Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake creator Yuji Horii recently implied that American regulations forced Square Enix to remove gender and alter characters for the upcoming game.
A screenshot from Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake, (2024), Square Enix
The game is facing a boycott from players not happy about these changes. X user Mangalawyer expressed his distaste for the changes made to Jenna Sharpe, the female hero in the game in the beginning of September.
He wrote, “Dragon Quest 3 art has been censored by ESG Square Enix to cater to the modern audience. No alternative options—you just have to accept the new normal in fictional video games driven by BlackRock and Fake Japanese corporations, or simply don’t buy it.”
Dragon Quest 3 art has been censored by ESG Square Enix to cater to the modern audience. No alternative options—you just have to accept the new normal in fictional video games driven by BlackRock and Fake Japanese corporations, or simply don’t buy it pic.twitter.com/UcO70rLRyU
— LearningTheLaw (@Mangalawyer) September 4, 2024
Numerous players have expressed they will not purchase the game on its Steam forums after it was revealed that it had removed the option for players to choose between male and female characters and were instead labeling the character options as A and B.
One player wrote, “DQ is my favorite jrpg franchise and I have put this on ignore.”
He continued, “I have played all the DQ games now and in fact just played 1,2,3,5,6 again on the snes Japanese versions. I even paid full price and preordered DQ 11(something I never do cause I have too many games already). That being said, it pains me to put my favorite jrpg franchise on ignore now. You win DEI nonsense, I won’t spend anymore money on you.”
The Kurgan on Steam
The game was also added to KabrutusRambo’s DEI Detected website where he cited the removed to choose between male and female as well as the trolls being censored by having their lips removed.
He wrote, “On a much more personal and nerdier level, and this one really pisses me off, I must say, is the censorship of the Troll’s lips.”
A comparison of various depictions of trolls from different versions of Dragon Quest III
READ: Square Enix Renames The Town Of Isis To Ibis In ‘Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake’
In an interview at Tokyo Game Show alongside former Weekly Shonen Jump Editor-in-Chief Kazuhiko Torishima, Horii was asked about the changes made to the character designs and specifically why more clothing was added to Jenna Sharpe, the female hero in the game.
東京ゲームショーで、DQ3の衣装変更に関して。
The reason why the exposure of costumes in DQ3 needs to be reduced, as explained in an interview at TGS.#DQ3HD2D #ドラゴンクエスト3 #DragonQuest#TGS2024 pic.twitter.com/wzMoCnVYjN— Valute News (@saou0345) September 29, 2024
As translated by Valute News, Horii responded, “Yeah, there were various regulations in place. Apparently, it’s not allowed to show too much skin.”
He added, “Hmm, I really don’t understand that either. … If there’s too much exposure, the age rating goes up. It means we won’t be able to sell it as an all-ages product.”
A screenshot from Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake, (2024), Square Enix
When asked about complying with various country’s regulations Torishima chimed in, “Under the name of compliance… It’s like an absolute god… An evil disguised as good. There’s not such thing as content that doesn’t make everyone uncomfortable because beauty and ugliness, good and evil, are different for everyone.”
“There are a few things that absolutely must not be done. As long as you follow those, you’re free to do the rest,” he added.
Next, he stated, “There’s a religious concept from the West, especially in America, that influences their approach to sex education, right? Their approach to compliance is really narrow-minded. When selling manga in America, everything had to be categorized by age groups. For Shonen Jump manga, they couldn’t be sold unless they were rated for ages 13 and up because there’s a risk of lawsuits, the company also has to get insurance. Doing business with such a ridiculous country is really frustrating. Because of that, Japan gets negatively influenced.”
A screenshot from Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake, (2024), Square Enix
Horii then addressed the removal of the choice to choose between male and female, “In Dragon Quest, you used to be able to choose between a male and female main character. But now, you can’t choose between a man and a woman anymore.”
“We have to label them as Type 1 and Type 2,” he added. “I really wonder, who’s even complaining about this?”
A screenshot from Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake, (2024), Square Enix
What do you make of Horii’s comments regarding the changes made to Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake?
