Recently, fans noticed that the 1.03 update for Guilty Gear Strive made a quiet but notable change to the game's lore entries by removing the names of several Asian countries. However, a newly released mod allows players to reinstate the references to Taiwan, Tibet, and the other removed countries.
First discovered on the Steam forums and reported by ResetEra user AAK, this change, which wasn't mentioned in the patch notes, changed a bit in the "International Affairs after the Crusades" entry in the game's lore glossary. The two sentences originally mentioned a variety of Asian countries and regions by name, including Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Tibet, Mongolia, Siberia, and Uighur. After the patch, the two sentences have removed any specific names in those sentences. Neither Arc System Works nor Bandai Namco have commented on the change. However, it's more than likely this has to do with China's strict regulations on what video games can or can't show, as well as some of China's more notable actions with its neighbors, claimed territories, and native peoples.
The change is a very small one, but some perceive it as an acquiescence to China and its complex, sometimes arbitrary content regulations. A GameBanana user named KingKrounch has uploaded a mod that allows players to roll back the lore change in the 1.03 patch for Guilty Gear Strive. KingKrounch says this mod is for those who can't refund the game to "protest against corporations that support the human rights violations and colonization that the P.R.C has been doing." The overall support for the mod has been positive, likely reflecting frustrations with China's attempts to clamp down on "objectionable" speech or companies who are overly willing to submit to these rules at the expense of their fans.
Guilty Gear Strive is available on Steam, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation 5.
