Yakuza 3,4,5 edits/censorship

[thefourfoldroot]

"With the remasters of the Yakuza series, there was a lot of stuff that had to be renegotiated like likenesses of actors and appearances of corporate names and logos. Some couldn't be renegotiated and had to be changed. So since we had to change some content anyway, we felt we should update the content for the current age when we're releasing this game." - Yakuza series producer Daisuke Sato "

 

Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear...

 

I'll have to wait and see what's cut from 4 & 5. Not too bothered by the edits to 3.

Edited August 24, 2019 by thefourfoldroot

[KIERONOO]

Has anyone played the Japanese versions to know what these changes are? Could be nothing could be everything 

[turniplord]

Stop trying to make out like there’s a load of cut content. It’s more the opposite. They’ve added things which weren’t there before including new mini games and I think some side missions. They’ve also redone all the English subtitles so that it flows better, rather than being a direct translation (like they did with Judgement) - this is why it’s taken so long to come out and why 4 and 5 aren’t out at the same time.

 

if you look on google I’m sure you’ll find the full article or comments over on twitter that were made over the last week about the new content, if anything had been cut or altered, they would have said so. 

 

 

*edit* http://www.pushsquare.com/news/2019/08/yakuza_3_remastered_restores_cut_content_that_wasnt_in_the_ps3_western_release

 

there, it’s all restored content which was originally cut from the game due to time and fund. Take off your tin foil hat.

Edited August 24, 2019 by turniplord

[thefourfoldroot]

9 minutes ago, KIERONOO said:

Has anyone played the Japanese versions to know what these changes are? Could be nothing could be everything 

It's not clear. Unfortunately it could be anything when they say "update content for the current age". It will likely be either gender identity related or female sexuality related.

3 minutes ago, turniplord said:

Stop trying to make out like there’s a load of cut content. It’s more the opposite. They’ve added things which weren’t there before including new mini games and I think some side missions. They’ve also redone all the English subtitles so that it flows better, rather than being a direct translation (like they did with Judgement) - this is why it’s taken so long to come out and why 4 and 5 aren’t out at the same time.

 

if you look on google I’m sure you’ll find the full article or comments over on twitter that were made over the last week about the new content, if anything had been cut or altered, they would have said so. 

They have said they have altered content but not been specific, so we shall see.

 

Edit yo your edit: that link is talking about restored content., Not the "updated" content mentioned. Different things, clearly.

Edited August 24, 2019 by thefourfoldroot

[Ric]

That's a shame, but unfortunately the world we live in.

 

I just had a look at the changes for 3 and thankfully they're not too bad.

 

The changes made where mostly for a world wide release (3 has been translated to korean and chinese for the first time apparently). One of them is a symbol that appears somewhere that may have been offensive to some of these asian countries because they were used in WW2.

 

The biggest changes are probably the removal of a substory and a minigame.

 

The substory involves running away from a crossdressing man in which Kiryu has some dialogue that was deemed "not appropriate in todays standards". (e.g. calling the man "it").

 

The minigame involved answering questions based on Japanese general knowlegde, which most of the rest of the world will have great difficulties with. Rather than localizing this, they decided to cut it all together.

 

Source:

 

[thefourfoldroot]

3 minutes ago, Ric said:

That's a shame, but unfortunately the world we live in.

 

I just had a look at the changes for 3 and thankfully they're not too bad.

 

The changes made where mostly for a world wide release (3 has been translated to korean and chinese for the first time apparently). One of them is a symbol that appears somewhere that may have been offensive to some of these asian countries because they were used in WW2.

 

The biggest changes are probably the removal of a substory and a minigame.

 

The substory involves running away from a crossdressing man in which Kiryu has some dialogue that was deemed "not appropriate in todays standards". (e.g. calling the man "it").

 

The minigame involved answering questions based on Japanese general knowlegde, which most of the rest of the world will have great difficulties with. Rather than localizing this, they decided to cut it all together.

 

Source:

 

Thank for the facts on the one game. Shame to hear they are cutting and altering content. Strange calling someone "it" is considered offensive when many prefer it to a gendered pronoun...but the world's mad ATM. What's offensive depends on who you're speaking with. I'll hold off until I see if anything has also been removed or altered from 4 and 5.

Edited August 24, 2019 by thefourfoldroot

[turniplord]

6 minutes ago, thefourfoldroot said:

It's not clear. Unfortunately it could be anything when they say "update content for the current age". It will likely be either gender identity related or female sexuality related.

They have said they have altered content but not been specific, so we shall see.

Seriously, you people are crazy. Yes, it’s altered, they have updated the game by inserting all the cut content and redoing all of the subtitles. If you’ve not played the game (which I take it you haven’t based on your replies), why would you care and how would you even know if anything is different anyway?

