Neptunia: Sisters vs Sisters patched to soften language

The English-language version of Neptunia: Sisters vs Sisters launched in February this year, but Idea Factory International has one last patch for the game. The publisher outlined a Neptunia: Sisters vs. Sisters that will adjust certain lines in the English script. The update will bring the game to version 1.01 and is live for the North American PlayStation releases of the game. The European PlayStation releases and all English-language PC releases will be patched at a later date.

The blog post announcing the Neptunia: Sisters vs Sisters patch didn't cite a specific reason for the patch. It does, however, outline all the changes in detail. Each change adjusts dialog lines to tone down the use of profanity. Words like "shitty" and variants of "piss off" are swapped for milder alternatives, which extend even to the English dub. 

For example, a line like "We're gonna kick your ass!" is changed to "We're gonna beat you up!". The changes even include one item's name: The "Bastard Sword" is renamed the "Brute Sword", to remove the use of "bastard."

With the changes in mind, the most likely reason for the Neptunia: Sisters vs Sisters patch is in order to comply with game ratings. The official ESRB page for the game lists it as having a "T" rating. This is consistent with every other Neptunia franchise game (with the exception of Hyperdimension Neptunia Mk2, which is rated "M"). However, unlike its brethren, the "T" rating for Sisters vs. Sisters does not have a content descriptor for "Language" or "Mild Language". This could mean that Idea Factory is making these retroactive changes to comply with the rating and content descriptors.

Neptunia: Sisters vs Sisters is available on PS4, PS5, and PC. Check out RPG Site's official review of the game.