQ is just confusing.
Remember how LBP was delayed because there were people protesting on one of the background songs it was using? So yeah, I understand their reason for it.
Honestly, I think this is one fight against censorship that simply isnt going to be won and its a battle that's not worth winning over giving that it's a minor change that doesnt affect gameplay, content or story in any way. Given the shitting overbearing social justice climate in game, if the original name was kept mostly likely we'd hear a huge shit fit over it from Kotaku, Polygon, Destructroid, etc. finding it offensive and would probably blow it out of proportion for clicks while smearing Xseed and/or Tom.
And then what? You think Polygon, Kotaku, etc. smearing XSEED would actually damage them? I mean, come on....what do you think they'll do when Peach Beach Splash comes out anyway? Sing their praises or basically call them misogynistic pigs? XSEED have arguably gained a following by being staunchly anti-censorship, regardless of what the mainstream gaming "media" thinks about them. Turning their back on that following to try to appease said media isn't the best idea if you ask me.
It wouldnt be the first time something like this has happened. A name change to a store in a game is different from wanting to localize a game about young ninja girls with big breast ripping each other clothes off. I just think Xseed could be biting off alot more than they chew chew if they decided to keep the original name in tact. Also the developers did make the final call to change the name due to the fact that the name could be misinterpreted here in the States. It just all comes down to a company like Xseed picking their battles with censored ship wisely.
lol, I was ready to cancel my pre-order before reading the article. It's not like Xseed asked Tom Lipschultz to change to relation of a gay couple to be siblings living together, cover female characters or anything major, they just didn't want to use a silly little parody name for a store.
It's really fucking easy to point out a franchise people love and point out times where it's been utterly bastardized before but people totally support it anyway. Case in point for your first example, Sailor Moon. People don't throw out their fond memories of the original dub after learning how the gay couple was creepily changed to cousins, so I'd call them hypocrites for dropping a product for MUCH more minor examples. Hell, I can even point to Persona as well. People support P5 even despite Atlus Japan or Sega shitting on streamers, I don't see them boycotting the company over the mess they created out of Persona 1.
theimporter Oh, that actually existed is what I mean. I forget which two it was, but I think it was that second set of Sailor Scouts that two of them were supposed to be in love with each other, but the original dub had them changed to be cousins, yet still acting about as affectionate. "Gay people being changed to siblings" was really close there by pure accident.
well, I looked at some of the comments and I have to say... nobody is blaming black people for this. which is weird because every time something like this happens, everyone starts pointing fingers at black people.
this is just the starting line dude if you understand how video game censoring works we let them do this next time it wont be just "aesthetics" it will become cutting out extra characters, cutting off extra quest or continuing to play the game after it finishes the story.
I've been staunchly against censorship for a long time now, and that includes me not buying TMS, FE:Fates, and Criminal Girls because of the kind of censorship they did. But this... this isn't really significant? C'mon guys get a grip. NOTHING important about the game has been changed. No minigames changed or removed, no boobs or panties censored, no story context changed. I believe it's petty for people to be upset over "offensive" things, but getting livid over a LITERALLY insignificant change is just as petty. This issue isn't so black and white. Strawmanning on the side of anti-censorship is damn embarrassing. With shit like this, how do you expect devs to take us seriously?
Still don't get why the devs didn't just make it KKU, KNK, UKK, ZKK, 14KK or some derivative instead of KKK in the first place. They were spoofing NKK, so something with 2 K and an N, U, or Z would have been closer.
Its just a word that has nothing to do with the story nor gameplay, I could care less about it. I don't like censorship when it affects the games story and/or gameplay in general where things that are important to the game are missing, still at a maximum price as other people who have the game with all of its original content for the same price as me, and we see it all the time in everyday activities. We don't see the letters KKK everyday. When we go to the grocery store, the beach, school, walking down the street we see girls in bikinis and girls wearing slutty clothes all the time or once or twice a month, there's a huge difference unnecessary censorship that we see everyday and real censorship that involves USs history, not other countries history.
I'm sorry, but anyone who's upset about this change, is an idiot. I'm not a fan of censorship, but sometimes it's necessary. This is one of those times. And hopefully, I shouldn't need to explain why.
