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[Thick Thighs Save Lives]

Since the launch of Square Enix’s Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake earlier this month, the modding community has been busy at work making various tweaks to the game, and there’s already an array of mods out there for the PC version. This includes mods that increase the speed of overworld travel, modify odds for random encounters, modify the battle UI, remove gender-based equipment limitations and more.

These kinds of quality-of-life mods that aim to “improve” playing experience quickly became known among Japanese players too, but they weren’t taken to so kindly. One user’s criticism of the mods coming out for Dragon Quest 3 started up a heated conversation on X (as can be seen from the volume of tweets on the topic that come up just by looking up “mod” in Japanese):

PC gamers are celebrating the fact that there are already a bunch of mods out for Dragon Quest 3 that make it more user-friendly and whatnot, but I don’t understand how you can just casually alter someone else’s work. It’s the same as looking at an illustration and going, “It sucked so I fixed it for you.”

The post has garnered varying degrees of agreement, with people chiming in with comments ranging from “Modding is an insult to the developers” to “What’s the problem if it’s offline?” But a reply highlighting the fundamental difference in how game mods are perceived in Japan vs in the West has since accumulated over 10 thousand likes:

This can only be described as a cultural difference. Mod culture is the extension of the right to customize and fix a game as a product you own (which is sometimes even encouraged by developers). But with Japanese games, there’s a strong sense of the director’s authority, and they’re viewed more like personal works of art, which makes modding frowned upon.

Offline, singleplayer games released by Western studios are very often mod-friendly, and sometimes even natively support modding or come with their own modding API, but Japanese developers generally do not acknowledge modding, and when they do, it’s not in a positive way. For example, a presentation released by Capcom’s R&D department last year highlights the following negative effects of mods:

• The image of the product is tarnished when mods are released that violate public order and morals without permission.
• Mods can be mistaken for legitimate implementations and can cause bad publicity.
• Customers affected by buggy mods cost support time. Worst cases include freezes and save data corruption.
• Investigations take time + are futile even if they turn out to be successful.
• Delays in the original production of the game due to the time required for research.
• Support for other users is delayed.

Japanese gamers opposed to mods view them as something that ignores the developer’s intentions – the artist’s intentions, and desecrates their work. In addition, with Japan’s gaming scene historically being more console-oriented than PC-oriented, there’s a lot more taboo attached to the idea of modifying software. From the developer’s point of view (and Capcom’s probably not the only one), modding is seen as risk to quality assurance and branding, while also potentially inflating customer support costs.

Mods for Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake receive backlash in Japan, highlighting a large cultural gap in how mods are viewed - AUTOMATON WEST

Recent backlash in response to QOL mods for Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake has highlighted a fundamental difference in how mods are viewed in Japan vs in the West.

automaton-media.com

 

[StereoVsn]

I am sure no honorable Japanese player will download Stellar Blade mods when the game releases on PC…

 

[YeulEmeralda]

The developers are usually wrong. Case in point: the terrible soundtrack of DQ11. Modded that shit fast.

 

[Little Chicken]

I agree to some degree when people just throw reshade at everything. In almost every instance the game looks worse.

 

[cireza]

Might want to give a second of thought to what is wrong with your culture before your country's population reaches 0.

 

[Holammer]

Release a mod with skimpier female warrior sprite work and they'll come hat in hand.
Also, sometimes the developers are just wrong or do a shit job, like the font in Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster.

 

[LazyParrot]

Yeah, I've always thought the Japanese attitude to mods was kind of weird, especially considering how accepted doujinshi (including the "improper" kind) are not just among fans, but creators as well. Lots of mangaka have no problem if their fans create and even sell pornographic content of their characters at huge conventions held explicitly for that purpose. Hell, even the publishers tend to be cool with it.

Games, though? Different story, for whatever reason. They're probably just not used to it even being a possibility.

 

[Soodanim]

This is an interesting cultural difference, and I get the perspective.

But my perspective is that some very basic QOL shit needs fixing in a lot of cases, and if I pay for a product to consume without feedback then in the immortal words of Eric:

Spoiler

 

[TintoConCasera]

but I don’t understand how you can just casually alter someone else’s work.

Sounds pretty much like what Square has done in this remake to Toriyama's work.

 

[ap_puff]

The developers are usually wrong. Case in point: the terrible soundtrack of DQ11. Modded that shit fast.

