Konami of America was afraid that orthodox Christian groups in the US would sue them for "abusing" their holy symbols in a video game. Konami also feared that Christian symbols would offend players of other religions (muslims, in particular) and make the game unsalable in certain countries. So all religious symbols had to go. Covering up breasts, however, is due to stupid American attitude towards nudety...
Always found the beginning text difference really interesting, seeing how it’s supposed to be a remake yet the American version implies Simon is fighting Dracula once again. A strange change considering the game was always meant to be a reimagining of Castlevania 1
Its kinda disappointing that the western branch of Konami would feel the need to remove all Christian symbolism. All it really does is make the game feel more immersive, and helps establish that the events took place in the olden medieval age in europe where Christianity had a greater influence on things
This isn’t really on Konami for this one, though…NOA had a huge thing about religious displays in games…look at any video about the original Zelda, for example…
@@malkneil Faith will never allow that to happen. I don't believe in one faith in particular, or if I do I don't know what it is. But, you will never take my beliefs away because I simple believe what I believe. Science will never be able to disprove my ideology either, if anything certain laws of thermo dynamics ALMOST confirm what I believe. As for other religions, they are brainwashed and will never be swayed if they are actually devout. My grandma proved that to me, bless her soul. 😇🍻
Castlevania, besides Lament of Innocence, CV3 and Curse of Darkness, take place AFTER the medieval era. The Medieval era was from the late 400s to the early 1500s A.C.E.. Castlevania 1 takes place in the 1600s.
Knew a good portion of these when I was growing up due to numerous game magazines back in the day. SC4 still remains an amazing game and Simon's Theme gives me chills still.
Thank goodness we now have the Anniversary Collection and thus proper access to the Japanese versions now. I never realized how many little things were cut.
I've been playing the uncensored hack and I was wondering what the big deal was. I was actually hoping for something a bit more gorey, but it's mostly just cross removal with the tiniest bit of blood censorship.
I could understand the title thing. The Japanese one have all those longer stake-like points, while the American/Europe one was just flat, it would've looked weird. The rest is just...Why did you waste all that time?
Its definitely more immersive. I never knew the original was censored, but after playing it again with the hack it's now the definitive version for me.
@@angelr194 At the time I was born, although I didn't know at the time, I was envious of Japan. Japan got to enjoy the weird content whereas Americans had to keep things normalized just because there was a lot of content in the Japanese version that was too weird for American audiences back in the day. I guess we didn't realize that not all video games are for kids until later on. The only thing I hated about video game, cartoon, and anime localization was all of it staying true to social norms when it was first localized in English to American audiences. Don't get me wrong, not all censorship is bad, it's just that it too much of it can cause problems. I'm not worried about censorship anymore. To be fair, it's just there they to make things market-friendly.
Most of the time I point out how companies forget to censor things but gosh tiny crosses you won't exactly see cleanly on your old CRT with composite video quality like come on who was actually going to complain that this could have easily slipped the censors for just how small that was.
Ever since I found out that the Dungeon was changed, I've always thought that the NA/PAL's green acid actually makes a lot more sense and was a good change. Why would blood hurt Simon Belmont?
Just coincidence I believe, most of games I played on my childhood was JP and after years on emulator I saw this differences. You forgot the whip sound too. Which is weird and an unecessary change. And is funny how on US/EU they treat this game as a sequel when its just another version of the original story of "Dracura"! XD
It's crazy to think about how today's video games , doesn't hold a candle to Castlevania IV when it comes to atmosphere and music. You would think that today's budget injected in this industry would help push forward the medium, but old game like this show the opposite. It's the pure passion that drove the developers back in the day.
2:51 "The breasts of the statues were covered with a carved fabric" Japan love fanservice just like other jp game/ver, while the other regions say big no-no to fanservice
Interesting, I knew about some of them, but not all of them. Also the censored graveyard in the beginning just never looked right to me as a kid. Even back then I know you'd normally expect to see crosses on graves so it was weird not seeing them.
It was due to a weird distribution circumstance: Castlevania IV was distributed first in America then sent to Europe, so europeans had to work over the American version instead of the Japanese.
Aesthetically crosses do a heavy ambience, n that is more beautiful, becoming a morbid scenery. The covered statue also is more beautiful, enters totally in a baroque style, generally nude statues are common in outdoor areas. Acid combines more with the torture Chamber, once floor are many coffins, that dropped putrefaction liquid. Good video guy.
