Examples of Damage Control in Gaming: Tales of a Slightly Altered Berseria

Throughout their time in the gaming market, Bandai Namco’s western departments have tried to keep their localized Japanese RPGs rated T for Teen in America by the ESRB, or between a PEGI rating of 12 and 15 in the UK. Teenagers are the biggest market for the genre in Japan, so it makes sense that companies have aimed their titles towards that same audience in the west — though this could change soon given recent trends. Given the content they often have, this hasn’t been too difficult for them, but there’s one case in the past where this happened to a fault.

Releasing Xenosaga Episode III with such a rating required editing a heap of content, including altering violent scenes and eliminating nearly every instance of blood. Beyond the concept of content changes, the bigger problem was how the editing looked haphazard, and it was easy to tell something was missing in some scenes. There was no way they didn’t hear the complaints from fans about this after unaltered images and videos from the Japanese version hit the internet. It was enough that they’d have to make sure not to do it again…or so you’d think.

The Tales franchise has never pushed the aforementioned ratings boundaries too hard since the PS2/Gamecube era, as they’ve all been clearly aimed towards teenagers in Japan. But Tales of Xillia 2 showed how the  development team was willing to experiment with darker themes, as it contained a higher body count compared to its predecessors. Tales of Berseria, which releases in western territories in late-January, is another result of that, which goes to much darker places than previous installments. It’s hinted at in several of its trailers, which showed one of the most conflicted protagonists in Tales history in Velvet Crowe. The game goes far enough that — you guessed it — Bandai Namco had to censor a scene to maintain its Teen and PEGI 12/15 rating.

(Warning: I can’t explain the section without delving into minor spoilers, so you’ve been warned. But there’s a chance that you may find this out before release anyway.)

Bandai Namco uploaded a lengthy section of the game to their YouTube account for their fanbase to hear their English dubbing work, despite it containing an actual character death. Specifically, it shows how the ten-year-old Laphicet meets his fate at the hands of one of the game’s villains. But upon seeing the scene, those familiar with the Japanese version noticed it was slightly altered, as the impalement is harder to see. We’ve seen how sensitive some gamers are to alterations (or “censorship”) from original Japanese versions in the last few years, so it didn’t take long for them to respond to this with fury.

Not to imply there’s a problem in being upset with this, as the scene is altered enough that it neuters the impact of Lapichet’s death. It’s a pity this had to happen, especially considering producer Yasuhiro Fukaya previously mentioned that nothing would be altered from the Japanese version, though his statement mainly pertained to Velvet’s tattered outfit. Before speculation could get too out of hand, Bandai Namco’s Tales group posted a response on the official Facebook page. Here, they explained this occurred due to their desire to keep the same age rating, and insinuated above, and that this is the only part of the game that’s been altered. Hopefully they mean that.

In fairness, it sounds like Bandai Namco’s hand was forced here, thanks to some within either the ESRB or PEGI (or both) ratings organizations having an issue with a child being killed in a game supposedly suitable for teens. There’s likely another game out there with a child dying with a Teen and PEGI 12 or 15 rating, but like the MPAA movie ratings board, ratings organizations can be startlingly inconsistent.

Though Bandai Namco wants to keep the games rated for teenagers, it likely wouldn’t have hurt its sales if it received a higher rating for western territories. Teens in the west have been playing games with ratings above their age limit for years, and they happen to find those titles gritter than ones specifically aimed towards them. Ask anyone who plays Call of Duty titles online, and they’ll tell you they often hear several voices that clearly don’t belong to players over 17. If anything, a higher rating might have given it more sales, so it’s a baffling move from the western department. But it’s also possible the Japanese department dictated this. There are many possibilities we’ll sadly never receive answers to.

I’ll assume Bandai Namco’s staff isn’t fibbing about that scene being the only one altered. Beyond them never hearing the end of it from some rabid fans, I wouldn’t want them to dwindle the effects of other potentially violent content in cutscenes, and I’m sure they feel the same way.

Tales of Berseria will release in America and Europe on January 24th and 27th, respectively, for PS4 and PC. Before that, a demo will arrive for both platforms on January 10th, presumably to help show how it’s an improvement over last year’s divisive Tales of Zestiria. RPGs can be hard to demo, so I hope they’ve put together something convincing.