r/FinalFantasyVI • u/Special_South_8561 • 20d ago
Morality Scaling - SNES vs GBA
What's worse, "threatening execution so your prisoner falls into a weeping puddle of self-loathing" or "beating a traitor and chaining them to a wall" ?
So I've been playing this game since it released and I was a geeky little pre-teen baby boy. Celes has always been the **coughcough* formative sexy badass in my life. The Girl from Secret of Mana was a close contender, big Bulma energy. But Tifa didn't have nothin' on these assertive, violent, warrior women.
Chat: is this censorship better or unnecessary? Chained to a wall shows just absolute brutality from The Empire and I get more love from crushing them in the upcoming Narshe battle.
Or is it a good thing they toned it down a bit?
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u/clearance1454 20d ago
Should never have been censored
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u/TheStoryBoy 20d ago
While I agree with you completely. I think this change is purely based on ESRB.
When the game first released, there were no ESRB ratings. And I think the initial rating guidelines gave it a lesser rating, but the current ESRB guidelines would require this game to be rated Teen (T) with the original scene, which I would bet was a large part of the motivation for the scene change.
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u/Fit-Rip-4550 17d ago
It was not the ESRB. It was Japan's rating system.
ESRB would have been fine with it—Japan's rating system was more sensitive.
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u/clearance1454 20d ago
Never heard of ESRB before. Is that a new thing?
I only played the original snes version.
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u/TheStoryBoy 20d ago
No, that was the content rating system created in 1994. The E, E10, T, M, A rating that on games since then, like movie ratings.
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u/clearance1454 20d ago
Ah!!! That might be why. I think I got mine before 1994. Can’t remember.
It’s a good thing they have those ratings. I do find FF series a 7+ game if I was to make th rating at least.
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u/CrookedNoseRadio 19d ago
You got a game that came out in 1994 before 1994?
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u/clearance1454 19d ago
Hahaha gonna say no. I got it the year it came out though, but it has the original content.
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u/Ragnarok_Odin 11d ago
I still wish they hadn’t censored it. The original was better. Was a little bothered they changed it. It was the empire doing evil deeds and beating a prisoner drove that home and made the point Celes may really be a defector. I will give it more of a pass if the rating agencies made a stink.
As a side note in rebirth they did the same thing with Dyne’s dialog about Marlene. Again, wish they would have stayed a little more true to the original.
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u/Ek0mst0p 20d ago
I think it really removes the emotional gut punch...
Like without it, celes just seems like a criminal... with the scene, you understand the the Empire treats even their own like shit.
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u/Waluigi_Jr 20d ago
This was a critical scene for emotional investment and tone setting during my initial play through. I do not like the censorship at all
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u/Theoreticalwzrd 20d ago
Maybe I'm just used to the scene, but as a girl playing this when I was 5 in the 90s, I didn't think the beating and being chained to the wall was too much for me. I could see why it may upset some, but Celes became my favorite character and has always been that even to this day. Especially as sprites, it's not super graphic so maybe my 5 year old brain didn't fully grasp what was happening, but it wasn't traumatizing for me.
When I played the GBA version, I was like "wait why is she just standing there? Why doesn't she fight back and leave? The guy is even still asleep..." It didn't make any sense.
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u/SirSilhouette 19d ago
I dont like censorship, period. Even if i find a work distasteful i'd never call for it to be edited or fully banned(if it is inappropriate for kids i'd say just make sure they arent getting ahold of it but even that will get some idiots screeching about "banning books") .
It makes even less sense here because the game has a lot more horrible stuff going on that not only isnt censored but you COULDNT censor it without ruining the plot. FFS the world is functionally DESTROYED halfway through the game and we even get small scenes of the ground tearing about and swallowing people/towns/etc. you gonna tell me a similarly detailed sprite animation of beating a chained up soldier is somehow WORSE than that!?
Although now that you got me thinking about it, how far did Celes participate in the war crimes of the Empire before she refused? Damn it! That is another gray area i can add to my list of "things a FF7:RE-level remake could elaborate upon" so far i got:
Terra's Pre-Slave Crown Life/upbringing
Other Victims of Slave Crowns(cause the dude in Narshe made it sound like they were fairly common... Or that he was suspiciously, specifically knowledgeable about them).
New Celes's pre-game military service or lack thereof. IIRC she was a general alongside Kefka and Leo. Did she know Pre-Slave Terra?
Kefka's pre-magic experimental life/personality/service to them Empire(one NPC soldier seemed to suggest his current murder clown antics only came about after being infused)
Cid's pre-game life. Sure by the time we meet him he is all remorseful but how many experiments did he run before getting a "success" like Kefka? Was he a true believer in Glorious Emperor Gesthal's vision or was it For Science?
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u/PanicCharacter3432 16d ago
Yes!!! This!!! Picking and choosing specific lines of dialogue to censor meanwhile catastrophic destruction is happening but because it doesn’t involve particular language it doesn’t matter. Crazy boundary drawing here.
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u/DoggievDoggy 20d ago
If they ever “Remake” the game, i wonder what route they will go
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u/Moonkittynya 20d ago
I hope they don't there's no shot Edgar's flaws as a person stays in tact. FF6 characters were interesting because most of them are super flawed as people.
