Modern gamers are fortunate that we now live in an era where worldwide releases are a very common thing. Whenever a big Japanese franchise like Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, or the increasingly popular Yakuza receives a new entry, chances are that it will launch in all major territories at the same time. Not only that, but also complete with fully localised language options alongside all the bells and whistles one would expect from a full release.
The same goes for significant Western titles arriving in Japan, with obvious effort now being made to put experiences in the hands of gamers as soon as humanly possible. But it wasn’t very long ago at all that this wasn’t the case. I remember growing up and watching games I was so excited to play launch in Japan with no hint of an English release in sight. All you could do was watch gameplay clips and obsess over screenshots with irrational jealousy or, god forbid, import a copy for yourself.
Simultaneous international releases mean that unique hallmarks of specific regional versions of the games we love don’t receive as much attention anymore, or changes that are made to cater to certain audiences boil down to little more than the level of gore on display or simpler difficulty options. So, please embark on this brief nostalgic journey with me where we look at a handful of games that launched in Japan with changes both big and small.
Oddworld Abe’s Oddysee
During a recent trip to Japan, I found a local copy of Oddworld Abe’s Oddysee on sale for an obscene amount of money. Released under the title Abe a GoGo by publisher Softbank, many of the game’s darker themes and aesthetics were toned down for the market. A food item in the game known as ‘Mudokon Pops’, which previously saw the protagonist’s head on a bloody spike, now resembled an adorable ice lolly. Other acts of bloody violence in its story were also toned down to be less excessive.
Future international releases of the game also adopted this change in imagery, which more or less cemented it as canon within the eyes of fans after the fact.
Another major change was the hands of the Mudokons themselves. In the original Western release, the slaves were seen to have four fingers, with a particularly small one poking out of the right side of each paw. This became a source of outrage among certain groups in Japan like the Buraku Liberation League, who believed the hand design brought with it a very negative association to burakumin, a Japanese subclass of meat packers who were looked down on by wider society. Oddworld Inhabitants could either change the hands ahead of release, or risk needless legal battles and large fines.
One of my favourite parts about this release, though, is an utterly wild live action commercial that features a dude in an Abe costume dancing with a bunch of Japanese schoolgirls all sporting ponytails to match his iconic hairstyle. It is wild.
Fallout 3
As the only nation in history to have suffered from direct nuclear attacks, it’s little surprise that a Western RPG revolving around the aftermath of a nuclear apocalypse was sensitively handled upon release in Japan.
The Fat Man was also renamed to the Nuka Launcher in Japan, considering this was previously used as a codename for the bomb dropped on Nagasaki.
Fallout 3 featured a quest called ‘Power of the Atom’ where the entire mission is driven by whether you want to wipe the town of Megaton off the map. A deactivated bomb sits within the centre of town, and a man called Mister Burke at Moriarty’s Saloon is awfully keen to have you do his dirty work. In the Japanese version, Burke has been removed entirely, as has the option to detonate the bomb. Your only choice is to disarm it, which in turn also has an impact on how you come to arrive at Tenpenny Tower.
Crash Bandicoot And Spyro the Dragon
Japan loves cute things, and who can blame ‘em? Cute things are awesome. This is one of the core reasons behind why the box art for Crash Bandicoot and Spyro the Dragon are a smidge different. For one, they’re both much cuter and less aggressive. Both characters support softer features on the Japanese promotional materials, making it appear as if they’re mascots preparing to embark on wholesome platforming adventures rather than gearing up for an epic fight.
I’ve always preferred this approach because it gives both Crash and Spyro so much more personality, while we’ve also experienced the inverse with characters like Kirby coming over to the West. He often appears ready to brawl rather than have fun, and I don’t think anybody wants to pick fights with an adorable pink ball.
Baldur’s Gate 3
Turns out that if you want to get down and dirty in Larian Studios’ beloved RPG, you’d be better off not playing the Japanese version. The option to show genitalia of you and any of the companion characters is removed entirely, as is the option to view sex scenes.
Note: A goblin torture scene was also removed in Japan, but I can live with that omission.
It feels overblown to be bummed out by this, but nudity and sex have come to play such a defining part in how the fandom appreciates these characters and our deep relationships with them. For a game far more modern than the rest here, it’s a bit of a surprise. Oh well, I guess that’s what mods are for.
Tomb Raider
Lara Croft’s proposed redesign for the Japanese market is what inspired me to write this in the first place, with one of Tomb Raider’s original creators recently commenting upon a rejected look for the character presented to CORE Design ahead of the Japanese release.
The anime and manga-inspired character designs sent over by Tomb Raider’s publisher are incredibly cute, and do make sense for the Japanese market when you consider what some other games were doing at the time, but it also flies in the face of the sort of character CORE was looking to debut.
A compromise was eventually reached for these designs to be used in the Japanese manual so they didn’t go to waste, and remain yet another interesting part of global gaming history. I am looking at these designs now and can just imagine a Tomb Raider anime being made in the mid-’90s and kicking so much ass.
I only wanted to highlight a few major examples in this article, otherwise it would end up being the longest thing this site has ever produced. So if you have any specific examples you’d love to share, please throw them in the comments.
Tomb Raider
- Released
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November 14, 1996
- ESRB
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T For Teen // Animated Blood, Violence
- Developer(s)
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Core Design, Aspyr
- Publisher(s)
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Eidos Interactive
