File:How Japan's Ratings Board Got Tifa Changed in FF7R.ogg

English: Final Fantasy 7 Remake is an incredible achievement: a remake of a beloved roleplaying game that somehow isn't universally hated by fans of the original material. Cloud Strife, Aerith (or Aeris), Tifa Lockhart, even Sephiroth - they all make the leap to the PlayStation 4 with surprising grace. Sure, the game isn't perfect, but it's amazing that it's as good as it is.

Of course, not everyone is thrilled about all design changes in the remake. Tifa in particular has stirred up controversy, with fans of her original design complaining that she doesn't look the same. Some conspiracy theorists suspect that Tifa was redesigned to make the game more appealing to a certain subset of players.

This is true...kind of. In reality, it wasn't the fans themselves, but Japan's ratings board, CERO, which made the changes necessary. The board has legendarily picky standards when it comes to female character designs. Even Masahiro Sakurai doesn't think very highly of them, after having to fight to get Super Smash Bros games approved for an all-ages audience.

Of course, this topic isn't exactly breaking news at this point. We're coming to the controversy late, in large part because debating this too much feels a little silly to us.

That said, we wanted to make a Final Fantasy 7 Remake video, and this seemed like a great topic to explore. As we delved into some of the quotes from Square Enix about making Final Fantasy 7 Remake, we discovered the purpose of the company's Ethics Department, and how it's basically designed to try and slip things under CERO's radar. Before long, we were fascinated, and we wanted to share our findings with anyone who might be wary about Tifa's design changes.

In short: it's not Square Enix's fault. If you must blame anyone for changes made to Tifa's outfit, blame CERO, and a Japanese game culture that is weirdly strict about costume design.

(Also, what a perfect time to make this video, since YouTube is now also requiring content creators to declare whether their videos feature kissing. This one does not, by the way.)

Lots of love, BretonStripes (https://twitter.com/bretonstriped) and Kotor (https://twitter.com/kotorcomics)

Sources: https://www.cero.gr.jp/en/publics/index/17/ https://twinfinite.net/2019/06/final-fantasy-vii-remake-famitsu/ https://sourcegaming.info/2015/09/18/cero-and-palutenas-censorship/ https://www.famitsu.com/news/201906/18178148.html https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2019-06-19-square-enix-has-an-ethics-department-and-it-told-the-final-fantasy-7-remake-developers-to-restrict-tifas-chest

https://www.polygon.com/2019/6/19/18691773/square-enix-tifa-redesign-chest-final-fantasy-7-remake