 

Your initial reply that it’s ‘likely’ a gender or female sexuality thing is beyond pathetic, have you played any of the Yakuza or Judgment games? Nothing I say will convince you as you’re clearly one of those who acts like change is a bad thing, but the official answer is no, nothing has been removed, only updated and added. (Other than the two things above which I will admit I didn’t know about but agree with why they were removed)

Edited August 24, 2019 by turniplord

[thefourfoldroot]

12 minutes ago, turniplord said:

Seriously, you people are crazy. Yes, it’s altered, they have updated the game by inserting all the cut content and redoing all of the subtitles. If you’ve not played the game (which I take it you haven’t based on your replies), why would you care and how would you even know if anything is different anyway?

 

Your initial reply that it’s ‘likely’ a gender or female sexuality thing is beyond pathetic, have you played any of the Yakuza or Judgment games? Nothing I say will convince you as you’re clearly one of those who acts like change is a bad thing, but the official answer is no, nothing has been removed, only updated and added. (Other than the two things above which I will admit I didn’t know about but agree with why they were removed)

Please see the above persons comment. I don't think it's worth discussing things with you as you obviously have a preset opinion that won't be swayed by me (or maybe anyone). I mean, it seems there was a gender issue

Edited August 24, 2019 by thefourfoldroot

[HuntingFever]

Here are the exact details on how 3 was censored:

 

 

Edited August 24, 2019 by HuntingFever
Update.

[thefourfoldroot]

6 minutes ago, HuntingFever said:

Here are the exact details on how 3 was censored:

 

 

Doesn't seem to bad in 3 (this has been known for a while I guess) although it's a shame a whole host of side missions have been removed for no good reason. Let's see what they might remove from 4 & 5

[Napolean436]

I would rather they had kept all of the original content in, but i'm not gonna act like losing a couple of substories is a big loss. I'm far happier that the west gets all the content we should have gotten originally. As long as they take the same approach with 4 and 5 this isn't a big deal at all IMO

[Undead Wolf]

It's a shame that the original Japanese PS3 release is the only true uncut and uncensored version of the game, all because people are too easily offended in the current year. The 3 removed substories were pretty amusing too. Of course we're still getting a much more "complete" version of Yakuza 3 than we originally did in the west, so I can't complain too much, but it still bothers me. The remasters were primarily made for "overseas fans", so I guess they wanted to cut anything that could cause far left game "journalists" in the west to write mean articles about it. The horror... 

[thefourfoldroot]

2 hours ago, Napolean436 said:

I would rather they had kept all of the original content in, but i'm not gonna act like losing a couple of substories is a big loss. I'm far happier that the west gets all the content we should have gotten originally. As long as they take the same approach with 4 and 5 this isn't a big deal at all IMO

Yeah, as long as it goes the same way I agree. It's a shame we are living in such sensitive times that these type of things can't be taken with the humour intended, but things like this aren't a huge loss. If they start going over the top and censoring violence, profanity or nudity then it'll be a little more worrying for me.

27 minutes ago, Undead Wolf said:

It's a shame that the original Japanese PS3 release is the only true uncut and uncensored version of the game, all because people are too easily offended in the current year. The 3 removed substories were pretty amusing too. Of course we're still getting a much more "complete" version of Yakuza 3 than we originally did in the west, so I can't complain too much, but it still bothers me. The remasters were primarily made for "overseas fans", so I guess they wanted to cut anything that could cause far left game "journalists" in the west to write mean articles about it. The horror... 

Yes, this exactly.

[cckerberos]

1 hour ago, Undead Wolf said:

The remasters were primarily made for "overseas fans", so I guess they wanted to cut anything that could cause far left game "journalists" in the west to write mean articles about it. The horror... 

 

Except when the Yakuza guys use the term "overseas" you shouldn't read that as the West. It means China (which is why the Chinese language version went on sale the same day as the Japanese language version).

[Undead Wolf]

Just now, cckerberos said:

Except when the Yakuza guys use the term "overseas" you shouldn't read that as the West. It means China (which is why the Chinese language version went on sale the same day as the Japanese language version).

 

No, it means exactly what it says, as in any region that's not Japan. The symbols that looked like the rising sun flag in the original were altered in the remaster to avoid upsetting Chinese and Korean players, and I believe the 3 Michiru substories were removed because they were worried about a "controversy" in the west.

[cckerberos]

Anyway the significant changes to the Japanese versions of 4 and 5 were:

• The model for Tanimura (one of the four protagonists in 4) has been changed as they were unable to get the likeness rights for the original actor.
• Increased XP for story missions in 5

[thefourfoldroot]

48 minutes ago, cckerberos said:

Anyway the significant changes to the Japanese versions of 4 and 5 were:

• The model for Tanimura (one of the four protagonists in 4) has been changed as they were unable to get the likeness rights for the original actor.
• Increased XP for story missions in 5

Is this true? Confirmed as the only changes? That's great if so and hopefully carries to the western version. Although the qualifier "significant" is always a judgement call of course.

