Adaptational Modesty / Video Games

Sensible shoes sure help with saving the world.

Examples of Adaptational Modesty in video games.

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• This happens in Age of Mythology with the Greek heroine Atalanta: in classical vase paintings she was Ms. Fanservice and was commonly depicted wearing tiny hunting dresses and skimpy bikinis (lest you think the trend of dressing heroines in impractical revealing outfits is a new thing). The game's version of Atalanta, while being well-endowed, is dressed much more conservatively.
• Another Code: Played with. In Recollection, neither of Ashley's outfits show off her midriff, as they did in the original versions of Two Memories and Journey into Lost Memories. However, 16-year-old Ashley now boasts a pair of mid-rise denim shorts instead of jeans.
• For Battle Chasers: Nightwar, Red Monika's infamous bust has been reduced, though they are still big enough. This may be less a case of censorship and more for technical reasons, though.
• In most of the Burning Force games, Hiromi Tengenji wears a Leotard of Power that shows off her legs. In Namco High, however, she's seen dressed in a biker's jumpsuit.
• Kasumi from Dead or Alive has appeared numerous times as a special Pixie in the Monster Rancher series. While a few games keep her design the same, some games such as 2 and 4 give her Modesty Shorts.
• Downplayed in Dungeon Defenders II. In Terraria, the Dryad only wears a bikini made of leaves, with an in-game painting (which shows a little more detail than the game's 32-pixel character artstyle) suggesting that it covers little from the back. In her crossover appearance in Dungeon Defenders II, she still wears a revealing leaf bikini, but it comes with a long cloth covering more of her front and rear.
• Between their initial appearances in Fate/EXTRA CCC and Fate/Grand Order, Meltryllis and Passionlip both got alterations to their outfits that make them less risque, such as Meltryllis' bottom half appearing to be an actual garment now (albeit still a bikini bottom) instead of a c-string while Passionlip actually gets a shirt as opposed to two thin straps (barely) holding in her massive boobs. That being said, Meltryllis' final art is drawn at a more risque angle to expose her legs and butt.
• Final Fantasy VII Remake has multiple examples:
  • Barret, a Walking Shirtless Scene in the original, has been given a shirt. (Though, arguably, the way the neckline is suspended over his cleavage is more sexualised than the more Open Shirt Taunt effect in the original.)
  • The long slit up the side of Aerith's dress has been removed.
  • Sephiroth still has an open shirt, but his belt has been moved right up his body and his body harness has been thickened, so that much less of his stomach and pecs are visible.
  • Tifa now has a black sports bra under her white top, a more free-flowing leather skirt with Modesty Shorts underneath, and thigh-length socks. This was probably as much of a concession to practicality as anything, as having her do anything in her original outfit would have resulted in a Panty Shot, like in Dissidia.
    • Crisis Core: The Reunion remaster gives Tifa's cowgirl outfit a matching black sports bra. Trailers show the change would carry over into Final Fantasy VII Rebirth.
  • Surprisingly inverted with Tifa’s dress that she wears at Don Corneo‘s. In the original she had a full choker and a small boob widow, in the remake she has a full cleavage and even some Sideboob. Plus, it turns out that Tifa's breast size wasn't reduced as people claimed. Side note, both versions of the dress in question were paired with matching high heels, with Remake adding ankle-straps.
  • Jenova, kept in Shinra storage, has gone from being a veiny naked woman with an eyeball for a nipple, into a naked woman fully covered up with a grungy, rocky skin texture.
  • Final Fantasy VII Rebirth:
    • Yuffie has her shorts buttoned up and put a belt on. This more or less counterbalances the skimpiness Yuffie has from her properly fitted clothes compared to her baggy outfit in the original.
    • Priscilla now wears a shirt and shorts with a sarong, instead of a bikini with a sarong.
• Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon & the Blade of Light: In the NES original, Marth wears little more than a short tunic and some boots. For the Shadow Dragon remake, his design's been reworked to look more like his Super Smash Bros. counterpart (itself using a modified version of his Mystery of the Emblem clothes). Similarly Julian only wears a tunic in the original game, while the remake and Heroes gives him some pants.
• Fortnite: Cammy naturally comes with some tweaks. Her famous bare (or slightly camoflauged) legs are now completely coated in camo paint, and her leotard now completely covers up her crotch area unlike her home series in which it was tiny enough to give a good view of her ass.
• Gwent: The Witcher Card Game: Characters that would have been topless in other Witcher media are now relegated to Godiva Hair and Sideboob due to the teen rating.
