Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake: Difference between revisions

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==Censorship controversy==
==Censorship controversy==
The game has been strongly criticized for the censorship of the female [[Gadabout]], female [[Warrior]], and the male [[Monster Wrangler]]'s clothing prior to its release, altering the classic designs to expose less skin in order to comply with the [https://www.cero.gr.jp/en/ Japanese CERO ratings board]. The ratings board has grown increasingly strict in its regulations in the decades since the original release of the game in 1988, with the censorship being mandated in order for the remake to secure a rating of '''B''' and be legally sold to children. Fans noted the censorship of the [[boss troll]]'s lip colour in preview footage shown on June 18 2024, wherein the giant's lips were changed from pink to green and it's nose was altered to be significantly smaller, though the change in the colour of the lips were already present in its appearance in ''[[Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince]]''.
The game has drawn criticism for certain changes to character illustrations, like the female Gadabout, female Warrior, and male Monster Wrangler, which expose less skin compared to the artwork in previous releases; the Boss Troll also retains changes from {{DQM3}}. The removal of gendered language the character creation was also criticized, with the male and female types being described as "look A" and "look B" respectively, while the English script still uses gendered terms for customizable party members. Most of the changes have been noted to be mandated largely by the [https://www.cero.gr.jp/en/ Computer Entertainment Rating Organization], the Japanese video game ratings board, to secure a '''B''' rating (ages 12 and up) and allow this release to be legally sold to children. CERO's standards have been criticized as excessively strict by other video game developers like Masahiro Sakurai.


The removal of gendered language during the character creation process has also been criticized. This was first revealed during June 2024 in the 32nd issue of Weekly Shonen Jump where the Hero and Heroine's full art was revealed, referring to the two as  "looks A" and "looks B" despite the artwork clearly depicting the two as a man and woman respectively. Matching voice actors were cast for their battle dialogue as well, with [[Nobuyuki Hiyama]] and [[Yūko Minaguchi]] for the Japanese dub and Toby Laurence and Jenna Sharpe for the English dub. A trailer shown on August 27th would show this peculiarity extending to the party members as well, where their sex was replaced with "appearance A/B". The change was further criticized when it was revealed that the English script still uses proper terms when referring to characters in-dialogue, such as the appearance B [[Thief]] Samantha being referred to as a woman by Healizah when giving her a makeover, making the alteration totally pointless.
In September 28, an interview with Yuji Horii and former ''Dragon Ball'' editor Kazuhiko Torishima caused further controversy when Horii and Torishima were asked about the changes to the female Warrior design. Horii explained the changes had been made to comply with age rating standards, while Torishima strongly criticized these regulations for interfering in creative freedom and international business deals, even calling them "an evil disguised as good".<ref>NAZ CHRIS: あとすごい話題になってた。そのコスチュームとか、当時とそのままなのかどうなのかみたいなのがありましたよね。 また...
 
