Final Fantasy VII Remake Director Confirms Tifa’s Chest Was “Tightened” Because of Ethics Department at Square Enix

Final Fantasy VII Remake director Tetsuya Nomura confirmed Tifa’s chest was “tightened” due to the the ethics department at Square Enix.

Nomura’s comments come from an interview with Weekly Famitsu as reported by Niche Gamer.

Nomura specifically discussed Tifa Lockhart’s design for Final Fantasy VII Remake.

“We wanted Tifa to have abs, so she now has more of an athletic body type. The ethics department at Square Enix also said we had to tighten her chest so it doesn’t look unnatural during all the intense fighting. Because of that we added black thigh highs and tank top.”

Nomura’s comments are similar to those made by Mortal Kombat 11’s art director Steven Beran as he attempted to justify the radical changes that desexualized the female Mortal Kombat characters.

Mark Kern, former Team Lead for Vanilla World of Warcraft and Creator of Em-8ER mocked the idea of an ethics department to regulate the breast size of fictional characters in video games.

The eyebrows didn’t end with the idea of an ethics department to regulate Tifa’s bust size.

Nomura also noted they have changed the The Honey Bee Inn cross-dressing event.

“The Honey Bee Inn cross-dressing event is still in the game. We’ve made it more modern. If we made the place like we did in the original game, the physical uneasiness would be overwhelming, so that was no good…”

The Honey Bee Inn, for those either unfamiliar or don’t remember, is a bee-themed brothel that is run by a crime boss named Don Corneo. Tifa attempts to infiltrate the brothel by posing as one of Corneo’s call girls after learning he is an informant for Shinra.

However, Cloud believes Tifa has been kidnapped. In order to rescue Tifa he dresses up and poses as a woman.

The announcement of an ethics department at Square Enix comes after conflicting reports regarding Sony’s strict content censorship policy.

A report from The Wall Street Journal cited a Sony spokeswoman who confirmed Sony had a censorship policy in place in order to “not inhibit the sound growth and development” of young people. The report indicates this new policy came about because of the #MeToo movement and the rise of people watching gamers play on YouTube and Twitch.

However, a conflicting report from Sony spokesperson in Japan would surface within the same week. This spokesperson noted that Sony had not introduced “new rules.” However they did indicate that games are looked at on a case by case basis by Sony executives.

This spokesman also noted that the executives look at a “global standard” when they are reviewing content. He noted the review process is “generally reserved for strict sexual content.”

It’s possible Square Enix might have created an ethics department in order to deal with censorship coming from Sony.

What do you think of these two changes coming to the Final Fantasy VII Remake? Are you thrilled at the prospect of an Ethics Department overseeing content? Or is this a natural evolution for the industry?