• While the trope itself is mostly irrelevant to the games, Halo: Combat Evolved features early on the throw away line, "Vital signs look normal, no freezer burn." While this seems like a joke in the game, it's established in the prequel novel Halo: The Fall of Reach that wearing clothes when entering cryostasis can cause itchy, blistered skin- colloquially known as freezer burn. Then-lieutenant Jacob Keyes notably exits cryo naked before his and Dr. Catherine Halsey's ship lands on John's homeworld when they recruit him into the Spartan program, and John himself fears freezer burn when he enters cryo after the titular event of the novel, before the beginning of the first game. However, any on screen appearances of individuals in cryo-stasis always have them wearing clothes. Examples include any of the times John has been depicted in cryo, the animated adaptation of the aforementioned scene in the book, Dr. Halsey's rescue in Halo Legends episode "The Package," the scene of the cadets exiting cryo in a training mission in Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn, and at the end and beginning of Halo Wars and Halo Wars 2 respectively.
• Injustice 2: Power Girl's outfit from the comics was a legless leotard that showed off her legs, while in the game, she wears a full body suit (albeit still retaining the (in)famous boob window).
• Kingdom Hearts II does this with YRP. In Final Fantasy X-2 their outfits were quite Stripperiffic, but are slightly more modest when they appear in Kingdom Hearts. Notably Rikku wears a bikini top in the former but it's a more modest midriff top in the latter. Additionally, the girls are changed to fairies, making their appearances more cute instead of sexy. The same game has Tifa appearing in her Advent Children outfit rather than her vampier Final Fantasy VII gear.
• The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening: Although you obviously can't tell from his tiny sprite in the game itself, official artwork for the original Game Boy title shows that Link lacks the white pants/tights of his later counterparts, and is dressed only in a fairly short tunic that exposes a lot of leg. In the 2019 remake, his tunic is longer in his non-Super-Deformed design and he gains the tights, keeping to his look in the Oracle games that are directly connected to this one.
• In LEGO Harry Potter, Harry wears underwear when taking a bath in the Prefects' Bathroom, while he is naked in the book. Justified because in this version, Myrtle shows up before he undresses rather than surprising him when he's already in the water.
• Melty Blood: Type Lumina: Ushiwakamaru wears a black romper. Originally in Fate/Grand Order, her torso was completely exposed except for two dangling strips that barely covered her breasts and a bikini bottom.
• In Metal Gear Solid for the PlayStation, Snake is Naked on Arrival during his briefing session. In its GameCube remake Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes, he's in tight boxer shorts. The original allowed a Censor Shadow to preserve Snake's modesty, as it was a 2D animation, but the sequel redid the sequence in fully motion-acted 3D with changeable camera angles, making this impossible. It is probably worth observing that the addition of motion acting in this scene allowed Snake to spend the entire sequence striking various incongruous sexy poses, so it's still sexy, just in a much sillier way.
• Pokémon:
  • Brock was a Walking Shirtless Scene in the original Pokémon Red and Blue, but all games starting with Pokémon Yellow give him a shirt.
  • Misty has had slight alterations between games. In the 1st Generation games, she wore a two piece swimsuit (black, thanks to the lack of color on the Game Boy). In the 2nd Generation and the 4th Generation remakes, she's wearing a more modest one-piece and a coat. In the 3rd Generation remakes of the first games, she's in a two-piece again, but her top is more modest than the first game. Pokémon Let's Go, Pikachu! and Eevee!, being remakes of Pokémon Yellow, give her a modified version of her anime attire. Her FRLG outfit returns as an alternate skin in Pokémon Masters, but this time showing less skin.
  • In Pokémon Diamond and Pearl, Gardenia wore a midriff-baring undershirt. Her appearance in Pokémon Masters has her shirt made longer so it covers more of her chest.
• Resident Evil:
  • Claire Redfield's outfit in the Resident Evil 2 (Remake), the lycra and hot pants from the original game◊ are gone and replaced with a pair of jeans and red jacket◊ in the remake, similar to her Revelations 2 design. This caused some backlash from fans who missed the hotter outfit, but it's well justified and practical since any biker in the world will tell you baring that much skin is a stupid thing to do while riding (in acknowledgement of this, the novelization made sure to point out that Claire had loaned her usual set of road leathers to a friend). As a service to the fans, the classic costume was eventually confirmed to return as an unlockable... and redesigned to show off a little more skin than the original.
  • Likewise, the remake of Resident Evil 3 replaces Jill's famous tube top and miniskirt with tank top and pants. Carlos is also now wearing a full T-shirt whereas in the original Carlos was proudly sporting a BDU shirt with the sleeves rolled up to the shoulders and unbuttoned to show off his pecs. Jill does get her classic outfit as an unlockable bonus, but it's still played straight by the skirt being changed into a short culotte/skort.