Personally, I don't mind this censor (coming from somebody who is very adamantly against censorship). When people see the letters "KKK" in the US, they generally think of the K.K.K. Knowing how their terrorism spread throughout the states (and some of it is still going around today), and how many people were hurt or killed by it; I am with Tom on this one.
I still think it's pretty silly for him to take this stance for such a minuscule thing. It's not funny as the west couldn't understand it to begin with, and it wasn't even Acquire's intention to reference the group. It's too bad, now he won't be able to pull the same trick on something meaningful and get dialogue going.
I was referring to how "KKK" is a joke about "NKK," only Japan would *maybe* crack a smile about that, but it would've completely blown over westerners heads. It'd just be some edgy name everywhere else, and I'd much rather they change it instead of risking sales for something this pointless.
btw, acquire never said it was or wasnt a reference to the KKK. conversation never went beyond that as how tom explained it.. xseed contacted them about it how it would "offend" pussies in the west so they had it censored.
ok so one of his excuse is the japanese version still untouched and uncensored so it is fine he is using the exactly same excuse I here every time some one complains about censorship which makes me a little worried especially with the I'm gonna change rather you like it or not part of the history
KKK is not offensive to have in a game, context is everything. The JAPANESE developers are not trying to offend anyone, get over Yourselves XSeed. The simple acronym "KKK" will not lower Your sales, and should not cause any uproar. KKK KKK KKK Seriously just saying three letters should not be offensive to anyone.
My question here is is there any way in hell you're going to get the joke the Japanese developers intended? No, it's a light switch company parody, of course you're not. You're going to think about said group and have your immersion ruined.
UltimaKeyMaster Well, actually I may have got the joke and considering the game takes place in a "modern" day Japan, referencing the KKK might not actually break the immersion as they are a real group and the game besides all the fictional content does take place in a technically real world location.
Clone Loli How would it not break the immersion? A real violent hate group randomly popping into your head in a game that wants to be about playing up stripping for battle as a somewhat comedic JRPG theme wouldn't be immensely distracting? Doesn't really make a difference if it's a "real" city when it's not remotely going for a realistic depection of it. It'd be just as distracting if this were Shin Megami Tensei and heaven forbid (good lord heaven is bad wording but I'm sticking with it) that series goes outside "Tokyo" aside from Persona. And honestly, tell me how you would've gotten that actual joke without me telling you, because the only reason people get upset NOW is cause the joke was explained (note no one actually thought the light switch joke was funny, just upset a joke they never actually laughed at is gone).
UltimaKeyMaster 1. You literally have no clue whether or not I would have gotten that joke. I Myself probably would have. That also doesn't mean it's alright to remove from the game. Integrity above all else. 2. Again, I do not live in Japan, they could make up a city their and still say it's set in a Modern Day Japan, thus the joke would work fine because the KKK still exists within the modern day and likely will in the future. Toaru Majutsu no Index is an anime series set in a futuristic Japan, in a fictional city called "Academy City", they reference various church groups all the time, ones that actually exist. That show never broke immersion however even when referring to real life groups or people. I would understand Your point if it was a fantasy setting, but it's literally not, it's a modern day setting therefore the KKK would have fit fine.
You might not get the joke without someone explaining it to you but i. you won't get it with this change either, making it hard to support it and ii. you are unlikely to be distracted by thinking of the real life violent hate group if you saw it in context, just as you wouldn't if you saw the sign in Japan in real life: you'd think 'du'wha? Hahaha'. And that's fine because it's supposed to be funny (even if you are laughing for different reasons).
If anything we should be more annoyed that they changed actual businesses into lame "dont sue us" names. SEGA is called SOOGEE and Sofmap is called Fasmop...
There could have been better ways around it. For example, Shuffle had a girl's fan club called the KKK because of the girl's initials, but every time that they mentioned KKK, they will specify that it is not "the guys with the sheets". Also, what is ACQ, anyway?
