Square Enix seems torn between reverse psychology and their allegiance to an “ethics department.” After a string of high-budget misfires exclusively tied to Sony’s PlayStation 5, the company has shifted toward a multiplatform release strategy.
The goal? To widen the audience for their progressively censored titles. However, their track record suggests otherwise. Final Fantasy XVI, despite its hype, flopped on PC just as hard as it did at launch. Meanwhile, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, the second chapter in the three-part “remake” of the legendary FF7, performed even worse.
Square Enix is now rushing Rebirth to PC on January 23, 2025, less than a year after its original release.
The company has faced growing ridicule in recent years, largely due to its commitment to ESG initiatives and ethical agendas. This has resulted in censorship of the female form while amplifying themes of inclusivity. Notable examples include the Final Fantasy franchise. The iconic Honeybee Inn segment in FF7 was retroactively reimagined into a full-blown homoerotic dance sequence featuring a cross-dressing Cloud.
DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) and ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) initiatives push corporations to eliminate “offensive” design elements and implement hiring practices that prioritize “marginalized” groups, regardless of qualifications. These measures aim to empower women and foreigners in the workplace and address so-called “problematic” themes in game design.
Specifically, this includes removing portrayals of women that emphasize femininity, revealing outfits, visible bust sizes, jiggle physics, and upskirt camera angles. While these details may seem insignificant to some, they hold considerable value for certain gaming communities.
Square Enix’s “ethics department” has embraced such changes, actively aligning the company with Western ideologies by censoring games, both new releases and older classics. This has become a defining trait of the company’s modern products.
For example, the HD re-release of Chrono Cross removed the ability to look up characters’ skirts.
Similarly, Dragon Quest III HD-2D altered Akira Toriyama’s iconic character designs, toning down the revealing nature of the female warrior’s bikini armor and the jester’s attire. Religious imagery, such as crosses, was also scrubbed from the game, and male/female descriptors were replaced with gender-neutral “body types.”
Additionally, Final Fantasy VII Remake, the first one was retroactively censored years after release for “continuity” reasons that resulted in the cowboy outfit of Tifa being modified to cover up what little cleavage the character seeming has left.
This censorship happened just days prior to the release of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth which had garnered free marketing following a snippet of gameplay going viral on Twitter for featuring Tifa and Aerith wearing bikinis at the beach and yet for some peculiar reason Square Enix opted to censor the first remake installment prior to its release, one that failed massively from corporate expectations as observed by its Japanese week one sales being lower than Final Fantasy XVI and dropping 90% the following week.
Square Enix, aiming to recover from its recent financial setbacks, tied to its increased alignment with progressive Western values and ESG mandates has shifted its focus toward targeting PC releases. In line with this strategy, Naoki Hamaguchi, the director of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, has urged players to avoid using offensive or inappropriate mods in the game.
Hamaguchi, who previously co-directed Final Fantasy VII Remake before stepping into his current role following Tetsuya Nomura’s departure as series director, shared this request during a recent interview with Epic Games discussing the upcoming PC release of Rebirth.
During the interview, which included a discussion about the technical aspects of the port and the story direction of the Remake trilogy, the director, Naoki Hamaguchi, was asked by host Aidan Moher if Rebirth would be “as mod-friendly” as its predecessor. Specifically, the extensive customization enabled by the 7th Heaven fan-modding tool was brought up as an example of what fans hoped to see.
In response, Hamaguchi stated, “While the team has no plans for official in-game mod support, we respect the creativity of the modding community and welcome their creations, though we ask modders not to create or install anything offensive or inappropriate.”
While Naoki Hamaguchi and his team currently have no plans to add future content to the PC release of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth be it through official mod support or an “episodic story as a new DLC” (an idea he admitted was scrapped due to time constraints) he did acknowledge that “if we receive strong requests from players after the release regarding certain matters, we would like to consider them.”
However, given the commercial struggles of both Rebirth and the prior Final Fantasy XVI, the likelihood of any post-launch support materializing seems minimal.
