Zelda: Breath Of The Wild Hacker Arrested For Selling Modified Save Data

This is ridiculous! Game saves do not even contain copyrighted material. This Japanese law really needs to be abolished...

gotta respect the hustle here, hard to believe this many people were willing to pay ~33 bones for a save

Imagine paying extra money just to not even have any of the game left to play. Pretty pathetic

😊I'm SOOO GLAD the information I gave to the appropriate authorities lead to this arrest.

And the Reward money will be spent well... 😉

@IpwnedU123 actually that law is fairly important but its more to prevent cheating in other games that it actually would matter like competitive games.

@Deppasois wait you reported it? Its cool that you commented on here.

I mean ok??? But the fact people will pay for this is what boggles my mind.

@The-Chosen-one LMAO

I honestly question the people who bought a save file more than this guy

Why should Nintendo or the police care? Jesus, 2019? Game was 2 years old by then. He didn't sell pirated copies, just hacks for existing copies.

Nintendo, if this cuts into your market, then show us your p2w microtransactions for BOTW. If you don't have those, then wtf profit was this guy cutting into?

Just to clarify, he was arrested for "providing services to circumvent the technical restrictions [of software or hardware]". The crime isn't selling the save file, the crime is the fact that the save file was made using a illegally modified switch and / or emulation.

I talk up Japan a lot, but the justice system is sort of a two edged sword. Where this is the type of thing that might see some legal challenge in the US, social pressure in Japan sees almost all people who are accused confessing to crimes almost instantly, even when they are not guilty or the charges are a bit fishy.

@BLD

Well one thing you might not know, and this is true BTW, is that Nintendo are not in charge of the legal system in Japan. It's actually the police who arrest people for violating laws agreed upon by the hilariously named "The National Diet", a two body parliament.

So when this guy broke a cyber security law by illegally modifying a Switch to make this save, the police didn't even bother calling Nintendo before arresting him! It's not the save file that's illegal, it's selling anything made by circumvent the technical restrictions placed on hardware or software.

Selling it is dumb. Buying it is dumber.
I'm no pro, but I've beaten BOTW multiple times and the joy of playing comes from the playing. Building Link up to a homeowner/rare motorcycle collector.
Game Genie got away with circumventing hardware for years for profit.

@Anti-Matter Woaaah.. I think that's a little bit too much for something like this.

@The-Chosen-one
This is what I used to say about those busted in the Napster days. “What’chu in here for?” “Uhh, I downloaded mp3s. “ “Too bad you got such a pretty mouth!”

Whoa. I'm going to feel so badass next time I visit Japan knowing I'm like a criminal mastermind apparently.

I honestly don't understand this all case. I don't understand the very fact that there's even a market for this.

Like... we don't even talk about an MMORPG, where some players can be encouraged to boost theirs characters in order to catch up with friends, or else.

We're talking about an adventure game. A solo, offline, game. So what was the point of all that ? In the name of Hyrule, WHO BUY THIS KIND OF THING ? o_O

I’m struggling to find what he did illegally. Am I missing something here? This is a single player game, with virtually zero online capabilities- his exploits don’t affect any other player that wishes to play normally. He wasn’t selling copies of the game- to use his save states you still needed to own your own copy of the game. You’re allowed to sell entire digital libraries of games, but you can’t individually sell their save states? And gamers modify, change, and examine game data all the time. Speedrunning, glitches, cheats, exploits, it’s all a part of video games. If he legally bought the game, and the person he’s selling to needs a legally bought version also, what business is it of the publishers or law enforcement? Where does the ownership of a game begin and end?

Idk man, this would be a legit fight in the courts, at least here in the US

It's actually quite impressive that there's a law for this. I just think about the UK government who's so archaic they want to get rid of encryption because they don't understand what it is.

@VoidofLight @Zuljaras : If you thought he was merely being hyperbolic for comic effect, then you must not have known him for very long.

@Silly_G

I don't know, I thought @Anti-Matter hated violence and found it disturbing. I saw him say this many times in comments about m-rated games. 🤨🤔

The law is basically intended to protect online games and stop people using mods and hacks which enable piracy if I'm not mistaken.

This guy got caught within the broad boundaries.

@Clyde_Radcliffe Honestly same. The guy hates violence, but yet advocates for someone who modded their switch and sold save data to be "killed".

@HeadPirate That's not much better, since modifying your hardware and using emulation shouldn't be illegal.

