Sunborn Games’ English version of Girls’ Frontline — which is a strategic mobile game where players train up hot anime waifus and send them into battle to free the world — has been on the receiving end of censorship… or rather, more censorship.
Readers notified us about a thread posted in the sub-reddit for Girls’ Frontline that compares the Chinese version of the mobile game with the English version of the mobile game. It turns out that the newest character, SR-3MP, has had her artwork heavily modified for the English release. The new character was introduced via a tweet from the game’s official Twitter account on May 28th, 2018.
Dear Commanders,
Today we are revealing 2 new 5-star T-Dolls who will be added to the game after the maintenance on May 29th: 5-star RF T-Doll M99 and 5-star SMG T-Doll SR-3MP! Don’t belittle their small size, as even a midget can kill a Goliath!#GirlsFrontline pic.twitter.com/NMEwJWlJbs— Girls’ Frontline-EN Official (@GirlsFrontlineE) May 28, 2018
After the tweet went live the sub-reddit dropped a comparison between SR-3MP from the English version, and SR-3MP in the Chinese version. You can see the comparison shot below, where the Chinese version on the right has a shorter skirt, some butt cleavage, and an open shirt around her chest.
As you can see, the English version on the left sees the character wearing a spandex cropped top under her jacket, and a longer skirt that covers up her glutes.
The bizarre part about it is that the game has already undergone certain amounts of censorship in order to be released in China.
The upside to the Chinese version of the game, however, is that the original developers added in a workaround to get past China’s censorship regulations. YouTuber USERZ123 posted up a two and a half minute video detailing how to circumvent the censorship for the original Chinese version that came out back in 2017.
You’ll need a cracked Android phone to make it work, but it simply requires changing the ‘0’ to a ‘1’ in the xml file for the Chinese version of the game.
As pointed out in the Girls’ Frontline sub-reddit… the localizers for the English version of the game have removed the workaround. This means that there is no way to access the uncensored content for the English edition of Girls’ Frontline.
Some gamers questioned the official English Twitter account what would become of the summer outfits, which are rather risque even for the censored Chinese version.
What are you going to do about the inevitable summer skins?
I mean if the chest of SR-3MP is obviously too dangerous for the western audience, the chances of seeing Five-SeveN or Suomi in their respective beachware are at 0%, right? pic.twitter.com/sHEpKJ2nUx— ドイツあき (@TetsubinSensha) May 28, 2018
Everyone who asked the account about the censorship have gone ignored. The account is reading user feedback, however. When some gamers asked about why the original weapon names were changed, the English Twitter account for Girls’ Frontline stated that the changes were due to licensing issues.
We modified some names to avoid licensing risk. We thank you for your understanding.
— Girls’ Frontline-EN Official (@GirlsFrontlineE) May 28, 2018
That response came after they notified the community about the new character.
So far there’s just radio silence on why the English version of Girls’ Frontline is receiving more censorship than the Chinese version, despite the fact that China has very strict censorship laws, where media oftentimes have to go through the “10 Rules of Censorship” before it be approved for wide release in the mainland.
For now gamers have decided to express their displeasure with the censorship and start an e-mail campaign to: [email protected]
Keep in mind that the organizers of the campaign suggest that e-mails should be polite and direct, making it known that fans are unhappy with the additional censorship.
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