Xenoblade Chronicles X launches in the west soon, and is shaping up to be quite the experience - as you'll know if you've already read our hands-on impressions with the final code.
However, fans have expressed some concern at the localisation changes made by Nintendo so far. First up was the fact that major character Lin could no longer wear skimpy outfits, as well as rumours that her age had been changed from 13 to 15 (we reported on this, but having played the game ourselves it is now clear that she's still 13, just like she was in the Japanese version).
Another change relating to female characters in the game has been spotted by GameXplain. In the avatar creation mode, it's now impossible to alter the size of a female character's bust. This feature was present in the Japanese version, which launched in April of this year.
Xenoblade Chronicles X launches in North America and in Europe on December 4th.
[source eurogamer.net]
Comments 440
LOL, I love how the west tries protect the kids so much. And people try to defend Nintendo when people call it "kiddie." Ladies and gents, this is why they get called this.
Edit
To the people below (and have yet to comment). Since there was some confusion about what this was changing, this is about a character avatar, something that you would typically use to represent you as the character. This is not about making the rack of a 13 yr old girl huge or whatever.
To the people arguing saying "you can't change a guys package," Well... I hate to say it but how many guys are you able to tell their package size by walking down the street? If you go by what you can see, it is basically two sizes. The majority and then the very small minority of oversized.
why would you want to really your supposed to be playing a game not perving on polygons
Dear Nintendo Life,
Stop promoting GameXplain and advertising videos for them.
Thanks,
Jealous haters who don't like them for their crappy discussion and spoiler videos
@FullbringIchigo
Just because someone give a character a big rack, or small rack, it doesn't mean they are "perving" a polygon, This is an avatar, a character that someone would typically make (or the concept is to do so) to represent themselves. Not everyone has the same chest size, some have a small, some have a large one, some are somewhere in the middle. The pervy argument is the sad argument that many Nintendo White Knight defense force apologists will flock too.
@abbyhitter
Some people like them, some people don't (like yourself). No one is forcing you to watch them either and as for spoilers... there have been plenty of "spoilers" already done by Nintendo Life itself about this game. This is what happens when you have a game released 8 months before somewhere else.
Nintendo shouldn't have put it in if they were just gonna take them out.
I could never understand why stuff like this was in video games (beyond the obvious) but I'm not forced to use it so I don't care either way. If this meant the difference between a T and an M rating in America then I understand the changes.
I guess if I was female maybe I would want a correct representation of myself as an avatar but my guess is the ladies in the nlife community who will play this game aren't all that worried about it?
"I'm an adult and I need to be able to control the breast size of the fictional characters I see on MY flatscreen."
As a 30-year-old I've passed the "boooobiieesss!" phase so I'm not bothered in the slightest. Just wanted to comment before all the "censored!!!" stuff.
It's not clear if Nintendo did this because of a perceived backlash from a different demographic, or because of regulations imposed by a body such as the ESRB or PEGI.
Still, it's a shame when any sort of features get removed in localization.
@ikki5 i understand that but lets be honest most of the people who moan about this issue will be guys who can't make overly sexy characters now with huge racks
Good old nanny state Nintendo! Thanks for looking out for us yet again...
(Still getting the game tho)
Getting the game regardless.
>shrugs
Doesn't bother me, since I'm content being able to play either gender regardless of their appearance. By the end of the game, male or female, you'll probably be so decked out in cool armor you wouldn't be able to tell how large the chest is anyway.
Nintendo once again going out of their way to censor a non-kiddy game and treating the female body as some kind of disgusting "thing" that needs to be blocked off and sent to hell.
People who complain about this really need to take a long look at themselves. It's not like anyone would care if Nintendo removed a penis slider. The only reason "boys" are getting upset over this is because they can now no longer fap away to computer generated 13 year old characters.
You could adjust breast sizes? Jeez, these last 2 and a half months, all I've heard is sexual stuff. I miss being an ignorant 10 year-old.
Seriously though, Japan announced a busty 13 year-old girl and was even able to adjust the breast. There's a line. Does not Japan see it?
@RupeeClock
AFAIK the ESRB wouldn't go as far as to restrict something as trivial as a boob slider to M-rated games.
Nintendo is only censoring this because they are afraid of backlash from soccer moms, various churches, and Fox News.
This is stupid. Jessuzzz.
Score another one for western bigotry!
@FullbringIchigo Why is it always about guys? And who cares? it is an avatar, it is not the 13 year old girl in the game, it is an avatar of you. I am 27 years old, is a 27 year old not allowed to have a big rack? A small rack? People are going to sexualize it regardless of what you do. Seriously, there is even Splatoon porn out there. Stuff is going to be sexualized regardless what you do. What makes this whole thing pathetic in the end is how Nintendo takes something that a person would use to represent themselves (or the character they want) and remove features just because they want to protect the small child. The game isn't even designed for children and yet they censor it anyway on something that isn't necessarily an underaged girl or anything. The other censoring of the underage girl was an iffy one because of how it was handled but censoring something that is supposed to represent the person playing is just plain pathetic.
It makes me sad to see people defend this kind of actions with such weak arguments and assumptions. Increasing or decreasing a breast size is only sexualized if you make it sexualized. Otherwise, it could be argued that large breasts, or small breasts could be discrimination when accusing it as sexualized to the point of removing the feature.
Not that I care that much anyway... But it's still stupid how Nintendo censors stuff. Be gamer friendly instead of family friendly. You can actually be a mix of both. Make family friendly games, but also keep in mind that you have a mature audience as well.
But you should be able to make them so huge, that your character gets a permanent back problem status.
I have no problem with the other censorship (not because of the shakey morale stuff but the actual designs was bad) this one leaves me confused as the concept of custom character is for projecting your self, this alienates the large and small chested lady gamers.
I suspect these edits are to avoid an age rating without cutting more important content
@Mr_Rawky IKR?? They almost corrupted the millions of guys who already have access to free P0rn! Nintendo saved the day! Yay! -.-
@AVahne ESRB ratings go a bit further than just the immediate rating of E, M, etc.
They also rate various Content Descriptors.
http://www.esrb.org/ratings/ratings_guide.aspx
This game appears to be T-rated anyway, but even if it were M-rated they might've wanted to avoid any Sexual themes.
Pre-order cancelled!
(Yes I am kidding)
I do not care about the changes in the suits nor do I care much about the female character's bust being impossible to change. But I do realise that some people might get upset, mainly female players (or they should be the ones with the real reason to be upsrt about). And it's a shame that features will be lacking due to localization. But it's only a minor change. I'll enjoy the game all the same I'm sure.
@VR32F1END - Lol. Does not compute in Japan.
@abe_hikura What. You didn't know? NOA now gets to tell you what an acceptable breast size is. Because...someone had to play with it and decide what was appropriate. It's not like this is even a video game. These are real girls and... wait...
Hey everybody: you know it's not censorship when it's the decision of the people paying the bills, right?
Gay male here. This is bull. If Nintendo wants to get rid of their "kiddy" image and be viewed maturely by competitors they really need to stop the censoring. This game's rated T for Teen for a reason; disallowing breast-size-changing really isn't going to make a difference, aside from an increase of people not being able to take Nintendo seriously.
Why did everyone complain about Lin's costume change but not this? This is much worse.
@RupeeClock
They removed underwear costumes from an M-rated game, they'd do this even if it was M-rated.
I find it hard to believe this is a legitimate problem for people. "Boycott because we can't make big boobies!" Lol, ridiculous.
@ikki5 jeez i wasn't talking about you all i said was it doesn't really matter because it's only a game at the end of the day and how does the bust size of your character change how the game plays?
now i admit i could have said it better in my original post but i didn't, then again i'm an idiot ^_^
@ikki5 This is true.
@ikki5 I think in most peoples defense, it has never been properly explained that the bust variation was for your personal avatar, and not for every woman in the game. Having played over 150 hours in XC, there was no avatar, there were only characters in the game, so it would make no sense. Until your post I didn't even know you made an avatar in the game, I just assumed you played as whoever the main character was. And I pre-ordered the collectors ed., I'v been waiting for this, but it never even dawned on me that I would be creating my own playable character.
I'm assuming there are others like me who thought the bust enhancement was simply for the in game characters. If that were the case would you be able to defend it so vigorously?
@RupeeClock You're telling me this is all because they wanted to keep a Teen rating? I don't believe it.
Eh... why not let us adjust bust size for our avatars? I should be able to modify pretty much whatever I want about my character.
@TruenoGT I don't think that's true. And I think the install base might impact the game's sales more than the rating. As a matter of fact, an M rating could have boosted sales, if Nintendo hadn't driven off all the M-age'd players. :/
@Goob So there are a few free-minded people on this site. Thank God.
This change is pointless and stupid. Nintendo's digging their own grave.
@rjejr Yeah, I watched some twitch streams and saw the avatar creation and the first thing that came to my girlfriend's and my mind was "Oh god, it is going to take an hour to start the game." We both love creating characters and will spend hours at times doing so. I can see the confusion though since it was never it the original and the article talked about the outfit censoring first before talking about the bust size of the avatar. To be honest, I am a little surprised that not nearly as many know it is an actual character you create because when I saw this game, i was hook and read into so much. But maybe some people just don't want to spoil.
As for defending it so vigorously, I would never defend character editing tools removal even if it were for bust because not every women/man is the same and if the features where there before and they are removing them just to protect the kids from "sexualized" content that Nintendo themselves is sexualizing now, then it's a problem.
i hate fanservice but come on guys,this is stupid,whats wrong with a breast slider.is it so perverted to choose the breastsize of you character?i dont get it.i like my games without all the sexy stuff BUT i want the original product,even if i like it less that way.also no japanese voices sucks
I'm honestly surprised about the reactions here and in the Youtube comments.
This change is such a minor thing that doesn't affect the gameplay in any way whatsoever. Yes, you might use the argument "If it's so minor, why remove it?". Remember we're dealing with a company known for being family friendly (with a few exceptions). In addition to that, does that change really affect the way you see the game? Heck, I've read in the Youtube comments that some people either cancelled or refused to buy the game, because they, and I quote : "Refuse to promote censorship".
I personally am an enormous fan of the original Xenoblade and I intend to buy this new iteration as soon as possible.
I agree that the breast slider wouldn't have any impact on the game, but yet again the lack of it wouldn't either.
Now, I'm not trying to defend this change, but please, answer me this:
Will this change ultimately will alter the experience you would get of the game, despite all it has to offer?
Eh, no big deal. As mentioned above, there's probably how many different kinds of armor that cover that up. I'm looking more towards that beautiful environment.
@Mr_Rawky I completely agree. Having a 13 year old girl with massive breasts and a bikini isn't particularly nice or necessary. If there was a slider to decide whether your male character had a huge package then I would say yeah leave them both in but there isn't, which sort of means it's there for a different purpose. Personally, I'm gay so a big rack does nothing for me sexually but I'd still give my characters large breasts if I had the choice I expect. Make it equal or not at al I guess. And to be honest, just play the game, you won't even notice once you get going.
I probably wasn't going to make a female avatar anyway, so I this is unlikely to impact my experience with the game. I found the constant boobification of Sharla pretty distracting in Xenoblade Chronicles, but if the developer is going to let the player choose their character's look, then let them choose it.
That said, I have never encountered an avatar maker that allowed me to select boob size, so it's not like this is a standard feature in games that will now be missing. If not for the Internet, I would have never in a million years known that this was a thing in Japan, and I certainly wouldn't care. Really it just says something about prudish western (mostly Anglo, and even more mostly American, I suspect) culture as compared to Japanese culture.
@WireWare
Think about it this way, you go and get your grad photos done and they tell you "Oh, we need to change your breast size to the same as everyone else because otherwise, it looks sexual." This is basically what Nintendo is doing, they are removing a feature for an avatar creation which was meant to represent you. Nintendo has now sexualized a feature of an individual.
@Mr_Rawky
If this was about a 13 year old character, then maybe it would be justified but it is not. it is about an avatar, a character that represents you. Sexualize it all you want, but in the end, I think it is you who needs to do the thinking.
I don't blame them. The west is too PC.
I'm not bothered one way or the other as such, I just don't see why us westerner's need a game censoring, why can't we make these decisions for ourselves.
Well there's another feature that won't be accurate to my real life self. Having to be white in Fire Emblem and Animal Crossing was one thing... You were so close Nintendo.
Seriously though, there are a lot of 13-15 year old females who could have had a kick-butt girl avatar whose chest size doesn't hinder them. As a former 13 year old girl, I can say with confidence that being athletic with a large chest sucks. Could've been inspiring.
Not really bothered by this personally as i don't really mess about with avatar creation but i can understand the decision. Don't wholly agree with it mind you; but i'm assuming nintendo just wants to avoid the inevitable negative games press coverage it would have had if they left it in.
The likes of sarkeesian would have had a field day with this probably and ultimately, nintendo just probably wanted to avoid this type of coverage.
Nintendo created a family friendly console when it invented the Wii. With a controller that granny could use. Anyone that could use a TV remote could use the Wii controller, even graphics were not that important since not everyone had HD TV's. A real family console.
All that got blown out of the water when the Wii U came along. No longer a family friendly controller that granny could use. Even the graphics on the early Wii U games were not that good.
In a way Nintendo is now stuck with the perception it created for its self back in the Wii days, that Nintendo is a family and child console. The Amiibo toys are keeping this child perception of Nintendo alive.
You can't have it both ways, wanting to collect toys and act all grown up by designing a female characters vital statistics.
"...shaping up to quite the experience ..."
Or rather, not.
People lets be real about this, I can't see the female gamers if designing a male avatar they would think "oh my avatar has a small codpiece, I must increase it!"
Large chesticles would only get in the way of aiming & sword slasery surely??
@PanurgeJr And those people are us. The consumers. And believe me, I'm making plenty of decisions to spend my money elsewhere until Nintendo gets their act together. I've been gaming with Nintendo exclusively for 20 years. I just bought an XBoxOne and can't believe I've been so in the dark, or that I've been so decieved by Nintendo's empty promises every console launch. The Wii made them lazy as hell, and my family is pulling out of Nintendo. We want to game together again. And we live in different states. We want to chat and hang out together. Nintendo may not care about losing our $$$, but I know for a face we're not alone.
That... Was an option? Huh. Kind of annoying of them to take out that option :/
@Samwise7 agreed. Why not have a package slider so this way you're catering to/offending everybody!
RIP. :,(
Good! Was a repellant and immature feature anyway. This is much better for our version (UK).
Personally... I think there is a lie in the center of the dislike of this decision and the "kiddie" label in general. It seems like anything that doesn't have blood and sexual content is "kiddie". The term "mature content" refers to "content that isn't suitable for all ages", but people take it to mean "content that mature people enjoy" or "content that make you more mature if you enjoy it".
I find this to be a step backwards. As a guy, creating a male character without being able to adjust the peck size to be larger or smaller would upset me, because some people don't have large muscles, while others do. Nothing is worse than making a character and getting stuck with a body type that you can't even remotely call similar to your own.
I'm sorry to any girls who buy this game and find out that they're stuck with a predetermined body type while males get better customization. That's just sexist.
@ ikki5
I understand the logic behind your point, but yet again, it isn't the first time that Nintendo censored anything. Also, that may be the cause of different cultures, but personally, I always pictured breast as a sexual attribute. When I first saw gameplay of the Japanese version, I was surprised to see the existence of such slider. If they had included another applicable feature to the male avatar (like in Saints Row), I wouldn't see any problem with it.
In addition to that, people have been mentioning how they couldn't depict themselves correctly. However, I don't think that with the particular artstyle (those eyes follow me in my nightmares, not even kidding) of the game, you would be able to depict yourself in any way. But yet again, while I can understand why this would bother people, I can't really put myself in their shoes. To each their own I guess.
Thank you for you input however. I'm glad that among the many people who have pretty..."brutal" (for lack of a better word) arguments, you were able to display something straightforward.
(In case it isn't visible, I really don't want this to escalate into a heated debate )
It's not that changing a characters chest size effects gameplay whatsoever, it's the fact that we aren't given the choice. Nintendo is going out of their way to remove aspects of a game to "protect the children", when they see things 20 times worse on any commercial on television. If this game was multiplatform I would buy for any system other than Nintendo just because of their unnecessary censorship.
Because this option was such a central part of the game experience. Still getting it, don't care, moving on.
Since when did it matter if you had bigger breasts or not. Fallout 4 proved you could spend shit ton of time on a face. Should we have larger nips or freckles on our breasts? And customization of an avatar was never about making a clone of yourself, but how you wish to see yourself and a representation. But apparently guys overused this and like to see themselves as busty girls. Goddamn, play FFIX. Didn't it come down to your actions that define who you are in game? Look at Skyrim.
If you want to customize yourself to the extreme, then learn to draw and make yourself as you want and use your imagination, or maybe Play another game?
There's already enough sex and violence in the gaming world (as well as the real one, yes), so every "censorship" made is irrelevant, really. A case of "too little, too late".
And with everything that's going on in the world, people are complaining about this? Wow, just wow...
@ikki5 My problem would be more that it was there in the first place on the in game characters, including the 13 year old girl, which after watching the video it seems to be. And men don't get a similar option for our man parts.
Normally I would insert a Clockwork Orange codpiece pic here but this is a family site.