@Clyde_Radcliffe
Oh, i was imagining head shot from Ratchet & Clank. 😅

As usual some of the dumbest comments you will find on the internet slide under an article like this. Some of you need help. Your morale compass is messed up.

@VoidofLight the other day someone defended him from “trolls” I pointed out he is the biggest troll on here

@Anti-Matter Having an opinion is fine, but let's not start calling for the person to be killed. I've seen you to it more than once before. Just don't do it, that isn't healthy behaviour.

@Deppasois Wow, this is the worst bait I've ever seen in my life lmaooooo

Makes me feel guilty for buying shiny pokemon off ebay..... Not

I wonder if action replay was available in Japan

@benchan That's a terrible take.

If something shouldn't be illegal, we don't shrug and go "oh well, the law is the law" we should go "hey, that shouldn't be illegal".

@Anti-Matter Missed your first post, but I think I got it. Keep posting, always enjoy.

@Jacoby Really wish the mods would stop deciding for us what we might or might not find "offensive" 😐 We're not babies and can handle seeing a weird remark or someone having very hardline views on law and order. We're perfectly capable to scroll past comments we don't like or challenge them ourselves if we wish to. Let's not turn the place into a bland echo chamber.

You can smell and feel the dirty lobbyistic Law set up by Software Companies in Japan.

@benchan The ideas that are shared become internalised by those that read it. If everybody is apathetic towards property rights, then no one cares when rights are taken away. If people care, then it's harder to take away rights without backlash.

https://www.equalityhumanrights.com/en/human-rights-act/article-1-first-protocol-protection-property

Freedom to enjoy your property is a basic human right.

Sure, I definitely want to pay for the "ultimate save file" when there are probably many other people giving out theirs for free.

@YoungLink64 depends what city and state you're in now. Lots of crimes getting decriminalized. Apparently in Japan, that is not the case.

yeah thats just silly XD its save data man

@PBandSmelly it probably included all the amiibo content in the save.

@SuperSpreader Loosen up big fella

Maybe it's just my experience as an American growing up with Game Genie, Game Shark, and Pro Action Replay... As well as some very direct Pokemon save hackers (I mainly used those for their ability in the GB/C days to save Pokemon before a game reset and put your party into the new save)... But this seems excessive as heck. The American legal system would be quite busy if they started arresting people who had circumvented hardware restrictions. In fact, companies tried to make that illegal and lost. I'm not a lawyer, but I also think the correlation here of "selling something made on circumvented hardware" isn't a link (no pun intended) that would apply here. If he was selling copyrighted material, yes. But what device he used to violate copyright would be a secondary, if at all. And if he wasn't violating intellectual property, he wouldn't be ARRESTED. The worse I can picture happening is violated terms of service and facing account locks or event banning from the company itself.

I guess to the Japanese we must look pretty wild. Our store shelves have 3rd party combination "retro" consoles, and people frequently sell reproduced retro carts online. And selling saves? People sell whole accounts, modified consoles, have people clear content for them for a price. I guess seeing the word arrested gave me a moment of culture shock. Similar to how it throws me when a fan group works on a mod and a Japanese rights holder drops an indiscriminate ban hammer, while western contemporaries often advertise on the strength of their fan modding community lol. Bethesda fans will release unofficial expansions, clone whole commercial games inside other commercial games, and drop bug fix packs so integral the company highlights them. Squenix fans had drama over a couple of Chrono Trigger fan side games that were non profit. I'm way off topic so I'll shush up.

Free my boy Sho!

@ItsOKToBeOK my understanding is that selling the saves themselves wasn't the issue, it was the way he was creating them by screwing with software/hardware that was the crime. Selling the saves was just how they found him

@benchan "lol if you think people online are being influenced and internalizing your ideals, you're a narcissist."

I don't think my eyes have ever rolled so hard.

"No one is being apathetic towards anyone's property rights. It even states in your article that property can be taken away if not used within the confines of the law. While enjoying your property lawfully is absolutely legal, altering licensed software and selling it is not."

You might want to try re-reading and understanding your rights. I don't know if you are being intentionally misleading and conflating legal with moral, but it's scary.

It does not say they can take it away if it's illegal, it says" There are some situations in which public authorities can take things you own or restrict the way you use them. This is only possible where the authority can show that its action is lawful and necessary for the public interest". In short, the government have to justify their restrictions. Otherwise they could just make anything illegal and stop you doing it "because it's illegal"

You haven't even attempted to justify the law. You've only defended the law based on its already established status of being law. That sounds very authoritarian to me.

