Square Enix Censors Akira Toriyama’s Original Female Warrior Design For ‘Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake’
In a move that feels especially egregious given the esteemed artist’s recent passing, a new preview for Dragon Quest III HD-2D has revealed that Square Enix will be censoring franchise artist Akira Toriyama’s original design for the game’s female Warrior.
Published on September 3rd by way of a lengthy post made to the game’s official Japanese-language Twitter account, Square Enix’s latest look at the upcoming remake sought to provide details regarding the ins and outs of the game’s party system, which rather than teaming players up with named protagonists (à la Final Fantasy or the other mainline Dragon Quest titles) requires players to recruit generic, class-based allies from the local pub.
To this end, said preview offered players a brief profile of each of the game’s available classes – Hero (otherwise known as the protagonist), Gadabout/Jester, Mage, Martial Artist, Merchant, Priest, Sage, Thief, Warrior, and the new Remake-exclusive Monster Wrangler – therein providing both a brief summary of their respective abilities as well as full-body illustrations of their respective male and female variants.
Unfortunately, while most every class representative in the Remake appears just as they did in the original 1988 release (and every subsequent re-release) of Dragon Quest III, this consistency does not extend to the female Warrior.
Originally, the purple-haired heroine originally charged into battle wearing little more than a gloves, boots, a winged helmet, an armored brasserie, and a steel-plated loincloth.
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However, since a worrying amount of players currently have more hang-ups about anything remotely sexual than the original Puritans, the Remake sees the Warrior cover up her shame with a tan-colored undershirt and a matching pair of shorts.
As noted above, this instance of censorship, though admittedly not all together unexpected, comes across as particularly insulting given the fact that Toriyama passed away earlier this year.
“We are deeply saddened to inform you that Manga creator Akira Toriyama passed away on March 1st due to acute subdural hematoma,” read a news update published to the official website of the artist’s iconic Dragon Ball manga.
“It’s our deep regret that he still had several works in the middle of creation with great enthusiasm,” it continued. “Also, he would have many more things to achieve. However, he has left many manga titles and works of art to this world. Thanks to the support of so many people around the world, he has been able to continue his creative activities for 45 years. We hope that Akira Toriyama’s unique world of creation continues to be loved by everyone for a long time to come. We inform you this sad news, with gratefulness for your kindness during his lifetime.”
Sadly, this is not the first official instance in which the female Warrior has had her design censored in recent years.
In the since-shut down mobile RPG Dragon Quest Stars, the Warrior likewise dons both a black undershirt and a pair of tights underneath her original armor.
Similarly, the Warrior would also wear this same outfit for her brief appearance in the also since-shut down mobile TCG Dragon Quest Rivals,
And in Dragon Quest Treasures, her statue features a slightly modified version of this censored outfit, with her full tights instead replaced with spandex shorts.
Further, this bit of censorship is not the first such ‘modern audience’ change made to Dragon Quest III during the remake process.
As previously reported (and subsequently re-affirmed in the Twitter post at the heart of this article), rather than allowing players to choose between ‘Male’ and ‘Female’ genders when creating their hero or selecting their party members, they will instead be asked to select between ‘Type A’ and ‘Type B’ body types.
At current, Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake is currently scheduled to start slaying Slimes on November 14th.
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