Yeah, you better check it twice.
Star Ocean 5 character gets less-sexy underwear 'in Fear of Western Criticism'
- Thread starter ponpo
- Start date
Yeah, you better check it twice.
Yep. First you had big companies being accused to trying too hard too appeal to people by pandering and so indie studios were formed to fill in niches and then indie studios came under fire, accused of trying too hard to appeal to people by pandering. Also, indie devs get away with that T&A stuff too. It's just a matter of who decides to do it.
Pancake Mix
Copied someone else's pancake recipe
If they had used the term Polygon-types, what difference would that make? I don't like the term either, but there needs to be a term for the 5 Westerners on the internet that caused Square Enix to change an adult character's underwear, which you'd probably have to fight the camera to even view.
Regardless, they were being sarcastic, and it's a vocal minority.
Yes, import OT anyways.
BLACK AMERICAN PSYCHO
Junior Member
Total ether.
If I was a wizard on that setting, I would be waving my magic wand to cast spells all the time... wink, wink.
Funyarinpa
Member
(Generally speaking) As far as I am concerned, limiting something you created in fear of backlash is self-censorship. Even if it wasn't, I wouldn't call it "making a game more accessible" - I'd call it bastardizing the product. If making something more accessible requires you to modify the original product then that becomes harmful to the product and the creative vision. Of course that doesn't really apply to this particular case, while I don't agree with it, it really is an incredibly minor detail.
Orniletter
Banned
The article starts with "Dead or Alive Extreme 3: Fortune is an objectively excellent game, that much is not up for debate" and then proceeds naming objectively horrible software aspects (re-used assets, cut content that was present in past iterations, as well as the addition of microtransactions and grind-heavy gameplay). And then there is the part where he quotes a japanese review, as if it was easy to understand (for his english reading audience).
(and he wouldn't throw their own reviewer under the bus)
It's pretty obvious, it reads like one of those Jim Sterling articles.
I should have worded it differently: It's meant to make fun of people who screamed preemptively about SJWs "ruining videogames". There wasn't even much backlash against this game.
I don't have a problem with DoAX3 whatsoever, I think it looks like garbage that set out to milk it's intended audience completely dry, but it's not problematic beyond that.
Hentailover
Member
The whole "But your nickname" shtick is getting old. I separate my getting "alone time" and rest of my activities fairly easily. That's becuase my brain has completely different priorities, when the other head is in charge. Those priorities do not line up with priorities I have when playing a video game or watching a movie.
Is it so hard to understand?
UPD: oh and about the whole, this is just a change done for marketing or to shoo of a made up boogie man, ultimately I AM blaming the developers. Barring actual harrassment people are free to expess ANY Opinion about ANY product, based on ANY justification. It's up to developer and publisher to respect their craft enough to NOT cave in. I do not believe "SJW ARE CANCER THAT SHOULD BE SILENSED" nonsense. It's just as regressive and promotes the same near sighted approach as those they claim to be fighting against.
Nobody is going to save art but artists, and it's when they cover in fear from the pressure of suits who couldn't care less about it, that's when they lose.
Alex_Mexico
Member
Can you point the "5 westerners" who caused this non-issue? Because the width of pink hair's panties is such a non issue that if they really were concerned over "western criticism" they would've done something about green checkered girl.
I know Japan has a lower age of consent but I call it as I see it and you can tell me Pink Hair is 18 until the cows go home because that's what her official bio says but to me she looks and behaves like a 15 year old. I'd be hard pressed to call her an adult but that's besides the point.
This happens ALL the time though. Changing the final product is not tarnishing some grand and pure vision of the game, its saying 'hey what can we do to make this game appeal to more players'.
East vs West has vastly different cultures so some games will of course change that to reflect the culture they are set in. Unless there was a reason be it through gameplay, story or anything that the game changes dramatically because of panty shots then no, you aren't bastardizing your product, your changing it to appeal to gamers.
To re-iterate, this happens ALL the time. Just look at game updates, the sole purpose of updates is to either fix something that was broke or deliberately change something based on player feedback.
Palculator
Unconfirmed Member
Yeah, but this just seems like a grab for attention just like the Play-Asia fiasco. And it's extra weird because the author of the Destructoid Review got laughed out of the OT when he tried the logic seen in the article there a few days before that article got published.
Ugh, the age of consent myth again. Yes, the Japanese Penal Code sets it at a ridiculously low age, but individual prefectures and districts have their own ordinances that push it up to 18 years.
Palculator
Unconfirmed Member
"determined by parental approval"
It's not the largest possible difference, it's the largest recorded difference between the sample of countries they chose to include. "Fairly Significant" is a far cry form the night and day difference that people in this thread are making it out to be. Also considering that the stat seems to be pretty much exclusively about women in the work place, politics and life expectancy it seems like the stat has very little significance to this discussion considering none of those topics have come up or are directly related to what's being discussed here.
It's interesting that this is being presented as some sort of absolute proof when the percentage of women who get raped is dismissed as not being significant.
