Better in japan

[drakorex]

I'm interested in knowing the various games that have had their content altered upon North American release. For instance, the Earthbound games had a couple localization such as omitting references to death, and Ness running around in the nude. Another example would be the game Evil Zone, in which the music was changed, along with one of the female fighter's costumes. I started this topic a while back, but it appears to have been lost in oblivion.

 

[PolloDiablo]

First one that comes to mind is Final Fight

 

[Vipera]

I forgot which one (maybe SNES one), but they removed all the religious stuff from Castlevania.
There are many games where religious stuff and nudity got removed, as it was NoA's policy during the NES era. YouTube is full of videos about the subject, but I wouldn't say it's "better" that way. It's "better" if the stuff removed had an important point during the game, like if they changed an important discussion between characters or levels and such.
Stuff like removing a cross or changing "DAMN" to "NO" (Metroid Corruption > Trilogy) should not make you change idea about the game, imho.

 

[drakorex]

Yes, I have seen this Video

And I use the term "better" in a loose sense. Just the fact that these games were altered at all from their original design is a curiosity, and one that can be very interesting. I'd be interested to know if there is some kind of list detailing which games have their content altered on localization.

 

[FAST6191]

Countless games had little things fiddled with to match Nintendo's various policies over the years (also many other devs/publishers/system makers), how much actually was made truly worse for it is up for debate. It is a reasonably popular thing to hack back into games as well with http://www.romhacking.net/hacks/1386/ being one of the more noted examples.

If you wanted to narrow it down to things that demonstrably lacked something we have more to talk about. Mr. Driller Drill Spirits (the DS Mr Driller) lacks a fair bit of content vs the Japanese and European releases for instance.

You have, possibly inadvertently, asked for a massive list though so I will leave it there for now.

 

[Arras]

While it's not censorship Megaman Battle Network 6 had quite a bunch of stuff taken out such as:
a bunch of chips
one whole area IIRC
area maps
a boktai crossover thing

 

[drakorex]

You have, possibly inadvertently, asked for a massive list though so I will leave it there for now.

Not necessarily, just anything that comes to mind, that players prefer one over the other.

 

[Foxi4]

It depends on what you consider to be "better". If you think that a little boy running around naked in Earthbound is entertaining, well, that's your prerogative. The only thing that was annoying in that localization was cigarettes replaced with lollypops. Children are young, but they're not stupid, c'mon people.

 

[FAST6191]

The trouble there is I have often encountered a "the original form was the best form, no arguments to the contrary will be accepted" mindset and I am not a fan of that. There certainly have been things that were changed for the worse but many others have largely got by unscathed.

 

[Veho]

Children are young, but they're not stupid, c'mon people.

Yes they are. They can be quite astute but they are also naive, gullible, impressionable, easily influenced little morons.

 

[Foxi4]

Yes they are. They can be quite astute but they are also naive, gullible, impressionable, easily influenced little morons.

That's partially true, but you'd be surprised how many of those features can be effectively counteracted by simple curiosity and great observation skills that children have.

 

[migles]

pokemon heartgold\soulsiver had their casinos replaced on the us\eu version with a minigame which you dont use coins to play it

this was because censorship, i am not sure if this is true for platinum\diamond\pearl

 

[lampdemon]

It depends on what you consider to be "better". If you think that a little boy running around naked in Earthbound is entertaining, well, that's your prerogative. The only thing that was annoying in that localization was cigarettes replaced with lollypops. Children are young, but they're not stupid, c'mon people.

Not a game but...:

 

[Vipera]

If we want to talk about games that have been ruined because of stupidity I shall mention Marble Madness GBA because of size cartridge. They removed half the levels. What a pathetic excuse for a game that was. At least Klaxx was fun.

 

[Foxi4]

Not a game but...

This is equally dumb. Also, bad anime. ;O;

 

[drakorex]

This illustrates my point a bit

Very well, in fact

 

[Vipera]

Oh man, Heart Gold and Soul Silver casino...I will never get why they censored that and allowed the last Pokémon Mystery Dungeon to include lotteries and scratch cards.

 

[Katsumi San]

N64 Ocarina of Time red blood when Ganomdorf is cough in final battle... gamecube-3DS version is have green blood when cough...

 

[spotanjo3]

First one that comes to mind is Final Fight

To be honest with you, on the left looks ridiculous. Thats not what punks look like. She looks like she was a hooker fighter, nonsense. On the far right, better appearance because thats what punks are supposed to be a fighters. Just saying.

 

[FAST6191]

To be honest with you, on the left looks ridiculous. Thats not what punks look like. She looks like she was a hooker fighter, nonsense. On the far right, better appearance because thats what punks are supposed to be a fighters. Just saying.

Forgive me if I am misremembering but I thought there was no overall punk dress code.

Edit. Forgot to say I also watched that video. Some games thoroughly ruined there, I had no idea it was so bad.