Why Final Fantasy 12 Was Censored In Japan (But Not In The West)

Why Final Fantasy 12 Was Censored In Japan (But Not In The West)

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The original version of Final Fantasy 12 on PS2 featured a rare instance of a game being censored in Japan but not in its international release.

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Why Final Fantasy 12 Was Censored In Japan (But Not In The West)

The Final Fantasy series has a rare instance of a game being censored in Japan but not in the West, as a scene featuring Penelo in Final Fantasy 12 was cut due to real-life crimes. The early Final Fantasy games were heavily censored outside of Japan, on account of Nintendo’s strict content guidelines, so Final Fantasy 12’s Japan-only censorship is an odd occurrence.

The jump to PlayStation allowed Final Fantasy to use more adult content, like FF7’s infamous cross-dressing scene and an FF8 summon that resembled a nude woman. These games did include some light censorship, like the blood in FF8 changing color in certain scenes, but they were still far more risqué than the Final Fantasy games on Nintendo systems.

FF12 was originally released for PlayStation 2 in 2006, and its Final Fantasy 12: The Zodiac Age HD remaster is available on most modern systems, as well as on Xbox Game Pass. The original game featured a scene cut from the Japanese release, then restored for the international versions.

Why FF12 Censored Penelo’s Kidnapping In Japan

After she has been kidnapped by Ba’Gamnan and his gang, Penelo is taken to the Lhusu Mines and used as bait for the rest of the party. The scene cut from the Japanese version shows Ba’Gamnan taunting Penelo as she is chained to the floor. In an interview with GameSpot, FF12 producer Akitoshi Kawazu said the scene was cut due “various incidents in the real world” that would have made getting a low age rating difficult. Fans on the Final Fantasy Wiki postulate Kawazu was referring to Tsutomu Miyazaki, a Japanese serial killer who kidnapped and murdered four young girls between 1988 and 1989. Miyazaki’s crimes had entered the news again in 2006, as he was sentenced to death for his crimes a few months before the release of FF12.

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The Penelo kidnapping scene was left in tact for the international versions of FF12, possibly because Miyazaki’s death sentence wasn’t widely reported outside of Japan. The scene was later restored in the Japan-exclusive International Zodiac Job System release, and it’s present in The Zodiac Age, as well. This means Final Fantasy 12 is uncensored on modern systems in Japan and elsewhere (including the version available on Xbox Game Pass).

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/final-fantasy-ff12-censored-japan-kidnapping-not-west/

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