A new interview at Tokyo Game Show 2024 has revealed Dragon Quest creator Yuji Horii isn’t happy with the censorship in the Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake, among other changes made to the remake.
The interview was held with both former Shonen Jump editor-in-chief Kazuhiko Torishima (who also had a big role in the creation of Dragon Quest) and Dragon Quest creator Yuji Horii talking up the game with Japanese outlet Denfamico Gamer. When the topic of costume censorship was brought up, both revealed they were unhappy with the changes.
“There are so many restrictions for exposed skin,” Horii said when the censorship was brought up. The interviewer, a woman, replied saying “It’s fiction, I think it’s fine that you just go into the story and become the main character.” Both the interviewer and Horii then questioned why the original costumes were a concern.
The interviewer then said “It’s fiction, it’s a fictional experience, so long as it’s enjoyable it’s fine.”
Horii followed up by noting “If there’s more exposure, the age rating has to go up.. that means we can’t sell it for all-ages.”
Another (male) interviewer noted rules vary by the country and when trying to sell globally, the issue of compliance comes up with the strictest regulations, to which the other female interviewer said “we never thought about this in the past.”
Torishima replied with “Compliance is like an all-powerful god. It’s something that is using the name of good but is actually bad. It’s impossible every single person doesn’t feel uncomfortable. It’s fine to feel uncomfortable. Beautiful and ugly, good and evil, it depends on the person.”
“It’s fine as long as they don’t do what you’re not allowed to do,” Torishima said. “In western countries there’s a root of thinking based on religion and it influences their sex education, right? Their attitude to compliance is really narrow-minded.”
Torishima also discussed selling manga in the west, “When selling manga in America and the west, everything had to be categorized by age groups. With Shonen Jump, they couldn’t be sold unless they were rated age 13 and older, because there’s a risk of lawsuits and they need to have insurance.
“Doing business with a ridiculous country like this is such a hassle,” Torishima said. “Coming from this, Japan gets negatively influenced as well.”
Later in the interview the controversial change to remove gendered language from the remake was brought up, in which the game removed “male” and “female” pronouns and replaced them with “Appearance A” and “Appearance B” instead.
“In Dragon Quest, you used to be able to choose between a male and female protagonist,” Horii said. “But now you can’t choose between a man and a woman anymore.”
Horii added, “We have to call them Type 1 and Type 2. I truly wonder who is even complaining about this?”
In the original versions of the game, the player was able to choose the male or female gender of the protagonist, the hero, though its remake has removed the gendered language but kept the visibly distinct body types.
Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake is set to launch on November 14th across Windows PC (via Steam and the Microsoft Store), Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, and PlayStation 5.
