Senran Kagura Burst RE:Newal And Future

Doesnt look like its just Sony America, or in Western territories now... I really have no words for what in the world is going on internally at Sony anymore, but it looks like they have censored an adult visual novel on PS4 in Japan. Thoughts?

 

Yeah it's really weird how they are editing like bikinis and things. Are they really trying to appease the western audience, and between things and things going on in Twitter/the news/etc., are doing a "better safe than sorry" approach and getting rid of more sexuality (involving anime) as possible? Western games are still getting a pass, so yeah I dunno. It's really weird, especially when Nintendo is allowing for MORE stuff to be shown. The tables have turned...

 

I'm still waiting to find out what was censored in Toejam and Earl of all things.

 

I think Nintendo can get away with it because people dont really expect it from them like they would sony. I think thats the reason Sony is taking this stance now because in general they are expected to have stuff like available on their platform, So Sony and Nintendo are battling the opposite back lashes Nintendo trying to cater to the "Nintendo is too kidy" crowd and Sony is trying to appease the "No adult anime content" crowd. Ugh... I wish it wasnt like this x . x

 

To echo the information on the video I posted earlier and expand heavily on it, this makes things much more clear as to what is going on at Sony and this video addresses XSEED, Tom and Brittany's departure (briefly and more generally), and a TON of other issues surrounding an impacting this whole censorship fiasco, its a long video but it bring up alot of points and is dead on.

But the TL;DR of it all is that in 2016 Sony moved the Playstation headquarters to California due to declining console sales in japan and increasing console sales in the west, and now even japanese PS4 games are being approved and cleared in California even if they are only coming out in japan. So Western practices and beliefs are being forced upon japanese PS4 games via this new policy, and thats why that adult visual novel in the above video is censored even in japan, Why Intimacy mode is being removed from the new Senran Kagura, and why Omega Labyrinth Z's localization was canceled, and thus Sony's war on censorship begins now. Of course all of that is due to the current social climate in the west and outrage culture even if those things arent as big of a problem in japan which is covered in that video and gives example after example of articles coming after many games and companies about censorship.

 

I recognize that channel icon, that youtuber is not exactly an impartial source and I would be careful trusting the information he gives out.

This situation is such a mess... I've barely wanted to touch it, but to touch on why Western developers are getting a pass I'm pretty certain it is because Western female designs are adult women who look like adult women, not sexualized minors such as in Omega Labyrinth and such, and in pretty much every game beign censored (except Toejam and Earl I really want to know what happened with that one too).

 

Personally, I wouldn't mind if the moe trend died down some. Some characters are definately cute, and that cute factor has kept it's popularity steady. But... I have to say I do miss anime/games with adults looking like adults. I miss that 90's look. Kind of ironic that back then, even middle schoolers like in Sailor Moon often looked like they already were 18!

Trends change, and I feel like animation in games/anime are getting a little more diverse with character designs, but yeah. With Sonyxs new policies effecting Japan, I can see these games either dying down, or just sticking to New Vita (Switch) and PC.

 

The funny thing is, the light beams make the images appear more lewd than they actually are.

 

I'm pretty certain they are censoring (fanservicy) games for whatever arbitrary reasons where they think they can get away with it without too much negativity.

 

I think one of the under lying points is that console gaming in japan is on such a significant decline (so much so they chose to move Playstation World Wide Headquarters to the States), that the japanese console games we love are by extension also in jeopardy. And now that Sony is taking a poo it doesnt help developers or localizers which is going to shrink that even further, idk maybe JRPGs and what not are still going strong in japan (DQXI, XB2 etc) and this mainly effect the casual players now who just play what they want on phones and tablets which is taking over in japan. Not sure what the raw numbers are or if developers have noticed a significant change in console sales in japan, but I am not comfortable with the way all this is starting to sound. Its so weird that while consoles in the west are thriving like never before, in japan they are going the complete opposite direction, hopefully its just a temporary trend?

Also apparently Gran Blue Fantasy on Android is amazing, but they are making a console game with Platinum too, which is probably going to be a huge hit over there and hopefully here.

 

All of the games censored deal with sexualized minors or minors in sexual situations (minus TJ&E but we don't know WHAT was censored there they didn't elaborate), so I do not think we can say that yet.

 

The people running Sony right now have political beliefs incompatible with these games and feel the need to force it on their customers whether they like it or not.

 

The issue is the games are made for a specific audience. In the SK-situation, it's for Japanese consumers first. This means the age-of-consent laws are abided by, but Japan has a lower AOC than the U.S. To match, the U.S. took out the ages to adhere to that. But this is an issue of cultural differences. We say minors, they say not minors in the realm of sexual adulthood. Thus, is it fair of us to push Western values on Japanese developers if they want their products sold here? That could cause completely redoing games, and could be quite costly, reflecting in less coming over. I personally hope they get out of the "all girl characters look super young" and go back to the 80's anime style, when the women looked like strong twenty-thirty year olds.

That being said; it's dumb people are worried. The meat of Sk is that sweet sweet combat. Not buying a game because you can't poke a girl is a bit dumb, imo.

 

Not that I can stop anyone but I dislike when age of consent it brought up in these discussions. Since they are fictional characters and no one is having sex it's irrelevant imo.

 

When the majority of arguments come into the characters as “minors”, it is harping on age of consent laws. A minor would be someone under the legal age of consent, whether it be sexual, contractual, selling alcohol/cigarettes, etc. So no, I don’t agree that it is irrelevant, whether they are having sex or not.

 

Murder is illegal irl no matter what age you are but you can murder characters in games all the time. There's no reason for age of consent laws to apply when laws against murder and other crimes do not. Fat lot of good it did Xseed to censor the ages all this time when people still use these same arguments.

 

How many games include child murder though? It's not that it's illegal, it's that it specifically focuses on kids.

 

I dunno? Danganronpa comes to mind.

 

In this case, Corpse Party is brutal. Most of the chars are in high school, but they all look really young, due to the super-moe art style, and have some pretty brutal deaths and imagery.

 

I should rephrase that: How many games let the player murder children?