It’s also worth noting that developers telling players not to modify their games often has the opposite effect, sparking even more interest in modding. Final Fantasy VII Remake boasted an active modding scene, with creations ranging from quality-of-life improvements to risqué or even progressively LGBTQ-focused character alterations the latter being the kind of content that tends to garner praise from gaming journalists while they screech about those made by heterosexuals.
With Rebirth expected to offer similar modding potential as its predecessor, Hamaguchi’s remarks may be an attempt to discourage content that deviates from the game’s intended narrative or censored aesthetic. Alternatively, it could be a subtle strategy to generate buzz around the PC release, as restrictions often fuel interest in mods like nude models, making such content even more prominent and popular.
Given Square Enix’s recent pattern of embracing “benign censorship,” it’s difficult to determine their exact intent.
During their push toward Westernization and their corporate allegiance to ESG initiatives, Square Enix established an “ethics department” tasked with scrutinizing their games during development. This department has been known to clamp down on content deemed offensive or inappropriate, seemingly prioritizing what might align with the sensibilities of figures like Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock.
Unsurprisingly, their targets often include portrayals of women with curves, visible busts, or outfits that don’t adhere to strict modesty standards.
Square Enix, long associated with timed exclusive releases for Sony’s PlayStation, appears to have aligned its creative direction with Sony’s global initiatives. As a result, iconic moments from older games, such as the ability to collect Tifa’s “Orthopedic Underwear” in the original Final Fantasy VII, have been removed. Producer Yoshinori Kitase even stated that he was “embarrassed” by the original’s “social problems” and “cultural depictions,” reflecting the company’s modern stance on such content.
Unfortunately, this shift has left Square Enix floundering. Their recent titles, despite being based on beloved installments, have underperformed, with each release seemingly distancing itself further from the source material. The Final Fantasy franchise, once a juggernaut of the gaming world continues to hit new lows.
Even Final Fantasy XIV, once Square Enix’s most reliable source of revenue, has faced criticism for its Dawntrail expansion, particularly due to the introduction of Wuk Lamat, the expansion’s central character. Wuk Lamat’s portrayal and the performance of her English voice actor, a trans “woman” received nothing but negative reactions, with many fans voicing displeasure over both the acting and the character’s implementation within the story.
From the very first scene of Dawntrail, Wuk Lamat is portrayed in a glowing light, receiving unearned praise from sailors aboard a ship, despite initially needing help herself. Throughout the expansion, her ideals are rarely questioned, and any concerns raised by other characters are quickly dismissed or framed as ignorant, evil, or obstinate.
The story’s focus revolves heavily around Wuk Lamat, with most scenes either centering on her or featuring other characters praising her. Her dominance in the dialogue, having more lines than nearly the entire supporting cast combined makes her feel less like a well-integrated member of the ensemble and more like the sole protagonist of the expansion, the worst received expansion of FF XIV that likely resulted in the cancellation of many subscriptions.
Final Fantasy XVI on the other hand was a commercial disappointment on both PlayStation 5 and PC. Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, despite being tied to one of the most infamous entries in the series, set new benchmarks for failure, leaving Square Enix with little to offer as we move into 2025.
Given this trajectory, it’s hard to find a reason to support Square Enix or invest in their PC releases. Gamers should always have the right to modify their games and share those modifications, enhancing the experience for themselves and for others. Unless, of course, such modifications dare to challenge forced inclusivity within modern games, whether by removing pride flags, restoring censored content, or altering politically charged elements in which case they’re swiftly condemned and banned from mainstream platforms.
Square Enix’s apparent disdain for player creativity and their growing tendency to police how fans interact with their games only exacerbates their alienation from the gaming community. This restrictive attitude, combined with their misguided prioritization of censorship and ideology over quality gameplay, has directly contributed to their declining reputation and financial struggles.
At a time when innovation and community engagement are more crucial than ever, Square Enix seems determined to double down on alienating the very audience that made them successful in the first place. If they continue on this path, their latest PC offerings are likely to go the same way as their recent failures: into the bargain bin, overshadowed by better, more player-friendly alternatives.
