Square Enix is gearing up for the release of Final Fantasy XV later this year. The game will feature tons of content, including lots of summons. One of the summons is a classic esper… Shiva. However, Shiva will not be the same in China as she’ll be in Japan and other regions.

According to Siliconera, various images of Shiva surfaced comparing how Shiva will look in her Japanese incarnation and how she’ll look in her Chinese incarnation. The images come courtesy of video game industry analyst Daniel Ahmed, better known for his Twitter handle ZhugeEX.





The Japanese version is at the top and the Chinese version is at the bottom.

As you can see, Shiva in China has a completely different pigmentation for whatever reason. Instead of being icy blue she has a bit of pink to her skin. This presumably helps offset the rest of her body, which has a metallic blue look.

Most notably is that they covered up the breasts of Shiva, specifically where the small pasties are barely covering up her nipples in the Japanese and other world region versions of Final Fantasy XV.

In China they have very strict laws about censorship. In fact, in order for the Xbox One, PS4 and Wii U to be sold legally in mainland China, the console manufacturers and publishers wishing to release titles in China have to abide by the 10 rules of censorship, avoiding things like gratuitous content, religious imagery and various other obscenities.

While gamers may not be very fond of how much gets censored when content arrives from Europe or Japan in America, the reality is that America is still extremely liberal when compared to countries like China, Australia and Germany.

One thing that some gamers did worry about is whether or not China’s massive market would begin to influence publishers and developers to start making and censoring games across the board in order to appease the sensibilities of China ahead of every other region. So far the market has not deemed China to be a large enough force to affect hardcore gaming… yet.

Final Fantasy XV is due for release on the Xbox One and PS4 on November 29th. And don’t worry… Shiva will be baring plenty of her assets in the North American version of the game.