Cassandra Lee Morris voiced Lin Xenoblade Chronicles X, one of the game’s main characters—and a source of controversy. In the US and Europe, the character couldn’t wear certain bikini costumes. On YouTube, she released a video about the process of making the game and weighed in on the “censorship” discussion.
Morris broached the topic by discussing the bikini costumes themselves.
“[It] honestly makes me cringe a little bit because she’s only 13 years old,” said Morris. “People are calling it censorship. I really see it as localization. There are a lot of cultural differences between Japan and the US and Europe. I, personally, don’t mind that Lin’s outfits were change for the US version. My hope is that players will be able to concentrate on Lin’s abilities and what she can bring to your game and what she can do for the other members of her party and not just how she looks. I also think that covering Lin up a little bit will make parents more comfortable with kids playing the game, so it also opens the game up for a wider audience.”
This was hardly the focus of the video, though. Morris also revealed:
- She didn’t know what game she was auditioning for because it was simply being called “space travel” at the time.
- There were 1,600-1,800 lines for Lin, above average for a video game.
- Morris thinks Lin is “a really, really strong female character [and] even though she’s young, she’s super smart and very self-reliant. She can take care of herself. She can cook dinner and also kick your ass.”
- Lin sounds older in the US version because they thought it would sound better; a young voice over the course of a very long RPG “might have sounded grating on the player’s ears.”
Can someone send me a time machine so I have enough days to try playing Xenoblade Chronicles X? Dang.
You can reach the author of this post at patrick.klepek@kotaku.com or on Twitter at @patrickklepek.