Nintendo was very careful about what games went on their consoles back then. Nintendo didnt want a bunch of overprotective parents filing lawsuits against them for a game developed by another company. By this time, Nintendo started lightening up on some of their rules because of the competition from the Sega Genesis. Nintendo removed the "no more than 5 games per year per publisher" rule (ie. Konami didnt need Ultra Games anymore) and the rule of "exclusivity of the games on their console for 2 years before going on another console" rule (which made little sense as many games were originally made for computers and ported over to the (S)NES), but they still kept the strict censorship rules.
I can't believe you had the huevos to use the word "Engrish" in your video! 🤣🤠🤣 Sigma move right there. 🤘 Just the other day I was telling my wife that the best possible song for an Asian barbershop quartet to cover would be "Black Betty." 🤣🤣🤣
We finally get to experience this legendary masterpiece officially in all its uncensored glory years later. It sad nothing has really changed that much though with many games still being censored in some way even to this today :-)
Do you have a difference between the Japan VS West Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness video? I’m a huge fan of that game and the original one that should be done too please? Both are Nintendo 64 games.
At some point, not right now whenever it conveniently works, you should make a video about the censorship and version differences in Castlevania 3. There have always been version differences since the series began but historically, Castlevania 3 & 4 is when we first started to see a list of differences.
Now I’m curious to try the Japanese versions in my castlevania collection I had no idea there would be in game differences like the acid and blood I was assuming the Japanese text would be the only thing that would’ve been different, that’s cool
Sinceramente ningun cambio y ninguna censura mostrada aqui me molesta. Si lo hicieron por motivos válidos, bien por ellos. Las diferencias no son gran cosa. Es el mismo juego con el mismo gameplay y la misma historia
And thats why i love the Japanese version more because Japan is basically gives off that vibe where they tell you, "You're offended? Get over it!" They always keep everything intact and will not filter out. I wanna get me a physical copy of SC4 for SF with the box and everything...
It was really odd how the NA version removed all the religious themes from the original Port. Considering that hollywood used the same means in the Dracula movies. Plus it was a head scratcher why they made the NA version an extension to Simon's story when it was reimagining of the original. Censorship is weird.
I usually just play the Japanese version nowadays on the anniversary collection on Switch but there is a hack for the SNES version that restores the cut content. I have it on my SNES mini via Hakchi. But, Japanese version for the win.
Seeing the religious references that got cut due to Nintendo of Americas video game policies, it happened because Nintendo couldn't afford another video game crash. They only did this because Atari caused a video game panic, and Nintendo played it safe having video games on Nintendo consoles stay true to social norms. This remained true until Nintendo settled their score against Atari Game in the early 1990s, and won. Not only that, the ESRB was invented to make sure Nintendo of America realized that not all video games are for kids. Seeing all content outside of social norms get cut on Nintendo consoles from the late 80s to the early 1990s, American video game society must have been sluggish compared to Japan and maybe Europe as well.
Most people agree with you. However, Im willing to bet that even back then, you get a bunch of people who get offended over anything religious, and then Nintendo and Konami get lawsuits against them for offensive Christian imagery in their games. Also, it wouldnt have surprised me to see people buy the games just to throw them in a pile and burn them.
Very weird how the countries that have higher Christian populations had all the Christian imagery removed.
Konami of America was afraid that orthodox Christian groups in the US would sue them for "abusing" their holy symbols in a video game. Konami also feared that Christian symbols would offend players of other religions (muslims, in particular) and make the game unsalable in certain countries.
So all religious symbols had to go.
Covering up breasts, however, is due to stupid American attitude towards nudety...
@@mutfol No solo estadounidense tambien Mexicana
Soy de Mexico
@@meyal_ne057 Nintendo of America distribuía a México y América Latina, así que la censura estadounidense aplica.
@@angelr194 ok
Fun Fact: Gods doesn't exists!
Always found the beginning text difference really interesting, seeing how it’s supposed to be a remake yet the American version implies Simon is fighting Dracula once again. A strange change considering the game was always meant to be a reimagining of Castlevania 1
Tienes toda la maldita razon
I guess they didn't want people to think they were buying the same game over again.
Its kinda disappointing that the western branch of Konami would feel the need to remove all Christian symbolism. All it really does is make the game feel more immersive, and helps establish that the events took place in the olden medieval age in europe where Christianity had a greater influence on things
Yea, sucks to know this shit censoring crap has been going on since the beginning.
This isn’t really on Konami for this one, though…NOA had a huge thing about religious displays in games…look at any video about the original Zelda, for example…
Seems like they still have a greater influence on things. Maybe one day the religious will realize their stories are as made up as the Dracula tale.