"Happy virtue signaling"

Oh...

¥10 million is $95,000+.

That's insane.

@abe_hikura I don't think it was even just that, I think the problem was that he was selling the screwed up software, I may be wrong though, not entirely sure

This is ludicrous. Action Replay and Game Genie were a thing for years. Now it’s some sort of massive crime?

I always remember people uploading their saves onto Gamefaqs for older games i.e. PS2 or Gamecube.

@Bobobiwan from what I gathered it's illegal in Japan to use modified consoles or emulators for any purpose, that's why he was arrested.

So if I saw a game genie in a pawn shop in japan I would call the authorities? This feels a bit extreme.

@PBandSmelly I don't know. If I had a child with special needs and he/she struggled even with the most basic of enemies, 30 bucks doesn't seem like a bad investment to boost the initial stats so he/she can enjoy the game.

Imagine being the police and losing time with this kind of "crimes"...

Hahahahaaha good

This is just really odd to me. Sure I get it's a law to stop cheating in online competitive games..but a single player offline game? Man who gives a rats butt. Impressive money he made for something so pointless though.

I think the polices time could be better spent than arresting people for 'crimes' like this

@HeadPirate just signal boosting your post because it's the most important points of this story. As usual everyone hyperfocuses on the game that happened to be in play and completely misses that Japanese law is very different compared to most countries.

@ItsOKToBeOK

Japan has really strange Laws, editing Code counts as Copy Right Infraction.

@Azuris It's not just editing code. He'd have just gotten an IP ban or an account lock. He was selling the hacks. Nintendo doesn't like it when people are making money off of their stuff, and will go after anyone who does so unless the law states unambiguously that they cannot do so.

[Removed - offensive remarks]

@Narrator1
Yeah, but as long as he does not sell hacks for cheating online.
I remember (Hacked) Save Games being on Discs from Playstation Magazines, something as the Action Replay /Game Genie also hacks your Game activly.
On the PC you have also Trainers that do what a Action Replay does.

As bigger a Company grows, as more Paranoia it seems to get to "lose Control" over their Products.
Bethesda for Example has Games with an ultra big Modding Community, but they are trying to bind that on their Services.
They just are afraid of Fan Sites and something like Nexus Mods.
Blizzard also renews their classics to bind them on their Service.
Warcraft 3 Classic is dead.

Nintendo and Sony have a big Influence in Politics in Japan.
Thats why they have such crazy Laws there.
In Europe the Equivalent are some Press Companies as Axel Springer, bringing up Laws beyond believing.

@tendonerd @abe_hikura @nessisonett @sonicmeerkat @Mr_p00p @Azuris

Alright, so let me try again:

I have no idea how the leap in "logic" is made from this to a game genie being illegal. In order to move a save file from the Switch to a PC and edit it you need to install a new OS on the Switch. That's the illegal part. It is 100% also illegal in the US, Canada, and the EU. The only variation is if you are violating a cyber secretly law (JP), criminally violating TOS you agreed to (EU, CA) or both (US).

This has nothing to do with copyright or Nintendo, but for the record Japan's IP and Copyright laws are ... well they don't have any of their own really. When the US "rebuilt" the economy after WW2, they imposed international treaties on them, so they are bound to enforce most US copyright laws and adopt them into law. The biggest difference is that reproduction for personal use is almost always allowed. So you could, for example, photocopy a textbook or a music score, both illegal in the US. However, if you have to overcome technology to make the copy (like copying a DVD) it's not allowed, even for personal use.

Using a modified console is legal, mostly. As long as you're not advertising that your the one who modified it (which is illegal) no one will care. Emulators are completely legal. While the US always says they are the most free people for all time everywhere, the reality is that in Japan you almost have complete freedom inside your home. A lot of the "possession" laws in the US don't have equivalents in JP. You can't DO drugs in Japan, and it's kind of a big deal. You can't transport drugs. You can't sell drugs. But having drugs in your home isn't a crime, unless (again) you are somehow advertising the connection to one of the crimes above. So you can't modify a console or override software locks ... but you can own a modified console and watch bootleg DVDs. Now like I said, this is a DOUBLE EDGED SWORD. It doesn't always mean things are objectively better. For example, you can privately abuse animals in Japan.

Edit: I guess I should add "UNLESS YOU ARE A NON-CITIZEN RESIDENT". That's a whole different game. Cops see some white dude (like me!) playing Switch they will stop you and demand you prove it isn't hacked.

