A recent Tokyo Game Show 2024 Square Enix livestream revealed a creator’s disdain for recent changes to his game.

Dragon Quest creator Yuji Horii, in a show promoting Dragon Quest 3 HD-2D Remake on an interview with Shonen Jump editor-in-chief Kazuhiko Torishima, said he and Torishima were unhappy with the costume censorship changes to the remake.

“There are so many restrictions for exposed skin.”

When mentioned that the game is a work is fiction, both Horii and Torishima asked why the original costumes were a concern. Horii also mentioned that if there was more exposure, the age rating would go up and thus the game cannot be sold for all-ages, implying that it is a business decision.

Torishima said that compliance is like an “all-powerful god” like in the Dragon Quest games, when the topic came up. “It’s something that is using the name of good but is actually bad. It’s impossible every single person doesn’t feel uncomfortable. It’s fine to feel uncomfortable. Beautiful and ugly, good and evil, it depends on the person”. He also added that the Western countries’ attitude to compliance is really “narrow-minded”, where there’s a root of thinking based on religion and its influences on its sex education.

“Doing business with such a ridiculous country is frustrating. Because of that, Japan gets negatively influenced.”

Horii addressed the recent change to the remake where it removes “male” and “female” pronouns and instead replace them with “Appearance A” and “Appearance B” (or Type 1/Type 2), perplexed as to who would complain about the former.

“In Dragon Quest, you used to be able to choose between a male and female protagonist. But now you can’t choose between a man and a woman anymore. We have to call them Type 1 and Type 2. I truly wonder who is even complaining about this?” (translation via Valute News)

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The reason why the exposure of costumes in DQ3 needs to be reduced, as explained in an interview at TGS.#DQ3HD2D #????????3 #DragonQuest#TGS2024 pic.twitter.com/wzMoCnVYjN

— Valute News (@saou0345) September 29, 2024

Dragon Quest 3 HD-2D Remake will be out on 14 November for PC and consoles.