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Kimundi

9 Dec, 2016 @ 8:03am

About the modified scene in Tales of Berseria.

Dear Tales of Community,

We read about your concerns regarding some changes between the Japanese and the Western versions of Tales of Berseria, the next game from the Tales Of series to be released on January 27th 2017 on Playstation 4 and PC.

In the western game footage released on December 8th (https://youtu.be/TLbdbwjtxZ8), you discovered a scene that has been reworked compared to the original Japanese game.

As a company, Bandai Namco Entertainment has to follow the regional regulations regarding video games content to allow the games to be released with appropriate rating. The violence depicted in the original Japanese scene in Tales of Berseria would not allow us to keep our current 16 rating. A major change in our rating wouldn’t have allowed to share the game with as many fans as we’d like and it would have prevented us many opportunities to show the game on social networks, websites and even during events. Therefore, instead of deleting the sequence, we decided to rework a portion of the scene to keep its importance in the story. We’ve ensured its impact in the story is the same. Even if the exact actions are different, their consequences are exactly the same: the defining moment changing Velvet’s Story and opposing her to Arthur Collbrande, the moment it becomes a tale of emotions versus reason. We made this modification out of necessity, be sure of that.

You may have read in an interview that we had promised not to censor the game in the West. The statement applied only to the Velvet’s outfit at the time, and we did our best to keep the game as close to the Japanese version as possible.

This is the only scene which has been altered from the Japanese version of the game. Everything else is exactly the same as the Japanese version including costume designs which you will be able to see for yourself once we release the demo on January 10th.

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Showing 1-15 of 747 comments

FIRE FIRE FIRE has Tales of Berseria

9 Dec, 2016 @ 8:42am

Steam is not subject to ESRB (or PEGI?), at least revert it for the PC release.

Silly

9 Dec, 2016 @ 8:43am

Well, at least they replied faster than others publishers in the past.

Sniper Joe 9 Dec, 2016 @ 9:00am

Thanks for the comment. I can say that it's more than many other localizers and publishers would do under the circumstances. That being said, I do have some questions and I hope you'll indulge me.

1) Was the game submitted to the ESRB for rating and you were then told you had to change the scene to receive a T rating, or was the change done pre-emptively? Ditto for PEGI.

2) Assuming the game was submitted to both ratings boards before the scene was edited, was the game changed for all regions due to just one of the ratings boards? For example, if PEGI had said the scene needed censoring for 16 while the ESRB had said it was fine for T as-is, would that lead to Bamco changing every region's version? If the game was censored prior to sending it in to either of the boards, I suppose this question is moot.

3) Why is the Steam version edited? I understand ratings are needed for consoles, but they're not on Steam. The game could be released here without any rating at all. I don't think you'd even need an age gate.

razzgrizz3 9 Dec, 2016 @ 9:02am

sorry namco but this is not good enough. games like limbo or inside show much worse violence against children without problems and they won many awards without anyone kicking up a fuss.
i believe the zestiria anime which was released in english speaking countries also show this scene without problems.

you have also no excuse for pulling this on the steam version since as someone mentioned steam is not subject to these rules.

just a flimsy excuse to rob us of the true artistic vision of the creators. well guess what? this info is already spreading like wildfire and will result in many lost sales...
good job on sabotaging your own product.

Last edited by razzgrizz3; 9 Dec, 2016 @ 9:03am

Silly

9 Dec, 2016 @ 9:13am

Originally posted by Cap'n Fk'n Obvious:
Originally posted by SilkaN:
Well, at least they replied faster than others publishers in the past.

Which isn't worth anything in my book.

I didn't mean to justifiy their actions in any way. This is more damage control than anything.

KOS-MOS

9 Dec, 2016 @ 9:27am

Thank you for responding and pinning this topic Kimundi, most devs would just keep quiet about it.

dragoncoast15 has Tales of Berseria

9 Dec, 2016 @ 9:31am

I already said this in another topic, but did the ESRB also request for the scene to be changed the same way that PEGI did?

The only comments I been seeing about this changed is the Europe rating system request in regards to how this scene should be handled and nothing on the US rating system comment about it.

Last edited by dragoncoast15; 9 Dec, 2016 @ 9:32am

9 Dec, 2016 @ 9:33am

If it's just the one scene, whatever I guess. I was mostly worried they censored a lot of other parts in the game too.