@@malkneil Faith will never allow that to happen. I don't believe in one faith in particular, or if I do I don't know what it is. But, you will never take my beliefs away because I simple believe what I believe. Science will never be able to disprove my ideology either, if anything certain laws of thermo dynamics ALMOST confirm what I believe. As for other religions, they are brainwashed and will never be swayed if they are actually devout. My grandma proved that to me, bless her soul. 😇🍻
Castlevania, besides Lament of Innocence, CV3 and Curse of Darkness, take place AFTER the medieval era. The Medieval era was from the late 400s to the early 1500s A.C.E.. Castlevania 1 takes place in the 1600s.
Knew a good portion of these when I was growing up due to numerous game magazines back in the day. SC4 still remains an amazing game and Simon's Theme gives me chills still.
Alternate title: "how to remove crosses "
Thank goodness we now have the Anniversary Collection and thus proper access to the Japanese versions now. I never realized how many little things were cut.
I've been playing the uncensored hack and I was wondering what the big deal was. I was actually hoping for something a bit more gorey, but it's mostly just cross removal with the tiniest bit of blood censorship.
Lo extraño es que sensuraron lo pechos desnudos de las estatuas ,pero el jefe medusa aparece con el torso desnudo.
I could understand the title thing. The Japanese one have all those longer stake-like points, while the American/Europe one was just flat, it would've looked weird. The rest is just...Why did you waste all that time?
Its definitely more immersive. I never knew the original was censored, but after playing it again with the hack it's now the definitive version for me.
Gotta say I am loving this channel and the content that comes from it! Well done!
Great video👍. Super Castlevania 4 is one of my favourite games.
What can I say? Another outstanding brilliant video my friend!!!!!😎👍👍👍👍👍👍👍
The sound effect for the whip is also different between versions for some reason
You're totally right!
The localized version changed it so that the whip sounds less of a chain whip, I think.
@@watcherman222 the US version sound is actually annoying. The chain is so much better. Why would they do that?
Simplemente otro gran trabajo, tus vídeos son geniales!!! Y felicidades por la cifra de suscriptores de hace poco!!
Muchísimas gracias Marco. Estoy muy contento con el crecimiento del canal, que no deja de ser, en gran medida, gracias a todos vosotros
I still don't know why they removed so much crosses?
Policy of Nintendo of America at the time: no religious references (including God and Satan) nor gore.
@@angelr194 As it seems, back in the late 80s to early 90s, Nintendo of America had policies that only allowed social norms content in video games.
@@GardevoirBoy Yes, they had to maintain the "for all ages" image
@@angelr194 At the time I was born, although I didn't know at the time, I was envious of Japan. Japan got to enjoy the weird content whereas Americans had to keep things normalized just because there was a lot of content in the Japanese version that was too weird for American audiences back in the day. I guess we didn't realize that not all video games are for kids until later on. The only thing I hated about video game, cartoon, and anime localization was all of it staying true to social norms when it was first localized in English to American audiences. Don't get me wrong, not all censorship is bad, it's just that it too much of it can cause problems. I'm not worried about censorship anymore. To be fair, it's just there they to make things market-friendly.
@@angelr194 So where was this policy during the NES era?
Most of the time I point out how companies forget to censor things but gosh tiny crosses you won't exactly see cleanly on your old CRT with composite video quality like come on who was actually going to complain that this could have easily slipped the censors for just how small that was.
Ever since I found out that the Dungeon was changed, I've always thought that the NA/PAL's green acid actually makes a lot more sense and was a good change. Why would blood hurt Simon Belmont?
Just coincidence I believe, most of games I played on my childhood was JP and after years on emulator I saw this differences. You forgot the whip sound too. Which is weird and an unecessary change.
And is funny how on US/EU they treat this game as a sequel when its just another version of the original story of "Dracura"! XD
@@xjosue2007 I don't know. The difference is the sound of the normal whip, not the chain.
the whip sound was changed probabLy because Nintendo America thought the sampLe sounded too reaListic
@@gm2998 No, it's precisely the opposite. The regular whip's sound is identical, it's the chain whip that was changed.
The US whip sound drives me insane I hate it. I'm glad that patched uncensored restorations exist.
It's crazy to think about how today's video games , doesn't hold a candle to Castlevania IV when it comes to atmosphere and music.
You would think that today's budget injected in this industry would help push forward the medium, but old game like this show the opposite. It's the pure passion that drove the developers back in the day.
I noticed the Treasury room, you can kinda still see the crosses in US/PAL versions. They just darkened the color to blend in the background
Every time i see your videos i need the full version of the Theme Of Simon Belmont ! Hahaha
Great video, like always. Love your channel !