This is not an exaggeration.

They are SUPER polite at least!

@Azuris

That's just objectively incorrect on every level. Read some history, all of JPs copyright laws were impossible by the US during reconstruction, and the US continues to bully them into updating them to this day.

Lobbing isn't a thing, so big companies have almost no say in government. Also Nintendo is a TINY company. Like minuscule. The least valuable JP company on the Forbes 500 is worth like 10 Nintendos. That's honestly like saying Western Union has a huge say in US politics. Just because it's known worldwide doesn't make it powerful.

Sony is pretty big, actually on the Forbes 500, but if they had any real power in JP politics the laws surrounding every single aspect of their operations that ARE NOT video games, from the huge import / export taxes on screens they sell to other countries to the nightmare that is trying to release one of their US movies in Japan, might be a BIT more favourable.

Hell the most valuable company in Japan is Toyota, followed by Honda, yet Japan's automobile industry is the most regulated in the world, hands down.

Stop assuming every county in the world is the US/EU, only in a different location.

Dang I have never seen so many removed comments in a single article here. So edgy over someone somewhere doing something which may cause something to Nintendo! In Nintendo's favour though, I guess they have suffered in the past generations due to modified saved data being the gateway to piracy, so they maybe trying to nip this at the bud.

@HeadPirate Speaking of fishy. I was told when I landed in Okinawa 25 years ago, you don't want to go to Japanese prison. They feed you fish heads and rice and you have absolutely no rights once you are in there. No thanks.

@tseliot

Generally you want to take statements like that with a grain of salt. Stories of prisons are meant to scare you. Just like the idea of "freedom", horrible conditions means different things to different cultures.

First, fish heads can be delicious! Especially if you are raised on diet of 70%+ fish your whole life. It's also inaccurate; most serve tofu, rice, miso soup and salad. Just like in the US and EU, a lot of going to come down to local laws and the individual prison., but it's always pretty harsh. You 44 hours a week, you have to follow a schedule that's micromanaged to the minute, you can only speak during recreation time (and most prisons only allow you to speak Japanese), you sleep in a room with 6-10 others on a traditional futon, and any infraction is meant with harsh penalties.

Now a lot of that is going to sound like unthinkable torture to people from the West (me included!) ... to a native it's far less horrible. The expectation of a private "room" generally isn't their in the first place because of the small generational homes common in cities, social pressure has to you working 40+ hours a week washing, clearing, sewing, walking to market, and a dozen other domestic tasks at the behest of your parents from around 8 until you go to school and work 80 hours between mandated club membership, class time and homework. You generally don't speak in social situations if someone respectful is present anyways, so it's not much different then if you worked in the same room as your supervisor, and while you might not get beaten or sent to solitary on the outside, the smallest infraction of social norms already leads to extremely harsh treatment.

Treatment of foreigners was bad ... like human's right violation bad ... for a long time. NO compromise was given if your cultural experience made this torture, if you didn't speak Japanese you didn't get to speak and abuse from both guards and other prisoners was common. There was HUGE prison reform act in 2007, and now there are foreigners prisons (or wings) where you get a private room, much nicer food with beef instead of fish, and can speak your own language.

Still, I think staying our of person is generally pretty good advice everywhere in the world. Well ... I guess unless you are American in Norway. The quality of life index for someone in a person in Norway is significantly higher then the average person in the US.

@San_D @YoungLink64 @Narrator1

So since this seems to be easy to miss:
From what we can read in this News, Nintendo didn't do anything at all. It was just the police by themselves.
The fact that it happened to be a Nintendo game that is involved, is basically just a coincidence. Could have been any other game from any other company, it would have changed nothing.

@HeadPirate indeed. Japan is a super great and safe place to live... But, if you think getting arrested by the police for a petty crime in the US is bad in Japan it is beyond worse. The US has a ton of laws and constitutional rights protecting you while in Japan... Not so much.

@benchan "Well that answers the question of narcissism"

If you say so.

"I don't know if you're intentionally dodging the point that selling hacked game files on licensed software has little to do with "enjoying your property""

You didn't make that point though. The only point you ever made was "but it's illegal, therefore it's illegal" And you are literally deflecting right now. My point was that modifying your property is a right, and saying "it's illegal, and therefore not your right" isn't just a bad take, but the worst of takes. We can have a broader discussion about if you should be able to sell modded files, but you never once brought that up, so don't pretend you did.

"but it leads me to believe that you're a customer of these types of services."