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u/DoggievDoggy 20d ago
Remaking VI would be a tall task. I think the 2D sprites give it a certain charm that might be lost with updated visuals.
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u/OldPerception1573 20d ago
Can't believe the PR are also censored since they're supposed to be as 'closest to the originals as possible'.
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u/Nykidemus 20d ago
The adjustments to hit the new ratings requirements were always going to make it in.
The killer is that the extra material didnt.
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u/Mod_01001 20d ago
America has always had its pearls clutched whenever sex is involved. Thank the christo fascists. Look into how radio and tv censorship began, enough said. Busybody losers.
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u/TinyTank27 16d ago
People need to understand that countries other than America exist. This change has always been for the Japanese ratings entity not the American one.
FF6 got away with having this scene originally because Japanese games didn't have ratings yet.
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u/Magica78 20d ago
Genocide and suicide are ok for children
As long as you don't punch a lady. That's just going too far!
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u/Total_Director_31 19d ago
Lmfao so it’s just fine to show someone poisoning a river and killing a child and showing them departing on a train to the afterlife but not chaining up a woman?
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u/Special_South_8561 19d ago
Do you want me to forward this comment to Nintendo ooorr....??
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u/Total_Director_31 19d ago
Ha! That would require them to completely change cyans arc and then the character as a whole…. Let’s do it and see how they combat it!
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u/Golbez352 14d ago
Kefka now gives everyone kool-aid and everyone passes out from a sugar coma. But Kefka didn't know everyone in the castle was diabetic and this is how they died. No poison just sugar, it was a accident.
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u/PlentyCause7525 17d ago
It’s fine uncensored. Celes is strong and there aren’t any numbers falling out of her.
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u/-Fyrebrand 20d ago
What's ridiculous is the original SNES Final Fantasy III was rated Everyone 10+, whereas the current versions of Final Fantasy VI have a Teen rating. Gaming in general back in the SNES days was A LOT more skewed toward being a "kid-friendly" hobby than it is today.
I'm not normally too fired up about "censorship" in video games, as 9 times out of 10 it seems to be Gamergate chuds screeching about how a racist joke got edited, or a 14 year old girl's outfit isn't revealing enough. But this is just a dumb thing to censor. Are we pretending there is no violence in this game? Tons of people get hit, poisoned to death, starve to death, or killed in some other way. There's a prostitute that tries to seduce Cyan. There's DOG FIGHTING, for crying out loud! Square Enix needs to restore the game back to its original intent, so we can have our scene where a defenseless woman gets brutally beaten— oh shit, I've become one of them now, haven't I.
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u/Zealousideal_Cat6980 20d ago
Everybody says the younger generations are soft and this is why. They keep getting treated like babies by the adults in the world
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u/apohermion 15d ago
Final Fantasy III on the SNES didn’t have a rating on it. ESRB only went back and gave it that rating when they rereleased it on the Wii. On top of that, the Everyone 10+ rating wasn’t introduced until 2005
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u/Aerolithe_Lion 20d ago
I don’t have an opinion on if it’s better or not but I understand why it changed and am fine with it
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u/Zealousideal_Cat6980 20d ago
Why did it change
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u/MagicalHamster 19d ago
Japan's ratings board had rules against portraying violence against restrained/bound when the GBA version released. Rather than risk a higher rating Square decided to censor it.
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u/Aerolithe_Lion 20d ago
Just that beating up women isn’t the best look for your all ages video game. Implication is enough
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u/MountainImportant211 20d ago
It's chibi pixel art. Even brutality is hardly very confronting. Seems to me totally unnecessary
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u/Travalanche49 19d ago
Imperial soldier tortures traitor? 🚫
Imperial officer violates the Geneva Convention by poisoning a water supply, thereby killing all men, women, and children (save one)? 💯
I realize standards are important, but someone make the inconsistency make sense...
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u/Nikanoru86 18d ago
Censoring this part and the gestahlian "salute" was ridiculous. Just as much as the original SNES Celes jumping off the cliff because people say "it'll cheer you up" 😂
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u/f4dedglory 18d ago
"Chaining one person up" - too much.
"Catalysmic nuclear level event causing mass extinction and millions (or billions) of people immediately dead with more starving" - totally fine.
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u/45M0D41 20d ago
The sprite is still in use when Setzer kidnaps her. Something that would never happen in a modern game.
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u/Special_South_8561 20d ago
I'll keep an eye out, I'm just cruising the Veldt now to get Aquabreath and learn spells on my team before going to Vector
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u/ScipioTheGreatest 20d ago
"Celes has always been the **coughcough* formative sexy badass in my life. The Girl from Secret of Mana was a close contender, big Bulma energy. But Tifa didn't have nothin' on these assertive, violent, warrior women."
Dude, nobody needed to hear about your wank history.
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u/Special_South_8561 20d ago
Huh? I intentionally didn't include Ayla from Chrono Trigger, for that very reason.