Localization and translation are not synonyms. Take for example Cless from Tales of Phantasia in English his quirk is puns...do you think that a pun in Japanese directly translates to the same pun in English? The NKK would have been a joke lost in translation. Nevermind a PR nightmare. Utada Hikaru who does the Kingdom Hearts opening songs, she was in New York City and speaks English fluently. Hikari and Simple and Clean as well as Passions and Sanctuary are lyrically two different songs. Ever hear a Japanese singer who doesn't speak English fluently sing in English and the song has no rhyming? Look at Final Fantasy X-2 Real Emotion in "English" by Koda Kumi has slightly different lyrics than the English version by Jade Vallion.
@@HYDEinallcaps I still stand by my post, y'all got mad over a game that wasn't even good lol. Mom can we have Tales of Xillia? No sweetie we have Tales of Xillia at home. Also can you rebuke any of my claims? Especially the Utada Hikaru one. Don't forget the reason why those songs are different in English and Japanese is because she's a fluent English speaker because she was born in New York city. Ever notice how those directly translated J-pop songs don't have any rhyming schemes? Go ask a fluent Spanish speaker what they think about Christina Aguilera's MI Reflejo, Genie in a bottle and Genio Atrapado share the same Melody and share the same Central lyrical themes but the lyrics are different. Same with Madonna's what it feels like for a girl versus Lo Que Siente La Mujer. Crazy how the people who take umbrage to any supposed censorship in video games and anime are ALWAYS modelingual and can't get it through their stupid heads every time they are owned by polyglots that maybe you should actually listen to people more than one language. Idiotas como tú son la razón por la cual los fanáticos del anime se ríen.
this may be part of why nihon falcom seems to have changed from xseed to nisamerica for the western release of ys VIII which comes from a series not too shy about more sexual themes
While this is so insignificant that it really didn't have to be changed, it's also such a minor thing that won't take anything away from the game. I'll support Xseed for as long as they keep doing good work, but the day Tom leaves that company they'll probably die.
I feel like people Rush through Akiba's Beat. Or just don't take the time to actually get to know what Akiba's Beat actually is. It's not Akiba's Trip. So the storyline isn't gonna be anything similar. Akiba's Beat has major plot twist. And a deep storyline. Like with the Akihabara Freedom Fighters. And the DAB. The Story gets real deep and engaging. Espically when you find out who the Delusion Contractor Kanon really is. I feel like people miss that in Akiba's Beat. Cause they can't pull their head out of their butts. And accept that Beat is not ever gonna be Akiba's Trip. And it never will be. Beat has an engaging storyline. With deep plot twist setting up why the day keeps repeating. And for the Akihabara Freedom Fighters that changes the plot of the story. People just tend to forget that, cause the storyline is different from Trip. And doesn't involve any stripping during battle. Akiba's Beat is a fun game. One I highly recommend. It may not be Akiba's Trip. And I for one am glad Beat is it's own thing. It's always good to break away from Ecchi stuff every now and again. And relax with a fun game like Akiba's Beat.
Unlikely to be noticed by 99% of players, but let's face it, IGN would use this to snag some site traffic and drag the game down with it if given the chance. Much ado about nothing. There's far less tolerable shit out there.
"They might find it offensive" Really? What? If the have a sign saying "Dan is stupid" should I be offended since my name is Dan? This is ridiculous. How come the West always gets offended? From what I've seen, I think Japan has no problems with this. They're more opened minded and even joke about things. That's why I hate censorship of games outside Japan. That's why I get so triggered when I see the word "censorship" on a game I wanted to get localized.
I play Akiba's Beat all the time. I love the game, and I enjoy marveling at the beautiful graphics and seeing the signs. If I saw a KKK one, I probably wouldn't think much about it. There's a lot of both English, and Japanese signs, and honestly, i'm too busy fast traveling and buying pokemon cards to even look closely.
I see why it got changed I thought Xseed was against censorship and try and keep it to it's original Japanese version people love them for that. But this is just the rare one where it had to be changed
The problem with censoring their games is that they end up meaning something or containing something different here than they did in the originals. If they didn't change this part, it would do exactly that - it'd have meaning it didn't have in the original market. Japanese players aren't going to look at it and think of a terrorist group, but pretty much anyone in North America would.
these changes are coming if people want them to or not I wish they didn't change anything but saying that I do understand why they are changing it doesn't change come with understanding
Obviously, it needed to be removed for the English version. Yes, it meant something different in Japan, but in English it means something bad. I don't see what the issue is. Games should be adjusted for each region. A mild word in North America could be a graphic curse in England. It's not censorship, it's adjusting it so the context of it is the same (ie the original intent of the game maker). It was a joke about a Japanese company; not making reference to a hate organization. So adjusting it was necessary. And someone isn't going to buy this game because of this change? Wow.
