Gameduchy’s English release of Iron Saga: Battle Mecha for mobile devices didn’t quite go over as gamers expected. As usual, after originally releasing in China back in 2017, with Japan and Korea releases taking place in 2018, some English speaking gamers began comparing the game art from the Asia version with the global version, and it turns out that a lot of the sexy female artwork has been censored. Why? The developers blamed regional guidelines and regulations.
Gamers noticed that on the Iron Saga Twitter feed some of the artwork didn’t match up with what was appearing in the game.
The release date is approaching, commanders!
Join Iron Saga this summer!
Have a peek at this swimsuit party at first.#IronSaga #IronSagaEn pic.twitter.com/inwRWlyPUq— Iron Saga Official (@IronsagaEN) June 3, 2019
GM commanders, feeling tough on Hump Day?
Don’t worry, Erica always got your back.#IronSaga pic.twitter.com/c468g74BBA— Iron Saga Official (@IronsagaEN) June 5, 2019
Even though the game didn’t officially release until December 12th, it was in a pre-registration phase throughout November and early December leading up to the global English launch.
During this time some people began to encounter the female pilots in the game and noticed that they weren’t quite dressed the same as they appeared in the promotional artwork and on the social media feeds.
For instance, Celestia in the Asia version has a cutout throughout her cleavage and midriff, giving you an ample look at her breasts and bare navel. However, in the English version there’s a black undersuit to covering it all up.
The same applies for Erica, who – in the Asia version – has her thighs exposed with short-shorts. You also get to see some of her under-boob and all of her midriff. There’s also the extra bonus of getting the slight glimpse of her nipples outlined through her thin, cotton shirt.
The English version completely destroys the illusion of sex appeal by covering up her legs, smoothing out the nipple bugle, and lowering her shirt so there’s no more under-boob on display.
Another one was Amanda, who also saw her outfit being modified. She’s already wearing a curve-hugging bodysuit with a thong covering up her lower half.
For the English release they decided to alter the thong and turn it into spats… because that seems to be a really popular thing to do these days when it comes to censoring the buttocks and glutes of shapely, beautiful women in Western media. They also smoothed out her boob armor to remove the pointed nipple protrusions.
You can see the comparison between the two images below, with the original at the top and the censored version at the bottom.
Gamers took their displeasure of such blatant censorship to the Discord channel for Iron Saga: Battle Mecha, asking the localization team why the images were censored for the English release.
Well, one of the staff responded on November 19th, 2019 during the pre-registration phase with the following statement.
If the image doesn’t load or you’re unable to view the contents, the message from the staff states…
“Hi, for those who are concerned about the censored skins, I’d like to claim that we HATE censorship as much as you do. It might be quite hard at the beginning of our release since there are specific requirements according to government’s laws, regulations or guidelines from the stores. However, please rest assured that we will try to keep characters as original as possible in coming events. We will do our utmost to bring you pleasing skins.”
To their credit, at least they didn’t attack the fans, censor the comments, or go on a tirade about “harassment” the way Funimation did when people brought to their attention the altered dialogue with politically-infused intentions in the English dubbing of their anime.
However, is their excuse legitimate? Well, first of all none of the artwork contains any nudity, so it’s not like it would even come close to breaching obscenity laws. Not only that, but in Western countries the courts would have to get involved to determine if the artwork is illegal by passing the Miller Test. Again, since none of the characters appear nude, it completely diminishes the excuse about laws being a reason for the censorship.
Now, if this were the Chinese version of the game, then it makes perfect since to censor the characters since the literally have a Ministry of Culture that oversees whether or not content in games are appropriate for the age ranges that the game targets. You also absolutely do not want to get on the bad side of Chinese censors. However, this is the English version of the game and not the Chinese version, so the whole “government’s laws” excuse is hogwash.
As for the guidelines from the stores… that is not hogwash.
Google and Apple do have strict guidelines for what kind of art can appear on an app’s store page. We’ve reported multiple times on various innocuous apps being banned from Google Play because they claimed the apps contained inappropriate sexual content. In one case a game had to be censored because a character showed cleavage, and in another case an entire game series was banned due to some female characters wearing bikinis.
So while it might be annoying that some of the character art has been censored, it’s not unreasonable that the developers had to apply the censorship to get on Google’s good side.
However… some people brought up the fact that games like Azur Lane and Fate/Grand Order contain plenty of lewd imagery but have not been barred from the app stores. So it does bring to question why would Iron Saga need to self-censor their art if Azur Lane and Fate/Grand Order didn’t have to?
Technically, it could be a Valve situation. Different content curators may have different standards and may allow some apps through while requiring censorship of other apps. For instance, Valve banned a bunch of all-ages visual novels from Steam but then allowed the Adults Only version of Unholy Torturer on Steam. The curation makes no sense whatsoever.
One other possibility is that since the game is rated ‘E’ for Everyone by the ESRB over on the Google Play Store that they decided to censor the images to retain the rating. We’ve seen other studios do the same thing, such as Nintendo having the team censor Super Smash Bros., to retain a low CERO and ESRB rating, meaning it broadens the marketability of the game and allows them to push it into the hands of more customers.
Of course, we’ll have to wait to find out exactly what’s going on with Iron Saga and if the developers will keep the uncensored artwork the same across all regions, or if they will try some other kind of funny business and sneakily try to censor some of the outfits of the characters.
Consistency is key, and a vigilant fanbase holding the developers accountable for the censorship is necessary if true fans of Iron Saga want to see the game maintain its uncensored artwork moving forward.
(Thanks for the news tip Prince Villasor)