Tuesday, March 13, 2018

The Legend of Zelda, American Censored




The original Legend of Zelda title on the NES/Famicom has minor difference between the Japanese and American versions.


In 1988 Nintendo had a censorship policy to remove "religious" symbols and content out of their video games to avoid offending certain groups.  This policy began to phase out entirely through the N64 era, however, you still see minor censorship such as the Islamic-sounding chanting being removed from later cartridges of The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time.  In the original NES Legend of Zelda there was a book Link used in his quest, a "Holy Bible," but it was changed into a "Book of Magic" in the NES English translation.  Some of these changes seem silly and unnecessary, but some of us miss these old policies as the newer Legend of Zelda titles focus abundantly on "gods/goddesses" in their stories/lore.

Islamic Chanting in Ocarina of Time fire temple:



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