*WARNING OPINION AHEAD, READ WITH CATION* I don't know how I feel about this. I'm definitely all for free speech, but having a building with the words KKK on it. I don't know about that. Even if you were going to parody a company in Japan, you have more options than having three Ks. I can totally understand the game developers not knowing the weight those letters comes with, but instead of just changing it, one person made a big deal of it. I'm not sure how I feel about that honestly... If I bought that game and found that sign, I wouldn't ask for my money back or something like that, but I might be turned off from buying another game from that company. That just wouldn't sit right with me. People here in the comments are correct. Context does matter, but in this situation, unless you know the game is parodying a company in Japan, you might think this is where the KKK hideout is. I do see how this is censorship, and if the devs really wanted to put the KKK in their game, they should have every right to, but that wasn't their goal, and the sign is so unimportant that even if it had been entirely removed, it wouldn't detract from the game. So making a big deal about having to remove something as small as this? Makes me feel like I shouldn't play the companies games. The vibe I am getting from these people is rubbing me the wrong way. I'm not sure why I'm writing all of this, nobody will read it anyways.
Thank you for your transparency and dedication throughout this whole ordeal, Tom. I hope you see this message. Never give up the fight! I will be rooting for you every step of the way! /salute
i find it kinda funny that they wanted to name a store KKK witches. in the English Dub(dont know if its the same for the sub) of "Shuffle!"; there is a group that when abbreviated, is KKK. they always say after "Not the scary guys with the Sheets."
Hi tom, thank you for your efforts. Don't be disheartened by anyone's comments. You are providing information and service for the present and the future to look at and interpret.
I agree that a change like this may offend a minor part of the target market (mainly americans do to their history). However one has to realise that an english localisation is usually a major step to world spread of the game/film as a Lingua Franca. To squeeze all this "responsibility" through an all american filter seems to me absurd.
I always bother myself to see the credits of every XSEED games I could afford so that I can see Tom's name too. But, after learning about this censorship, I unfortunately don't want to bother myself looking at the credits anymore, since, in my heart, XSEED is not XSEED without him, even in written form. I understand that that the abbreviation "KKK" is offensive to a lot of people, although it doesn't mean I support this censorship in this game (it's a joke, after all, and I feel weird about it because I know it's offensive to a lot of people, but it makes me laugh). I personally think this joke would be funny if, in the Japanese version, there's a nearby NPC that can be interacted, and that NPC would say something like "This abbreviation stands for (insert 3 funny words start with letter K) and the reason for that is because I want to see how many people would compare this with something in real life and whining about it, so that I can shoot them back with an argument like "This is fictional, and fiction does not equal real life, so it doesn't always representing real life with 100% accuracy. In fact, it might represent real life with negative 100% accuracy a.k.a a parody. Why are you so easily offended? It's a joke and we never have the intention to offend anyone"" (Yeah, it's a 4th wall joke). In the US version, the NPC would say something like "We received complaints about the previous name of our shop. We apologised to them, but they demanded us to change it because, I quote" IT'S OFFENSIVE!", so we changed the name to ACQ Witches. I don't understand why they're so offended about this joke, about something fictional, about something that isn't real life, about something that doesn't always represent real life with 100% accuracy. Oh well, I guess I have to live with this generation of easily offended people. *sigh* This generation I live with sucks" (4th wall jokes FTW, boys). TL;DR Tom Lipschultz rules
More of a localization issue than and out and out censorship one. Even if the sign wasn't intended to have anything to do with the real KKK, it's better for XSeed as a business to not take any risk of negative publicity with something that even the original developers didn't have see as a big deal about making the quick change.
What a boneheaded thing to get bent out of shape over, and to be removed from the credits as well. Principles are one thing, but this is just silly. Whatever, it's his career.