Edit - after watching the vid - yet again - it does look like the bust slider does only apply to your own avatar. I think I was confused b/c the girl looks like Lin, the 13 year old. In that instance it would make sense to leave it in as a customizable avatar, the female bust is much more noticeable than the male anatomy and it could make a difference for a female player. I would still be OK if it wasn't an option in either version as I dont think it's really necessary to a female player enjoying the game, but ys, if it was in there the should have left it in. Replays should only overturn decisions when it is clear and compelling. 13 year olds should have their own originally designed 13 year old designs breasts, I still think the way this article was presented is contributing to the confusion and the reactions. In retrospect both putting it in and leaving out seems harmless. Don't like it, don't buy it. The pattern of censorship I can see being an issue. Does seem to b happening a bit too frequently lately.
Good, we need to have more realistic portrayals of women in games.
Wait, it's a fantasy game where the player character can tank hits from kaiju? Better remove female characters altogether! Otherwise, people may have their feelings hurt!
@heyzeus002 Exactly, have none or both. Anyone who has seen some of the slightly disturbing Japanese anime school girls in various 'situations' will know that there's something off about having a 13 year old girl in a bikini and being able to give her large breasts. It has nothing to do with the game and while I think the more customisation the better, just do it appropriately and equally. Changing the size of a man's pecks does not equate to changing the size of a woman's breasts. And with customisation, you don't have all these options to have them look like you! There would have to be a whole load of unattractive and overweight options if that was the case. 'Why have they removed the acne slider?' said no-one.
@WireWare I used to view breasts as a sexual feature as well and sometimes still do depending on the context but as I grew up over the years, I began to understand more and that view point changed a bit. Yes, they will be sexualized from time to time depending on the context, but they are part of who a person is. As I said before, something is only sexualized if you make it that way which is exactly what Nintendo (and the people making the comments about it being sexual) is doing. Really, it does surprise me that you were surprised about it because nearly every game with character creations will have this.
@andrea987 Maybe because breast size is not about sex but part of individuality of a character to represent yourself. Those that say they are about sex are the ones making it that way. Would you like it if you were black and they removed the feature to change your skin tone and everyone must be white?
@NintendoFan4Lyf I've never seen ESRB change their rating on a game just because you can increase or decrease the size of ones breasts or have characters with larger or smaller breasts and claim "sexual themes" because of it because really, that itself is discrimination and they can get in trouble for that. The only time they will claim that is if they are used in a sexual way as in showing them off sexually or whatever. A Perfect example of this is Star Trek online. No one says "sexual themes" yes you can play with the females bust..
Well this is the US version. Has anyone actually checked if this is also true for the EU one? It could be different.
If they put in a breast slider they also need a bulge slider. I need everyone to know how insecure I am.
@Damo Has the slider removal been confirmed for the EU version? Of course GameXplain are using the US version but games such as Fire Emblem Awakening have had distinct differences between the US and EU versions. It doesn't affect me either way but it would be interesting to see whether this is solely NoA's decision or both.
I suppose I'm a little disappointed because I like making super inappropriate characters (my Dead Rising 3 character ALWAYS wore a banana hammock and my Saints Row 3 character was ALWAYS naked), but really, this doesn't matter. The game will still be just as fun. Cosmetic changes are just that - purely cosmetic. If they cut out weapons or enemies, that would be different.
@FierceRagnar So women who want to put themselves into the game are lowlife perverts? What logic is that?!
@Yorumi Yep, I was completely unable to enjoy Mass Effect, Dragon Age, Fallout 3, and countless other games where I made an avatar because it was missing a bust slider...
As others have said, we are all jumping to the censorship by Nintendo conclusion without knowing for sure. It could very well be the ESRB required it for the rating. Heck, it is because of the ESRB that every Halo game is rated M because once a game in the series is rated that they generally will not lower the rating for any other game in the series. To quote one article I could quickly find about the issue (although I remember an old article going into much greater depth):
"Mirachi’s comment about “historical parity” carried curious connotations. He used the term “similar content,” so it’s most likely that he was referring to games with comparable amounts of violence (Gears of War vs. Bayonetta), but it could also lead one to believe that the most recently released Halo games are being rated as “Mature” simply because other games in the series were rated M as well. After all, what could be more similar in content to Halo: Reach than other Halo games?"
So I think it is fair to ask whether or not Nintendo wants what appears to be their flagship JRPG series permanently locked into the M-Rating, much like Halo has been for Microsoft?
@ikki5
Well, it surprises me given the fact that it's a Nintendo game and that customisation isn't the most fleshed out aspect off their games (Animal Crossing, Fire Emblem).
And personally, I view breasts as a sexual feature because, biologically, they are. And the way they have been depicted in Western culture (not only in the US) always emphasized that in my eyes.
I wonder why this is even news in the first place...
@WireWare Um... yes and no, they have more than just sexual functions, yes, they can stimulate which biologically can make them a sexual organ but at the same time, they are also used in feeding of a child and such so they are not just used for sexual purposes and are more than just a sexual organ.
I'm getting tired of the Treehouse censoring willy nilly with anything they "perceive" to be potentially offensive, changing games however they see fit.
I read a prank "leak" about FE Fates censorship the other day and just about had a meltdown. It speaks volumes that I would even believe such a thing. The Treehouse is out of control.
Ya I'm still buying the game but there can come a point where I say enough and start importing the EU version with an EU console
Honestly I'm prefer the update, there is no need to have a revealing bikini on a 13 year old character. Also a 13 year old wouldn't have a bust like the game would allow. I would dare say the only ones against the change would be pedophiles and those preferring the original Japanese release. For the second group the only alternative is to learn Japanese and own a Japanese Wii U and game.
@NintendoFan4Lyf Um... are you serious? The game is not rated M because you can change the size of a breast, there are so many more factors and actual sexual themes. You shouldn't even need to wonder why those are M rated. This change is about changing the breast size of a women, nothing about that is making sexual themes.
@Nico07 Pedophiles? so creating an Avatar that has no confirmed age makes on a pedophile if they want to change the breast size?
Oh well. No loss at all. It's silly for people to complain about something like this. It does not make Nintendo "kiddie" because of it. Actually the changes seem, to me anyway, to make the game a little less juvenile. Bust size and skimpy outfits on a 13-year-old girl are not going to make the game anymore more/less fun to play at all.
So many women are unnable to have an avatar that represents them in-game? That's pretty sexist, Nintendo.
@Yorumi I wasn't aware of that but again it's to create a cool character who you want to play as, not necessarily one who looks like you or else you wouldn't choose to create an avatar of the opposite sex. I always used to play as Chun Li back in the day but cos I thought she was cool. I agree with any and all customisation just make it equal to both sexes and don't make it inappropriate for child characters as that's plain old creepy.
@ikki5 Well, that's what I implied. Unless we have different interpretations, because in all my anatomy classes, most of the functions of the breasts are or destined for sexual intent. And, by "sexual intent", I include the act and its outcome (babies). But I digress. Whether or not an aspect is sexual or not (outside of the biological realm) is decided by the individual and society.
Can we still adjust the crotch size on the male avatars?
@ikki5 Bless you, keep living in your little world. Unfortunately we live in a world where EVERYTHING is sexualized, where the bigger entertainment industry IS about sex, the most clicked websites ARE about sex, and so on. Having said that, I don't think this would make anything better, I just cannot accept people getting mad at ANY company for this. But yes, if you REALLY think that, then good for you, and if EVERYONE was like that, then censorship wouldn't have any reason to exist.
i dont care....just want to play the game!!!! December 4th should be today!!!
@rjejr i love the Clockwork Orange reference! LOL! now if i start singing "im singing in the rain" at work it'll be ur fault! LOL
Stupidity, just a plain huge display of stupidity. The Linlee modifications were probably on point for a western release, but this is beyond dumb. Female players should be able to make avatars of themselves as accurate as they'd like to. Removing a feature that helps in that because they fear some people are going to fool around wth boob sizes just to fap into oblivion, or whatever, is just wrong. People will sexualize whatever if they want to anyway, so this is only detrimental to the ones actually seeking to make a custom character they're comfortable inserting themselves into.
@WireWare Yeah, my classes often times took it from both sides to the point where it was a sexual organ that had more than sexual purposes. Really it is defined as that more to fit in how we perceive a sexual organ. Really, on some people, stuff like feet, hands, legs and whatever will do the same things as what the nipple on a female would and would light up the same areas as the brain as their other sexual organs but they won't be classified as sexual so it is all how it is defined really. Something is only sexualized because someone sexualizes it. Now, one thing you should keep in mind here though is I am not arguing that breasts are not about sexual things, what I am arguing is the size of breasts or the ability of changing size.
@andrea987 My little world? I am beginning to feel that you only read selectively what I wrote.
@ikki5 - Sorry for being another guy to argue with, but... "Yes, they will be sexualized from time to time depending on the context, but they are part of who a person is." I don't understand how breasts can defy someone.
"Those that say they are about sex are the ones making it that way." I don't think so, cause sex is everywhere. Sex jokes, romance, even in commercials about perfumes and deodorant. The human body has been degraded and not as seen as art form as it used to be. If that wasn't the case, then why aren't we naked?
If I can't have boobs in this game the size of a JJJ size woman like that one on Oprah then I'm done with this ok!!
@Captain_Gonru "Nintendo claimed"
Well that would imply Nintendo actually claiming anything, rather than being hush all the time, so that won't work. I could see Sony or MS saying that though. Maybe Ubisoft needed to remove all breasts from Assassins Creed last year?
@ikki5 Personally, I don't fully agree with this concept of sexuality, of course with big exceptions that you already mentioned, mainly fetishes. However, it's your opinion and I accept it.
Boy, this comment sections is going in all directions!
@WanderingPB You never struck me as an Alex fan my droogie. I guess that was before kids and all prim and proper like. Mr. Deltoid would approve.
So you're telling me i can't make a female characters with giant breast that has sweet sweet walls walking around the game? Man this sucks! I really wanted to make a character stupid like that after i beat the game. But oh well
@Samwise7 Ok yes I get your point, as the size of a woman's breasts is irrelevant in this game and certainly shouldn't be viewed as obscene. I think their point is that it's just not necessary. I don't like censorship at all and the game should be presented as the creator intended, but I just think maybe the intention wasn't the best in the first place as there is so such option for the male characters. I stand by my point about a bikini and the possibility of large breasts on a 13 year though. Stick to the adults.
@abbyhitter Gamexplain is my senpai ^~^ Lay off ¬-¬
@Samwise7 This has nothing to do with any 13 year old girl. This has to do with your avatar.
And some people do make avatars to represent themselves. You may not but that doesn't mean no one does. I've made avatars to represent myself before. But even if you're making some fantasy character, the point remains. What if I wanna play as a female with large breasts? I should be able to do so if the developers included that feature in the game. I'm not gonna complain if the feature was never included but since it is, it shouldn't be removed. It's a pretty common thing in modern RPG's and I've never seen any other game have it censored out for the localization.
hey nintendolife I already saw it on GXs youtube channel before this post was even made...... Oh nintendolife I just love how your looking up to a higher reviewer for information...lol ...CREATE YOUR OWN INFORMATION AND THOUGHTS ABOUT THE GAME AND STOP COPYING AND PASTING VIDEOS FROM OTHER REVIEWERS(yes the tangent was necessar) (and yes i do love GX a ton btw).. and on my thoughts about the chest size thing I honestly dont care to be honest Im just going to focus on the game itself other than the characters .
The funny thing, of course, is that the mere act of censoring something like this gives it a sexual and political significance that it didn't possess before.
Nintendo is, unfortunately, going to do this type of thing to try and protect its public image from the leftist puritans that are taking over the universities and the media.
@KO-Cub Breast size can be part of how someone defies them self. I am not saying it is the defining feature, it is more that they have something there but then removed it when it could have been apart of you. Also you don't think so that it is people making it sexualized is true but it it is. A women's breast size has nothing to do with sex. Does this mean I am saying breast have nothing to do with sex? No. I think people are now getting confused with what I am saying. If breast sizes were about sex, then every women would be lightly different in terms of that because breast size is not a constant. Th constant is the breast themselves and how they stimulate.
@NintendoFan4Lyf I don't think so, you were arguing before that adding a breast slider would equal "Sexual Themes" when no, it doesn't. As i have said before, I have never seen a game be listed as "Sexual Themes" for being able to adjust bust. Though yes, stuff changes, I cannot see them saying sexual themes just because of how someone looks (unless they portray them sexually obviously) because really, someone cannot change who they are and really, that would be a form of discrimination.
Now, if what you say is true about the ratings in the end, I often find it hard to believe because if this were the case, then the standards really amount to nothing and the ESRB rating is nothing but an icon.
@Samwise7 This is about an Avatar, a representation of you/the character you want to portray, not 13 year old girls which makes your point invalid.
@ikki5
I'm not defending Nintendo by approving of this change. I've always wondered why some Japanese RPG's will give my male character big, bulky armor, but the female version of the same armor is super skimpy and revealing. Final Fantasy 14: A Realm Reborn is a perfect example. Changing the bust of your character is an unnecessary feature that only makes the developers seem perverted.
@Spudworthy
Sure, if you think of breasts primarily as the play things of men.
You know, I can't really bring myself to care.
@Spudworthy How does it make them seem perverted? Does a woman seem perverted because she has a larger breast size than you(or woman in your life if you're a male)? As I have said to others, the one that gives them that view point is you and you only.
waits for thirsty gamer girls to rant "my bust is so much bigger than the default, not fair!"
In all seriousness, that is rather unfortunate for the girls that want full customisation for their avatar. But unfortunately, 90% of the use of this slider would be pervy men or curious preteens, and I'm sure that's what forced the rating company's, therefore Nintendo's, hand. If you're in the "stop being so kiddy Ninty!" camp, the majority of their audience are still 'kids' right now, so to legally sell to them, they need to conform a wee bit. Would you rather xenoblade sell much poorer as an 18+ just to keep in a boob slider?!
@JaxonH @ikki5 I'm talking about the changes to the game written about in this news article, one of which is giving the young teenage character slightly more to wear in one particular outfit which is the right thing to do.
As for the slider, I agree that the avatar representation should be left alone but I guarantee there would be nothing like this amount of comments here if it was to so with the removal a slider for the size of the male avatar's package. I think it's a shame you can't alter both as that would be the happy medium. Or large.
Thumbs down. Yet again. One more notch in censorship's belt. Good work :/
@EverythingAmiibo name me one game where a games rating changes solely on the ability to change breast size.
As @Ralizah @ikki5 are saying, it's due to the modern man's opinion of women's chests as a sexual display for men, not just a body part. And that includes many Japanese devs these days, let's be honest!
I like the idea that even if this was primarily of interest to men, that it would be "perverted." Because it is perverse for men to show interest in the anatomy of women.
Sex is a dirty, nasty, awful thing, and you should feel guilty for thinking otherwise. The only clean future is one where we are all safe under our burqas.
@ikki5 THIS ONE xD That's what I am saying xD
@WireWare
No, ultimately it won't change my experience in any major way. Which is why I'm buying it still. But it's the principle that pisses me off. And they're walking on thin ice because if they do end up censoring something that changes my experience (like removing modes because it's too "questionable", I'm looking at you Fire Emblem Fates) I will make a stand.
@Ralizah
I don't, but I know American dudes, being one myself. They're going to make female characters and slide that scaler all the way up.
@EverythingAmiibo Exactly. If there was a clamouring of large breasted, tiny waisted female gamers saying they were being unrepresented then fair enough but hang on.... crickets
@Spudworthy OK. But why is that a problem?
@EverythingAmiibo You cannot say that for this one because you don't know that. Now you are just going based of an assumption.
Americans are the ones complaining the most.
Silly Americans making a huge deal of such a immature thing.
@Spudworthy "They're going to make female characters and slide that scaler all the way up." Why people keep saying this? Not all Americans are gonna do that friendo.
@ikki5 Jeez, I thought this was a semi-intelligent argument D: I'm out!
@Ralizah
It isn't really a problem, just a matter of opinion. I personally think it's disrespectful.
Sucks for the women who wanted to recreate themselves in the game.
I guess they didn't wait it to be the game with the "boob slider".
@VR32F1END Lol.
@TwilightAngel
I never said all. I personally wouldn't, but I'd be in the minority.
@Nintendude789 Breast size is an immature thing? Wouldn't making it a problem to need to remove it be the immature thing? There is nothing immature about having a different breast size.
@EverythingAmiibo I guess not, I can't expect much intelligence when someone comes with assumptions to an argument.
@Spudworthy Disrespectful to whom?
@Nintendude789 It's a small thing, but when you consider this game in addition to changes made in Fatal Frame V, Street Fighter V, Skullgirls, Fire Emblem: Fates, etc. its significance becomes clear.
The changes to Lin makes sense. Removing a customization option for the player character that you create and that you are role playing as is pretty dumb though. Not a big deal in the grand scheme of things, but still awfully silly.
The slider bar allowed you to adjust the chest size of your personal avatar. Sizes were never ridiculous (at least, going by "video game" scale), so it was just another in the list of customization options available.
Is it a big deal to have it removed? Nope - at least not for me.
Did the slider make sense within the context of the game? Yeah.
Oddly, now the avatar's bust size never changes even though the overall size of that character (and the size of any other individual feature) can vary.
So if it's not a big deal, was reasonable within the context of the game, and was in a T-rated game (which means the audience aren't kids anyway), then why was it removed? Why spend the time and effort to change this?