Matex 9 Dec, 2016 @ 9:35am

One scene censored and you already lost 60€.

loktarlogar 9 Dec, 2016 @ 9:37am

So if this scene is changed, what's going to happen with the way Artorius dies? Will Velvet still kill him the same way and thus ruin the entire impact

#10

9 Dec, 2016 @ 9:38am

Originally posted by loktarlogar:
So if this scene is changed, what's going to happen with the way Artorius dies? Will Velvet still kill him the same way and thus ruin the entire impact

Read the OP

#11

aquapendulum 9 Dec, 2016 @ 9:39am

Reposting my reactions here since it's relevant.

Originally posted by aquapendulum:
Originally posted by gstommylee001:

The game for PC got changed cause of the PS4 game. As long as they are selling games for ps4 etc the game will be made or changed to be the rating that they want to be at. If that means change one scene to keep it T rated then so be it.

Don't blame the publisher blame the rating board for being that picky.
How about both? I have been on the record (Twitter specifically) advocating for the abolition of the ESA entirely. That includes the ESRB too.

As for Bandai Namco's part of the blame: Nobody required them to change the Steam version. "The game for PC got changed cause of the PS4 game." excuse is nonsense. It doesn't take more effort to keep the original content intact. It takes less. The content is already there. They don't even have to dub or subtitle the original sequence because it was wordless. They have zero excuse.

I will be extremely kind and give Bandai Namco 1% chance that they will do what Degica and Frontwing International did. What did Degica or Frontwing International do, you might ask? Well, Degica censored Eternal Destiny card artworks initially. But after getting complaints, they added the original card artworks back in as an option even though the game still defaults to the censored artworks. Frontwing International? Also released Corona Blossom on Steam in censored state, but they provide a patch off-site to restore the game to the original state. Yeah, I give Bandai Namco 1% chance that they will do one of those things, and that's being kind.

Originally posted by aquapendulum:
Steam has some age gates indeed, but this can't even be counted as "forcing your hands" because the barrier to entry might not even be there. It's literally a few clicks away. In fact, age gates on Steam don't serve the kind of purpose you think they do. They don't mean the publishers will get less visibility on the store (like how physical retailers operate). What the age gates actually mean is "You might want to move to somewhere private before proceeding because we don't want kids peeking over your shoulders". Steam doesn't check your customers' real ID and deny you a sale if one of your customers doesn't pass the age rating so it's not like a sale-impacting factor like with physical retailers.

As for the legal implication of selling games to minors not satisfying the age rating, you're clear at least in the NA region. The ESRB is a private organization, there is no government-owned media rating board, and the legal precedence has been set in stone with the Supreme Court case Brown v. EMA (2011). Verdict: it's a legal practice to sell any kind of games to minors, protected by the First Amendment of the US Constitution. At least for the NA region, what regional regulation is forcing your hands on Steam, exactly? It's not the government, it's not Steam, and it's not the ESRB (which is a rating org, they don't enforce business practices), and it's sure as hell not console manufacturers or physical retailers (neither of which has any power to interfere with Steam's business).

Oh and PEGI/ESRB ratings on the side have never been a requirement. Publishers choose to show the ratings or they don't. Steam doesn't mandate this.

I'm giving Bandai Namco a way out here. Look at how Frontwing International side-stepped much bolder content than Tales has. Take your 1% chance and prove me wrong.

#12

loktarlogar 9 Dec, 2016 @ 9:40am

Originally posted by scrimmybingusandthecrungyspingus:
Originally posted by loktarlogar:
So if this scene is changed, what's going to happen with the way Artorius dies? Will Velvet still kill him the same way and thus ruin the entire impact
Read the OP

ah so its not going to make any sense

#13

9 Dec, 2016 @ 9:42am

Originally posted by loktarlogar:
Originally posted by scrimmybingusandthecrungyspingus:
Read the OP

ah so its not going to make any sense

that's not even the issue here, if you want it to 'make sense' just watch the original on youtube or wait for someone to mod it back in. the issue people have is that they censored anything at all. it's an ethical thing.

Last edited by Cookie; 9 Dec, 2016 @ 9:43am

#14

9 Dec, 2016 @ 9:51am

Originally posted by Cap'n Fk'n Obvious:
Originally posted by scrimmybingusandthecrungyspingus:
that's not even the issue here, if you want it to 'make sense' just watch the original on youtube or wait for someone to mod it back in. the issue people have is that they censored anything at all. it's an ethical thing.

Well if it doesn't even make in terms of the game itself the change seems even worse than before to me.

Also suggesting someone should just google the uncensored scene to make sense of the censored scene is pretty funny.

Well you're SOL otherwise, so i don't see what's funny about it.

#15

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Tales of Berseria > General Discussions > Topic Details

Date Posted: 9 Dec, 2016 @ 8:03am

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