Dragon Quest Creator Chimes In On Characters Showing Less Skin In Upcoming HD-2D Remake

"I really wonder, who's even complaining about this?"

by · Nintendo Life
Image: Nintendo Life / Square Enix

Ahead of the release of Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake this November, series' creator Yuji Horii has addressed the changes to the female characters in the game, who are now showing less skin than the original version of the game.

Speaking during an interview at the Tokyo Game Show (and translated by Valute News), Horii admits he's just as confused by the changes to the late Akira Toriyama's artwork, but goes on to explain how if there's "too much exposure, the age rating goes up" and it means the game can't be sold to "all-ages".

Later in the conversation he also acknowledges some other changes to the series, like how players "used to be able to choose between a male and female main character". Now, though, he explains how the team "have to label them as Type 1 and Type 2" (Type A and Type B).

Yuji Horii: I really wonder, who's even complaining about this?

The former Shonen Jump Editor-in-Chief Kazuhiko Torishima, who was part of the same interview, chimes in on the whole censorship debate – seemingly pointing the finger at Western markets and "especially" America, rather than Japan's rating system. Here's exactly what he had to say (thanks, Time Extension):

Kazuhiko Torishima: It's like an absolute god. An evil disguised as good. There's no such thing as content which that doesn't make everyone uncomfortable. Because beauty and ugliness, good and evil, are different for everyone...

There’s a religious concept from the West, especially in America, that influences their approach to sex education, right? Their approach to compliance is really narrow-minded. When selling manga in America, everything had to be categorised by age groups. Because there’s a risk of lawsuits, the company also has to get insurance.

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

Square Enix's changes to Akira Toriyama's Dragon Quest artwork follow the Dragon Ball creator's passing earlier this year in March. You can see this full segment of the same interview in the video below:

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"Tackle life with as much energy as Goku! I'll try to do the same!"

[source x.com, via timeextension.com]

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   •  Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake (Switch)
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About Liam Doolan

Liam is a news writer and reviewer for Nintendo Life and Pure Xbox. He's been writing about games for more than 15 years and is a lifelong fan of Mario and Master Chief. He's also got a soft spot for Sonic the Hedgehog.

Comments 59

It's a mix of bummer and non-issue. It will hardly affect any gameplay or enjoyment of the game

I pass to comment on the first thing mentioned, but for the gender thing… come on, just label them male and female and be done.

We are ridiculous. Just check out the tangerine lunatic we got on deck to possibly run the joint.

I agree with the creators. They are now obliged to put “type 1” and “type 2” so as not to offend anyone.

I don't have a strong opinion either way; ratings are funny things sometimes and always seem a bit arbitrary in certain cases. I do find Kazuhiko Torishima's rant about America pretty hilarious though.

The Type A and B thing is stupid as hell. Seriously, what purpose does any of this crap serve? There’s other games that have plenty of exposure in character designs and it’s perfectly fine, and then there are some that get criticized to hell for it. This is just pointless.

The after effects of a certain group creating problems where there weren't any to begin with.
There was nothing wrong with "male" and "female".

The world changed. People can either keep up or get left behind. Whining about it does no real good other than invite the worst possible people to call you "based" and treat you like the exception.

Calling it Type 1 and Type 2 is kinda on the nose, but I like nintendos approach in games like acnh and splatoon 3 saying to just "pick your style". It's a subtle way for avatars stay open to interpretation, enough that their style mean what you want it to mean

@Bobb It affects the creators’ vision of the game. It’s like some higher authority that you don’t even know tells you how to do your own creations. Would you be fine with that?

@Arkay 100% agree. What a world we live in 😞

tbh I have to agree with him. Why do people care this much about something so trivial, especially when the creator of the game is saying it's not an issue?

@Arkay yuuup.

"Doing business with such a ridiculous country is really frustrating." Spitting some hard facts. Game was fine as is, and it's a flipping remake. You can't please everyone used to be an acceptable cost of business not this impossible thing everyone had to constantly chase.

you're probably only going to see this... once.

@Savage_Joe This wouldn't have happened without the express approval of the creator. And here he is talking about it along with a former Shonen Jump EIC about how he thinks this discourse is ridiculous. This same thing can be said of other remakes that changed things for "no reason", it needed the explicit approval of the original's director, which... Yuji Horii is. I don't see how this is some higher power affecting his creative vision when it literally is his vision.

I'm really exhausted with how impossible it is to talk about video games without running into an absolute flood of people who spend every waking moment whining about non-cis and non-white people existing. These are good changes.