But in that case wasn't it done due to greed? Iirc the dq games all have midi soundtracks and the orchestrated ones are released later to make people buy it again

 

[balls of snow]

Is pc gaming just not that big in Japan. I know they are a handheld (read: Nintendo) nation first and foremost.

 

[Magic Carpet]

I bought the book, I can draw pictures in the margins if I want.

 

[Guilty_AI]

its just a handful of opinions on twitter, trying to extrapolate this as "the japanese" opinion on the matter is dumb.

Heck, by the way the post was worded, high chance this is console warring bullshit (jp version). I've seen similar "views" on modding here on GAF as well.

 

[YeulEmeralda]

But in that case wasn't it done due to greed? Iirc the dq games all have midi soundtracks and the orchestrated ones are released later to make people buy it again

No the music itself was pretty bad, orchestra or midi. Probably because the guy who composed it was in his 80s and stopped caring.

Dragon Quest as a series had great music but at some point no matter how good you are it's time to retire.

I used a mod that took the best music of the series and put it into DQ11.

Retro Music Mod

Building on the work done by Infogram and the Orchestral Overhaul Mod team, this mod aims to replace the music within the game using high-quality orchestral compositions from prior entries in the seri

www.nexusmods.com

 

[Skifi28]

Those filthy gaijin ruining our culture.

 

[Minsc]

I'm pretty sure anyone who downloads a mod understands they are changing the game from its original form. No one is confusing shit.

First thing I'd probably do is mod the difficulty, if I bought this game. Every negative review I've read (unless they're jokes) has said it is so easy they don't even upgrade their gear, ever and it's still too easy.

 

[yet_another_alt]

This is the reason I unironically never use custom soundtrack features. I respect the devs' vision too much. The only exceptions are unofficial bug fixes and of course lewd mods.

 

[gaming_again]

I am 100% with the Japanese here. Submitting yourself to an artistic vision is superior to fiddling with it until it suits your own tastes.

 

[Zathalus]

Ah, yet another article that runs with the premise that a dozen people on twitter = the entire ethic or organization these people belong to.

 

[ssringo]

It's fine to feel negatively about mods and to extent I agree. Developer and artistic intent certainly has it's place in the conversation. However, that's strictly in the "conversation" sense. When it comes to an individuals actual use/application of mods, shut up. Unless it's an online game that would affect other people, it's none of your business what someone else is doing with the product they bought.

Also

I don’t understand how you can just casually alter someone else’s work. It’s the same as looking at an illustration and going, “It sucked so I fixed it for you.”

No, it's the same as BUYING an illustration and deciding to touch up the colors. I bought it, I can do what I want with it.

 

[MagiusNecros]

"Japanese gamers opposed to mods view them as something that ignores the developer’s intentions – the artist’s intentions, and desecrates their work."

 

[Puscifer]

Sounds pretty much like what Square has done in this remake to Toriyama's work.

Or hell, the entirety of FF7

Rebirth having more content in side quests than entire games is bloated as fuck and turned me away from it

 

[ap_puff]

No the music itself was pretty bad, orchestra or midi. Probably because the guy who composed it was in his 80s and stopped caring.

Dragon Quest as a series had great music but at some point no matter how good you are it's time to retire.

I used a mod that took the best music of the series and put it into DQ11.

Retro Music Mod

Building on the work done by Infogram and the Orchestral Overhaul Mod team, this mod aims to replace the music within the game using high-quality orchestral compositions from prior entries in the seri

www.nexusmods.com

Really? I got DQ XI on launch and I thought the orchestral soundtrack mod was pretty good.

 

[Vandole]

Might want to give a second of thought to what is wrong with your culture before your country's population reaches 0.

And just like that, the conversation goes from whether or not modding is good to The logical conclusion of, "why don't the people in your country fuck enough and have more kids?"

 

[MagiusNecros]

Really? I got DQ XI on launch and I thought the orchestral soundtrack mod was pretty good.

Probably talking about DQXI and not DQXI S.

 

[ap_puff]

Probably talking about DQXI and not DQXI S.

Yeah i never played XI S

 

[MagiusNecros]

Yeah i never played XI S

They use better music. It isn't midi or synthesized but Orchestral and Symphonic. You could also swap non-battle music to music from DQ8.

-------

Anyway my stance on mods is if it's an offline single player game then adding in these QoL changes and removing the brainrot is fine.

It would be different if the game was multiplayer and mods gave a clear advantage.

