Here we go again.
Final Fantasy VII Remake producer Toshinori Kitase and director Tetsuya Nomura have revealed a few more snippets of information in regards to the upcoming game, and one of them is that the developers are trying to be a little more socially conscious when it comes to the implementation of certain aspects of the game, including the game’s Honey Bee Inn.
The Honey Bee Inn was a brothel found in Midgar which could be visited by Cloud, with it being possible to play out a rather confusing scene in which Cloud bathes with a selection of burly men, who may or may not molest him depending upon your viewpoint. Cloud can also embark upon a crossdressing sidequest which takes him to the Inn, wherein Cloud must dress like a woman in order to be granted entry to Don Corneo’s mansion as his “bridge for the night,” in order for him to save Tifa. Cloud can only visit the Honey Bee Inn once during the game, as the establishment’s owners refuse to let him in as they deem his crossdressing actions too “weird.”
It’s not certain which facets of the Honey Bee Inn segment the Square Enix devs will be tweaking, though they stated in an interview with Japanese gaming blog Esuteru that they will need to be “careful” about how they implement this portion of the game in the Final Fantasy VII Remake, specifically referencing the Honey Bee Inn, due to the “time and social situation.” No specifics were given, but many are already frothing at the mouth with cries of censorship, despite – as I have previously mentioned – this hardly being a new endeavor for the Japanese gaming industry.
For decades Japanese developers have altered their video games before they make their way to Western shores, and the original Final Fantasy VII was no exception. Indeed, the PlayStation classic’s version of the Honey Bee Inn also had a ton of altered/removed content, some of which was featured in the Japanese original, and some which was taken out of the game entirely. Still, the accusations of “SJW pandering” are already doing the rounds, despite no one having filed a complaint with Square Enix demanding that they alter the game, and also despite the developer literally overhauling pretty much every aspect of it already for its remake, from its visuals through its gameplay. Oh, and let’s not jump to conclusions here, either: the Square Enix devs did not state that the game would be altered for Western audiences, but rather suggested that the game would be tweaked for all regions.
Still, this ongoing concern that progressives on Twitter are somehow proving to be a decisive factor in the content featured in video games continues to prevail, despite all reasoned thought suggesting otherwise. Western and Eastern audiences have always responded differently to certain topics, humor etc. It’s the reason why English anime dubs are rarely literal translations, and why so many Japanese games have not remained entirely in tact during their travels to the West. Things get chopped, added, flipped around and changed in order to suit a Western audience. It’s not censorship; it’s good business, and it’s been a recurring theme throughout the history of video games that is just now being spun into the narrative of how whiny champions of social justice are trying to kill video games from the inside out.
There is no problem with stating your belief that the dialogue and story of the original game should remain completely in tact. That would be understandable. But to suggest that it being altered is as a result of a few progressives on Twitter, who have made nary a whisper about the game, is a stretch that only the most unreasonably enraged of fools could make.