What bugs me is how arbitrary Nintendo's decisions are during localization. If they are making changes, make sure there is a reason for the change. Treat your audience appropriately based on the ESRB age rating assigned. Sounds easier than it actually is of course.
@ikki5 Man you're going after everyone aren't you?
@Riff-the-Don Yes, that would be a most unfortunate accident. But in Anime and VG logic aspirin for your back pain and worrying about severe booby trauma is for sissies. XD
I don't believe in idle complaints.
Either make your voice heard and stand for change, or don't bother complaining. Excessive censorship is WORTH standing against. And I will be sure to let Nintendo of America know I don't appreciate their over-zealous tampering.
I suggest others do the same. Don't just complain in some comments section. If you're truly fed up with this, it's time to let them know.
@JaxonH I agree. While I don't think that a boycott of the game would send the correct message regarding a niche property like this, it isn't hard to contact Nintendo and air one's grievances.
Much like all the hoopla surrounding Fatal Frame, I couldn't care less, given that I'm just in it for the story and I'm positive it has no baring on it or the gameplay as it would in a game such as (correct me if I'm wrong) FE Fates. That said, I can understand why some would be upset. On the other hand, Nintendo was in a losing position. Leave the slider in, you have get bellyaching from one side. Take it out, you get bellyaching from the other. I mean you had folks complaining about a stupid meme in Triforce Heroes...
Doesn't make this any better, but this is Nintendo we're talking about. This practice isn't exactly new to them, being they made Midway edit the blood out of the original Mortal Kombat, for example. I'm in no way saying we should accept it, I'm just giving my two cents on the matter.
I'm not sure why people care so much, one way or the other. The game is still there. East & West cultures are still different. I'm still going to play the S#!^ out of this game
@WoB I agree. As long as I have fun, I don't care.
This doesn't affect me in any way, really. Really, like @ Sir_JBizzle said, Nintendo was kind of in a "damned if they do, damned if they don't" kind of position with this. If this upsets you, then I can kind of understand, in that we've lost a way to customize your character, but I don't really give a crap about this. I'm still getting the game, and in all honesty, I do not give a crap about whether or not you can give a woman a big rack. I just want to play the damn game.
Edit: Besides, it's not like this affects the gameplay in any way, so...
@ikki5
It's not immature depending how you use it. Like you've said, the avatar represents you, so if you're a female, you have the right to complain. But if you're a guy, it's your problem if Nintendo won't allow you to fulfill your sexual desires.
A lot of talk for something so insignificant.
Imma go do something important now...
(addressing those commenting, not NL; thanks for the article)
This change doesn't really affect me simply because my avatar will be a male....BUT this change kind of pisses me off. I simply hate censorship in games. I like my games in it's original state.
I would much rather have a weight slider so I can run around and moon jump as an accurate rendition of Homer Simpson.
@Sir_JBizzle This is why it is important to act according to principle. If Nintendo simply didn't believe in including content in its games that could be construed as sexual in nature, that would be fine (although I will emphasize that thinking of breasts as primarily being sexual objects is deeply misogynistic, but I digress). That is clearly not the case, however, and it is annoying and frankly offensive to see a company like Nintendo censoring itself out of cowardice.
Okay, seriously, how can anyone say that this isn't a problem? If you people allow a company to go that far, they'll just go further and further, step by step, until every character is just a big black censor bar! Stop being so goddamn gullible and speak out against censorship already!
Like seriously, I'm strongly considering cancelling my pre-order at this point! What freaking right does Nintendo have to do this?! I'll tell you: none! This is pissing me off beyond belief!
"Nintendo's digging their own grave"
"RIP"
"it's the fact that we aren't given the choice."
etc
Haha! This is great. Fight for gamer freedom!
Or stand back a moment. The west enjoys it's titilation but is a touch more sensitive to skimpy 13 year olds and tit sliders than Japan is.
I only see body and chest size options. No hips, legs, shoulders, bottom. It has nothing to with diversity, it's simply a very slightly pervy and very slightly sexist feature of the type that Japanese are more accepting of. Westerners are slightly less so - most people wouldn't care, a few would find it distasteful, NO ONE would be excited about it. For a feature so extremely minor, it's really not worth the negative reaction that we all know it would receive.
@Kaze_Memaryu With the deepest respect it's Nintendo's property, they literally have every right.
Oh wait! Hey so I watched the video and it's only that one character that's censored???????? (Regarding the outfit changes)
WAIT WHAT?
The funny thing is you can do this in so many west RPGs.
Age Ratings got nothing to do with this.
This is purely a cut because Nintendo does not want it in the game in the west. I gues they are too afraid of third wave feminists.
@TwilightAngel
Because their arguments are stupid and everything an apologist would say to defend Nintendo for sexualizing something that shouldn't be sexualized.
@AlexOlney Really, both would be great,I've seen several games do both and it can be hilarious running around as a super fat dude/girl.
@AlexOlney Eh fair point all that really matters to me is the gameplay and how the game is going to be different from xenoblade chronicles(lets not discuss on how I feel about the title ....and the plot....and the ...story)
@AlexOlney As far as I remember, they didn't make the game. Monolith is the creative group behind the game, and they added the bust slider for higher customization. What people do with it is none of Nintendo's business.
This thing was in the game, and then removed for literally nothing! This isn't even a wannabe-controversy like with Lyn, it's just arbitrary censorship! They don't have any right to do this for that very reason! They don't break a law, thy don't do anything special, but they still cut it for a quick laugh and safety from whiteknights!
@Yorumi
That's a good example and exactly the point. Although I would argue it already is affecting my enjoyment of games.
I love Nintendo because of their games. So when they start axing content in my beloved franchises, how can I not get upset?
I had a real scare yesterday with a fake FE Fates censorship leak that I got fooled with by some friends. It was saying how "children will be called otherworldly friends to remove any reference of parents having sex", among many other outlandish things. But I honestly thought it was real, and had a complete meltdown over it. That's like my all time fave franchise- if they were to gut it like that I would be devastated. I even cursed, and I never curse.
That's when I realized that although false, I believed it for a reason- it's not that far fetched. What's to say the Treehouse won't do something like that?
I say take a stand now before it comes to that. And at this rate, that really is where it looks like it's heading.
But can I change the size of their booty?...
I think Mark Kern of the League For Gamers (an advocacy group for the gaming community) said it best in his letter to Nintendo.
Hello, I’ve been reading about the changes to Xenoblade Chronicles X and am dismayed that NOA is changing so many things and distorting the original version of the game. I’m writing to you first as the President of League for Gamers, a pro-consumer group representing gamers, but I am also writing as a gamer and game maker.
I was a game dev. I was team lead for WoW, Producer on Diablo, Warcraft, etc. Speaking frankly, I think NOA is being overly cautious and restricting creative freedom to appease a very small group of complainers. This vocal minority may be loud on Twitter, but has shown to have zero negative impact on sales.
As a gamer, I want to play Japanese games because they are different from American games. Trying to “culturalize” a game for the US market in the way that NOA is doing with Xenoblade is defeating the purpose. Manga succeeds in the US because it is different, not because it tries to be like American comics.
Please keep Xenoblade Chronicles X as it is.
@Tempestryke I don't think I've ever seen a character taking aspirin - a healing herb here, magic mushroom there perhaps - but no I've never noticed a 'back pain due to mega mammiries' problem .. Does this only occur in Dead or Alive?
I'm all for realistic character customisation but sometimes you gotta think of the kids - wow me defo turning into my parents!
For what it's worth, I too am in the skimpy-13yo-thumbsdown-but-tit-slider-thumbsup camp.
But look at how absurd this debate is. Defending a personal stance on acceptable titilation for a game that has had both the above removed. You're ok with tit sliders but draw the line at 13 year olds? Great, but this isn't much of an issue is it. Is it really worth getting upset over both being removed?
@Kaze_Memaryu
Monolith is owned by Nintendo. What Monolith makes, it is Nintendo.
@pubjoe The problem here is one is a 13 year old girl vs an any aged avatar. The avatar is to represent you/the character you want. If I was to represent myself, my character would be 27. There is a big difference between a 13 year old and this.
Is that just it though, because we know Japan love to oversexualize, but was this censorship due to happen because Japan are pandering to the males which is what they usually cater too? This made NoA act to not please the sexual desires in the localization. So what, is this a miss understanding. Are people jumping to conclusions and not giving the benefit of the doubt. All I hear these days is "Don't judge." but without judgement, we wouldn't be here, arguing this.
@darkkirby - I hope he knows there's a big difference between the common shonnen and the amazing spiderman every week. They're both totally different, but he's asking for their beliefs to be forced on us. Maybe I don't want rape scenes in my next Fire Emblem with waifus and anime tropes and to get a better game, they need to censor it.
so, I was planning to use a female avatar, and any customization loss is fairly upsetting. The default bust size is alright, but I was planning a younger looking character. If there is an age modifier, I hope they fixed it to effect bust size as well.
If this was one feature removed from a suite of customization options, then yeah it'd be weird. From what others have been saying, you can't even alter most other things anyway.
But I'm saying this as a girl gamer who barely bothers with body shape customization options in RPGs (or really anything that isn't a sports sim), so I'm probably not the norm of what fans want here.
Oh look, another article about an issue that doesn't really matter in the whole scheme of things... I would say just be thankful at least that they are localizing it at all, since this is a riskier venture for them financially speaking.
Let me just say that both sides of the argument don't have any concrete details about why it was changed. It could be because of the ESRB slapping on a M rating if it wasn't changed for all we know, or maybe they did want to protect the innocent for some reason or another. No one knows the truth, so it's just idle speculation for now.
Why don't you talk about the actual censorship of the game Nintendo Life, the removal of religious imagery and names from the game?
B.L.A.D.E. stands for Beyond the Logos Artificial Destiny Emancipator in the Japanese version by gets localized to Builders of the Legacy After the Destruction of Earth.
The organization Testament changed to Reclaimers.
Crosses and other religious iconography has been altered.
And then you have stupid stuff like in the game like Moby Dick being changed to White Whale.
And there is a ton of other name changes in the game. Like Unions being changed to Divisions for reason. And with the Unions all the names have been changed : Avalanche changed to Harriers, Companion changed to Mediators, Arms changed to Outfitters, Land Bank changed to Prospectors, Testament changed to Reclaimers.
Anyway removing the bust slider is just stupid. I feel sorry for female players of the game wanting to represent themselves in the game. Not everyone has a B cup. It's literally anti-body positivity. At least out of all things they changed in the game, this is easiest to add back in.
Anyway, 8-4, the localization team behind XCX has a history removing features of games due to laziness and incompetence. Like in the Japanese version of Fire Emblem Awakening, there was a Silent Protagonist option so your character didn't speak at all and was at the background of the story like most other FE games. It was most likely removed as it would require extra translation work.
Not that I honestly cared much for the feature, but why do this? It's clearly censorship and it's patronising to the western audience. Furthermore, the localisers are going on a power trip and taking too many liberties with the Japanese creators product.
@Yorumi Write an email? What makes you think Nintendo actually read emails they receive on a daily basis besides the ones asking for help?
@ikki5
My point is just that this game has cut two separate forms of titilation. You're OK with one cut but not the other? Ok, most of us probably agree. But why get angry over their decision to cut both? I can see more people finding the tit slider immature than people finding it an essential feature. I think that ratio would definitely be more heavy in the West than it is in Japan.
By the way, the cut didn't sexualise the feature, and it wasn't just a body part. As I said before there is no shoulder, hips, legs, waist, bottom size sliders. Providing just 'body' and 'bust' is sexualisation. I'm not bothered by it but it simply is.
How am I just noticing her hairclip is clearly a Monado? Cool reference, Monolith.
@Riff-the-Don
XD
Well...magic herbs were the aspirin of the fantastical past mmkay and I doubt if they'll fix an accidental slice wound to massive boobies that burst out of Princess Leia bras. You need a healer for that. Ouch.
I think most turn into our parents just a little. As a kid we're all like I'd let my kid/niece/nephew play the stuff I used to play behind their backs. I'm gonna be so cool! As adults we're like holy crap! Did you see him rip that guys face in half? I can't let them play that!
now I want to be able to edit character package size to accurately represent myself!
@DarkKirby
"As a gamer, I want to play Japanese games because they are different from American games."
Japanese version is still available.
Nintendo is doing this because western societies are recently obsessed with a version of feminism that censors everything of this nature. They don't want bad press or trouble or any controversy. It has nothing to do with what they think is right or wrong or appropriate or not, they simply adapt their games to the countries they release them in. If you're mad, make your country's mentality evolve.
@KO-Cub
You realize, by telling others to "play another game" if they don't like the censorship, but than saying you wouldn't like to play or buy a game without it being "culturalized" to suite your personal tastes, you are being a hypocrite. Maybe you should buy a different game if you dislike Japanese games without censorship?
@Zelkardaim
You didn't get enough recognition for your post.
who cares honestly the game is going to be fantastic! you can go on the interwebs n find boobs if thats your thing...
@PanurgeJr
I might be mistaken but I believe it's US the audience who pay the bills.
@PanurgeJr
I might be mistaken but I believe it's US the audience who pay the bills.
This was probably done to prevent PR backlash over the objectification of women.
SCV had it's breasts reduced in size too.
This just proves Treehouse mentality that every women need to have the same breast size because screw diversity and tiny and big breast is disgusting in their eyes, because of how sexualized they think they are.
Would you like to be in a country that will not accept women of certain breast size because they see it as sexualized ? Small breast will be seen as pedo trap and big breast will be seen as girl trying to be a slut.
Not every female has B or C cup, some are A, D, etc. But you know it doesn't matter in the west everything need to be the same to stick to the norm because diversity will make it so controversial.
@Ralizah it's not even Nintendo, more than NoA, otherwise the content wouldn't be in any version of the game in the first place. I'm assuming NoA were hedgeding their bets and rather have pissed off gamers, than pissed off parents or (and don't take this the wrong way folks) the over zealous feminists that would take a breast slider as being sexist and pandering to the male demographic. It's the wrong move, and personally if it's in the original game then leave it in there. However, given NoAs history, it's not being cowardice more than them being true to themselves (see: Mortal Kombat example).
Given the lopsided and contradictive nature of media and sex in America, I'm wagering NoA wanted to err on the side of caution. It does make you think, "Where will they stop?" like I said I couldn't care less, especially as it pertains to my potential personal enjoyment of the game, but I will stand arm in arm with my fellow gamers who believes content shouldn't be taken out of games.
@DarkKirby - I don't need a 'cultural-ization' to go play Yokai-Watch. I don't care because it's tame. Maybe I should ask Sakurai to get rid of Samus's jet boots in Smash, but what would that do? I like how it is (Except the competitive!!)
Maybe you missed my point, cause I'm talking about how Japan love sex, but not everyone else does, so if they put sex/rape scenes in Fire Emblem, would it be the same? Would you still buy it if you're a fan of the series? But what if they censored it in the localization, then it might turn out better and had none of that and was truly game of the year worthy, hm? You'd might consider getting it. You can solve this by maybe playing the uncensored version, that has nothing to do with me.
Not complaining because "I'm one of those kids who would enlarge all female breats", but I hate when we get any cut content that exists in another region and less freedom to make a character representing yourself.
@pubjoe BUt again, the difference is that one is sexualized while the other is not. And yes, the cut did sexualize the feature. Why else would they remove it is it was not to censor?
@Yorumi I don't blame ESRB for all of it, but they are part of the problem. ESRB controls a game's retail reach potential, just like the MPAA ratings do for movies.
Ultimately it is simply brand and image management. In North America, they want to cultivate a specific image and adjust content to fit it. They want to be the Disney of gaming. That is why the Christmas ad is a family going to the tree and not dude-bros playing Devil's Third, Fatal Frame and Xenoblade Chronicles X.
Perhaps, like Disney, they should invest in a separate distribution label for the more mature games and then this problem could go away. Just on the Wii U that would probably have moved Fatal Frame, Bayonetta 2, Devil's Third and Xenoblade Chronicles. It also would grant them some freedom to work on franchises left dormant possibly because of content like Eternal Darkness.
@Sir_JBizzle Do we actually know whether this is an independent decision or the result of interference from the Japanese branch? It doesn't help that the company hired to localize the game has a history of cutting or otherwise unnecessarily altering dialogue.
Even if it is the sole decision of NoA, however, this reinforces the need for a company-wide ethic regarding standards for content in their games.
Twitter, Facebook and YouTube comments.
That's how you let them know. They may ignore private emails but anything in the public eye, if given weight through enough people complaining, is sure to be noticed.
That's how they keep tabs on fan demand (like Majoras Mask, Star Fox and Earthbound).
americans and our uptight weird body issue censorings, its mostly irrelevant but who doesnt like more options or some eye candy in a game? its not like kids are gonna play this game (now please explain bayonetta) so im kind of surprised anyone bothered to take it out. slap an M on it and just call it done. ive seen way more graphic stuff in other games and if anything the super kid friendly thing with nintendo is ultimately hurting them these days.