 

[Paltheos]

Developers do not treat their work as sacredly as some Japanese players seem to think. Adding to the other examples people have already posted, I'm a big Falcom fan and I rail all the time at how obviously cheap the company's become with their music. I modded out something like 1/3 of Trails through Daybreak's entire OST because I've come to expect that one contractor they keep hiring will be so shit that it's literally better to have music from completely different sources fill those spots than to listen to his stuff.

 

[Silver Wattle]

Play your copy the way you want and I'll do the same with mine, deal?

 

[ap_puff]

They use better music. It isn't midi or synthesized but Orchestral and Symphonic. You could also swap non-battle music to music from DQ8.

-------

Anyway my stance on mods is if it's an offline single player game then adding in these QoL changes and removing the brainrot is fine.

It would be different if the game was multiplayer and mods gave a clear advantage.

Yeah the soundtrack mod on the original DQ XI i believe substituted album recordings of live performances for the midi versions

 

[U n i o n 0015]

Modding is an insult to the developers

 

[Pejo]

So this is fine, but when they force "Body Type A/B" and censorship into the games (despite the director in this case not being into it), it doesn't get the same backlash?

Sorry JP bros, I can't agree with your viewpoint on this one. Mods are often able to 'save' games released in the last 5-10 years with awful decisions.

 

[od-chan]

I only want to point out that this reporting is mostly bullshit. It's like buzzfeed coming up with some internet controversy because they noticed a couple tweets holding space or some shit and then conjuring something up, because they know it'll drive engagement.

Sure there a japanese guys that don't like mods. Trying to fabricate a "backlash" out of this - or even more ridiculous - trying to make some cultural assumption based on this is nothing short of brainrot. Especially considering we're talking about the country of Doujinshi and Kaizo.

 

[Zelduh]

I agree with Japan's stance on this, modding games shouldn't be a thing

 

[TintoConCasera]

I agree with Japan's stance on this, modding games shouldn't be a thing

Why?

 

[RoboFu]

if people are calling support when they have their game modded are idiots and if a lot of people are calling in then we have a much bigger issue with the average of human intelligence sinking.

 

[Killer8]

Inside the Japanese there are two wolves: one complaining about Westerners ruining their products with DEI, the other complaining about fixing the problem.

 

[rofif]

I am sure no honorable Japanese player will download Stellar Blade mods when the game releases on PC…

There will be day1 mods that ruin the game. Just play it for what it is and it a super fun to be rewarded outfits for exploration

 

[Fake]

PC gamers are celebrating the fact that there are already a bunch of mods out for Dragon Quest 3 that make it more user-friendly and whatnot, but I don’t understand how you can just casually alter someone else’s work. It’s the same as looking at an illustration and going, “It sucked so I fixed it for you.”

Is this some kinda of joke? No fucking way this is real. You are doing a fucking remake, you change the entire Akira Toriyama art direction and charm, not to mention remove the gender and monsters design and still wanna talk about 'alter soemone else's work'.

Go smell someone fart.

 

[Reizo Ryuu]

I generally don't use mods either, unless the game is made for modding; most mods tend to be incredibly cringe low quality trash anyway, and I definitely don't understand completely modding your first playthrough.

 

[Paltheos]

I generally don't use mods either, unless the game is made for modding; most mods tend to be incredibly cringe low quality trash anyway, and I definitely don't understand completely modding your first playthrough.

Because games are poorly optimized.
Because games have additional content that's not always available on all platforms.
Because a lot of people will play through a game only once (if even once, according to steam stats).

 

[Reizo Ryuu]

Because games are poorly optimized.
Because games have additional content that's not always available on all platforms.
Because a lot of people will play through a game only once (if even once, according to steam stats).

This is a whole bunch of nothing, let's not pretend that mods are to fix something that's "unoptimised" bruv; 90% of mods are some visual change and the vast majority of it is cringe or low effort trash.

 

[Paltheos]

This is a whole bunch of nothing, let's not pretend that mods are to fix something that's "unoptimised" bruv; 90% of mods are some visual change and the vast majority of it is cringe or low effort trash.