I’ve always thought the type 1 and 2 were dumb…. You can clearly tell which body is male and female.

I'm amused that it is at the same time both the extreme left and extreme right in America that are causing censorship on a Japanese game.

If anything is /popcorn-worthy, it's this.

A small change like this isn't going to change much in regards to the game, since it is mostly cosmetic. Now the Type-1 and Type-2 is a little silly, and just reminds me of Diabetes. Still these days it has become necessary, since we do live in such sensitive times.

does the Japanese version of the remake also include these changes, or are they only implemented for the rest of the world? And if the Japanese version is going to be the superior version, any word on if that version will have English text as an option?

I am against censorship if it isn't at the willing consent of the original creator(s). Same with bans. It's why content warnings should be in place instead. This should, IMO, extend to any form of media.

(The above does exclude localization changes in text where some words and phrases may not always translate well between languages...But they should still stick with the original script as closely as possible.)

Personally, the cosmetic changes don't bother me; IMO they're practical unless the lady protagonist wants to deal with a LOT of chafing lol. The Type-1 and Type-2 thing seems like a reach however. I feel like I'm discussing something in the medical field.

Ultimately, these changes won't affect gameplay.

@Lizuka I’m exhausted talking about video games with others and they bring up race for absolutely no reason

Like it or not, the Type 1 / Type 2 thing is good PR for a game, why else would companies have it? Especially Nintendo, which has never been one to care for “social issues”.

Torishima is 100% right, it is a religion. A godless religion, that's why it's so toxic and poisonous to everything it touches. Someone tell them that age ratings don't matter at large. And "regulations" about things like male or female, or the "cover up because it's illegal" is a pure fabrication. They are being lied to.

It's really not a big deal, at all.

Does exposed character skin enhance the gameplay?
NO.
Does exposed character skin improve the story telling?
NO.

If the game mechanics work and the gameplay feels like the original game, then it's fine.
It's all pixels and polygons in the end.

Anyway, I'm sure this comment section will be super cool and chill.

this comment section sucks im leaving this site

@Scposteel That does not make it necessary.

@SnowyNowak “ This wouldn't have happened without the express approval of the creator. ”
Otherwise, the creators would be flooded with hate comments and the media would be doing hit articles about the game, trying to ruin it. Stellar Blade is the perfect example of that. If 2024 has taught us something, is that politics tarnish creativity.

It's pretty much what we all knew. Nice to hear them admit it. I wish they'd just have stood up and said "No." They use the excuse of "Well, we don't want to lose an audience base." But most 6 year olds wouldn't play DQ anyways. Those who would parent's probably would actively get it.

Companies are just doing their part in making sure I keep on saving money and work on my huge backlog of amazing games. 👍

The bigger question is it isn't a big deal to him, then why did he change it? The always like to shift the subject of censorship to the fans that they see as losers. No game should be changed from it's original form in a remake just to appease the frigid idiots who aren't mature enough to handle a little skin.

@Savage_Joe You mean the game sitting at 81/100 on Metacritic? With a bunch of 10/10s, 9/10s and 8/10s from critics?

Some classic shenanigans to be sure

I hadn’t even noticed the changes.

@LavenderShroud I remember when Splatoon 3 did this "Type 1" and "Type 2" thing so many people here on Nintendolife were praising Nintendo for being inclusive, progressive etc etc. As if this was the most important change from the previous games.

In Animal Crossing New Horizons they just say "choose your setting" and then both genders are exactly the same.

Wow I’m surprised and saddened to see so much anti-trans sentiment here. I guess it’s easy not to care when you’re not in an affected group.

I feel grateful to be friends with many people that are.

@Lizuka Male and female are sex and not gender, so I don’t see why they ever needed to change it. It’s not non inclusive

@BlublacMH no, it hasn't. All that's happened is that certain groups with very extreme views weaseled their way into positions of power and now try to dictate what is and isn't allowed.

Neither the creators nor the consumers wanted any of these changes. And this interview has made it crystal clear that whoever it is at Square Enix's american branch that has been feeding these lies that "this is what westerners want" to the Japanese creators, they need to be found and fired.

I never cared for sexy fan service myself. Even if a person does like sexy fan service I don't see HD-2D being the way to go for er... eye candy. Eh, whatever floats your boat I guess, who am I to judge? Apathetic is me.

As for the type 1 & 2 type A & B America (politically) ridiculous bit? Yeah, I'm not biting the hook here, Nintendolife ain't the place to air this out.

