Topic: Nintendo Switch 2

Nintendo Today had a feature about Game Builder Garage on Switch 2. I'm really curious what their plans are for that game or series considering they seem to be resurrecting it lately.

There’s a person on my friends list who kept deleting his play activity then shows up again with mostly indie games then deletes it again and now has it set to not showing, not sure what he’s up to lol

I picked up my nintendo switch 1 this morning to charge it since it had just been sitting there dead for about a month, and GOODNESS its small. i think it would be very hard to go back. it proves that even though the changes are small they improve the experience so much. so worth it! 😝

Is there a general thread for the Trails in the sky franchise.

It’s been confirmed the remake has been ruined by censorship.

@VoidPunk
I mean, yea, it sucks that they're changing some lines, but that "ruins" the entire game for you?

I can see how stuff like that upsets people, especially if they're used to the old dialogue, or some other nostalgia reason. I myself don't really like it a ton when old media and other stuff are changed when they don't need to be, especially when it comes to things ike making stuff more politically correct (I like what I like whether it's politically correct or not). Thankfully, at least this time it's seemingly Falcom doing it of it's own choice instead of being forced to do it by Nintendo just to get their game on the Nintendo platform (which has seemingly been happening to other games recently). Falcom can do what they want with their game, but I don't particularly like that they're trying to be more politically correct. Kind of a shame since this was one of the JRPGs I was interested in playing in the far future. I'm still interested in playing it eventually even with this news, but it's still disappointing 😞.

@FishyS I'd love a Game builder garage sequel, the game was very fun but just missed a few key elements it needed to truly thrive, and I think a sequel is just the right answer for that.

@VoidPunk If you think that removing lines because they were dated is bad, then I feel like you'd also call Persona 3 Reload "censored," because they removed a transphobic joke.

@ShieldHero
I agree with what you’re saying, but to me, even for an rpg, a few lines being changed doesn’t matter as much as making the gameplay worse or something like that.

Do you see what I’m saying? Like, I played the demo, and the gameplay and systems seem pretty fun, so a few changed lines wouldn’t be enough to “ruin” the game, in my opinion.

These discussions are always funny to me because it seems like everybody is overreacting. The people doing the censoring, the people reacting to the censoring, and so on. It’s just… we’re doomed lol

I think there's a subtle line between updating something to work in a modern context and changing it for the sake of avoiding controversy. And also a difference between avoiding writing that in hindsight wasn't a good idea and treating me like a stupid child that can't understand that a game from the past wouldn't perfectly fit modern standards at every single moment.

I have no opinion of this specific example, because most people don't play Trails, lol, but that is my entire take on that, in a nutshell.

Some of it works, the Tokyo Mirage Session thing where they edited fanservice so that in a chapter it stopped being a story that's actually about something was obviously stupid. That doesn't mean it was a deal breaker for the game but...it was dumb. Shouldn't have happened.

@kkslider5552000
Yea, my stance is kind of: it’s a good thing for society to progress and realize that some stuff was really dumb and straight up hateful.

But, that being said, the internet has amplified the voices of some overly sensitive people who don’t represent what most of us think, and it resulted in a period of getting rid of stuff that wasn’t even offensive to begin with.

And now we’re just whipsawing back in the other direction to, as usual, overcompensate. Now it’s almost cool to revert back to the blatantly hateful stuff because reasons.

That’ll show ‘em.

@rallydefault
It does go both ways. Entirely different context example, I was (admittedly jokingly) called up on my decision to name a build server "Build Slave" at work. The more appropriate choice would've been something like "Worker", "Robot" or "Agent". They did have a point but we all had a bit of a laugh about it and we left it as it was

If they had INSISTED that I changed it? That would've been somewhat of a waste of time. Probably an hour or so going around reinstalling stuff, changing and such. But I would've done it because the alternative would be what.... me chucking a tantrum and wasting EVEN MORE time. And for what? A word? It'd be a bit silly, and unnecessarily confrontational. At that point I would be the one making more of a deal over it

Even more off topic, I remember over a decade ago when the main political discussion at hand in Australia was whether or not the government should be investing in fibre internet infrastructure. The union-backed government at the time was proposing full fibre to the home, backed by the government. The conservative leaning opposition thought internet infrastructure was an unnecessary expense (although mostly they just saw it as a political wedge) and proposed a half-step upgrade that only made financial sense if it was viable to 2035 (it's being replaced now)

At the time my position on it was simple (this all has a point I swear). If the private sector is, as had been the case, unwilling to invest in infrastructure outside of profitable urban sectors then the government should. And if the government, or anyone else, is doing this it should be done once and properly. Otherwise we'd be spending decades upgrading and repairing half-step measures

But what struck and stuck with me were some of the whacky and nonsensical purely ideological arguments opponents of it raised. One in particular. This person suggested that government was violence. That the act of the government taking 1950s era copper from the streets that at the time could barely crack 10Mbps for most and replacing it with full fibre that was good for multi-gigabit was an act of aggression. They did not consent to this. They do not want it

and I just stopped and thought..... what planet is this person even on?..... like being given upgrade of your flight to first class and complaining that you didn't pay for the free upgrade, you didn't consent to the free upgrade, stop enforcing this violence upon me

It was at that point I realised, some people just don't think things through. Some people are not practical. They have some notion of how things should be and then act-out whenever that line is crossed. However absurd the practical outcomes are

In terms of "gaming censorship" it's usually fairly inoccuious. Some basement dweller complaining that new version of game doesn't have upskirt or jiggle or outdated slur or whatever. And they complain on a post or on some niche YouTube channel as everyone else barely notices or cares. But in other contexts, and when taken to their extremes, this kind of baby-tantrums over strict ideological line drawing with no consideration of actual practical outcomes... well... yep...