2:51 "The breasts of the statues were covered with a carved fabric"
Japan love fanservice just like other jp game/ver, while the other regions say big no-no to fanservice
Japan: Occidentals have lots of nude and religious art, let's depict it!
Occident: nudity is bad, cover it! Like ancient romans!
I’m surprised they didn’t change the boomerang
It's difficult to know it's a cross. The first time I played I thought it was a modified shuriken.
Actually, The Story was referring to Dracula growing stronger every Hundred Years and not Simon being Hundred Years old.
On the snapper casket, you can still barely see the cross they removed when it opens up. Right as the door on the casket goes sideways
video misses the sound difference of the whip
also never noticed the statue at 2:46
I find it strange how the crucifixes in CV3 remained, while in 4 they where removed.
It's like the international version was done by or for vampires.
Interesting, I knew about some of them, but not all of them. Also the censored graveyard in the beginning just never looked right to me as a kid. Even back then I know you'd normally expect to see crosses on graves so it was weird not seeing them.
3:30 no crosses but keep the two skeletons cut in half to suffer for eternity.
Interesting how the Japanese versions had the cross ✝️ where the pal didnt.
It was due to a weird distribution circumstance: Castlevania IV was distributed first in America then sent to Europe, so europeans had to work over the American version instead of the Japanese.
@@angelr194 oh I see. Figured it was due to some legal issues.
Aesthetically crosses do a heavy ambience, n that is more beautiful, becoming a morbid scenery. The covered statue also is more beautiful, enters totally in a baroque style, generally nude statues are common in outdoor areas. Acid combines more with the torture Chamber, once floor are many coffins, that dropped putrefaction liquid. Good video guy.
With their aversion to crosses I think Nintendo of America was run by vampires.
Nintendo was very careful about what games went on their consoles back then. Nintendo didnt want a bunch of overprotective parents filing lawsuits against them for a game developed by another company.
By this time, Nintendo started lightening up on some of their rules because of the competition from the Sega Genesis. Nintendo removed the "no more than 5 games per year per publisher" rule (ie. Konami didnt need Ultra Games anymore) and the rule of "exclusivity of the games on their console for 2 years before going on another console" rule (which made little sense as many games were originally made for computers and ported over to the (S)NES), but they still kept the strict censorship rules.
I can't believe you had the huevos to use the word "Engrish" in your video! 🤣🤠🤣 Sigma move right there. 🤘 Just the other day I was telling my wife that the best possible song for an Asian barbershop quartet to cover would be "Black Betty." 🤣🤣🤣
I was thinking that the censorship in this game was like the censorship in the yugioh cards and then I remember yugioh is also from konami
We finally get to experience this legendary masterpiece officially in all its uncensored glory years later. It sad nothing has really changed that much though with many games still being censored in some way even to this today :-)
How about making a list of every single sub weapon that has appeared in the whole series?
This video alone made me subscribe to your channel. Can’t wait to see more !!
Can't believe they got rid of Dracura.
Do you have a difference between the Japan VS West Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness video? I’m a huge fan of that game and the original one that should be done too please? Both are Nintendo 64 games.
At some point, not right now whenever it conveniently works, you should make a video about the censorship and version differences in Castlevania 3. There have always been version differences since the series began but historically, Castlevania 3 & 4 is when we first started to see a list of differences.
It's on my list ;) I really enjoy making the comparison videos and I'm aware that all of you like a lot this content
@@BitsBeats ok 👍🏼 cool 👍🏼✨keep doing what you do if you enjoy it! I really enjoy the content of this channel.
The Medusa boss "nips" were removed in the US version.
Now I’m curious to try the Japanese versions in my castlevania collection I had no idea there would be in game differences like the acid and blood I was assuming the Japanese text would be the only thing that would’ve been different, that’s cool
thanks for making a darker looking transition, very thankful 👍
Many thanks to you! Whatever aspect you think can improve videos, let me know. I always try to include new improvements to each new video
Pero. El ( lazo ) ( vampire hunter ) tiene una cruz en la punta. devieron de censurarlo tambièn....🤣🤣🇩🇴🇩🇴
This video could have been two minutes shorter by just saying, "They removed ALL the crosses."
Okay, call me blind, but what's the difference between the map path screens outside of the logo change?
Fortunately, with the latest collection they gave us the possibility to choose which version to play. Everyone else should take an example!
in america dracula drinks tomato juice and won't tell you to say your prayers
Sinceramente ningun cambio y ninguna censura mostrada aqui me molesta. Si lo hicieron por motivos válidos, bien por ellos. Las diferencias no son gran cosa. Es el mismo juego con el mismo gameplay y la misma historia
Bro please. Make a list of top. 100 games if they are available for Android..