 

 

Edited August 24, 2019 by DaivRules
Removing quote to off topic post

[cckerberos]

6 minutes ago, thefourfoldroot said:

Is this true? Confirmed as the only changes? That's great if so and hopefully carries to the western version. Although the qualifier "significant" is always a judgement call of course.

Erm, ok.

 

Confirmed in what sense? I did a search in Japanese and those are what Japanese players reported to be the significant changes.

 

There were apparently some minor changes to dialogue and the like, but I didn't bother going into those both because the Japanese players said they were minor and because the games are getting entirely new localizations so no doubt there'll be drastic dialogue changes from the English-language PS3 release in any case (especially because the current localization team, for all the praise they get, play things quite loose with their translations).

[thefourfoldroot]

15 minutes ago, cckerberos said:

 

Confirmed in what sense? I did a search in Japanese and those are what Japanese players reported to be the significant changes.

 

There were apparently some minor changes to dialogue and the like, but I didn't bother going into those both because the Japanese players said they were minor and because the games are getting entirely new localizations so no doubt there'll be drastic dialogue changes from the English-language PS3 release in any case (especially because the current localization team, for all the praise they get, play things quite loose with their translations).

Ok, well let's hope there aren't any changes for western audience (given Sony's new global "standards" one would think not).

[nyonmyan]

On 8/24/2019 at 10:02 PM, turniplord said:

Seriously, you people are crazy. Yes, it’s altered, they have updated the game by inserting all the cut content and redoing all of the subtitles. If you’ve not played the game (which I take it you haven’t based on your replies), why would you care and how would you even know if anything is different anyway?

 

Your initial reply that it’s ‘likely’ a gender or female sexuality thing is beyond pathetic, have you played any of the Yakuza or Judgment games? Nothing I say will convince you as you’re clearly one of those who acts like change is a bad thing, but the official answer is no, nothing has been removed, only updated and added. (Other than the two things above which I will admit I didn’t know about but agree with why they were removed)

 

There are multiple instances of Yakuza games being censored, neutered and changed by localizers for the sake of political agenda.

I get that you support social justice censorship, but you shouldn't call people crazy just because they want to avoid that stuff.

[ShonenCat]

When Yakuza of all games have become censored...

[Dantes_994]

On 8/24/2019 at 6:54 PM, turniplord said:

Stop trying to make out like there’s a load of cut content. It’s more the opposite. They’ve added things which weren’t there before including new mini games and I think some side missions. They’ve also redone all the English subtitles so that it flows better, rather than being a direct translation (like they did with Judgement) - this is why it’s taken so long to come out and why 4 and 5 aren’t out at the same time.

 

if you look on google I’m sure you’ll find the full article or comments over on twitter that were made over the last week about the new content, if anything had been cut or altered, they would have said so. 

 

 

*edit* http://www.pushsquare.com/news/2019/08/yakuza_3_remastered_restores_cut_content_that_wasnt_in_the_ps3_western_release

 

there, it’s all restored content which was originally cut from the game due to time and fund. Take off your tin foil hat.

Thanks!!

[starcrunch061]

On 8/24/2019 at 11:30 AM, thefourfoldroot said:

"With the remasters of the Yakuza series, there was a lot of stuff that had to be renegotiated like likenesses of actors and appearances of corporate names and logos. Some couldn't be renegotiated and had to be changed. So since we had to change some content anyway, we felt we should update the content for the current age when we're releasing this game." - Yakuza series producer Daisuke Sato "

 

Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear...

 

I'll have to wait and see what's cut from 4 & 5. Not too bothered by the edits to 3.

 

I don't even care that much about the censorship, but man - what a mealy-mouthed excuse for it.

[Gone Fishing]

.

Edited September 14, 2020 by Fragtaster

[thefourfoldroot]

1 hour ago, Fragtaster said:

 

I JUST bought the Yakuza Remastered Collection (Yakuza 3, 4 and 5) AND the brand new Yakuza Origins Bundle (Yakuza 0, Kiwami, Kiwami 2) that released a few days ago along side it for only $49.99. In total, that's $100 for SIX Yakuza games: a complete steal in my books.

 

But yeah, I sure hope theres no ruinous censorship or noticeable cut content (gotta wait for 4 & 5 to release)! I spent this money expecting superior versions of 3, 4 and 5 - not the Grand Theft Auto San Adreas treatment.

 

Yakuza Origins Bundle 

https://store.playstation.com/en-us/product/UP0177-CUSA05070_00-00000YAKUZA0K1K2

 

Yakuza Remastered Collection 

https://store.playstation.com/en-us/product/UP0177-CUSA15325_00-YAKUZAREMASTERED

 

PS: I find it odd everyone meantioned the Remastered Collection was coming out Aug 20th, but not that a companion Origins Bundle would also be available the same day for the same price as Kiwami 2 goes for standalone (no point in ever buying them separately anymore). 

If you could get back to us to let us know if there's any cut content that would be great! I've lost all trust these days and will presume the worst until informed otherwise!