I can't believe how many posts this has. It really doesn't matter folks
UGH! I hate people that think the censorship is bad. Having these huge busts is disrespecting women! And skimp outfits also do the same! Women aren't our toys! You're so incredibly immature to want to see big boobs flip all over the place. I'm trying not to yell. Nintendo censors adult games because they know it's disrespectful, and the reason they don't do it in Japan is because they know they have a different culture, where women are seen as toys. JUST UGH! I respect Nintendo for making that choice and upholding women's dignity. And for the record I am a man. If you agree join my steam group. https://steamcommunity.com/groups/leagueofgameknights
@ikki5 Couldn't have said better myself. People are stupid if they still think guys (or girls) need video games to fap, when they have the Internet at their disposal.
@Raiko If the game wasn't originally going to include a breast slider, or the slider didn't wind up in the original Japanese release, then not including it wouldn't be censorship. But it was in the Japanese release, and it is censorship. I don't understand why this is so difficult to understand: people are complaining about censorship, not about certain games not having boob sliders. It's about Nintendo lacking respect for its consumers and treating them like children who have to have their eyes shielded.
If the feature never was removed no one would of complained because a bust slider is in a lot of customization in games. Games that don't have the bust slider are just made that way, this one had one and it got removed making it more sexualized than if they kept it. If it stayed no one would of complained about the size of the breast at all.
It seems they promote the conservative way of everyone must look the same and diversity is bad. Imagine if they white washed every characters and didn't show any difference of skin color than just white.
@Raiko
"If this game was originally designed without a boob slider, would people still be kicking up a fuss"
No. Of course not. People aren't mad they can't adjust boobs, they're mad because the feature was removed. Because it was unnecessarily censored. Because, like so many games before it, it shows a trend toward more and more of our games' content being gutted willy nilly by a trigger-happy treehouse.
People are more rattled over potential future censorship this trend indicates is coming, and want to see it stopped in its tracks.
OMG who cares about the boob size of a 13 year old avatar? The story, the views, the exploration is what matters
...People are seriously going crazy over this? There are more important things in the world to worry about than adjusting an avatar's breast size in a game.
You know what I fear about Treehouse censorship ? If they changed anything to SMT x FE, by removing some of the theme SMT is familiar with like religious content. Hopefully Atlus will have the last words on it.
@KomrathDE
The avatar is not 13 years old. Read the article. This is a TOTALLY SEPARATE censorship. The 13 year old is an actual character, not the customizable avatar.
@starcatcher77
I'd join, but unfortunately, I'm already a Knight in the Holy Order of Knights against Misogyny.
What are you're lands like. Just asking for a friend.
I'm an adult, dammit, and I like huge boobs. Why can't I make them as big as I want just because I live in the USA?
@Trinexx
I wouldn't say most people are "going crazy" over it. This isn't enough censorship to actually impact the game majorly (not YET anyways).
I'm not angry, I'm not boycotting or anything. But I am concerned to the point of being upset about this trend, and want to express that concern to Nintendo in the hopes that they will reconsider their stance on future games. Before they really do end up censoring something that matters greatly.
Since it has been concluded that breasts exist for the benefit of male objectification and that designing a character that you consider to be attractive is offensive, the next step in the process is clear: Xenoblade Chronicles X must come with a questionnaire that queries the player about their sexual interests and standards so that it can accordingly lock the customization features in such a way that they are only allowed to design a character that is unattractive to them. Only then can we be from the devilry which emanates from our nether regions.
@Raiko Not all of us perverted old men are socially underdeveloped...it is possible to be a pervert and socially well adjusted, especially if you have a similarly pervy wife, as I am lucky enough to.
@Raiko Not all of us perverted old men are socially underdeveloped...it is possible to be a pervert and socially well adjusted, especially if you have a similarly pervy wife, as I am lucky enough to.
They probably disabled it so people won't make their characters to looks like Lyn, but you know other than remove the slider they should of just changed the minimum size if they didn't wanted that. They decided to go the draconian way by removing the whole thing.
Next thing we know Nintendo will remove any kind of female customization in their next game and everyone will be stuck with the predetermined white woman with average bust that is at least 18 years old and does not look that sexy and more of a nerd.
@MisterMan Generally speaking, male genitalia are not very large compared even to smaller breasts, and the shape of the human body and most clothing further obscures the shape and size.
Naturally, I'm the outlier. But even I can't compare my size to those of the average breasts.
I'm actually curious to see what actual women think of this, and not guys.
Not that our opinions don't matter, just not much at all on matters such as these. I see the arguments for both sides, but we all know that the feature would mostly be used by perverted guys. Just look at the Miiverse pictures of the women in the armor that is essentially tiny strands of armor or fabric, and you tell me that it wasn't perverted guys posting the majority those pictures. Then I'll have to tell you you are naive, or a liar.
@Dezzy You are mistaken; the publisher pays for development in the hopes of selling to the consumer. If it seems pedantic to make the distinction, consider that the publisher is the one taking the financial risk, and that the consumer bears no risk at all.
@Yorumi
Indeed, although perhaps they could get away with it if they explained that some people find persons of a darker complexion more attractive. Since gay men and straight women exist as well, men also need to be removed. The only way to truly reflect social justice in our gaming experience is for all characters to be samey, genderless creatures that are scientifically designed so that nobody could possibly find them sexually attractive.
If it's just women we're protecting, then, going forward, we can turn all female characters into men and inform the inevitably enraged masses of women that we're protecting them from the male gaze. I'm sure they'd appreciate that, right?
What I can't make an avatar with small boobs now? Preorder cancelled!
First off, this is not true censorship. This is a company making a business decision that you can agree or disagree with. It is not anyone's effort to stifle any kind of free expression.
The more I think about this, the more I think about the original XBC game and the intense effort made by fans to get it localized. The game proved to have more currency than expected in the west, but it's not a blockbuster franchise so there is not much reason to believe that the costs of localization will clearly be outweighed by sales. If they think that dropping the breast slider will forestall a silly controversy in the west and prevent any resulting harm to sales or to the brand image, then it does make sense as a business decision.
I guess what I'm saying is, while I wouldn't personally be offended by a breast size slider, I know some people would be, and if Nintendo is concerned about that, I'd rather they drop the breast slider than waffle on whether or not to localize the game like they did with the last installment.
Hmm... and people just shrugged off the EXACT SAME censorship in Bravely Default by Square Enix, or even how Sony demanded that Bombing Bastards change their title on the PSN, despite how Nintendo let them keep the name as is.
Until Dawn, Beyond Two Souls, South Park, No More Heroes, and The Last of Us were all censored in Europe and I only recall a slight chuckle about how awkward it was in South Park because it was a black screen with text on it.
I recall a ton more censorship with the PS2 era also. BMX XXX? Even all of the Xenosaga games had their content altered. No one was up in arms. The world continue to spin and people got over it. There are reasons why these are censored. Yeah, it kinda sucks for people that it doesn't bother but the company in charge just doesn't want to risk hiking up the rating and have some government fiasco. That's all there is to it. It's not because they are treating everyone like children. Blame your local government.
You know. I WAS going to comment on how indifferent I was about this because it's so unbelievably minor and not in most games anyway.
But now I'm GLAD this happened because now I get to see every last one of you bastards suffer.
@Jayvir In fairness, a couple of the costumes were slightly redesigned. They weren't entirely removed from the game, and they didn't tie into something like the basic design of your character. The censorship in BD was so mild as to barely even qualify.
Also, I can't think of a single scenario where a breast slider has resulted in a higher age rating. Care to enlighten me? It's not like the slider exaggerated things to a fetishistic degree. I couldn't make a character who looked like Hitomi Tanaka.
I can easily accept censorship that is deemed necessary to get the game released in the West. Atlus had to do that with Dungeon Travelers 2, and it's not a big deal. They released it as uncensored as they reasonably could under an M-rating.
@ikki5 If you're going to call one slider sexualization, then you have to do the same for both or neither.
You can't have the concept of over-sexualization, with a slider designed to enlarge or shrink what amounts to features designed by nature to attract the opposite sex, suddenly apply ONLY to women, because that in and of itself is sexist.
The "no junk slider" argument is a valid one. And if people can't change the bulge size on male avatars, yet don't complain about that, then those same people shouldn't be giving complaint about no bust slider.
And in any case, the "no bust slider" and "no junk slider" issues are irrelevant to the quality of the game as a whole, and shouldn't be taking up this much article space.
The game will be great without them, and skipping the game over this indignation is basically cutting one's nose off to spite their face.
@Yorumi No, women can have their breasts be any size they are born with, (Well aging has to do with that to, but naturally) I'm saying that it's disrespectful to have an option to change it.
@smashbrolink It's not like the game originally had a penis size slider. If it did, and it was removed, I would protest that as well. This isn't a sexual issue. I don't play RPGs to get off.
Personally I think this is a fine line. Calling it censorship is way over the top, but I do worry about it in terms of representing body types. A lot of people who play games with character creation like to make someone who looks like them, and women with larger or smaller breasts won't be able to represent themselves in the game.
I appreciate what Nintendo is trying to do, but I do worry about it coming across as body shaming.
@starcatcher77 So it's disrespectful for a woman to want larger or smaller breasts?
@Yorumi I would like to do that, too.
But I can't make one that perfectly reflects me without a "junk" slider.
And I'm not letting that hold me back from saying "fine. Okay. I don't need it to make an avatar that reflects me as closely as possible."
It's the same thing for women; if, as I hope, the ladies in here don't see their chest size as a major part of who they are, then the option of adjusting them being missing shouldn't affect their want of the game, nor their ability to create an avatar that reflects them as closely as possible outside of sexual characteristics.
@Ralizah
I don't know why you would protest it for men.
It's just as inconsequential a feature, in my eyes, as the bust slider is.
It doesn't hold people back from making an extremely close approximation of themselves in the avatar creator.
Its removal is so minor an issue that it doesn't deserve this much negative attention.
It's literally a risk to sales over nothing important.
I have a feeling some people will specifically not buy the game for this change.
@smashbrolink
why would people who like breasts complain about the lack of bulge slider?
the fact of the matter is, japan is always getting cool stuff, and we don't!
also, bulge does not equate to breasts really...in terms of visual stimuli, bountiful bouncing breasts for the typical straight male is probably equal to bulging beefy biceps for the typical straight female.
it's really not female objectification, because the fact is, the female retains her identity regardless, thus she herself is integral, though her breasts alone are objectified, because their importance to the game is rendered meaningless by the slider.
essentially, the slider means that the woman, regardless of breast size, is the integral part of the game.
@smashbrolink Why have character customization at all, then? Surely no single physical aspect of oneself should be considered a major part of who they are.
@eaglebob345
"Not that our (guys) opinions don't matter, just not much at all on matters such as these."
If we're spending $60 on the game, our opinions matter just as much as anyone else's.
I think you're being a tad cavalier throwing around "perv" accusations. Am I a perv for being attracted to the opposite sex? Am I a perv for preferring to play with an attractive, dare I even say "sexy" avatar?
That's not being a perve. That's being human, and I see no reason to accuse others of being a perve just because they might want some eye candy. Are you a perv for glancing at a sexy woman on the beach? No? Then why would you be a perv for enjoying eye candy elsewhere? If I'm gonna sink 200 hours into a game staring at a character's backside, I'd at least prefer it be an attractive female.
sighs So much for some of my favorite anime characters being put into this. :/
@NintendoFan4Lyf I've had this discussion on another board, and after doing some research your theory is most likely closer to the truth than what a lot of people realize, however there is one distinct problem, it's not the ESRB, but rather the European PEGI system which is the reason why the Boob slider was removed, under ESRB, games with boob sliders can achieve a teen rating, which is 13+. However under PEGI with the exception of the sim games, any game with a Boob slider typically gets a PEGI 16+ rating, which is the equivalent of an M rating from ESRB. And as they wish to achieve parity between both releases in terms of the demographic they wish to reach, it was most likely this reason that the feature was removed, and as it was being handled by NOA they may have just elected to keep this version for the US. (Why I don't know). And as for the issue with Lyn, in both territories the game would most likely carry a mature rating, defeating the point of reaching the widest possible audience. For the record I'm fiercely anti-censorship, and would prefer the game being released at a higher rating than any cuts being made.
They should just make every female character wear burqa so you can't differentiate them and not sexualize them and they end up all the same because diversity and choice is bad. sarcasm off
@MarinoKadame At this point, I think I'd actually have my girl wear a burqa in this game out of protest.
That's sexist.
@ikki5
The bust slider is already sexualised content. Like I've said a few times, it's not one of many personalised sliders, there is just body size and chest size, on female characters. It's obviously sexualised. I think it's silly to deny that.
It'd only cause minor offence (compared to the other removed content) but they simply decided to draw the line at a slightly different place to you. It's a completely reasonable change.
The truth behind this change is obviously to prevent people to reproduce Lyn body and make her wear the underwear that got censored on her but not on other characters.
@khaosklub
Then make a "pecks slider" one of the issues that people are complaining about.
Not doing so doesn't paint a picture of equality.
If you can't see where I'm going with this, then let me spell it out; eventually, if all we do is complain about minor little details that are either removed or never added to begin with, for the sake of appealing to either the sexes or the censorship hounds, eventually it will get to the point where the game is bloated with unimportant features, and delayed because of it.
And the sad part is that the complaints wouldn't end; if they started suddenly caving to all the requests for things people want in the game, there would be no end to it, and it would eventually end up cascading into the artists compromising their own vision of the game for the sake of pleasing fans.
Because you KNOW they would eventually start demanding that "Our avatar should be able to fall in love with "name of side character", because romance is important to us and it's censorship to not include something so important in the story!", or something equally idiotic, like options on skells to denote them as either male or female.
This was done for the sake of keeping the game from getting different ratings per region, because PEGI doesn't always agree with ESRB and M rated games are more difficult to sell to a wider audience scope when kids can't get access to them without parental consent.[anyone calling that a "pro censorship argument" is a damned retard, plain and simple]
It was a business decision.
Not a pro-censorship or anti-woman action, just as deciding not to include pecks/junk sliders was not a move against men.
At first I was thinking against this, but now I'm thinking that it's just a part of the body like the nose or face. We have to look beyond this little issue and look at the real problem: breasts are over sexualized in the west. If you are allowed to modify a face of an avatar, what's wrong with modifying other parts of the body to match what a person actually looks like? The only reason it got removed is because the west sexualizes everything. It's the fact that 95% of women portrayed in video games have to have unrealistic bust sizes. Along with minimal clothing, unlike men who usually always wear more clothes than women in video games. There's a lot of social problems with this issue, which no one is bringing up.
An understandable choice. Within my understanding of US sensibilities, I can see the presence of "bust" being the only extra feature over body size getting called out. I can also see disabling it being specifically to avoid making a "young" character with a huge bust (again the slider is body size, not height).
By this point, Nintendo going out of its way to protect their squeaky clean image is par for the course. Out of curiosity, what is Nintendo's image in Japan where they don't bat an eye at these things...
@Zelkardaim
Calling all of that censorship apologist is just stupid.
I could make a chart just like that reversing everything towards anti-censorshippers and it would still be just as ridiculously stupid as the original chart.
I don't agree with this as much as I agree with the swimsuit changes. Women come in all shapes and sizes and a good character editor will reflect that. ...Granted this editor doesn't alter other parts such as hips, shoulders, etc. So its not that great of an editor to begin with. Of course some kid or adult with a juvenile mindset will make a 14 year old looking female character with udders (I swear do people not get anatomy classes in school anymore?) but not everyone is that silly.
Still getting the collector's edition day one.
I don't care in the slightest. I just can't wait to play the game.
@Yorumi I don't know. I do think Western media gets rated less harshly than Japanese media. A lot of Japanese games get threatened with an AO rating for having fanservice, and games like Senran Kagura are even banned on Twitch, but nobody bats an eye at uncensored nudity or full blown sex in games like God of War or The Witcher 3.
Hell, GTA V allow you to kill hookers after having sex with them and let topless dancers give you lap dances, but somehow it manages to keep its M-rating.
Imagine a Japanese game having anything half as bad as that. It would NEVER be allowed to release over here uncensored with an M-rating.
Why was this character customization option omitted from the English version? I just don't really get it. Who cares if you can change her bust size, or wear skimpy outfits?
Is this the absolute, set-in-stone final version of the game in the west? Because if not, I hope this decision is rescinded. Censorship these days by Nintendo in video games is just absurd. People are more savvy than you'd think.
@smashbrolink
"if all we do is complain about minor little details that are either removed or never added to begin with, for the sake of appealing to either the sexes or the censorship hounds, eventually it will get to the point where the game is bloated with unimportant features, and delayed because of it"
Gotta disagree there.
All we're asking is for one thing and one thing only- leave the game alone. That is not to appeal to "equality" or to "women" or any other demographic. And it's not asking for anything to be added or anything that would increase development time. In fact, leaving the game alone DECREASES development time.
Nobody is asking for anything other than what was gutted from the original release. Nobody cares about equality or any of that jazz. We just care about the game remaining in tact.
Reasonable censorship I understand. That is unavoidable. But I see unreasonable censorship. The biggest evidence being Fatal Frame, a game which was already Rated M. Which proves the censorship is irrespective of ratings boards.
Having seen both extremes the breast size slider goes to this really shouldn't have been a thing at all. All of those are completely normal and common sizes making its removal feel unnecessary. On the other hand, its also not going to ruin my life being confined to the middle option so whatever. It's not like gameplay elements are missing.
@Ralizah it's mostly because in western eyes anything that is anime like and has any kind of fan service is taken as Hentai, while Witcher 3 and God of War being more on the realistic graphic side get a pass because it's not hinted at being Japanese at all.
