Like their Western counterparts, Japanese fans are furious over the discovery that Square Enix’s upcoming Dragon Quest III HD-2D has censored legendary series artist Akira Toriyama’s original female character designs.

 

In addition to the previously reported changes made to the game’s female Warrior variant, which see her given both a tan undershirt and pair of shorts to wear under her armor, a recent batch of screenshots has confirmed that Square Enix will also be censoring the design of the Female Gadabout class.
Gadabout Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake Vocational Class Character Art (2024), Square Enix
In the upcoming Remake, the blonde bombshell sees her collars and cuff replaced with an arm band, the pointed top of her corset being given an extra piece of fabric to cover her cleavage, and the once high-cut of her body suit expanded to cover her thighs.

Further, her alcohol bottle accessory no longer bears its ‘Whisky’ label, instead appearing as nothing more than an unlabeled brown jug (as of writing, it is unknown whether it contains any actual alcohol, or something more child-firnedly like hot sauce or milkshakes).

Notably, while the first change was ostensibly done to make her legally distinct from the officially copywritten Playboy bunny outfit, the latter two are clear acts of what can only be described as puritanical censorship.
The female Gadabout as she appears in Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake (2024)/the female Gadabout as illustrated by Akira Toriyama for Dragon Quest III (1988), Square Enix
To no one’s surprise, upon their reveal, Square Enix censored female designs were met with a wave of backlash from the franchise’s Japanese fanbase, with many even going so far as to declare the Warrior and Gadabout’s updated appearances as being outright disrespectful to the late Toriyama’s legacy.

“Why are you doing this?,” @spider0244 proclaimed (as machine translated via DeepL). “Why would they do this to a female Warrior in a remake of Dragon Quest III, one of the milestones of the Japanese bikini armor culture? Everyone involved should apologize at Akira Toriyama’s grave. If you’re going to give in to the political correctness, don’t do it with his designs.”
@spider0244 via Twitter
“The Dragon Quest 3 remake…they had the original design for the female Warrior, but they deliberately made her wear underwear and censorship and changed the design,” wrote @90mm_Kanon. “Don’t you think that’s disrespectful and rude to Akira Toriyama?”
@90mm_Kanon via Twitter
@nekokkomutimuti declared, “No wonder people are saying the costume change of the female warrior is an insult to Toriyama-sensei’s design. I understand that there may be some restrictions due to the times, but can’t you make them a little more stylish? It’s so lame. They could have increased the area of the armor or something.”
@nekokkomutimuti via Twitter
“I don’t mind the reduced exposure of the female Warrior in the Dragon Quest III remake, but couldn’t something be done about the fact that she is so devastatingly lame?” questioned @scsipine. “Toriyama-sensei is gonna be mad at this… (´ω`)”
@scsipine via Twitter
Others questioned why, given the fact that the female Warrior made her debut earlier this year in the Dragon Quest Walk ReWALK mobile game wearing a costume more closely in line with her original appearance, Square Enix chose to institute this bit of censorship in the first place

“Rather than putting on some weird skin-colored cloth, I think they were able to create a cool, curvaceous design while increasing the skin area with armor, like in Dragon Quest Walk,” @Re_Riam tweeted.
@Re_Riam via Twitter
“Walk came up with a design for DQIII‘s female warrior that is ‘appropriate’ for the current times, but it’s not good enough?” questioned @tohirokonno.
@tohirokonno via Twitter
And in a bit of unfortunate pixelated hilarity, others still couldn’t help but point out that thanks to Square Enix’s redesign, thefemale Warrior’s in-game sprite now looked like it was sporting a massive set of male genitalia.

As explained by @nonameagent, “It’s cute and looks like a penis.”
@nonameagent via Twitter
“Sorry but in the pixel art it looks like there’s a big dick attached,” @ritta_com likewise observed. “No, more than the underwear thing, what’s with the position of the armor? It’s weird if it’s not growing anymore. Does this mean Square Enix is ​​considering the possibility of a futanari?”
@ritta_com via Twitter
Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake is currently on track to hit shelves on November 14th.