We have seen censorship in the world of video games in all shapes and colors, from symbols to religious figures or changing the color of blood to covering virtual cleavages. But of all the examples you can come up with, probably none is as surreal as the one that changed the opium trade for banana junkies.
We are in 1990 and the old Square Soft has just rocked the Game Boy with the launch of its SaGa, the series of games inaugurated with the successful trilogy of Final Fantasy Legend.
Gone are the limitations of the first final fantasy as far as possibilities are concerned. We are in a time when creative teams are beginning to tinker with what the future of narrative in the video game world will be, and they often look to their own reality and that of their past to find inspiration.
However, this period in which the resurgence of the video game also pursues another type of expansion brings certain limitations under its arm. If you like reach as many players as possibleFor example, it's time to shorten what may or may not appear in your game.
And although from Square they go full force with the creative side and without brakes, at Nintendo They opt for a less lax perspective, especially in the West. If you want to work with them, you have to stick to the plan, and that means cutting where its censors indicate that it has gone too far.
![Bananasfin](https://i.blogs.es/e8506e/bananasfin/450_1000.webp)
![Bananasfin](https://i.blogs.es/e8506e/bananasfin/450_1000.webp)
“Oh! I want to eat bananas! I don't know why, but bananas are not allowed in this world.”
Banana addicts
Take the player Final Fantasy Legend 2 to a town plagued by opium drug traffickers is going too far? Well, if you come across smuggling mafias, drug addicts and characters questioning the usefulness of banning them, according to Nintendo it's a bit over the top.
Its zero-tolerance policy for stories that go too far when it comes to violence, alcohol and drugs, forced the localization team of Final Fantasy Legend 2 to modify the entire plot of one of the planes that we visited in the game, but far from being intimidated, someone decided to opt for the creative route.
![bananas](https://i.blogs.es/983b62/bananas/450_1000.webp)
![bananas](https://i.blogs.es/983b62/bananas/450_1000.webp)
The original Japanese version says something like “Forbidden opium circulates in secret.” Later, “opium” was changed to “bananas.”
With the intention of facilitating the location process and incidentally throwing a dart at Nintendothe only change that occurred was changing opium for bananas, thus causing a surreal situation in which some NPCs questioned the player about the legality of the banana market.
Those who approached the game without knowing it found themselves in a situation that, far from reflecting the rawness that the original work sought, had completely entered the realm of parody.
The censorship had destroyed part of the plot and, although it was not the straw that broke the camel's back, it did become one of the small pushes that would end up getting final fantasy abandoned the Nintendo umbrella to fall into the arms of PlayStation.
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