This also explain the whole weaboo mentality for anything about people that like stuff coming from Japan.
The biggest party faulty in this case here is not Nintendo it self but the little localization branch named Treehouse where everything they touches is getting some form of censorship.
Bayonetta 2 didn't got censored mostly because it was localized by a more lenient team and the game was already translated fully in English on the Japanese release too, I think it's mostly Platinum that did the translation and not Nintendo.
Censorship is when the government does it, you guys. This is not censorship, this is Nintendo choosing on their own to make games that are less embarrassing to play in front of your family, and I for one am totally here for that.
@Yorumi Sex in the sims consists of roughly tumbling and giggling under the sheets.
It's so playful and silly that it can't be justified as something getting a larger rating.
Other than that, Ralizah covered the point I was about to make; the severity of ratings does fluctuate by region, and the ESRB/PEGI/Whatever-Japan-has all have different standards decided by human beings, not machines.
Looking at a tiny little kid avatar dressed in their underwear in a game like the sims, to someone from a ratings board, isn't going to feel the same as looking at a close-up shot of an obviously young and very highly detailed young woman, as a slider inflates and deflates their breasts.
I wouldn't be against it if they included the feature back in, but I can see why taking it out would possibly level the rating between regions.
@ JaxonH; Leaving the game alone probably wouldn't have been an issue if not for the rating system between regions.
And I understand that not all of you are complaining about this because of inequality, but there are some out there that are.
And whether it's for equality's sake or just for keeping the game "as it was", I still believe that the people canceling their pre-orders over this are over-reacting in the most ludicrous of ways.
This isn't unreasonable to the point that the game deserves to be boycotted like this.
Nor was Fatal Frame, a game where the original outfits in the Japanese version weren't any more necessary there than they would have been out here in the states.
It's a horror game, not a tits show.
The only reason they were left in over in Japan is because fan service of that sort is a popular and widely accepted thing in Japan these days.XD
And as to my original point, about things eventually becoming overbloated; it acts as a gateway.
Give in once too often and people take it for as many miles as they can get away with, justifying it with terms like "anti-censorship" and "equality for all".
There's a chance that it wouldn't happen, but a bigger chance that it would.
Because even if most of us here wouldn't campaign for more changes, there would be someone who would.
That's just how little faith I have in humanity.
One point overlooked is that by making it adjustable, female players can customise the character to represent themselves, no matter how they are. You could argue that it was a potentially inclusive feature. 13-year olds in a thong is still very dodgy, though.
Anyway, who cares? Nobody got excited about this game because it promised adjustable busts or nonce-bait, we got excited because its the RPG blockbuster the Wii U has been crying out for.
@Adamario
No, this is still censorship. When the government does it, it's Government Censorship.
https://www.aclu.org/what-censorship
@Ryu_Niiyama
"Women come in all shapes and sizes and a good character editor will reflect that."
Exactly. Women do come in all shapes and sizes. This however, was a bad character editor. It did not reflect that. It reduced the range of female body types to just boob size.
They don't bat an eyelid in Japan because they are accustomed to far stronger sexism in popular culture.
I don't think this is to do with age rating so much as it is to do with taste. The west is comparatively tolerant in it's own way, but with that comes respect.
The context of the sexualisation here is cheapening and inappropriate to a Westerner. If a product was aiming for cheap gratification in the first place, the West generally accepts it's right to exist.
I doubt this is a game-breaker for anyone even remotely interested in the game.
@Yorumi I agree the boob slider probably wouldn't knock this into the range of an M-rating (unsure about what qualifies for certain PEGI ratings), but Lynlee's costume probably would have.
lol. oh no!!! boobies!!! Run away!! I bet it was Nintendo of America and their family-friendly obsession that pushed this.
Anyways, I don't really care about a boob-slider. It would be nice to have, but I plan on walking around around with heavy armor so it's not like it would matter much.
But more important than a boob slider (or a junk slider), I hope I can choose my skin color. I think that, more than a boob slider, will make me feel more like the avatar represents me than anything else.
@smashbrolink Actually no, I don't have to do it for both because one of them isn't sexualizing it. Having the mindset that you need to sensor it means you're sexualizing it while including it means that you can be just taking in account to various types of bodies. Also, I already explained why not including a males "junk" slider wouldn't be sexist because really, in life, how many men can you look at and tell how big their junk is? Only a small minority will you even be able to tell a difference from then just walking around. I'm sorry but you can see someones bust a lot easier than someones junk, Pants do a very good job of hiding the size.
@pubjoe How? How is accounting for someone's size sexual in anyway? Would you want up to a random woman and say they are more sexual because their chest is larger than the woman beside them? No, why? because the size is not in any way, sexual. And drawing the line, if anything, it could be classified as discrimination to an extent.
@ikki5 i hope they didnt take out the booty size options. I like to have something that i can look at during all those lonely hours traveling the open world.
If you support this neutered shell of a censored game with your money, you are part of the problem, and an enabler of Nintendo's inept Puritan attitudes.
It's baffling to me that Nintendo has, at various points, tried desperately to shed their "kiddie" image, but is still practicing 1990's video game censorship 25 years later.
If these websites didn't report on this stupid cut content I wouldn't have noticed or cared but now that I know I want the option to make boobs bigger
@FullbringIchigo
What if the woman playing the game has a large bust and wants to make an avatar that better represents her? What if the woman playing the game has a smaller bust than default and wants an avatar that beter represents her?
@Technosphile It removed a relatively minor bit of character customization and changed one costume. I don't agree with the censorship, but it is hardly a "shell" of a game.
Moreover, if people boycott something niche like this, Nintendo of America is going to take that as a sign that people aren't interested in potentially risky localizations on their systems, not that they lost sales due to the principled objections of anti-censorship types.
I mean, spend your money on whatever you want, but not buying it isn't sending a message to them that censorship is bad.
@Technosphile
Nintendo is not Puritan. Nintendo is a Japanese Co. that has a boob slider in Xenoblade Chronicles X, and sexy costumes in the M-rated Fatal Frame.
Nintendo of America on the other hand thinks Nintendo is a kiddie system and they're more than willing to take out these things and pretend that the first Xenoblade Chronicles, Pandora's Tower and Last Story have no place in the U.S. They would probably be happy with only Mario games if they could get away with it.
@ikki5
Because, again, these are not body personalisation options. There is no hip, leg, bottom, waist or shoulder size. Only height and boobs.
Do you genuinely think that this is an attempt at body diversity?
It's not, it's sexualisation. It's mild sexualisation, it's far from the only sexualisation, there's nothing inherently wrong with sexualisation, but it's still sexualisation.
Given the context and the different audience, they decided to to draw the line on this almost irrelevant feature. I can't blame them.
If a breast slider is sexualization, just remove the ability to play as a female because female are sexualized and not male.
Seriously it's still diversity to have different size of breast. Next thing we will say a feet slider is sexualization because some people has fetish for smaller or bigger feet.
Yeah, if it is already a bad character designer, then taking out options only makes it even worse. Who can honestly support that?
The more I think about it, the more this bothers me. I think we can handle it, Nintendo...
I love that this has had nearly 300 comments in the last 6 hours. This is Senran Kagura all over again
Oh well. That sucks.
Well done gang, almost 300 comments on boob sliders. I'm proud of you all.
300
Another win for the Itty Bitty Titty Committee
Just look at the Linkle comment section about female Link tho.
I will buy Boob Slide DLC. C'mon Nintendo! (I'm not even kidding)
I'll still buy XCX, and while I support changing Lin's clothes (outside the beach, I have not seen a 13 year old dress like that... might have to do with the weather.... maybe), but this goes completely against the idea of being able to customize your character. Maybe some would have used it to fool around, but what is so wrong with wanting an Avatar that resembles me a little bit closer? C'mon Nintendo...
@MarinoKadame
I know. (^_^ ) I'm helping with the Linkelle comments.
This trend of censoring games is very worrying. I don't need a company to tell me what's good for me. Censoring the boob slider is very unnecessary especially since The Sims have been doing it for years. The boob slider would have been a non-issue that nobody would have cared about for long if it was still in the game.
As for those saying that it's great that this was removed, nobody was forcing you to use the slider. You could have easily left it on the default middle option.
I'll still get the game because they haven't censored anything yet that affects the gameplay, but I'm still against the principle of restricting features depending on what region you're in, as well as being dictated what is right and wrong.
It's the future trend I'm worried about. It's only a matter of time until something is censored that does affect the gameplay. When that happens, I'll refuse to buy the game. I saw a fake post the other day saying what censorship was appearing in Fire Emblem Fates, and that got me really annoyed and I believed it for a while even though some of the things were rediculous.
you know what could have solved this issue quite nicely? if Nintendo consoles weren't region locked.
just sayin'
All I could think of was "Bustin' makes me feel good!" from the Ghostbusters song. As for the controversy, I'll buy it anyway! (Free space.)
308 comments? Wow, breasts are a bigger issue than Cloud's inclusion in Smash, I see.
While I don't mind, this is taking away some option from players who like customize their characters to infinity and beyond.
@Miss_Dark how?
Nintendo of America. We fell the need to be everyone's parent, so we obviously know what's best for you. We know what you do and don't want.
#NoA.
This bothers me as a female gamer. The first thing that bothers me about is that it implies that breasts are somehow inherently 'inappropriate' — something that needs to be censored. It says that the default selected size of breasts are 'appropriate' and anything else isn't — otherwise they'd let you change them, right?
The second thing is that breasts form a part of the female identity from puberty on-wards. By giving us an avatar and letting us customize it, they're asking us to project ourselves onto the avatar and invest in it. The game is a fantasy, but I guess I'd be perverted if I imagine myself as having larger breasts than in real life.
If we had to make some sort of concession on the issue, I think a better solution would have been to make the maximum chest size smaller. That's still problematic, though, because it still says those larger sizes are 'wrong'. I have friends with US DD and higher cup sizes, and they're not pornstars or perverts. Their genetics just decided that they needed a bunch of fatty tissue deposited in their breass.
@FierceRagnar People wanting to give their characters a large size makes them a low life. But not everyone is a freakin pervert or a low life for doing that. So again, where's the logic?
As a person that usually not in favor of censorship esspecially when it it tampering with the creators envisions, I'm really don't care about this even though I play as a girl in a lot of games. Out of all of the things you can do when creating a female avatar, it's what I really care the least about because most of the time I stick with the default size or just make her completely flat chested. Most women I know do the same thing too even if they have a large chest size. Still I think it's wrong for NoA to do this considering you should be able to customize your character in anyway you like, but I still could care less if they censored it. Now if they end up censoring the story, removing religious reference, changing the characters personalities in anyway, or cutting a mission in the game during localization then me and the Treehouse are going to have a huge problem.
Oh my fudging Naga! facepalm Is this really happening right now? Are we really getting up in arms this? You all want to be treated like adults or with maturity, but all I see are a bunch of entitled little children who feel the need to complain about something that REALLY is insignificant in the grand scheme of the game and experience in general. So what, you can't manipulate the size of your female avatars breasts anymore. Get over yourselves, you petulant, spoiled brats.
You really want to boycott or not buy an amazing video game simply because of this minor localization that, in all honesty, is FAR more tasteful than the Japanese counterpart? You'll certainly be proving a point alright. You'll be proving not only to other gamers but Nintendo as well that your immature cause you can't look past something so pointless and unobtrusive. You have to moan and complain and cry "CENSORSHIP!" and all the while you'll look foolish in the end. Your not defenders of the right, your what's wrong with this fanbase and gaming in general.
It's absolutely pathetic that there are so many of you who feel the need to be upset by this. And nothing anyone can say will persuade you from feeling this way cause your so deluded in your self righteous cause to defend against "censorship." I pity many of you. Your so far gone that you'll miss out on an amazing video game that has so much to offer simply because your so offended by the littlest of changes. It doesn't take much to get many of you worked up, it seems. How sad indeed.
While your proudly fighting against this so called "injustice," I'll be playing XCX and having fun. Enjoy being petty and bitter.
Yeah at this point I can't really expect much else when butchers like 8-4 are doing the translation, I think this will be my last Nintendo generation unless the next is region free so I can have games as they are rather than how other people think i should be allowed to have them.
I'm putting it like this.
Is it bad? In a way yes. We shouldn't be trying to appease the kids.
Is it worth throwing a fit? No. It doesn't take away anything major from Xenoblade Chronicled X, unlike Mortal Kombat on SNES.
Seriously, most people that complain about this are guys who cannot fulfill their sexual desires.
This is an avatar we're dealing with, it represents you, not someone else.
The only people who has the complete right to complain are females who will be playing the game.
How I could I not make a video about this haha https://youtu.be/j-tjLDUj8Cg enjoy
@MisterMan I'm hoping so.
I'm boycotting this game since this will pretty much make the game unplayable.
"I like this because since I specifically don't have large breasts the video game characters shouldn't either"
Noooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!........Oh wait I don't care,Seriously if you boycott this over such a stupid thing you're an idiot.
@Syrek you completely miss the point. The game is an RPG. Role playing game. The main focus of the genre is to put yourself into the game. So if a busty woman hears about this it would be discouraging since big breasts are considered slutty and this isn't helping.
@edhe that definition says: "Censorship, the suppression of words, images, or ideas that are "offensive," happens whenever some people succeed in imposing their personal political or moral values on others." No one forced Nintendo to do this. They decided themselves. Since they are the ones creating and distributing the content here, there has been no censorship. If they had released the game and then capitulated to protests about the boob slider, then the definition could apply.
E.g., it's not really "censorship" if I think of something to say, realize it's probably going to upset someone in the conversation, and then decide not to say it in an effort to be polite or avoid making them uncomfortable.
Nintendo is really treating us as imbeciles! Its not good for their image, that's for sure!
Now I see Nintendo Life's logic on posting this garbage of an article instead of something relevant like Miyamoto's birthday. Boobs= more traffic!
I'm against it, because screw censorship.
It's not a big deal on its own, although it is kind of dumb. But it's censorship, which isn't cool.
It's part of character creation. What's the big deal?
@AVahne you forgot to mention for the US (mainly for the US market as Canada and Europe are generally less sensitive to these matters), because clearly they don't think this way in their home country. It's a shame really. I want all games to played the way the developers intended them to be played. People need to learn to not be offended by everything... AND Nintendo needs to grow some balls when it comes to these matters.
@Sforzando There's clearly "plenty wrong" with this, because it offends SJW and feminists..... I say screw 'em! If one is too sensitive to something, that said person shouldn't play it. It's as easy as that.
"HURRDURR ONLY PEOPLE WHO WANT TO GIVE HER BIG TITS WANTED THIS, CENSOR AWAY NINTENDO!"
What if I wanted to make a female character that doesn't have the same sized breasts as every other female character in the game? What if I wanted a character with small boobs? You can have a muscle slider for guys but can't change something on a woman's body that changes from person to person? Yikes.
The major concern isn't even the character customisation and outfits because I could deal with those, but they've removed/changed references to previous works by Takahashi. You don't change someone else's work like that. It's like if Miyamoto released Zelda U with a Pikmin easter egg and they changed it to be a set of flowers for literally no reason.
@TsukiDeity Don't most character creation tools let you control the size of various parts of the character? I don't think anyone is offended by this...
If this is only for a 13-year-old avatar girl, I don't have an issue. But if the character doesn't /have/ to be 13, and can be older, then I think it's a bad move. Not everyone is built the same and body shaming goes both ways. It's something that needs to be stopped. Uniform appearances are not the way to do it, either.
@Chaoz Well they have been changing and removing religious references in the localized version.
The in-game organization B.L.A.D.E. stands for Beyond the Logos Artificial Destiny Emancipator in the Japanese version but got localized to Builders of the Legacy After the Destruction of Earth. The Union in the game got their name Testament changed to Reclaimers.
There also been reports of crosses and other religious iconography being removed from the game.
I said this in the Fatal Frame game article that it always sucks when a game gets edited/censored from its original Japanese counterpart. Regardless what it is. Anyways, I'm still not sure if I really want to get into this series. Maybe I should check out the first one on 3DS before I jump into the sequel here.
@ikki5 It seems really doubtful that Nintendo is acting as an agent to enforce "Western preferences" by making these changes but rather because they're afraid that there are many Westerners who avoid and complain about the product by doing so. They seem to have always had this intent in mind, at least if Hiroshi Yamauchi's had anything to say about it. Regarding Xenoblade X's changes, the "bust size modifier" does seem quite unnecessary (especially since many female players might want their character's bust to match their own), but the change over Lin's clothing is appropriate if they don't want to face higher age-ratings, which would likely lower sales of the game.
@TsukiDeity This is probably one of the few times when feminists and perverts find themselves on the same side of an issue.
@crimsontadpoles
This does not let you control the size of various parts of the body beyond the size of 'body' and bust. There's a tits slider and an everything-else slider. It defines the female body as height and boobs.
It baffles me how anyone could not recognise the sexualisation.
I don't mind it, on it's own it's a fun customisation, I'm not saying anyone should hate it, but you'd have to be intentionally naive to pretend that this is actually an effort to represent body diversity.
As for the 'I don't need a company to tell me what's good for me' (@Sforzando) and similar Gamer freedom! chants. Erm, this is a videogame. By it's nature everything you see and do has been controlled by it's developers and publishers that decide on what makes the cut. They want to sell to the largest possible audience.