Alright. *cracks knuckles*

Risk of Rain 2 is my most played game on Steam. I almost always play with the mod manager active (the seldom times I haven't are with friends on the edge of my circle who I don't often hang with and who don't play a lot). These are some of the mods I run from one profile:

SkipIntro: QoL. Allows you to skip the intro when you boot the game because the developers wouldn't let you by default for DLC1+.
SeerPing: QoL. Displays stage names among cauldrons in the Lunar Shop for selection because the images alone are usually but unfortunately not always crystal clear and it's just easier/better to see the name directly by ping.
ProperSave: QoL. One of my favorites that's saved my friends and my runs god knows how many times. This one lets you exit the game, deliberately or as is often the case, via a crash, and pick up from the last stage everyone in the lobby was playing to continue where you left off.
JPs_AV_Effect_Options: QoL. Allows the player to disable individual visual effects from items. In long runs, the screen can become cluttered from item interplay creating huge proc chains. At worst, the game's frame rate tanks (or crashes the game). This mod mitigates that problem.
LookingGlass: Huge QoL mod. Displays more details on items in-game, in particular how they work and how they stack. Displays more detail on your player character, including current movement speed, attack speed, armor, jump total, crit chance, and luck. Enables customizable item sorting for easier tracking.

I don't know how many of all mods are trash, but I do know there are plenty of great ones out there that improve the experience of playing games. You don't know what you're talking about.

 

[Pejo]

This is a whole bunch of nothing, let's not pretend that mods are to fix something that's "unoptimised" bruv; 90% of mods are some visual change and the vast majority of it is cringe or low effort trash.

You're really talking out of your ass on this one, sorry to say. Go to Nexusmods for a few minutes and sort by most popular and it's almost always visual improvements/physics improvements/adding RTX/adding features/fixing shit that the devs released that was broken or unoptimized.

Here's the "most popular: all time" section of Skyrim, a game that's widely known for porn mods, for instance. Mostly fixes/improvements to the game itself.

Here's a mod that adds White Fatalis to Monster Hunter World, a monster that hadn't been otherwise playable since Monster Hunter 2nd. Note this does not replace regular Fatalis so you can still encounter both and they are distinct. It comes with custom made White Fatalis armor, and all sorts of other goodies.

Resurgence - Returning Monster - White Fatalis - Old Fatalis

Adds White Fatalis into the game without replacing or affecting any other monster, it also adds Old World Inspired items for fashion into the game.

www.nexusmods.com

Here's a mod that completely removes the pre-baked lighting from Dark Souls 2 and adds in a whole new lighting engine, to make it more in line with the early visions from Miyazaki himself for the title:

Shadows of Drangleic

Using DS2LightingEngine, this mod swaps over DS2's entire lighting setup to be dynamic by disabling the baked lighting and enabling dynamic shadowcasting on everything. Also makes tweaks to volumetric

www.nexusmods.com

Discrediting mods as "low effort trash" is truly ignorant on the depth and variety of mods out there.

 

[jshackles]

This is a whole bunch of nothing, let's not pretend that mods are to fix something that's "unoptimised" bruv; 90% of mods are some visual change and the vast majority of it is cringe or low effort trash.

I'm using a mod for this new Dragon Quest game that unlocks arbitrary and ultrawide resolutions. It's making a visual change, I guess, but it's not exactly changing textures or giving the characters big boobs or whatever. This is something that shouldn't even need a mod - the developers just put zero effort into making the game run correctly on my PC / monitor setup, and I'm pleased as punch that I'm able to fix it myself without waiting for them to give a shit.

 

[Reizo Ryuu]

but I do know there are plenty of great ones out there that improve the experience of playing games.

I never said there weren't, but you seem to triggered to actually read what I said.

Here's the "most popular: all time" section of Skyrim, a game that's widely known for porn mods, for instance. Mostly fixes/improvements to the game itself.

I said I generally don't use mods, unless the game was made for mods, skyrim is made for mods and the developer is infamous for relying on community fixes for things, still a lot of these "improvements" are subjective and aren't needed for a first playthrough.

Discrediting mods as "low effort trash" is truly ignorant on the depth and variety of mods out there.

Good thing I didn't say that.

 

[Pejo]

Good thing I didn't say that.

You trying to gaslight me or... ? I mean you only have to scroll up a bit to see it.

the vast majority of it is cringe or low effort trash.

 

[Reizo Ryuu]

You trying to gaslight me or... ? I mean you only have to scroll up a bit to see it.

I didn't say mods are low effort trash, I said most mods are visual changes and most of those are cringe or low effort trash.
The rest of mods are either cheats, "improvements", fixes, or total conversions, I said nothing about those.

 

[Pejo]

I didn't say mods are low effort trash, I said most mods are visual changes and most of those are cringe or low effort trash.
The rest of mods are either cheats, "improvements", fixes, or total conversions, I said nothing about those.

 

[Reizo Ryuu]

I mean you cut off my quote, but that's literally what I said.

90% of mods are some visual change and the vast majority of it is cringe or low effort trash.