  • Resident Evil 4 has Ashley wearing a jacket rather than a tight fitting sleeveless jumper over her ballistics and wears a skort and leggings below that, whilst Ada is wearing a modest turtleneck rather than her ridiculously ostentatious and revealing Qipao from the original Resi 4. Given this remake like the previous examples, is going for a grounded tone and actively downplaying the cheesy camp, it’s to be expected (but not eliminating it, as Ashley eventually does lose her blazer while Ada's "turtleneck" is a Minidress of Power, with black hosiery and thigh-high leather high-heeled boots, in keeping with her sexy Femme Fatale style).
  • A non-fanservicey example would actually be Mr. X in Resident Evil 2 (Remake) as in the original game he gets dropped into molten steel and gets his outfit burned off revealing his Barbie Doll Anatomy as a Tyrant. In the remake Mr. X just gets his coat and top burned off by an explosion while getting to keep his pants (which if anything just makes him look cooler).
• Screenshots and footage from the remake of Silent Hill 2 show that the demonic bubble-head Nurses have been given a pair of dark stockings with garters, partially covering their legs. This may be unintentionally downplayed or even subverted, since Zettai Ryouiki and Stocking Filler are both very common fanservice tropes and, if anything, it makes their design seem even more fetishistic than it was before, especially when combined with their considerably healthier-looking, more humanlike skintone compared to the deathly pallid, grayish coloration they have in the original.
• In the 2018 Spider-Man (PS4), Black Cat wears a full torso polymer chest armor rather than having her (in)famous Cleavage Window. The rest of her outfit is also much more heavily armored and resembles biker protective gear rather than her usual Spy Catsuit.
• Darth Talon was given leather pants with metal thigh pieces and high boots plus and a bra with more coverage in Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes to replace the skimpy bra and loincloth she wore in Star Wars: Legacy
• Super Smash Bros.:
  • The female version of Corrin in Fire Emblem Fates has an outfit that leaves her inner thighs exposed, but in Smash they're covered up.
  • Bayonetta's outfit is toned down by having the diamond pattern on the back of her legs be a different weave pattern instead of holes, and by making her Wicked Weaves and Infernal Climax attacks leave her somewhat less covered while performing them instead of in a stripperiffic bodysuit and naked, respectively. Other than that, her playful and flirtatious Ms. Fanservice attitude and mannerisms remain fairly untouched, as do her high heels.
  • In Ultimate, Zero Suit Samus's Latex Spacesuit looks thicker and also behaves differently around her bust, which is smaller and more indistinct instead of anatomy-hugging boob socks. She's also a lot more muscular, with a visible six-pack, which many fans approved of, despite several missing the bigger bust. Ultimate also maintains the high-heeled Jet Boots she was originally given in 3DS and Wii U.
  • Solid Snake's return to the world of Smash in Ultimate has been at the cost of a severe reduction to his usually prominent buttocks. Unlike the Samus example, this was generally considered a disappointment, perhaps because Snake's thickness is one of the things that makes his design different from the standard Action Genre Hero Guy template, but also because it is a clear signal of Hideo Kojima's lack of involvement (his buttock fixation is one of his Creator Thumbprints and appeared prominently in the Death Stranding trailer at about the same time).
  • One of the spirits in Ultimate is Mythra, who had her Cleavage Window covered up and had her legs covered in stockings. Amusingly, this redesign proved so popular that Monolith actually patched in this redesign into Xenoblade Chronicles 2 as a skin. Mythra would later join as a fighter in the second round of DLC using that redesign alongside Pyra, who also got covered up in the leg area.
• The 2013 reboot of Tomb Raider downplayed Lara Croft's sex appeal in favour of sheer survival instinct. In the reboot, she swaps minishorts for pants and her tank top no longer exposes her midriff.
• A weird example with Angela of Trials of Mana. In the original SNES/Super Famicom version, Angela's behavior is often sexually suggestive, happily flashing her bare butt at several points throughout the story to taunt or tease other characters (especially Duran) and also as part of her Love Typhoon Class Skill, while also being implied to sleep in the nude at the inn. However all of these examples or suggestions of nudity are removed from the 2020 remake. However because the game replaces the Palette Swap after a class change with actual models, her Class outfits are even skimpier in the remake. especially her Magus and Spellbinder models, which become outright Stripperiffic.
• In X-Men Legends, Emma Frost is given a top that connects in the front, as opposed to the Navel-Deep Neckline-baring scraps of cloth she was wearing in the comics at the time. This outfit was actually brought into the comics during Astonishing X-Men, albeit with a cape added.

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