It's quite romantic that you want to stand up to censorship, but this is a commercial product. There's no surpression of speech, just sales targets.
Body Shaming! lol
Is the butt slider still in though? (please say yes)
@uguuer How does any of that hurt the plot?
Does any of it create inconsistencies in it that can't be explained?
Oh, and just for the record, I think the new meaning behind the BLADE acronym is easier to remember than the original, so I don't mind it.
@Nintendude789
And even then, it's such a petty thing to complain about.
You don't see guys going ape over asking for a pecks or junk slider to make things fair in the Japanese version, after all.
It's only the anti-censorjerks and trolls making this into a bigger deal than it is.
I've heard Dolly Parton cancelled her pre-order.
would everyone be complaining as much if it was never implemented in the first place?
@ikki5
Agreed, I just cancelled my preorder and bought the $125 master pack for Blade and Soul on PC. Much better story, combat mechanics, and character customization (http://i.imgur.com/TXQYjfl.png]. I will not stand for censorship on games I'm interested in.
The fact the Japanese version has a 13 year old that you can change the boob size of is a bit scary actually.
so big chested girls will not be allowed to create an avatar that better represents themselves
@TurboTEF
"I will not stand for censorship on games I'm interested in."
Aw bless. Can I get that on a t-shirt?
Okay, yeah, this is total nonsensical censorship on Nintendo's part. I can understand Lin's censorship, and I have no arguments there because I don't really care about that. However, refusing to put in a bust slider for the adult characters, especially your own avatar, which you are supposed to be allowed the freedom to create as you see fit, is completely pointless. Normally, I wouldn't really care about this either, but the circumstances here are almost certainly the work of someone in the development or publishing process forcing their personal vendetta on the game because of their own ideas of what moral compass other people should follow.
I remember there being a full body/bust slider all the way back in Phantasy Star Online for the Gamecube in 2002, which was rated T by the ESRB. Guess what it was rated T for? Blood and Violence. That's it, nothing else. No mention of even mild sexual themes anywhere. (Even though there existed scarcely dressed characters like the female Newman Hunter...)
Even though the attendants at the guild/quest counters had bountious bosoms, and HUGE midriffs on their uniforms, still nothing noted by the ESRB. Even though the character creation allowed you to create anything from the flattest (or most well-endowed) loli to a busty (or not) hourglass model figure to a... well-rounded big beautiful woman... Even then, still absolutely no mention of anything on the topic by the rating system, and no censorship whatsoever.
I would be interested to know who is responsible for making this forced static body decision in XCX. They should be publicly questioned for their reasoning on forcing their own sense of morality upon others through a game, of all things.
Is this real life?
@Yorumi "@earthboundlink you could say NOA is forcing their personal political or moral values on us."
No. NoA's worldview is reflected in the art that they create and present. Since they are the owners of the work of art, they have say over it. Much like Greedo was allowed to shoot first (as moronic as that notion is). The same as your personal worldview is reflected in your words and creations.
NoA is not forcing you to participate in Xenoblade Chronicles X. No one in Nintendo shirts will kick your door in if you haven't worshiped the Golden Mario today. They are simply bringing the product that they believe will suit the market they are trying to reach.
@Yorumi I'm convinced that someone in the development or publishing process must certainly be forcing their own personal or political values, or their own moral compass, upon the players. There is no true precedent for this level of censorship, just based upon a T/12 equivalent rating, with the ESRB, PEGI, or CERO. It's not unthinkable- people in the publishing and management processes influence game development all the time with their own personal desires.
@pubjoe Considering I've put "It wasn't my intent to stick my **** in your cat" Then yes, I'm sure you can.
@Darknyht "No. NoA's worldview is reflected in the art that they create and present. Since they are the owners of the work of art, they have say over it."
It's Monolith Soft's work, not Nintendo's. Also, please explain why Sega was able to get away with all of the things I mentioned in my above post (#356) in Phantasy Star Online, back in 2002, with absolutely no censorship or mention of the fact by the rating systems, yet somehow that situation has suddenly changed so drastically today?
The idea that Nintendo is "reflecting their personal worldview" by removing a bust slider on adult characters, especially one's own avatar, has no precedent. I would even venture as far as to say it's a red herring.
@PlywoodStick the reason is Phantasy Star was not localized by Treehouse, Treehouse is the team localizing some Nintendo games like Fire Emblem, Fatal Frame and Xenoblade Chronicles X.
@abbyhitter Yo, they are allowed to share what they like and dislike, just like their weirdness videos and links to GT and DYNG plugs. If you don't like it, then don't subscribe to GameXplain and don't click on these plugs. Don't go hating on them sharing an interesting video.
@MarinoKadame Why would that change anything? I am also reminded that with Phantasy Star 0 (Zero), Nintendo provided Sega a special exception to allow players to communicate by drawing on the touch screen. Players could write/draw ANYTHING they desired on the touch screen to broadcast to others, from the profound to the mundane to the profane. No censorship anywhere, and merely warnings in the manual, on the box, and in the game that Nintendo could not guarantee your online experience.
Why would Nintendo be able to allow a third party such a special privilege in the past, yet today they seemingly cannot do so even for themselves and Monolith Soft? Unless... this censorship is itself a special privilege of the Treehouse staff. It makes me wonder if internal Nintendo of America/Europe staff are arbitrarily imposing this form of censorship of their own personal volitions and desires, and if that is with or without the consent of the Japanese branch.
The reason why this is important is because... If the Treehouse or other internal staff have this kind of power over a second or third party... What else can they do? How far can they go? I also cannot help but wonder if this is a symptom of the chilling effect that the reported abuses of Swapnote had upon Nintendo, and perhaps others.
It's because of different localization teams mostly. Did Nintendo used one of their localization team for Phantasy Star 0 or was it a Sega localization team ?
@MarinoKadame Again I ask, why would the localization team being Nintendo's matter? Their role is to translate and interpret content and text into their target markets, not censor it, unless it can easily be viewed as profane or some other such cultural consideration. (Which certainly applies to censoring Lin, but I highly doubt applies to censoring an adult character bust slider of all things, a tiny game feature, unless the Western internal teams of Nintendo are even more puritanical than previously thought.)
@MarinoKadame Curious that 8-4 and Treehouse let Fire Emblem Awakening have Nowi (her clothes) and multiple children (Ricken and Donnel) plus you can marry then. Nowi being a 1000 year dragon doesn't change that she looks like a child (ultimately harmless but if she looked like an adult, people wouldn't take notice).
If something passes on a game system under a console manufacturer, all things under the same extremity should be fair again. Even if we stick to a single localisation team, they aren't even consistent.
Wow... why do people even care ? If you looked at what your really trying to defend its really a question to what the **** are you really into ? To each their own but yes its a game but sometimes certain things have no real reason to be in there at all. This is one of those games where every time i look around im seeing or hearing negative things about. Who are they trying to appeal too ? If its an T rated game then this stuff makes sense to be censored. If its a M rated game then enough said..
Dont get me wrong though if this stuff was intended for adults and they edit our copy over here in the states than thats straight bs. We want the same version as the original. Dont decide for us like we're all kids. There should be a button/lock on the game to lock out mature content. Parents do your job so Nintendo doesnt have too.
Replacing the outfits in Fatal Frame which is a Mature game is as random as removing a breast slider.
It's probably not the whole team and maybe one individual that joined them lately that does those kind of random censorship.
@Gameday Like I mentioned to DarkNyght, the idea of this issue (the preordained judgmental inquisition of the customers' moral compass) is a red herring. This is really about what kind of power Nintendo's internal localization teams have over others, and a question of who holds that power.
Other than that... I guess I only care out of curiosity.
These game need to come like the Japanese version uncensored and if you have parental control on it should auto-censor the game for you.
@MarinoKadame The idea of one member having that kind of power to push this censorship through the team, without the consensus of the team, is rather worrying. If that's the case for a little thing like this, where else is it the case?
I'm sorry, I don't mean to question you, I'm just making rhetorical questions to myself and others.
@Yorumi "So I'm confused, making logical arguments and calmly emailing nintendo to express dissatisfaction is childish but insulting people is mature and adult?"
You know damn well the vast majority of the Nintendo fanbase, including those on this site, do not know how to do that.
That is the single biggest problem with the Nintendo fanbase: they do not understand the difference between expressing concerns/dissatisfaction & providing constructive criticism like mature adults, and whining.
The vast majority of the Nintendo fanbase does not know how to do the former, and continues to whine over every little thing like immature, overly entitled children.
Whenever other Nintendo fans call them out on their whining, they get called Nintendo apologists/fanboys/white knights. No, they're just sick and tired of the whining.
You and @ikki5 wanted to know why NoA treats the fanbase like children? Because they act like it. They act like children. The reaction to Fed Force is absolute proof of that.
Until the Nintendo fanbase can learn to express concerns/dissatisfaction and provide constructive criticism like mature, responsible adults, they will continue to be treated like children by Nintendo.
Oh man someone give @IceClimbers a round of applause for that outstanding comment he made right now before he calls me a kid!
@IceClimbers I think every fan base has their share of reactionaries. Nintendo's fanbase is just more noticeable in that regard, since more attention is called to them, and perhaps also by them in certain cases.
@pubjoe To clarify what I said about Nintendo "digging their own grave," I don't think Nintendo will lose significant sales by people boycotting the breast slider's removal. Rather, what I was trying to get at, but couldn't be bothered to rant about this morning before work, was that going to such lengths reinforces the image Nintendo has cultivated in recent years of being a laughingstock of a gaming platform. They're literally a running joke to the gaming industry and anyone between the ages of 8-20 (the older side being tempered by wacky parents and nostalgic old guards like me).
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Flanderization , at least through the summary, should be required reading for any Nintendo fan or critic, as Nintendo is a real-life textbook example of becoming a caricature of itself over time (speaking of time, though, don't click any links on that site unless you're prepared to lose the rest of your evening!).
@TwilightAngel Nah, you're more of a squid than a kid
@PlywoodStick Agreed.
For the record, I don't agree with the censorship. I'm definitely against it. I also think that everyone, including myself, has lost their temper every once in a while.
@Fath Your warning at the end of your comment cannot be stressed enough haha.
By removing the ability to change the breast size, NoA is unintentionally implying that all females must be a certain size "to protect the children", but the fact of the matter is they're forcing their "ideal" female proportions onto us. I feel that that's more sexualization than the sliders themselves.
I wonder if this means Nintendo is removing the quest where you go around and ask alien chicks their proportions.
Reality check:
YES
YES
YES
NOPE.
Honestly, I would've been pissed if the chest size was locked at triple A. However, that's not the case, thus this does not affect my purchasing decision. All of you who say you're not getting it because of censorship, can suck on my ****
@Blathers That is the real heart of the matter.
Hahaha! This is the most comments Ive ever seen in an article before. Guess I'll add my two cents worth. I don't care at all about the specific changes they made. It's just a stupid little thing. But I do think its dumb that Nintendo censors anything all. Just make the game and leave it how it is!
@MagicalDreamer - is it?
Uh oh...SJW logic incoming!
So...why can't the male avatar be fat, or bald, or really skinny?
There they go...with every slider that does not exist, they're offending another group of poeple that don't fit the parameters included! A lack of options is implicit discrimination!
Where is the slider to make a person with every conceivable physical disability? Oh! Nintendo hates the disabled!
Where is the slider to make the character have dwarfism? Peter Dinklage shall be writing angry letters!
@liljmoore Nintendo didn't develop the game, lad. It was developed by Monolith Soft. Then Nintendo had a company called 8-4, (who have a track record of painfully stupid censorship in their releases,) localize it, and they're (probably) the ones who decided to do this.
@Action51 Except nothing you listed was in the Japanese version and later removed. You're comparing apples to oranges.
@Action51 "Is it a minor, trivial, change that will have literally no impact on the game besides a minor cosmetic one?"
No. It's pretty major. All censorship is, it doesn't matter if it's cosmetic, writing-related, or feature-related. Censorship is ALWAYS wrong, and it's a BIG issue.
People like you are sickening, because you are an enabler. People like you are why censorship happens, and why it snowballs into bigger things like removing blood, changing names, changing music, or even altering the story. We don't need a second-coming of the 80's where America was so insecure and scared of other cultures and fictional characters that they had to change everything to conform to what they want their sheltered, confused kids to see or hear.
The longer you try to spout "guys, it's just a little change, it's no big deal!" the worse you're going to make things by showing these companies that they will not only get away with treating us like children, but will be REWARDED by it with support from defensive fanboys like you that can't sleep at night knowing SOMEONE out there said something bad about your precious, perfect, incapable-of-doing-any-wrong company.
@MrRight You say that until your so-called "sickening" parents and activists start suing or raising issues to the FCC and the companies start getting warning letters about a heavy fine or have their products rated M instead of T (less customers). Now what? Sure I love an uncensored product, but if it's not going to be released due to regulations, I'd rather them censored — better than nothing.
This is pretty dumb considering that many T rated Western and Japanese RPGs allow for full character customization, including bust size.
Why did Nintendo feel the need to remove a character creation feature that is in just about every RPG with character creation for the past 15+ years?
@nintendomasterr Because precisely like @ikki5 in the first post said, NOA wants to maintain its family-friendly image. I'm not saying I approve or disapprove of their ideology, but that's the way it is.
Whoa, so many comments!
People sure care a lot about boobies!
@SetupDisk now i understand that and before i start with my answer i wish to apologise to @ikki5 for my curt attitude yesterday, i had been having a bad day and while that is no excuse for the way i phrased my comments, all i can do is say sorry, so I'M SORRY
now on with the comment yes it is a bad thing that features are being removed and for no apparent reason and i understand that some people like to try to recreate themselves in the game (i personally don't but that's me) and i can see why they are upset but i don't think complaining on Nintendo Life is going to change anything, if they want this feature back they need to take it to Nintendo themselves via social media and maybe an online petition, i'm sure the feature could be added back via an update if there enough demand (that's unless it was taken out for legal reasons of course after all Japan's laws are different to the laws of Europe and the US when it comes to this type of thing)
I can't believe real gamers are complaining about this. Of course that has been done to make the game rating available to more people, hence increasing chance of sales, since it's already considered a "niche" game.
Again, I wouldn't imagine a gaming enthusiast missing it for this, but to compensate I'll go and order another copy, you never know (and I already ordered 2).
I'm sure most of Japan dialled the breasts up to max. Then there was Lara Croft. They should just make the default breast setting 'huge'
I can't see how having a "feature" like that would help get this game taken seriously myself, so good riddance if true.
I couldn't care less about protecting kids or whatever.. but you have to be some seriously sad jerk to sit there changing the size of a virtual avatars chests.. truly pathetic. The Japanese are a serious repressed race of people with extremely messed up views on women.. and we in the west are supposed to just be cool with it because, hey, it's anime / manga whatever.. and it's cool and quirky.. Oh those crazy Japanese! etc.
It's not cool.. it's sleazy, and weird.. and if you enjoy 12 year old girls with huge chests and bug-eyes in skimpy outfits, then you are definitely a weirdo. Stop watching this garbage and go interact with some real women.
Minor details the game and gameplay is more important.
@FullbringIchigo No I want smaller chest. This might be spoilers for some, but in Dragon's Dogma if Aelinore isn't accusing my loli of sexually assaulting her that scene is made much less epic.
@andrea987 Firstly there's no rating board I know of that would have a problem with this.(Maybe Australia but I've looked at a list of banned games and there's nothing like this so very very slim chance) Secondly you're new to the internet.
@HADAA There are no rating boards that would have an issue with this.
@Fee Well, you're new to me, and maybe you're new to ratings. Instead of 12 it might have been 16 or 18, hence diminishing the number of potential buyers.
But thanks, I'm old enough to appreciate the "new", I don't get called that very often, lol
@andrea987 @HADAA Except there are many, many precedents for having a variable bust/body size slider in other games (including those on Nintendo systems, like Phantasy Star Online on the supposed "kiddy console" GameCube, which was only rated T for Blood and Violence, nothing else), that allow one to create weird or even questionable character identities... Yet they had absolutely no effect on the ESRB, PEGI, or CERO. It doesn't affect the rating system at all, this was all Nintendo's doing.
@HADAA BMXXX on the Gamecube. Topples woman riding a bike.
@PlywoodStick Who cares, it's one tiny thing. The content creator and distributor have the right to remove whatever they want. If the wanted to protect anything, no woman would have boob in any of their games.
Sigh. One last try...
This is not imposed censorship. I doubt it's even an issue of age rating. It's about a publisher tailoring a product to an audience.
The cut content would be entirely passable to publish, but the company selling the product decided not to include it. They decided that defining a woman's body with two things - height and boobs might appear sexist to some of their target audience, just as they thought the skimpy 13 year-old might not be so well received.
It's an entirely reasonable point of view and they have every right to release what THEY WANT. Even if you don't like it. They fortunately have that freedom.
No rights have been suppressed. No freedom has been taken away, quite the opposite.
I don't think I can explain that any slower.
The shouts of "Oppression! Censorship enablers! Fight for freedom" are stupendously misplaced. At least it's amusing.