I'm not. I don't even buy official microtransactions from companies, why would I buy modded saves?.

But this is part of your attitude that's making me roll my eyes. You're jumping to some big assumptions to back up your own opinion.

"Japan doesn't have an anarchy."

This is the second time you've tried to conflate questioning laws with anarchy. You do understand that it is perfectly reasonable for an individual to question laws without advocating outright breaking the laws?.

And that questioning laws leads to people wanting to change them. Again, this fundamental lack of understanding of how societies change is what lead you to think I just thought I could write one comment on a nintendo website forum and get a law changed in Japan.

"piracy of DLC content"

This is not DLC content. Again, a lack of understanding of rights has lead you to a stance that is just wrong. Nintendo are not selling an alternative of this. They do not sell modified game saves. The modder selling this is not hurting Nintendo financially and as far as a I can tell is not a security risk to the nation either. Which is what lead me to believe this was a violation of human rights. And why, Japan has not justified the arrest for as afar as the details given here.

What's more, if you take this road, where data created by an individual using works created by a company is outright illegal, we end up in a position where video game mods are in questions also.

"Selling hacked/pirated content should be illegal for the sake of everyone who purchases it honestly, and for the sake of those who created the content who've had the profits stolen from them. Happy?"

There you go. You made an argument.

Pirated content, sure I guess. Again, if a company is actively selling the product and you doing the pirating actively hurts their sells, then sure. There's actually a much deeper conversation here, but in principle I agree.

Hacked content. Let's talk about this.

1) What harm does selling hacked content do?

2) And do you see a difference in selling a hacked save file and selling a hacked game?

3) Do you believe in the 'free market'?

Japan is insane...
It's just a save data, and I bet it takes a lot of hard work and time consuming to do all that, so its not even a crime.
And if people buy then it means its a good thing!
He's just selling so he can "live" in this cruel world where we need money to survive...

Here I mock the notion of paying money to skip the grind in freemium RPGs, and people are charging/paying money for skipping pretty much the entirety of a massive retail actventure. As someone who paid through the nose for BotW as eShop's most expensive item at the time but also a guarantee of hundreds of hours of gameplay... I don't even.

Literally insane that such a crime is on the books in Japan.

This is a very strange thing to arrest someone for, and a very strange thing to sell.

@BloodNinja The guy was basically a pirate selling his bootlegs. If he only did it to his own Switch, that's fine. But since he was selling it, that's where the illegal part kicked in.

@NatiaAdamo I understand the law behind it, I’m expressing my dissatisfaction with the law itself. It’s brutal and over the top for what he did, and I have a gut feeling it has to do with the fact that he is a Chinese national than anything else.

@sleepinglion Game Genie got away with circumventing hardware for years for profit.
Still waiting for Game Switch Genie. Experimentation of part of the fun of gaming so don't rain upon just because one doesn't like that hardware. It has it's value and for 3DS games to play with was worth buying it.

@Wexter

Not really sure where you got that from what I wrote. Like basically every country, Japan has a constitution (or founding document declaring rights) and like basically every country that ISN’T the US, it is a list of inclusive rights (you have universal rights exact in these cases) rather then the US’s EXCLUSIVE list of rights (The only rights you have are the ones specifically defined in this document). Yes the police stop foreigners … but that process, called spot checking or carding, is COMMON in the US among it’s own citizens. The UN, world atlas and amnesty international rate Japan as the 5th most free country in the world ... US isn't in the top 20.

Also while talking about police ... the number of people who are killed by police or while in police custody is around 1 every 4 years (population 150 million) while in the US (population 350 million) it’s around 1500 a year. I value freedom not be to murdered by law enforcement pretty highly.

@HeadPirate People always seem to believe their government's propaganda about how great and how free their country is. And how just their cause is when they invade other countries and lock up "their own" people. They are especially good at pointing out the "freedoms" they have and others don't, and then call the others a dictatorship. "Dictere" means "to say", it's the same "dict" as in "jurisdiction" ("juris"= law, so it means they literally just tell you what the law is and you must obey or be punished, all in the name of "freedom", "protection",..), which every government and their police force claims to have. The fact that they're armed to enforce political power through threats and fear makes them terrorists by definition.

Fun fact: a state is literally nothing but a corporation, a government nothing but its board of directors and shareholders, its people nothing but its "human resources" (or "slaves", since they claim to own us and have us work for basic rights), its "law" nothing but company policy, and its police nothing but overseers.
On second thought, that wasn't fun. Still a fact though, and an important one if you want to reclaim the freedom you were born with. Don't ask or expect a government to give it to you. Don't even demand it. Tell them you already have it, and know and feel that it is true, and live that way.