@VoidofLight

I never played Persona but censorship is always bad.

@VoidPunk Except it really isn't censorship when the devs think something aged poorly and decide "hey, let's take this out because it adds nothing to the experience."

The anti-trans joke the original Persona 3 had was extremely bad taste and added nothing to the over-all experience or context of the game as a whole. It was just there because the creators of the game wanted to sneak in their bigoted biases. The removal of that joke actually helps the message of what the game is trying to get across instead of how the joke originally hindered it.

@skywake For the most part, every time I see this censorship discourse, it's always just basement dwellers who get upset that bigoted content or skimpy outfits for the teenage/kid characters get removed from the game. Most of it is bad faith criticism that tends to be pretty much worthless.

Some of these people then call for actual censorship of works. Actual changes made to destroy a game or book's core message or principle. However in that case, because these people don't like that subject or the story- they then go on about how it isn't "censorship," and how they're calling out either "propaganda," or "Woke" works.

Any time I see people complaining about how a game got "censored," I usually just wave it off as being a nothingburger- given how many times I've witnessed people complain about a 13 year old not being able to have sexual clothing items (Xenoblade X), or people complaining about the fact that the localized version of a game removed the ability for you to marry children characters (Fire Emblem Engage). I've never once seen people complain about how Persona 5 X ended up censoring the Demon designs due to the game being made by a Chinese Studio- or actual instances of censorship like removing Gay marriage from a version of a game because of the territory it's releasing in.

@skywake
lol yea, that reminds me of healthcare here in America. The people who keep saying they don’t want their taxes to go to the government to make healthcare a universal right because… uhm, honestly I don’t even know (would take just a fraction of our military budget… highest in the known universe many times over… but I’m not allowed to say that as an American lol)…

Are the same people who are crippled by thousands of dollars of medical debt because we have a greedy, profit-driven private medical insurance market. It’s insane. But they’ll hold their party line or whatever because they know it would make the “other side” happy if we weren’t all in the clutches of these filthy rich health insurance companies.

@VoidofLight,

"Some of these people then call for actual censorship of works."

I have to agree with you, and it's incredibly disappointing that many people behave like that 😞. Personally, I am one of the people who do complain about censorship of anime suggestive material (especially if the censorship in question is instigated by a government), simply because without it, part of what makes anime special and different compared to American media is just wiped away. I hate it when media is Americanized, even though I'm an American. That doesn't mean I hate American media, I just prefer genuine Japanese media because I'm an otaku.

However, I also hate it when governments censor stuff related to things like, let's say gay marriage, since you brought up that topic. Just like gay marriage is often looked down upon in the United States, anime is often looked down upon in the United States as well. Which really doesn't bother me a whole lot, since people are allowed to have their own opinion (I don't base what I like on the opinions of others whatsoever). But just one small thing does bug me about it. You never see as many people on the internet who complain about "inappropriate stuff" in American media as often as you see people complain about "inappropriate stuff" in anime, when the "inappropriate stuff" in American media is honestly even more "inappropriate" than the stuff in anime a decent amount of the time. That really makes no sense to me whatsoever 😵‍💫.

Anyway, back to the topic. If there is any censorship of something like gay marriage, I am immediately against it, because if gay marriage is being censored or banned simply because it's unpopular, than anime, which I really like, could be censored or banned simply because it's unpopular.

A fact about myself: a while before I created an account on this website, back in 2024, I was on the political Right side. I still liked anime, but I was against pretty much anything involving the Left, and always argued against everything involving the Left, even though it all made me rather negative. However, late last year, I had a sudden revelation. I started thinking a lot more about changing my way of thinking to be more positive. I made this realization: "If I want to enjoy my anime, and believe in what I want to believe I'm, and have whatever religion I want, and all that jazz, then shouldn't the people on the Left get to do the same?" At that moment, I became completely anti-censorship. I decided I was not a member of the Right anymore, and became a member of the middle that is neither the Left or the Right. Right now, I like neither political side because the Left often tries to censor the Right and the Right often tries to censor the Left, so the middle is perfect for me, and I'm glad I changed my way of thought. I am a little worried about the direction my home country America is going, but hopefully nothing too drastic happens.

American media generally is dumbed down a bit. I don't think it's even "censorship", it's just big publishers jumping at shadows and being too focus group driven. You only have to look at stuff like how the US version of reality TV shows function vs overseas counterparts. eg MasterChef Australia vs the US version. Or how US book publishers forced Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone to be renamed because "Philosopher" was too difficult, dry, not exciting enough.....

I wouldn't call this "censorship". It's more just big media corporations in the US are kinda wired differently

@skywake America was founded by fundamentalist Christians that were too extreme for Europe. A lot of this is just deep cultural differences, and even countries within Europe have vastly different views on things like sexuality. In Norway, seeing an exposed breast and full nudity on TV isn't a big deal, but America and Japan won't allow that. It's not really a right versus wrong thing. All I want is access to original media made within the confines of its origin culture; I don't think it's reasonable to expect the entire world to agree on social and cultural norms, so anything localized will sadly have to be censored. But we should never force other cultures' creatives into censoring the original work based on our own cultural norms.

@OmnitronVariant,

"But we should never force other cultures' creatives into censoring the original work based on our own cultural norms."

Amen! If the overseas companies want to censor their own product, that's one thing (they do lose some of my respect though) but governments and other companies wanting to censor things from other countries is even worse and gets no respect from me.