@tpcstudios @pubjoe Like I mentioned to a couple others, I think the whole forced moral compass discussion is a red herring. The real question is if this decision was truly made by the content creator (Monolith Soft), or if it was imposed upon them by the publisher (Nintendo, or at the behest of Nintendo internal staff). If it was the latter, then it's worrisome not because of some tiny little game feature, but because it demonstrates the power Nintendo can force upon second or even third parties. If it's done here, for such a little thing, then where else is it done, on potentially important issues?
@PlywoodStick
It was likely the publisher, Nintendo. If so, they are selling the product and they have that right.
If you work for McDonalds and you want to pour chocolate on the cheeseburgers, you would be told to stop. McDonalds would not be taking away your freedom to sell Chocburgers, they simply have the final say on the product they sell, because it is theirs to sell.
Guys, this is not censorship. This is a company tailoring its product for its customers in a way that they think it will sell the best. No one is forcing Nintendo to make this change. It's a business decision.
@Yorumi Yes, otherwise they wouldn't have done it. They are trying to keep a family friendly reputation, it's one of the things that distinguishes them from the other consoles so I think it is one of their selling points. Who else even tries to have this kind of appeal to families/younger children? The other consoles top-selling games are always mature shooters. I for one am happy that Nintendo is still trying to keep this Family appeal. It's one of the reasons I am a huge Nintendo fan, having children of my own. This particular case is a little odd because I don't see chest size customization as overtly sexual, but I can understand why they are playing it safe.
They had already said in a Q&A at PAX that they wouldn't be removing or censoring content in the western version of the game, so anyone and everyone who is upset with changes has every right to be upset. They were lied to, plain and simple.
@Yorumi The Sims is published by EA. Nintendo has nothing to do with that product. Nintendo is the publisher for XCX so they have complete control over what goes in the game. Customizing bust sizes doesn't bother me. I just think calling the censorship is not accurate and dilutes the meaning of the word.
@Yorumi
The Sims has a multitude of body type and size options. XCX has only height and boobs. If Sims had the same narrow minded limitation on female body types it could appear sexist and immature, maybe not even to Pegi, but to some customers. Nintendo and/or Monolith Studios contemplated this.
Which just goes to show this is about context, as it should be - not rigid standards.
@Yorumi
The body size options are 'height' and 'bust'.
I've repeated this point several times. If you can't see how such narrow variables are sexualisation then you're living in denial.
I'm not offended by the sexualisation. It's mild. But I accept it for what it is. And I happily accept the decision to cut it.
To people who care, or are worried about future censorship, please e-mail and call Nintendo about it, it takes 5mins
A craploads of people are doing it right now, your contribution can only help
@Yorumi
So you go to body size and there's one slider for 'boobs', and one slider for 'everything-else', and you think that's mature, inclusive customisation options?
Whether you like it or not pubjoe, women has breasts, they exists, and they come in different size.
IIRC there's no body fat meter or something similar because the dev ran into troubles with the character fitting in the Skells.
So yeah, usually in these customizable characters options, some people like to make themselves as close as possible, and well, that includes women. Then there's people who likes to make up characters, and then there's people who likes to gawk at boobs. It's no fair to remove an option because of the latter ... And really, what people does with the options in a game they paid for is none of your business really
Haha!
Keep telling yourself that then.
"How Tall are you? How big are your boobs? Done". It's clearly sexualisation. It's okay to like sexualisation. I like sexualisation. But I'd feel like an idiot to pretend it's not there.
@Yorumi It's a tiny cosmetic customization omission, albeit a quirky one, in a 100+ hour epic RPG on the Wii U. A much needed game for the system at that. It's not going to affect my enjoyment playing the game one iota. I don't ascribe any sexist conspiracy to this change, just a business decision to avoid any kind of controversy that could have resulted from it. Not a big deal. You have to balance the removal of this feature with the rest of the offering and ask if this is a product that deserves your money and time. For me the answer is a big FAT YES! I'm really feeling it!
@Yorumi I agree that it's an odd decision. I don't think it was a ESRB ratings issue because the game already has "Suggestive Themes" listed under its T rating. Perhaps it was feedback from a focus group or something. I wasn't going to play as a female anyway, so it has no impact on me. I bet if the option had never been there in the Japanese version, it would never have been raised as a topic. It's only an issue because people are getting upset at Nintendo's "censorship".
I played enough games with customization in my lifetime that don't even let you make the character's skin tone darker even if I'm personally dark skinned. At this point altering bust size to me is like altering weight and body mass in a game like Monster Hunters.
I can see the issue here but it comes off less about censorship and more about "Japan gets better and more stuff than westerners and we should get the same or better stuff than they have" to me. Truth being if Japan never had it, we wouldn't be talking about it or rallying that they should have it.
Ohh Nintendo, why do you make me second guess my purchasing of your products. Treating variable bust sizes as something dirty and should be eliminated is dumb and frankly wreaks of sexism. This only makes me less inclined to pick up Nontendo products in the future. This is why Nintendo is the laughing stock of the gaming community.
And I love all the red jarring a being thrown around about 'pervy boys only wanted fap material.' Firstly, what someone does with their character is none of Nintendo's business and secondly the issue is the needless censorship of a product because of a handful of peoples' aversion to the female body.
@Yorumi Mainly because people base assumptions and decisions on what others say and do on the internet and in most cases a few voices can seems like everyone and that is what is represented, like most fanbase. Sometimes a person situation and/or way of thinking is different from the vocal minority that is always stereotyped. I'm just voicing mines.
It's true that if Xenoblade X never existed I wouldn't be here talking about it but at the same time I wouldn't cause a large uproar saying there should be a next Xenoblade game assuming Xenoblade Chronicles for Wii and 3ds are the only ones created in the series.
btw I'm not sure if it was your intent but you question comes off a kind of mean with the "why are you bothering to comment" part.
I'm cool if someone disagree with a customization choice since it's all them, but it's the lengths that some are willing to go to seems extreme, like boycotting the whole game or NOA localization in general to send a message. Something like that can affect everyone, even gamers who feel differently.
@BinaryFragger
I understand people don't like hearing constant nagging or pretty complaints, but this is something that really does matter, whether it seems like it or not.
I understand games will never be completely untouched when it comes to localization changes, but there is such a thing as being too heavy handed. Which has certainly been the case of late.
Nobody wants their beloved games tampered with, and while this may be small potatoes in this instance, we may not be so lucky next time.
@PlywoodStick Nintendo Co. Ltd. who is the publisher of the game has say over what the developer creates. They have also empowered the Nintendo of America team to localize the game to conform with the culture and standards of that region. So it is Nintendo of America's right to change the game to meet with the PR Image they want to present as Nintendo to the region. It is the authority that Nintendo Co. Ltd. has given them to exercise and they have in this case in a way that some does not like.
If NoA thought it would be best to have everyone wear the same outfit regardless of inventory, it would be their right. No one bats an eye when they do this in a game like Animal Crossing, exchanging puns from one culture for another or putting in relevant holidays over Japanese ones. Likewise, they exercised that right by passing on Super Mario Bros 2 and bringing us Super Mario Bros USA and no one complained.
Personally I fall back on a bit of wisdom on these matters: Just because someone can doesn't mean they should, and just because someone can doesn't mean it is of value to society.
@Darknyht
That's honestly a fair point. Probably the best opposing argument I've heard yet.
I'll admit- it is their RIGHT, technically speaking, but as you said, just because someone has the right to do something, that doesn't make it the right thing to do.
If it was some obscene content that went where no other western game had gone before, I might be persuaded to agree. But we're talking about content that is rather common within the genre. It wasn't over the line for all these other games, so why arbitrarily pronounce it over the line now?
Again, yes they are within their rights, but I (we) believe it is not the right thing to do. And want them to hear our voice- to understand that we believe it's the wrong decision, regardless of whether or not they are within their rights.
@BinaryFragger
They better keep those grubby, content-gutting fingers off my Fire Emblem or they're gonna see Lunatic Mode for real.
How important this change is is a matter of opinion, which is exactly what comment sections are for! Kudos to all who have respectfully expressed theirs on this topic! The internet can be such an unhappy place...
@ikki5 I should have stopped reading all this garbage after your first couple of comments. You show so much common sense and level headedness. Two thumbs up. Couldn't agree more. Same goes for @Yorumi, @JaxonH, @PlywoodStick and @rjejr, and it's a nice balance in between all the "righteous defenders" of the removal of a feature that they don't even fully understand. Instead, most of them are piling the justified censoring of the character costume onto the unjustified removal of avatar customization. I suppose comprehensive reading truly is a skill that doesn't come naturally. Oh, well....
People, it's not about the breasts: it's about removal of a feature that is considered normal in these types of games. Why put it in one version and remove it in another? If it really is an issue in some areas, then why not simply make one version of the game that will be approved in ALL areas so that there doesn't have to be any removal of features in the first place? Problem solved...
@WireWare Oh my, you're SO wrong. Biologically, the primary, no: ONLY reason for women to have breasts is nothing more than to have milk glands for the feeding of their offspring. Sure, body parts can be touched and stimulated and people invariably are sensitive to most of the known parts, but to say it's biologically defined is way off. The word biological implies that it is either necessary or useful from an evolutionary/procreational point of view and having them as sex organs isn't.
Obviously, nowadays society (read: men) have made them into sexual organs because of how media portrays women, but If breasts are of a sexual origin by nature, then a cow's udders would also be sexual... (but of course only humans count, otherwise that limited perception won't hold up to scrutiny)
This is a decision that as been made during the localisation process to not include or alter an option / feature of the original release. This has happened many times in the past and will happen many times in the future , across all media. I don't agree with it , but I can understand it. I didn't agree with the alterations to Project Zero either , but again I can understand it. Thanks to the internet and the greater communication it offers , we as consumers are more aware of these regional changes than ever before. Unfortunately , thanks to the internet , it is easy for the morally outraged to create an outcry bandwagon that can be hopped on by many a keyboard warrior ( eg : Tomodachi Life ) My worry is that Nintendo are starting to remove / alter things in a pre- emptive way to avoid this kind of backlash. If this is done with the blessing of the creators then OK , I can accept it. If not , then that IS censorship and we are on a very slippery slope. It seems to me though , whenever Nintendo is involved the outcry / backlash is far more severe. Look at the reaction to Street Fighter V been altered by Capcom on PushSquare - oh wait , they haven't even mentioned it.
@TheRealThanos " I suppose comprehensive reading truly is a skill that doesn't come naturally. Oh, well... "
I'm blaming it on the title. I think western civilization is conditioned to react a certain way to headlines, either good or bad. In this case this title - "You Can't Alter The Chest Size Of Female Characters" - reads as something being removed form all the female characters i the game. But it's my understanding from watching the video that the customization option was only available in Japan for your own avatar. If such a thing exists in the game. To be honest w/ you I'm not sure what's going on any more. Emphasis on not "sure". But if the "bust slider" only applied to your custom avatar, the title is misleading, and has led the readers astray into an unnecessary riot I think.
And why are there almost 500 comments on this topic? That's nuts. OK, nuts might have been a bad choice of word there. Nintendo says twice Zelda U is coming out in 2015, then it disappears off the face of the earth and we get maybe 120 comments, remove a boob slider for a custom avatar and the comments never end. Crazy. Wonder what will happen when everybody realizes Playboy is no longer doing nudes?
@Yorumi That part I get. I was just stating that there's some people that wouldn't make something out of nothing.
I understand some of the thing Nintendo do is dumb and questionable to the point I wonder if it still have a future with the other 2 consoles. I guess I become too mellow compared to the me 15 years ago. Also with the internet I learn it's impossible to make everyone happy or the have order since everyone have their own preference and motives which turns into it's own focus group.
At some points saying "I don't care" is the same as saying "I defend it" even if the feature have no effect on the core gameplay or dialogue.
I used to stress on Wii U not getting some of the 3rd party games I want, now I just get the ones I can on PC instead. Sometimes people have to remember that Nintendo is a business and not to get too emotionally attached on a personal level.
@Yorumi Well yeah Iknew 2015 was just a placeholder at E3, but when Anouma said "no worries" it would be out in 2015 on Dec 5th, just 26 days before 2015, well I have to give the guy some semblance of credibility to say that live w/ the entire gaming community watching. He should have said "we're trying our best" or something else a little more open ended. Not "no worries". And if that wasn't bad enough, it's now been 11 months and all we've seen is about 8 seconds in the last ND. 8 seconds in 11 months and all we get is "2016". 2016 is in 45 days, they need to narrow it down more than that after all this time. Holiday. Autumn. Q4. It was supposed to be out in 2015, how much longer can they need?
So it's not really about the placeholder E3 2015 date, it's about Dec 5th and 11 months of silence and now all we get is a 2016 placeholder date. Apparently Zelda needs to have a boob slider in Zelda U if they want anybody to care.
@rjejr Yeah, after going well beyond the 400 comments mark I think we can safely assume this is one of the more successful click baits in ages, if not THE most successful here on NLife...
@TheRealThanos If only Pachter had his own boob slider we could easily hit 4 digits.
@rjejr for Pachter I'd rather have a "stfu" slider...
@ Tempestryke
I'm no healer but get me a cloak, I'll grab my staff & see if I get da feeling for some serious healing 😂
But in all seriousness, a slider would never be accurate anyways.. Surprised none of the ladies (or knowledgable men) have mentioned that no two boobs on a woman are the same size anyway! Separate sliders for left/right then full customisation for back sizes - how long do u wanna spend making an avatar??
Censorship is there & here to stay to protect the more impressionable among us - although I don't remember anyone making a noise about the faeries in Zelda & Cia in Hyrule Warriors! Oh because they're already made that way it's fine, Nintendo have sent mixed msgs in its games from back to the Snes days.
Yes they are a family friendly company 1st & foremost, but they accept that not all users are rated U hence the mature titles. However with a game such as XCX with such a similar play style to MH obviously they'll want to appeal to the masses - u can have a semi-clothed '13 y/o' but no T rated adjustments.
I'm hoping that those who have chosen not to purchase this game due to removed customisation rethink their choice - our console needs all the love it can get ❤️🕹
@TheRealThanos I'm pretty sure that one is just a grayed out radio button, not a slider, permanently set to ON.
@Yorumi Same here.
I guess I seen Nintendo in this and similar situations so many times over the years, I just learn to focus less on the "politics" of it (especially the console wars) and more on the general game itself. I won't lie, I do get baited in on certain topics from time to time.
@rjejr if only...
@PlywoodStick Personally, I don't care about the adjustments made to any game. From the looks of it, it didn't affect any aspect of the game and it never added anything extra to the overall story. So, in my opinion, they can tweak whatever they want. Why boob size is even an issue is even an option is beyond me, real boobs of large size would hamper ones ability to do what the game character does. So, if people want boobs that are enormous, they should make a physics engine that factors in gravity and the laws of motion in regards to breast size and rapid movement. Pretty sure it would drag every character down to the point that no one would want a character with large breasts again.
@andrea987 Yeah, by no rating board I meant it won't affect the rating anywhere. There is no rating board that would allow the costumes(which are only censored on Lin) to retain a certain rating but increase it due to a boob slider. It's obvious you don't know what you're talking about if you think it's obvious that this was about ratings. You're really not very good at this.
@tpcstudios You're kind of a try hard in a bad way, since you seemed to put in effort and didn't actually get anywhere. I'm not even going to explain. You don't understand the world enough to get it.
Not even sure what your comment actually means. However, I understand the world plenty and those who complain about a video games ability to adjust fake boobs to the size of their liking; are either very disconnected from real life or are so uncomfortable with their own appearance, that they need to project their desires onto a fake cartoon character. Understanding the world is more than what a video game has to offer, its understanding why people want it and what it says about them.
Is it just me that finds removing this feature more offensive then it's inclusion.
I'm a guy so it doesn't effect me particularly but it does effect girls and woman that have big breasts i feel like removing this feature is not going oh we respect women with big breasts i think this is disrespectful of women with big breasts
Almost like they're being shamed as they no longer have the option to make there character look like them...
I dunno this situation rubs me the wrong way any censorship does but i truly believe removing this should bring more criticism then celebration this is not a step forward its a step back.
Everyone is all different shapes and sizes and where possible in games where customising your character is possible that should be facilitated breasts are not to be embarrassed of them girls have them its not a big deal
As an addendum i also think this negatively impacts girls with small breasts god knows girls and teenagers are bombarded with these images of perfection all over the place the last thing they need is more. The breasts the character now has which is uneditable are still much larger then average which might make a girl with small breasts equally disconnected with the character and lead her to compare herself to this character thats not fair. As i said above bodies should be celebrated in all shapes and forms and it is not for anyone to tell anyone the way they should luck everyone is perfect the way they are.
Basically my rant is this is not a more "inclusive" change it's a much more "exclusive" and as i said that is inherently wrong in 2015 period
@tpcstudios OK I'll give you a few hints.
HINT: People can't jump 50 feet or off a cliff in real life without taking damage.
HINT: Women in general already can't do what men can do physically.
HINT: You ain't no psychologist.
Obvious Hint: You don't add negatives to a feature just to make your buyers feel bad about using them, and it wouldn't work anyway.
Hint: You're funny.
Actually, people can jump off cliffs and live to tell about it. It's called cliff diving, cliff jumping and on occasion, it's called an accidental fall with a lucky outcome.
Women have proven to be capable of beating men in some physical events. However, I don't think the two should compete against or with one another. Games are a lie in this area.
I may not be a documented psychologist but I have plenty of life experience that provide appropriate insight in many aspect of life.