Interesting that this is where the gore started to ramp up and become the norm for the series.
whats the best castlevania you ave played?
All the blood taken out on SNES meanwhile Bloodlines is super grotesque and gory lol different times
Removing the cross is ridiculous
But the cross can still be used as a weapon... Surprised they don´t change for "Holy boomerang"
lol look at how gory American games, tv shows and movies now.
Despite all this, this game is still a complete classic.
They were afraid parents would sue or something I guess. Ridiculous. Completely ridiculous, unneeded censorship
I'd like to try the JP version after I finished Akumajou Densetsu NES
Thanks for the info
And thats why i love the Japanese version more because Japan is basically gives off that vibe where they tell you, "You're offended? Get over it!" They always keep everything intact and will not filter out. I wanna get me a physical copy of SC4 for SF with the box and everything...
Looks like censorship had once again.... "crossed the line!" 8D
1:00 Still the Best Castlevania into .
What did Nintendo of America have against crosses?
Not censorship, but the whip sounds in the JP version are different as well (I prefer it much more).
It was really odd how the NA version removed all the religious themes from the original Port. Considering that hollywood used the same means in the Dracula movies. Plus it was a head scratcher why they made the NA version an extension to Simon's story when it was reimagining of the original. Censorship is weird.
It is because Nintendo had a strict policy where everything had to be family friendly
Yeah, the Japanese version [with the patch to remove any slowdown] is the way to go.
🦇this game has such great music🦇
I usually just play the Japanese version nowadays on the anniversary collection on Switch but there is a hack for the SNES version that restores the cut content. I have it on my SNES mini via Hakchi. But, Japanese version for the win.
The blood censored version is very good.😀👍
You should name the video "the removed crosses"
Imagine they had a chance to see back then what the western anime got away with decades later around the time this was released lol
Theres a rom patch that restores the blood and Christian imagery for the US version.
my child hood i dont care if blood lines is better
I thought the removal of Christian crosses was only done recently. And it turns out that this is quite an old practice.
Despite the censorship it's still my favorite game of all-time
Yea its a slight change to like the aesthetics. I'd rather have it. But the game's intact and good.
I love how the Japanese allow Christian and Catholic symbolism!
But then after IV and Rondo comes SotN and all versions now have identical gory and "christianity" atmosphere.
Thank you.
I get taking away crosses n stuff, but the title?... why the hell would they change that, it looked awesome lol.
Censors....worse than my Father.....or maybe the censors are Vampires!!!
Osea removieron las cruces.. que cristiano de su parte..
I hate censorship.
Very strange, in japan there are less christianity than europe but they remove references for europe.. why..
Seeing the religious references that got cut due to Nintendo of Americas video game policies, it happened because Nintendo couldn't afford another video game crash. They only did this because Atari caused a video game panic, and Nintendo played it safe having video games on Nintendo consoles stay true to social norms. This remained true until Nintendo settled their score against Atari Game in the early 1990s, and won. Not only that, the ESRB was invented to make sure Nintendo of America realized that not all video games are for kids. Seeing all content outside of social norms get cut on Nintendo consoles from the late 80s to the early 1990s, American video game society must have been sluggish compared to Japan and maybe Europe as well.
Quase lá uma hora você chega nas dublagens.
So basically it's Castlevania vs Cuckstlevania. Ok.
_God forbid_ if younger people would have shown more interest in church because of it's representation in Castlevania!
Lawds forbid a game offend ~*cHrIsTiAnS*~
Thanks to a hack, I play the US version without any censorship...
Censorship? All Castlevania games prior to Symphony of the Night were exactly the same. No real adult themes here worth getting into a twist over.
Most people agree with you.
However, Im willing to bet that even back then, you get a bunch of people who get offended over anything religious, and then Nintendo and Konami get lawsuits against them for offensive Christian imagery in their games. Also, it wouldnt have surprised me to see people buy the games just to throw them in a pile and burn them.
👍👌
I think that japanese version is the best, a castlevania game must have crosses and blood.
Good times.
soy catolico y me parece una pendejada la censura de sangre, imagenes religiosas, imagenes de estatuas con poca ropa...etc
O medo deles era só perder dinheiro e possíveis processos de grupos radicais e puritanos que se incomodassem com isso.
Sex, violence and religion.
What a surprise...
Lol these censorships are dumb
Japanese always more gloomy for some reason for horror games
Jesus Christ 🤦♂️
Actually , it's not a big deal..
Japanese original the best