And no I'm not dismissing this statistic outright, or even taking a side on the issue one way or the other, I'm pointing out that the difference in the score isn't as significant as it seems to be being presented as and what the statistic actually means rather than just throwing it out and using it as some absolute proof that someone else's argument is invalid.
Also if anyone was wondering the yearly statistic for rape in Japan is 1 out of every 100,000, in the US it's 27.3 out of every 100,000. Not that I'm saying this proves anything one way or another either.
Palculator
Unconfirmed Member
What are you saying?
Funyarinpa
Member
And I'm saying that ideally games shouldn't have to change their cultural elements to appeal to or not offend a different market.
Changing your game's content is quite obviously not the same thing as bug fixes and similar updates when it comes to discussion on censorship, obviously.
To reiterate, I wasn't stating the "creative vision" stance with regards to panty shots.
I'm sorry dude but you were doomed with that name from the start on GAF so expect plenty of replies like that in the future. You went beyond an anime avatar.
Pancake Mix
Copied someone else's pancake recipe
The "5 westerners on the internet" line was a joke, just pointing out that only a very vocal minority cares. You'd have to be a vocal minority to be the type to fight the camera and then react with outrage at what you found, and maybe write an article or make a video about it.
That they made it so that parents have a final say (and 99% of them will say no)
You made it sound like "sincere romantic relationships." was determined by the people pursuing the relationship, by omitting that part.
King Gilga
Member
TheRealTalker
Banned
lol let your hate flow
Wasn't there already some huge outrage over something like this happening to Fire Emblem?
Hentailover
Member
I'm not giving up a name I had for over a decade. I am now attached to it almost as much as I am to my name. Whatever connections exist in the brain to govern those things have already been made. I associate "Hentailover" with myself like I would my name in my passport.
I would... I had a conversation with my friend that statedthat "hot chris" outfits from RE games should be removed. Why would they add a scantily clad dude in the game? - was his line of thinking.
I utterly disagreed with him, stating that there's nothing wrong with such content, just like there's nothing wrong with scantily clad female costumes. I am one of those "sex positive" people, I have no problem with broad appeal like that.
Palculator
Unconfirmed Member
You're using conjecture to move the goalpost from your original statement implying it's generally illegal on the prefecture level. In any case, we're talking about entertainment products which aren't covered by those laws. Try something else.
Glass Shark
Banned
"All foreigners play is games where you slaughter people indifferently"
welp, that was a super fun reality check
welp, that was a super fun reality check
Joyful
Member
never go full anime
Danny Dudekisser
I paid good money for this Dynex!
So now, when I see "HentaiLover Jones Arrested" in the news, I'll know why.
Danny Dudekisser
I paid good money for this Dynex!
Eh, remember Azure Striker Gunvolt? There was a bit of a shitfit over them removing (or was it adding?) the main character's ponytail in the western release.
Hentailover
Member
Here comes another gripe of mine... It's Hentailover, one word, no midcapitalizations, darn it!
Stop name shaming me! #nicknameopression #makegafgreatagain
/s
Danny Dudekisser
I paid good money for this Dynex!
There are a few people who would care if any changes were made, and there's nothing wrong with that. However, I don't think that we would have 50 page threads if the changes weren't related to something sexual.
shadow2810
Member
It was removing braids, and covering his midriff.
She's actually 7000 years old, she only looks like 12 because she wants to.
ShadowSwordmaster
Banned
I'm in the same boat as well.
Actually braided hair was decided to be left in for the US version because they wanted to keep that part of his design so it's in all versions. They removed his midriff though and made it skin tight black suit underneath for the international release.
You can blame men for being uncomfortable about a man showing his midriff as far back as that FF character.
This is a choice every artist has to make.
Maybe they want more money. They self-censor to reach a wider audience.
Maybe they want to just get the work pushed out the door. They self-censor so those above them (game or movie publishers, producers, distributes, etc.) see their vision delivered to the masses.
Maybe they just don't give a f**k. They DON'T self-censor and they have no way to get eyes on their art. OR the right people see it and it's suddenly on exhibition at MOMA or burning up the charts on Billboard Top 100, NYT Bestsellers list or whatever.
There's no one-size fits all solution to artistic autonomy and integrity. Each and every one makes a choice every day on compromise.
Reminds me of this:
Bless you Kamitani.
When something is changed in order to not offend any morals etc. it is a bit different from normal localisation. If Bioware was too remove any same sex relationship from the Russian version of Mass effect could they also just hide behind the idea of localising it?
It turns out people can't appreciate brief panties these days. I have no idea where humanity went wrong.
Bobs Big Boy
Member
They're still making Star Ocean? Bizarre.
midasmulligan
Member
Murder everyone in your game....just make sure the cast of characters doing the killing are a diverse set with conservative attire and proper after death poses please, thanks
It's another prequel type of game. They obviously can't go beyond Star Ocean 3 since it's the end of the series.
Can be a fun series so long as you ignore everything about the ending of 3 and ignore everything from 4.