On September 28, an interview between [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YP_tD58w6io Denfamico Gamer]'s NAZ CHRIS and Yuji Horii and [[Kazuhiko Torishima]] would be held commemorating the 2024 Tokyo Game Show, with Horii and Torishima representing [https://www.j-wave.co.jp/original/maadspin/ radio station Tokyo M.A.A.D. SPIN] through their radio program "Yubo & Mashirito 's Koso Koso station". The interview pretained to the HD2D remake of ''III'', the ongoing scandal regarding the game's censorship prompting NAZ CHRIS to ask Yuji Horii about the changes directly, specifically for the female Warrior. Horii revealed that the changes were due to the strict age ratings regulations, stating that even just showing too much skin would raise the game's rating and prevent the game from being sold as an all-ages product as ''Dragon Quest'' had been in the past. NAZ CHRIS replied by saying the game is simply a work of fiction for the players to immerse themselves into, to which Horii agreed and stated that he doesn't understand what the problem is either<ref>NAZ CHRIS: あとすごい話題になってた。そのコスチュームとか、当時とそのままなのかどうなのかみたいなのがありましたよね。 また...
堀井: まあね、あのいろいろ規制もあってね。露出しすぎちゃいけないとかね
堀井: まあね、あのいろいろ規制もあってね。露出しすぎちゃいけないとかね
NAZ: あそこまあちょっとあんまり深掘りする気はないんですけど。いいのにだってフィクションだけど、その中にあ、主人公ってあなたが入って冒険するっていうことでいいじゃないと思うんですけど、違うんですかね?
NAZ: あそこまあちょっとあんまり深掘りする気はないんですけど。いいのにだってフィクションだけど、その中にあ、主人公ってあなたが入って冒険するっていうことでいいじゃないと思うんですけど、違うんですかね?
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鳥嶋: まあまあね。
鳥嶋: まあまあね。
堀井: 全年齢じゃなくなってしまうっていうのが
堀井: 全年齢じゃなくなってしまうっていうのが
鳥嶋: ルールがやっぱなんか各国違ったりするんでね。広くろうと思うと、一番厳しいところに合わせざるを得ないとか。でも,</ref>. Torishima followed Horii's statement up by pointing out that ratings regulations vary greatly between different nations. Torishima strongly criticized the forced compliance to these regulations to conduct international business in American and the UK, going so far as to call them an "evil disguised as good", and pointed out that it is simply impossible for there to be content that offends no one due to everyone having different perspectives; Torishima asserts that so long as certain absolute taboos are not broken then creative freedom should be unfettered<ref>NAZ: 当時そんなこと思わなかったですね。
鳥嶋: ルールがやっぱなんか各国違ったりするんでね。広くろうと思うと、一番厳しいところに合わせざるを得ないとか。でも,</ref><ref>NAZ: 当時そんなこと思わなかったですね。
鳥嶋: コンプラっていう名のね。やっぱりね、ある種のね。なんだろうな、絶対神と言うべき善の名を借りた悪みたいのがあるよね。あの全員が不快感を覚えないなんてことはないわけだって、株不快はこういうことを覚えるどうこうでもいいわけよ。だって綺麗、汚いとかさ、善悪って人それぞれ感じ方があるわけじゃんで物事はやっぱり。根っこにあるのは、やっぱり絶対やっちゃいけないことだけ。いくつかそれをさえやらなきゃといいじゃないって、そういうのがないわけだから、やっぱりあの欧米英米の方から欧米の方から来てる?</ref>.
鳥嶋: コンプラっていう名のね。やっぱりね、ある種のね。なんだろうな、絶対神と言うべき善の名を借りた悪みたいのがあるよね。あの全員が不快感を覚えないなんてことはないわけだって、株不快はこういうことを覚えるどうこうでもいいわけよ。だって綺麗、汚いとかさ、善悪って人それぞれ感じ方があるわけじゃんで物事はやっぱり。根っこにあるのは、やっぱり絶対やっちゃいけないことだけ。いくつかそれをさえやらなきゃといいじゃないって、そういうのがないわけだから、やっぱりあの欧米英米の方から欧米の方から来てる?</ref><ref>堀井: 主人公もね、男女選べるんだけど、男を女選ぶって書いていけないのねタイプ一タイプ二なのねねえそう男女誰が一体文句言うんだろうと思うんだよね。
 
Torishima drew comparisons between the narrow-mindedness of modern-day age regulations to the religious zealotry of the Puritanical mindset of the past, and highlighted the difficulties of selling Jump magazine in America as an example. The content that was deemed perfectly suitable for eight year old children in Japan was mandated to be marketed as strictly for teenagers and older in America or legal action would be applied<ref>鳥嶋:その宗教的な概念からくるその清教徒の考え方って、アメリカにあるじゃない?彼らのコンプラの考え方って本当ない。狭いうんでだから、向こうでコミックスだけに、全部その年齢で。 あの, 区切ってやらなきゃいけない少年ジャンプの漫画だったらサーティーンアップ13歳以上じゃないと出せない。それは全部見てくれなきゃいけないで、それを訴訟が起きる。そのために保険も入らなきゃいけない。もうこんなね、バカな国とねやるの。</ref> Torishima declared that doing business with America was infuriating and even damaging to Japan itself by forcing the smaller nation to comply to such ridiculous laws, which Horii explained as being the reason for the removal of gendered language during the character creation process. Foreign meddling mandated the censoring of the words men and women and forced Horii to utilize the awkward workaround of appearance A/B, despite everything else in the game acknowledging the common sense differences between the two sexes. Horii wondered aloud who on Earth would ever complain about the use of such common words in the first place<ref>堀井: 主人公もね、男女選べるんだけど、男を女選ぶって書いていけないのねタイプ一タイプ二なのねねえそう男女誰が一体文句言うんだろうと思うんだよね。
鳥嶋: そうそうですね。
鳥嶋: そうそうですね。
堀井: うん, わからない。</ref>.
堀井: うん, わからない。</ref> The X.com account Valute News shared a clip of Horii and Torishima's answer with English subtitles, drawing attention from [https://archive.is/fIRQw Forbes] and X.com owner [https://archive.is/qjpp9 Elon Musk].
 