...As for a much more pleasant topic Seeds of Salvation is one of my favorite old school JRPGs. Love that is perfected the DW/DQ formula that is still being used to this day. Great game and looking forward to the remake.

"Type-1" and "Type-2" is kind of a weird solution; a spin on the aforementioned "Choose Your Style" from Splatoon would've been a better choice.

When we know better, we do better. Changing the outfits makes sense. Doing a little bit of work to make the remake more inclusive cost them nothing and it doesn't affect the game or the storytelling.

If any of this bothers you - especially a need for female-presenting characters to be more scantily clad while crying "CENSORSHIP" - you need to do some soul searching.

Is sad but not surprising that, even with the creators coming out, and explaining in no uncertain terms "we didn't want to make these changes, we think they're stupid. But we've been told that we have to", there's still people on these comments defending thr blatant tampering of their vision.

@ottoecamn This is gonna blow your mind, but virtually every piece of commercial art created is in some way compromised to reach a wider audience. And it's always been this way. This is actually hilariously a lot better than things used to be.

All things considered, this is really innocuous. you should see the kinds of hoops and censorship Nintendo made partners jump through back in the NES and Super NES eras. Castlevania games got censored over and over and over again.

@ottoecamn with that profile pic its very easy to see why you would take this stance. But like I said, the world is moving forward and polygonal boobs and rigid gender binary are just not worth fighting for.

The scantily clad female-type characters are completely unnecessary tropes and only serve to perpetuate this sexualized expectation of all females. Like, those outfits don't make sense from a story standpoint. It's clearly done for eye candy. And that in and of itself is distasteful and wrong. We shouldn't be setting these standards continually. BUT ALSO, many women are playing video games and probably even more nowadays. They probably don't want to feel like the only options they have to closely represent themselves are the characters with body parts exposed and bouncing around for all to see. It sends a bad message. Both of these elements are about representation. The characters in the game could just be male or female. But since these are acting as avatars for the players, it allows people more freedom to pick someone that they feel aligned with, devoid of any labels. No one is saying you can't be a male or a female person, yourself. Just recognize that there are all types of different people in the world, and they would all like a chance to the same things that you have.

I believe the CERO is no joke when it comes to "too much skin". Remember Palutena in Smash Bros. for Wii U?
Coming from Sakurai himself

One of the first things they say in overseas ratings reviews is “no guns”—that I can understand. But in Japan, they immediately ask “could you show us all the female characters upside-down?”

As much as it may go against the original vision, or in this case what was already established years ago, if it has to be changed for the sake of complying with everything, it sadly has to be changed.

@BlublacMH the character in my profile pick is from of my favorite gaming franchises. One that started small, carved a niche for itself and grew a loyal fanbase, but thanks to people with the ideology you defend, it's a franchise that's now dormant, with its creator leaving the company and stating in no uncertain terms that "with the new restrictions, it'd be impossible to release the next game in the series in my original vision".

You can say it's a matter of being inclusive but it's really about control, it's like Torishima-san said "an evil disguised as good".

The people talking about how these changes are 'not a big deal' remind me of the tale of the frog in the slowly boiling pot. The level integrity of anyone who censors these things towards the games they are editing is a clue as to how much they care about it, which affects how well they will treat what the product they are editing. But I guess it's easier to just keep burying your heads in the sand.

Seeing as the game will have gendered dialogue i.e if you chose female, should indicate daughter etc, it does beg the question at least

If it's not a big deal why did it have to change?

Unnecessary censorship is still unnecessary.

People saying the change doesn't matter, while it would have made all the difference to my parents when I was a kid.😂 Is removing fan service like this not a good thing?

As for the "Type 1/Type 2"... it's so ridiculous. It's so obvious which one is which.

So they don't realize it looks terrible and ridiculous? LOL to be so unaware of oneself.

they should have gone for M rating, lmao. voting with my wallet and skipping the game.

The demonisation of human bodies by organised religion, has turned this into a society of prudes.

Even then it’s not rated all ages. It’s going to end up rated teen at least. Besides the changes arebt going to make someone who wasn’t interested in it before suddenly buy it just because they cover up some skin. Heck given that young kids play GTA then people have nothing to complain about.

@OctoAmbush This is Nintendo Life, not an airport departure lol

@Arkay Certain group??

@ottoecamn What ideology?

@GameOtaku Exactly my thoughts. Kids play Call of Duty, GTA, and other M-rated games they shouldn’t. Yet something like this is bad and not appropriate?

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