• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Namco censors Tales of Berseria despite insisting they won't

S

ShadowSoldier89

Member
Spoilers for the opening of the game and what was censored.
https://twitter.com/Shudouken/status/806918220825313280

Having watched the scene in the newly released video, its pretty brutal in the censored version, seems like the original encapsulates that brutality much more.

I'm pretty sure this was done due to the ESRB, but its still annoying to me after the claims that there wouldn't be changes

statement Namco made
CzLIN_NXgAI3cks.jpg:large

Highlight is the important part, since the original question was just on the outfit
 
T

Tohsaka

Member
Pretty disappointing, the producer shouldn't have said that before being sure nothing was going to be changed. I wonder if that one cutscene really would have affected the rating or if they made other changes as well. I'm not really surprised though, since they censored one cutscene in Tales of Xillia too. (spoilers)


Semajer said:
Just after I pre-ordered it. Any chance we've got the uncensored version in Europe or are all Steam versions the same?
Click to expand...

That trailer was posted by Bandai Namco Europe.
 
L

Linkstrikesback

Member
...Is that a picture of a
child being brutally murdered in that tweet

Yikes. I don't know what age rating they went for but if it's as bad as I imagine it could be, I can imagine that content potentially might have put it an age rating above what they wanted, hence the editing.
 
S

Semajer

Member
Just after I pre-ordered it. Any chance we've got the uncensored version in Europe or are all Steam versions the same?
 
S

SliceSabre

Banned
Wait...they censored violence in the Western version? Why? If anything violence is the thing the ESRB is always super permissive about unlike sex/nudity.
 
M

Moofers

Member
I don't see the point of the modified scenes/images. It seems like the kind of thing that comes out of having too many meetings about what appeals or doesn't appeal to the western audience. We buy games with worse imagery by the millions, I don't see how these changes will encourage more sales for a niche title like this.
 
K

kromeo

Member
Although that's not something i'll miss personally it's a shame they think it needed removing to start with. I don't think children are exactly a big audience for Tales games
 
DR2K

DR2K

Banned
That's strange. Would an M rating actually hurt Tales sales in the west? If anything it would help.
 
K

KingHippo1967

Member
To be completely fair, there was never a promise that the opening scene would be left intact.

The quotes in the OP are stating:

• a promise that Velvet's costume would be left intact
• a belief that people in the west would like to see the same version as in Japan

The only promise there is that one costume would be the same. The rest comes across to me as nothing more than "we know people in the west care about it so we're trying our best".
 
S

ShadowSoldier89

Member
KingHippo1967 said:
To be completely fair, there was never a promise that the opening scene would be left intact.

The quotes in the OP are stating:

• a promise that Velvet's costume would be left intact
• a belief that people in the west would like to see the same version as in Japan

The only promise there is that one costume would be the same. The rest comes across to me as nothing more than "we know people in the west care about it so we're trying our best".
Click to expand...
you are right that the only promise was on the costume, but the two lines that proceed it are what still make this disappointing, even more than usual
 
C

chrominance

Member
Does anyone know why the change was made? Is there a source for "the ESRB made them do it" or "Bandai Namco is censoring the game" or anything beyond the fact that the cutscene has changed?
 
D

Deleted member 465307

Unconfirmed Member
This must be the difference between a T and an M game. I'm surprised that the game was essentially T in Japan because the original is surprisingly brutal. If I'm understanding the images properly and it's not being misrepresented (that's a BIG if), the way they changed it seems dumb, since the new image does not communicate the same message to me and is much less powerful. It'll be a shame if they didn't find a more equivalent replacement that was less graphic.
 
A

AtomskEater

Member
Azuran said:
I like weird and stupid anime stuff but this is fucking garbage lmao

So ridiculous. It should have gotten censored in the first place for being a strain on our eyes.
Click to expand...

You don't understand, she breathes through her skin and also her country is going through a major fabric shortage.

Good news is (iirc) you can switch to another costume early on. Bad news, that still shows up in anime cutscenes and so on.
 
K

kromeo

Member
I'm assuming that's
young Velvet being stabbed in the scene, the brutality of it is surely an intentional part of setting up her character
 
K

Korigama

Member
AtomskEater said:
Oh, gosh. That was awful, and they didn't even put work into editing the scenes to not look stupid.
Click to expand...
To be fair, how they did things worked well enough in Episode I. It started getting awkward by Episode II, though. And of course, the changes in Episode III were so bad that they actually wound up making scenes no longer make sense.
kromeo said:
I'm assuming that's
young Velvet being stabbed in the scene, the brutality of it is surely an intentional part of setting up her character
Click to expand...
No,
it's her little brother, but seeing it happen does indeed play a major role for her character
.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Code Mystics says, GoldenEye Xbox ports' FPS drops and Graphical issues are "authentic" to the N64 original.
2 3
134
10K
Eddie-Griffin replied
Ms Pac-Man has been removed from the new Pac-Land re-release due to a dispute (VGC)
Opinion News
17
2K
cartman414 replied
Square Enix insists Babylon’s Fall’s future ‘not in danger’, despite tough start (VCG)
Opinion News
9
994
Pejo replied
Tales of Arise Review Thread
Review 2 3 4
177
18K
YukiOnna replied
Tales of Arise Interview - Speaking characters, skits, exploration, and a new era for Tales with Yusuke Tomizawa
News Game Dev
3
1K
kingfey replied
Top Bottom