While it won't really effect the experience for me, I fail to see the point of doing this... Honestly, if they're concerned with the image of the company, I feel like removing this feature will draw more attention to it's existence than leaving it alone.
@TheRealThanos The mad titan is here!
What's the point of getting it now?
Thanks for the awful censorship, NINTENDO. I will no longer be buying this game when it's out, unless they give us an uncensored version. Why remove outfits? The character isn't even human and is also a video game character... Even in real life if you go to the beach, you will see plenty of young girls in swim suits so what's the problem?? Why on earth would they remove the breast slider? I just don't understand. Females in real life, like myself, don't have just one breast size. Why can't I make my character have the same proportions as me?? Why does Nintendo discriminate against women with large or flat chests? It's not fair. Another thing, probably the most important, WHY would you rewrite parts of the story and remove religious things from it?? Respect the original creators ideas!!! Stop trying to appeal to westerners and make things 'safe' for small children. Even they know what all of these things are like crosses, or breasts. There are ratings for a reason. Us westerners don't want the story changed! Why do you think we like anime/manga? Not because it's trying to be like western shows or comics, but because it's different! Nintendo has altered and censored many games in the past for no good reason, like Fatal Frame, Bravely Default, Zelda Triforce Heroes, Fire Emblem, etc. Stop altering everything, putting in memes/western culture, rewriting parts of the story and removing costumes and content! This Censorship needs to stop! Give us the uncensored version of this game!
@tpcstudios Bro you don't even know how to say @Fee .
@uguuer
To be honest, that sort of censoring worries me a lot more. Modifying the religious imagery and what it was actually supposed to refer to bothers me a lot more than this censorship, no offense to the people who do mind it.
Changing the meaning itself of the organizations, as well as the iconography, does not hurt the plot but it definitely hurts the experience in my humble opinion. As you said Beyond the Logos Artificial Destiny Emancipator (B.L.A.D.E) is completely different in its implication from Builders of the Legacy After the Destruction of Earth, as well as Testament to Reclaimers. It is completely different from the creators' vision and what they originally intended to imply, obviously on a minor scale, since it doesn't change the story or anything.
Not to say that I do not mind this censorship. It does hurt the experience for some as I believe in playing the original game as it was meant to be played, but I won't get worked up over it, considering the other localization changes are a lot more significant than omitting a feature of an already sparse character creation tool.
And this is one of the longest comment sections I have seen on NL, congratulations everyone!
@TwilightAngel Yes he is, my friend, yes he is... (although the mad part has gone on permanent vacation. Haven't been mad for ages. More like tired of pointless arguments and being addressed on mistakes instead of actual points that matter. Oh, well...)
@Eden_Valkyrie - Monster Masume, an anime about monster girls was censored despite being made in japan, non-human characters and also don't exist.
Young girls on the beach in One-Piece swimsuits. You don't see 10-13 year olds with revealing skimpy swimsuits.
NoA isn't discriminating women, because they're too busy dealing with the fact that Localization means to change the game so it's legal here. Japan can be a little Misogynistic to there women all they want by making 13 year-olds look skimpy for the sake of pleasing Otaku, but you're asking, the west, to respect that despite the west and Japan having different cultures. Don't go to the extreme about being a feminist, cause I believe you're not taking this into different views. Have you ever had the thought that, if it wasn't for that whole 13 year old character incident that Japan put in, then maybe the Breast Slider wouldn't have been removed. NoA are just skeptical about who the target audience is.
Again, understand what Localization really means.
Color me crazy here but maybe we don't continue to use games to sexualize and objectify women? Does breast size really matter to gamers? Last time I checked we aren't allowing gamers to adjust 'pants bulge size' for male characters.
Seriously? This is just getting freakin ridiculous now. Anyone who seen me talk about this stuff before knows I don't like fanservice either. And I everyone bringing up the ESRB, and saying it's to keeps T rating, it's not. You can have a bust size editor is a T rated game easy. At worst (if it event does this), it gives a game mild suggestive themes. This already has suggestive themes.
@Fingeldor Because that would just be crude and gross. Soemthing like this though, is just part of character design. It has a pretty obvious affect on it. This also would allow women to better recreate themselves in games.
@Jaz007 You're joking, right? It's not "obvious" to me at all. Create a proportionate breast size and move on. Isn't breast size just as arguably 'crude' and 'gross'? It seems entirely subjective to me. Your entire counter argument here is 'penis = gross' while 'breast = not gross'. Give me a break.
@Fingeldor Take a closer look at those around you, and you'll see. I've never really noticed a bulge on someone. It doesn't stick out on a person. Bust size does. Different people look and are physically shaped differently, and this would represent that.
@Fee I'm not very good at what, complaining about the removal of something I already deem inappropriate? I'm glad I'm not very good, then!
It's clear they done it to increase the target audience, whether or not that affects the rating is something those boards should reveal, or Nintendo. It's just the logical explanation, not because they're "prude" or something, they're about making money, after all.
@Jaz007 What women out there are complaining in any capacity about the fact their female avatar does not have adequate breast size? I mean, we already live in an incredibly objectified society where women are spread across all forms of media as sexual creatures. The reverse is hardly true which is why I mentioned the pants bulge. I'm a man and I can clearly see there is no desire for that feature because men do not care. Where are the droves of female gamers who are demanding larger breast size or more objectification and sexualization in media and games of their bodies? We need less of it, not more.
@Yorumi When did I suggest that women are born with different size breasts? Even if I did, how is it an untrue statement? I would never suggest under any circumstances that women should not be seen in public. I literally have no idea what you're saying or how to respond. Trolling?
With respect to the comment section, I have no idea who is truly male or female but my wife echoes my sentiments as do many other women I've met. While I can't speak for every female gamer on the planet, I feel quite certain there has never been a real demand for larger breasts among the female demographic. If I'm wrong, please provide some kind of irrefutable evidence of a movement or protest in favor of it. I suspect there aren't any though.
@manic221
Female gamer here with big breasts. I don't feel excluded because I would not be able to adjust the breast size to be larger for the sake of relatability. My breasts have been with me for well over 20 years now. They are an extension of me no more so than my hands and feet. Rarely do I even think about them unless they get in the way of me trying to reach for something. I think if they were proportionate to the body size (as hands and feet are) that would be fine.
I think a lot of guys here are trying to make an argument to include the customization on behalf of women and at least from my point of view, it's a silly argument/issue.
Things I can actually control in real life like hair, outfit and accessories are more important to me. Those are the things I adjust daily. Those are the only things I care about. I play Guild Wars 2. You are able to adjust the breast size. I made mine average and spent 10x the amount of time colorizing and customizing my character's outfit.
Hypothetically speaking, I would be more disappointed that I couldn't make my character's hair blue than whether her breasts were accurate to mine.
Perhaps there are women out there that care about adjusting their body type. Fair enough. But it's my opinion that we shouldn't place such emphasis on woman's breasts. There is already enough of it out there making young girls insecure.
Woman are expected to have big breasts and tiny waists as seen in nearly every anime character that ever existed in a video game. I would love, for once, if we could just look at breasts as nothing more than a body part that women have and that's it.
Stop making breasts something that we are supposed to care about!
@Yorumi I NEVER said I wanted the slider. Never happened. Not me. That would indicate the opposite of what I'm trying to say here and it would negate your counter argument. You've confused me with someone else or you're trolling. You're also mincing my words here, quite badly. What I am suggesting is that by including the feature, it only serves to continue objectifying and sexualizing the female figure. This is echoed in most corners of the feminist movement but you would need to educate yourself on that matter. It's not my responsibility to do that for you. Do your research.
@Yorumi You are sorely out of touch with modern reality and feminism. What you're saying here is that breast choice is greater than media objectification and sexualization of women. Do you know how many women would find that offensive?
@Yorumi What name have I called you? I have only suggested that perhaps you are trolling. I'll just conclude that there's a misunderstanding about the slider. As indicated by Bazzlin's comments — a FEMALE btw — it's clear there is no consensus on the inclusion of a 'breast size slider' as you're espousing here.
@Yorumi
I'm one of those that could care less about the slider. Whether it's there or not is unimportant to me. What I do care about is making sure woman do not feel insecure as a result.
Some make them smaller, that's fine. Some larger. Ok. My point is that I would rather not see such emphasis placed on the ability to adjust them at all. Why the heck is this even a headline?
Also, you cherry picked one of the least important lines in my comment. I'll remove it if it makes you happy. Though, as you can clearly see in my comment I said 'nearly all'. Not 'all'.
My point still stands though. Women are expected to have tiny waists and big breasts. That is what society tells us. Women are constantly being sexualized and objectified. You can not argue this fact.
@Yorumi
I think he is calling you a troll because many of your arguments do not make sense. Not because they are different.
Also, I'm not sure if you were referring to me, but I'm no feminist. In fact, I'm not a big fan of them because many tend to go too far to the point of criminalizing men. Which I find wrong.
I simply would love to stop having conversations and seeing headlines about breasts.
@Yorumi Your comment is all straw man here. I never said 'all women should look the same'. I mean, if a girl has green hair and the avatar choice does not include green hair, according to your logic, the game makers aren't being sensitive to women. Of course that's ridiculous. An avatar cannot possibly provide all conceivable options for a female to look precisely like the player.
One thing that seems clear to me is that as a '32 year old male', you clearly know very little about feminism, objectification or sexualization of women which is entirely absent from all of your responses. You never provided any evidence that female gamers care in any capacity about the inclusion of a breast size slider in video games. We both know it doesn't exist though.
You've also accused me of name-calling to which I asked you to explain when and where I did it. Of course, we both know that didn't happen and you've failed to provide any evidence of it. Suggesting that you might be 'trolling' should not — and cannot — be conflated with name-calling. That's ridiculous and you know it.
I'm mostly disinterested in your arguments because — as I've already stated — your position is that 'breast choice' is greater than objectification and sexualization of female figures. In feminism, this is seen as a common ailment in the media and if you did your research, you would understand that.
@Yorumi I'm done. You are highly ignorant about feminism, objectification and sexualization of women. What you're advocating for here is that 'breast size choice' is above all, more important to female gamers when evidence (largely outside of Nintendo Life) all points to women who want LESS sexualization of their bodies in the media. That includes games. I'm absolutely finished speaking with you. Go argue within feminist circles about your superior logic and see how important women believe 'breast size' on their game avatar is. Oh wait, just talk to Bazzlin.
@Yorumi
Also, I'm done too. You are impossible to have a conversation with. I'm not even looking to change your mind. Just have a debate. But you are being offensive.
@andrea987 "increase target audience" "logical explanation" The heck are you on about? People come up with shallow reasons to avoid admitting they're wrong.
@Fingeldor: Lawl. Ignorant about ignorance? Feminists don't speak for women. They speak for themselves. I'm not going to elaborate, too ignorant. You wouldn't understand. I don't believe @Bazzlin's 7 hour account speaks for women either.
@Fee I don't read Nintendo Life but saw the article on Twitter and decided to comment. Had to create an account for that...
I love how men continue to make decisions and weigh in on issues that only affect women...
So... Nintendo is censoring boob size now? It's not like she's naked. How is this supposed to be taken by girl gamers who have bigger breasts than the character in game? That they're somehow "indecent" or in need of censorship even when clothed? Come on, NOA, join the 21st century and stop the routine censoring of art.
Real talk:
Removing the breast slider may have been dumb and unnecessary, but not buying the game over it is the most silly thing I can think of.
It's like not buying a car because they didn't put a plastic slider over the vanity mirror under the passenger side sun visor.
It's so minimal and has no impact on the actual game itself.
@Yorumi It's not difficult to understand, by removing as little content as possible (in a huge game, AND leaving a great deal of customization, I might add) they made it more accessible to the people (I agree, we're getting less by the hour) who find such content inappropriate. They obviously didn't account for all the little entitled gamers/trolls of the west, who thinks (or pretend to, I'm still convinced a true gamer couldn't miss it for this) that removing a girl in a skimpy outfit and a slider would be a game-breaker. Bye now, I took the bait for too long already.
@Fee I can't see a more shallow reason than the one people are using to justify (or pretend to, I suspect - and hope, in a way) boycotting the game. Again, bye now, had enough trolling for one article, lol.
500th
Edit - Someone screwed me. Took my place... as rightful owner of the 500th.
I can't believe people are still using the 'body type' line with a straight face.
They hadn't provided customisable body type, they provided customisable boob type.
If there was a list of customisable body parts (that's body parts, not facial features), I'm sure it would have made the western cut. As it stood, they avoided it.
Even if you don't agree, is it so hard to imagine that this might not be nanny-state censorship, but rather a product owner finding good enough reason to make an insignificant change according to market taste?
Oh but wait, breasts are "nothing more than milk glands". It turns out all boob related sexualisation has actually been nothing but mere coincidence all along.
Thanks TheRealThanos!
@Bazzlin Men rule the world. Truth? You're not getting anything in this world to change unless men agree to it. "I simply would love to stop having conversations and seeing headlines about breasts." Good good. Request it, but it takes us to stop. Men weighing in bothers you? Great. You honestly believe you could get anything if men didn't vouch for you to get it? It's not like you can force us. Every time one of you goes on like this you are literally begging for our pity.
You grievously misjudged my character if you thought that stupid line would work on me. I'm not speaking for women either. I'm not arrogant enough to think I do, and judging by the "arrogant" post I just made you'd have to be pretty arrogant to think that.
EDIT: Fixed my paraphrase. Honestly I barely read any of your posts but if you're going on about objectification you are a feminist or no better, regardless of what you identify.
@andrea987 It's really not difficult to understand. No one was going to skip the game because it had a boob slider. You're not so shallow as I right? I'm skipping because they removed and changed, but if they'd left it the same you'd have still bought it right? So how is the audience increased? It's us petty perverts that would skip it over such a small feature, not you real gamer types.(I'm not even being sarcastic)
By the way are you really not going to respond anymore? You seem the type who says they won't and then does it anyway. =/
@Fee
I'm not trying to say anything to your character. I don't know you. I don't know if you are arrogant. I don't really care. I do think you are a bit sensitive. But it's ok, I'm sensitive too.
As far as 'speaking for women', I don't know if you are. I didn't claim that you were. Nor would I ever claim to speak for all women either.
If I am a feminist because I'm tired of my body parts being sexualized, because I'm tired of being sexually harassed, hit on and pursued by some men purely for the sake of sex, then sure, I'm a feminist. If recognizing that women are constantly objectified makes me a feminist, I guess I am. But I know what that feels like first hand, have cried about it and my self-esteem crushed over and over again as a result and I wouldn't necessarily call my reaction feminist. But if you want to, fine. However, I do not agree with feminists who generalize, degrade and otherwise criminalize men.
My comment was not meant to do anything to you. It was meant to share my opinion. And in my opinion, if men are going to stick up for women, I'd rather they realize and consider that, to some women, not being seen as a sex object is more important than whether their body type is represented in a video game. And that because some women have the opposite opinion, it's best to just remain neutral or stay out of it in general. But again, that's just my opinion.
We can not ask men to change what my fiance calls the 'male agenda'. Men do rule the world. And I agree, requesting men stop talking about it won't change anything either. But I disagree that it takes men to stop it. It takes women speaking up against it. And I think I have earned the right to at least complain. And I'm not sorry about it.
At any rate, an arguably better woman would use my energy in more productive ways than to entertain responding to someone who doesn't care to even read my comments....
@Bazzlin (Huh? No E-mail notification? Oh well.)
Oh...that was a decent post. I didn't read most of your posts because typically it's just a back and forth of everyone repeating what they said in their first post, which is just a repeat of what someone else said in an earlier post. I didn't read @Yorumi's posts either. But you're right that I don't care, and it is a waste of time responding to me. Anyway I think it's funny you called me sensitive. Maybe it's true I don't know. It's not true in this case but elsewhere maybe...nah compared to the average person I don't think so, but I do have certain pet peeves. Whatever.
I admit I'm pretty passionate about this type of thing. I don't get mad, but I like to talk about it. End of the day, I kind of agree with you, but of course in the Fee way. Women never all agree on anything so I never try to defend "rights" or whatever. I don't keep out though. I make fun. In this case, based on posts I've seen, the women who would prefer the breast slider was still there outnumber you about 3:1 but I can't say for sure, and I only care about what I want anyway.
Honestly I think people have degraded it so far that anyone complaining at this point is just making it worse to the point everyone who's not in their camp will just hate and/or look down on them(like Fee does). But you don't have to apologize. If you think there's a use for it go ahead. It's true that you have to talk if you want people to listen, but at this point people probably don't want to listen even if you do talk. Might be a problem, but it's not mine. I guess we're done talking here though. This article has been very long.
@Grumblevolcano Have you found out about the slider thing for the EU version?
@starcatcher77
Oh I love this guy.
@ProjectCafe Well, I don't necessarily fully agree with what I said here anymore, this was mostly the fact my parents are fundamentalist catholics.
Now I more so think it's women's choice, and we shouldn't just have every single female character sexualized.
There was the controversy over Smash 4 Zero Suit Samus being sexualized, but I just think it shows how badass somebody can be, and still be sexy. It reinforces how women have more to them than just big boobs and butts, and curvy hips.
@starcatcher77
Ah... I remember when Zero Suit Samus was announced to have her Zero Mission costume in Smash 4, and everybody went ballistic, even though that's actually how she would look in HD 3D.
Hm.
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