This interview would be catapulted into the international news cycle thanks to X.com user [https://archive.is/ZqIaz Valute News] clipping the portion of the interview concerning censorship and providing English subtitles. The ripple effect of the post would draw significant attention from beyond the game industry's own news channels, leading to outlets such as [https://archive.is/fIRQw Forbes magazine] and [https://archive.is/qjpp9 Elon Musk] commenting on the situation and drawing even more attention to the censorship of ''Dragon Quest III''.


On October 3, Tokyo M.A.A.D. SPIN released an official statement regarding the viral interview, stressing the mistranslation performed by Valute News that turned Torishima's use the English word "puritanical" into the phrase "sex education". An English counterpart to the statement was also announced, but was formally delayed later the same day. Valute News would also release a formal apology for the error, and deactivated the account. Additionally, the Denfamico Gamer youtube channel has since been privated the video.
In October 3, the Japanese radio station Tokyo M.A.A.D. SPIN (which hosted the aforementioned interview) released an official statement claiming that Horii and Torishima's words had been mistranslated by Valute News and taken out of context, specifically pointing out the incorrect translation of the English word "puritanical" into the phrase "sex education". Valute News' administrator apologized for the error before deactivating the account, while Denfaminico Gamer has since set the interview's YouTube upload to private.


==External links==
==External links==

Revision as of 06:56, 1 December 2024


Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake is a full remake of Dragon Quest III. It was originally announced as part of the 35th series anniversary celebration on May 27, 2021.

Unlike previous remakes of Dragon Quest III, the HD-2D remake offers a modernized vision of the original title with additional scenarios, voice acting, new vocations, and modern Dragon Quest series features such as battle tactics or faster battle settings. The graphics are completely redone in the "HD-2D" style popularized by previous Square Enix published games such as Octopath Traveler and Triangle Strategy. With the passing of Akira Toriyama on March 1 2024, artist Yoshiya "Fenyo_n" Fujisaki was brought on to the project as the chief illustrator with Naoki Ikushima providing the game's box art.

New features

Scenario changes

  • New scenarios and characters supervised by Yuji Horii.
  • New story segments that features Ortega, the heroes's father.
  • The monster arena has been totally revamped to allow players to enter their own recruited monsters instead of relying on the arena's stable.
  • T'n'T boards added in the Super Famicom remake have not been reimplemented after their removal in the 2014 android/ios port.

Presentation

  • Re-imagined locations and HD-quality sprites.
  • Certain areas have been slightly modified to account for the perspective changing from the classic top-down view to the pop up book style found in other HD2D titles.
  • Orchestral soundtrack.
  • Increased language support: English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, European Spanish, and Latin American Spanish.
  • Dragon Quest III had not yet been translated into most of these languages prior to this remake.
  • Voice acting support: English and Japanese.
  • Fully animated monsters.
  • Faster battle settings, as seen in recent Dragon Quest titles like in the Nintendo 3DS release of DQVIII or in the international releases of DQXI.
  • The player can customize the party's appearance by eight options per vocation with four for each sex.
  • The new character Healizah can modify a character's appearance between the four options, along with his or her hair colour and voice upon reaching Alltrades Abbey.
  • Characters now speak in battle: shouting while attacking, yelling the names of spells while casting, grunting while being attacked, etc.
  • The camera pulls back to reveal the party while the player is selecting actions for a turn.
  • Equipped weapons are visible during this period.