So... back to the topic of the article...

I don't get it. Why pay for having everything done for you in a videogame? And why punish someone who gets paid for changing some code that apparently people want for reasons I don't get? People and their laws are insane.

@HeadPirate I'm referring to when you're arrested. In the US if you ask for a lawyer and are quiet for 48 hours they have to release you. That and in the US you have a better chance to win your case in court. That and the reason people are more likely to be killed by a cop in the US is they are more likely to resist arrest and that is less likely in Japan that's a cultural thing. As for being arrested in Japan you can be held up to 23 days and the police can start interrogation before you see legal counsel (even if requested). In the US as soon as you ask to see a lawyer the police are not allowed to interrogate and if they do it can have the charges dismissed or the offending officers can be suspended. That and do to the high conviction rate in Japan if you are arrested you're rather boned.

All in all the Japanese police are far friendly than American police, but you are in for a way worse day if you are arrested in Japan than the US.

@Wexter

Wait … are you actually just making stuff up based on a google search and trying to convince someone who’s lived in Japan and the US you know what you are talking about? Why? What do you possible have to gain for this? Why not just learn from someone who clearly has more experience then you?

Where to even start? You can be detained forever in the US without being charged. There is no upper limit. The “right to a speedy trial” has caused most states to adopt a 72-hour GUIDELINE, but that’s not a law. If someone is held longer then 72 hours, better hope they know the law better then do you, because they need to call their lawyer and file a writ of habeas corpus. That gets reviewed by a judge who will decide if your rights are being violated or if being held longer then 72 hours is reasonable. You get a “speedy” trial, but like everything in that dumpster fire of a founding document, its left to the courts to figure our what “speedy” means and court has interpreted the term “speedy” quite leniently; delays of several years have been permissible. Read up on the SCOTUS and the 6th amendment if you want some horror stories.

In Japan, you can’t be held more then 48 hours without being charged. That’s a law, not up for debate based on what 8 dead guys thought “speedy” meant. If there is a reason you should be held longer then 48 hours (generally because it’s a complex, serious crime you are accused of) it’s the POLICE who have to file a request with courts for 10 more days, which is rarely granted. A second request for 10 more days is possible, and a final request for 5 more days is possible only in the most serious of crimes. It so rare that whatever site you googled and took as absolute truth didn’t even include it, given the REAL limit is 28, not 23.

You have the right to an attorney in both countries. In Japan, you need some context (that’s not going to be in the first article you google). For “minor” crimes (not drug related, non-violent) you are almost ALWAYS simply going to be asked to apologize and pay reprimands to the parties involved. So if you stole a TV, the police might ask you to admit you stole the TV, apologize to the owner, and give the TV back/buy a new one. That’s it. Then you go home. Based on the Judges discretion, you may also get a suspended sentence. You are generally not provided with a lawyer for this part of the process, BUT, just like in the US you have the undeniable right to remain silent and you can immediately request a lawyer under a system called “toban bengoshi”.

Police are VERY careful about charging people with crimes unless the evidence is overwhelming because, unlike the US, police are held accountable for mistakes. Not only is everyone changed with a crime and found not-guilty eligible for compensation and an apology, but it can have serious repercussions for the police involved if the judge comments the charges were not laid in good faith.

The guy in THIS ARTICLE is a Chinse national and it looks like he will see no punishment outside apologizing to and returning the money to everyone who bought a save from him.

Also your right that police violence is cultural. The part you have wrong is that every single country in the world that isn’t the US see almost no people die in police custody but the exact same amount of people who resist arrest (not wanting to go to jail is a cross-cultural thing). Resisting arrest for violent crimes in Japan is a BIG PROMBLE, given a lot of the crimes involving drugs and murder are done by organized crime with the resources to fight and hide from police. Cops in Japan carry guns, they just respect human life and are a good enough at their jobs to the point where ... yeah know, they'll just arrest someone in a few hours rather then have a shot out in a busy street. The cultural difference is that US cops enjoy murdering people and can do so with impunity.

@SwitchForce I loved my old Game Genies. As a kid, it's the only way I could beat Zelda II.

Let's play a Zelda with nothing to explore or discover.

@SwitchForce Well, the Game Genie doesn't let you sell the edits you made. That's the big difference.