Hyperdimension Neptunia: Sisters vs. Sisters initially launched in Japan in April 2022 for both the PS4 and PS5 consoles. The RPG spin-off later saw a western release in January 2023 on PC via Steam, as well as on the mentioned Sony systems.
A Nintendo Switch port is scheduled to launch on January 23, 2024, seemingly ahead of the confirmed releases for Microsoft’s Xbox consoles.
However, to allegedly “comply” with the Teen ESRB rating the game received, the game was hilariously censored in the West as a POST RELEASE game update, with the censorship taking root with changes to text and audio to remove profanity.
The most gutless trope of modern game releases undoubtedly has to be the post-release censorship patch, GUST have unceremoniously lost my support when they did exactly this with the 2020 release of Fairy Tail, adding in a black void to hide unwarranted “male gaze” panty shots, thankfully PC modders have reverted the changes however console owners aren’t as fortunate.
To apparently meet the Teen ESRB rating, Neptunia: Sisters vs. Sisters purged any and all mention of harsh language being spoken or present inside the game, such as the words “ass”, “shitty”, “bastard” and “piss”.
Various lines featuring such words were radically altered to be more family friendly, because of course such harsh language as “bastard” and “piss” have no place in a game rated for teenagers apparently. Especially the notion of kicking somebody’s rectum now that’s just plain rude.
Aside from such dialogue changes, an in-game item known as the “Bastard Sword” was changed to being dubbed the Brute Sword instead.
The changes were proclaimed to have been made to adhere to America’s guidelines for their ESRB rating system, with the post-launch patch also landing its way onto European releases for localized parity.
But given how the game itself released in Western regions back on January 24th, however the post-launch patch wasn’t released until a handful of months later in early April, the censorship being scapegoated as being a ratings issue makes virtually zero sense if we look at dates specifically.
Right: Neptunia: Sisters VS Sisters
It could also be due to the fact that the game released in the west specifically without the ESRB “language” descriptor, which is present among other games in the franchise which haven’t had their languages censored to appeal to toddlers.
Regardless, one thing I absolutely hate above anything else would be censorship and the deliberate loss of creative intention of a particular product, hampering the creator’s vision to adhere to senseless guidelines or deranged feminists. The later being particularly common with Sony in general if we’re being honest.
Thankfully, devoted PC game fans have came in clutch with a decensorship patch for Neptunia: Sisters VS Sisters that reverts the ridiculous language filters which once again adds swearing inside a game that is rated T for Teen.
For PC players, reverting the 1.01 patch was a massive pain in the arse. And it once again reaffirms the only solution to prevent such problems from occurring in the first place, if you pirate a game you are not forced to update the game against your will.
For those who bought Neptunia: Sisters VS Sisters on GOG there was absolutely no way of reverting back to a previous patch, however thanks to the decensorship patch which is available on both GameBanana and NexusMods you can safely revert the bogus Sesame Street localized changes on both Steam and GOG and once again enjoy the game the way it was originally released.