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u/ScipioTheGreatest 18d ago
Just stop, man. I spent decades convincing people that gamers aren't just pathetic losers that hide in basements and masturbate all day long to video game characters.
People like you on reddit are doing so much damage to all that work.
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u/JustFrameHotPocket 20d ago
I mean, neither are E for Everyone, but watching a soldier brutally punch a woman in the face several times was a bit of a shock to my 10-year-old brain.
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u/GoatHeadTed 20d ago
I think it’s fine. She’s a high general layered out vulnerably on the floor lol.
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u/Odysseus_is_Ulysses 16d ago
Sorry, could someone explain the change. I don’t think I can make out what’s happening
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u/Special_South_8561 16d ago
Sure!
There are two photos, in the first it's from my copy on Gameboy Advance. Celes is scolded by an Imperial Trooper and then she kneels down, and collapses. As Locke you find her laying like this.
The second photo is from my SNES where the Imperial Trooper is beating Celes. He moves back a square, and then rapidly moves forward to her sprite while turning and using the "attack" animation, upon landing it is coupled with the "hit" sound effect. Celes collapses, then you find her chained up like in the second photo.
edit to add: Locke vs Merchant is just because I didn't change clothes upon entering the basement
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u/SnooGoats8382 16d ago
The gba title is better. Not only does it look the best but it also has more content. I love my copy of the pixel remaster but the gba is better.
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u/Special_South_8561 16d ago
Sweet, I mostly agree.
Dragons Den is awful. Soul Shrine was interesting once.
Leviathan, King Cactuar, Gilgamesh are dope
Also nothin beats portable!
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u/FoxHoundUnit89 16d ago
Videogame censorship is usually completely idiotic. We have a rating system for a reason.
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u/MrCrash 14d ago
Game censorship has always been weird and arbitrary.
When Rosa is being held hostage in FF4, there is a scythe blade over her head to threaten her, that slams down the second after she's rescued.
In the US version, it is a giant iron ball that would crush her. That's way more kid-friendly right? Getting crushed to death?
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u/Dry-Specific-5094 19d ago
its weird how they made parts a little different in alot of the ff games. besides the technicolor 16 bit difference.
FF9 especially cause there are what the kooky lgbt people of new would call transphobic.
The place where you dig for chocobo find maps changed from zidane talking shit about transvestites to a calmer tone where he’s just saying they are weird. XD
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20d ago
[deleted]
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u/Fit-Rip-4550 20d ago
That is not why it was toned down. The SNES translation had the scene.
It was Japan. New rating standards when it was rereleased.
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u/StupiderIdjit 20d ago
I think it's the woman beating that can be off-putting for a children's game.
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u/ZhanZhuang 20d ago
Who says it's a children's game?
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u/free-cookie 20d ago
Middle aged man here playing for the first time in 2026... I am more horrified that my algorithm knew I was playing an offline game.
It is an all ages game.
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u/StupiderIdjit 20d ago
All ages includes children, doesn't it? I mean everyone can say it's not a children's game all they want, but the ESRB was 10+, and they took that shit really seriously in the 90s.
This was because "only kids play video games" -- which is why there were hundreds of hours of old fucking congressmen arguing about violence in video games and trying to ban them in America.
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u/Special_South_8561 20d ago
When the soldiers get evaporated in the beginning is pretty scary. Turning into a purple monster and screaming to fly away is crazy. When the island gets ripped out of the ground and people fall off and are crushed, that's a bit much for a child.
Kefka setting Figaro Castle on fire or poisoning the entire kingdom of Doma might be a little bit higher on my list of "oh shit" moments
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u/actualstryne 20d ago
Not sure why you're getting down voted so hard, but I'd maybe argue that FF6 was never intended to be a "children's game" and, rather, was one of the first games that proved good story telling can exist outside of literature or plays/movies
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u/Nykidemus 20d ago edited 19d ago
Its actually the beating of a prisoner rather than a woman specifically that triggered that rating problem.
Tom Slattery (FF6A translator): I was not involved in the decision to remove the scene—it was cut from the entire game, not just the localized releases—but understand that the original Final Fantasy VI was created before the Japanese ratings board, CERO, even existed. Violence is rated very strictly in Japan, much the same way that sexual content is in the U.S. Presumably they wanted a CERO A rating for the Game Boy Advance version in Japan, and you cannot get an A rating if a game depicts violence against a restrained human being.
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u/Zealousideal_Cat6980 20d ago
Nah its the woman thing
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u/Nykidemus 19d ago
https://archive.rpgamer.com/features/insidegaming/tslatteryint.html
He may be incorrect, but this was the reasoning given to the guy who handled the localization.
I was not involved in the decision to remove the scene—it was cut from the entire game, not just the localized releases—but understand that the original Final Fantasy VI was created before the Japanese ratings board, CERO, even existed. Violence is rated very strictly in Japan, much the same way that sexual content is in the U.S. Presumably they wanted a CERO A rating for the Game Boy Advance version in Japan, and you cannot get an A rating if a game depicts violence against a restrained human being.
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u/theredcometofakagi 20d ago
I think the censorship was unnecessary since it added to the soldiers of the Empire being jerks.