Gameplay adjustments

  • New vocation: Monster Wrangler.
  • Certain stats have been modified to modern standards:
  • Agility is no longer divided by two to calculate base defence, now only determining turn-order and evasion
  • Resilience now determines base defence power instead of HP growth
  • Stamina has been added to determine HP growth, using the same formula as Resilience in previous versions
  • Wisdom now determines the growth of spell power instead of each spell being fixed to a static range, in addition to MP growth


Censorship controversy

The game has drawn criticism for certain changes to character illustrations, like the female Gadabout, female Warrior, and male Monster Wrangler, which expose less skin compared to the artwork in previous releases; the Boss Troll also retains changes from Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince. The removal of gendered language the character creation was also criticized, with the male and female types being described as "look A" and "look B" respectively, while the English script still uses gendered terms for customizable party members. Most of the changes have been noted to be mandated largely by the Computer Entertainment Rating Organization, the Japanese video game ratings board, to secure a B rating (ages 12 and up) and allow this release to be legally sold to children. CERO's standards have been criticized as excessively strict by other video game developers like Masahiro Sakurai.

In September 28, an interview with Yuji Horii and former Dragon Ball editor Kazuhiko Torishima caused further controversy when Horii and Torishima were asked about the changes to the female Warrior design. Horii explained the changes had been made to comply with age rating standards, while Torishima strongly criticized these regulations for interfering in creative freedom and international business deals, even calling them "an evil disguised as good".[2][3][4] The X.com account Valute News shared a clip of Horii and Torishima's answer with English subtitles, drawing attention from Forbes and X.com owner Elon Musk.

In October 3, the Japanese radio station Tokyo M.A.A.D. SPIN (which hosted the aforementioned interview) released an official statement claiming that Horii and Torishima's words had been mistranslated by Valute News and taken out of context, specifically pointing out the incorrect translation of the English word "puritanical" into the phrase "sex education". Valute News' administrator apologized for the error before deactivating the account, while Denfaminico Gamer has since set the interview's YouTube upload to private.

External links

Gallery

Illustrations

Promotional images

Characters

Official statements

References

  1. Weekly Shonen Jump issue 32, 2024
  2. NAZ CHRIS: あとすごい話題になってた。そのコスチュームとか、当時とそのままなのかどうなのかみたいなのがありましたよね。 また... 堀井: まあね、あのいろいろ規制もあってね。露出しすぎちゃいけないとかね NAZ: あそこまあちょっとあんまり深掘りする気はないんですけど。いいのにだってフィクションだけど、その中にあ、主人公ってあなたが入って冒険するっていうことでいいじゃないと思うんですけど、違うんですかね? 堀井: なんなんですかね。よくわかんないですけどね。これについてはね NAZ: ゲームだし、フィクションという自分の中のこうバーチャル体験でのあのノンフィクションだから、楽しくければいいのにっていうふうに思っちゃいますけどね。 堀井: あんまり露出するとね、年齢が上がっちゃうっていうね。 鳥嶋: まあまあね。 堀井: 全年齢じゃなくなってしまうっていうのが 鳥嶋: ルールがやっぱなんか各国違ったりするんでね。広くろうと思うと、一番厳しいところに合わせざるを得ないとか。でも,
  3. NAZ: 当時そんなこと思わなかったですね。 鳥嶋: コンプラっていう名のね。やっぱりね、ある種のね。なんだろうな、絶対神と言うべき善の名を借りた悪みたいのがあるよね。あの全員が不快感を覚えないなんてことはないわけだって、株不快はこういうことを覚えるどうこうでもいいわけよ。だって綺麗、汚いとかさ、善悪って人それぞれ感じ方があるわけじゃんで物事はやっぱり。根っこにあるのは、やっぱり絶対やっちゃいけないことだけ。いくつかそれをさえやらなきゃといいじゃないって、そういうのがないわけだから、やっぱりあの欧米英米の方から欧米の方から来てる?
  4. 堀井: 主人公もね、男女選べるんだけど、男を女選ぶって書いていけないのねタイプ一タイプ二なのねねえそう男女誰が一体文句言うんだろうと思うんだよね。 鳥嶋: そうそうですね。 堀井: うん, わからない。