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Code Vein 2 has been Censored and uses translation for "Modern Audiences"

Same here, I cancelled my pre-order. It's a pity, because I really like Code Vein 1, got all the trophies. I was actually very excited when Code Vein 2 was announced.

This just makes me wait on buying anything new from Namco Bandai since they confirmed going further they are looking to censor more of their game releases going forward. I was interested in seeing the new Tales game, now I'm not. I hated Tales of Arise too
 
This just makes me wait on buying anything new from Namco Bandai since they confirmed going further they are looking to censor more of their game releases going forward. I was interested in seeing the new Tales game, now I'm not. I hated Tales of Arise too
A lot of the big Japanese publishers / developers are going all in on DEI and censorship. Capcom was the first to go all in.
 
A lot of the big Japanese publishers / developers are going all in on DEI and censorship. Capcom was the first to go all in.

My message to those publishers:

pocahontas-bye-bitch.gif
 
A lot of the big Japanese publishers / developers are going all in on DEI and censorship. Capcom was the first to go all in.
Dead Rising remake was a mess but Cammy still has her original outfit and the women in RE are still hot.

They're all over the place. I'd like to be a fly on the wall there so it would make sense.
 
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Purple hair Avatar checks out.
That's a character for a game I am developing on Master System.

Have you become brainwashed to the point where an entire color is an offense ? Have you removed everything that is purple or pink from your home ? Do you have a daughter ? Did you make sure she doesn't wear anything purple ? JFC.

330px-Paris_Tuileries_Garden_Facepalm_statue.jpg
 
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That's a character for a game I am developing on Master System.

Have you become brainwashed to the point where an entire color is an offense ? Have you removed everything that is purple or pink from your home ? Do you have a daughter ? Did you make sure she doesn't wear anything purple ? JFC.

330px-Paris_Tuileries_Garden_Facepalm_statue.jpg

I have a Greek style Mediterranean home. Pink and purple would clash with the colour theme.

I have a boy cat and he only wears blue or white clothing 😎
 
I don't really care about the alleged censorship but I'm a bit dissapointed about not being a direct sequel. I loved how bittersweet the first game was, it had a melancholic tone but it was also oddly optimistic, and some of the little flashback stories that you could relive were sappy but in a good way.
 
What's interesting about this censorship controversy—which is neither the first nor the last—is realizing just how free video game developers, especially Japanese ones, used to be.

More generally, in gaming before the 2000–2005 period, creative freedom wasn't constrained by quotas, genres, representation, or "the message".

There was no activism among devs, and certainly no blue-haired people screaming at every opportunity.

There are small miracles like the Expedition 33 devs, who look like an early-'90s American team and just do whatever they want, but that's becoming rare.

And if Japanese developers are now forced to include non-binary options in character selection or limit breast sizes, then that's a sign that an era has definitively come to an end: freedom.
 
I don't understand what is the point of censorship.

Isn't it better when characters are hot, and sexually attractive?

Won't that sell more units?

Tbf they still are, but I honestly think that just makes it even dumber.
You can't try and appeal to '' everyone '' it's impossible.

If you have hot/ sexy characters and you start censoring them to try and appeal to those who don't like them, they still won't because you didn't take it far enough and those who do will just like them less.
Reminds me a bit of Granblue Versus even the devs themselves have stated in interviews that they hated being forced to censor the characters and were forced by CYgames.
Do they really think that people who are offended by anime fanservice will play it and be any less offended?
They're always going to be offended so long as anime women exist that aren't flat and fully covered up in the game, just because Metera wears generic spats now that don't fit the rest of her outfit at all or her personality doesn't change that.
People offended by it will still be offended by Metera and people who like her are just annoyed and she looks worse.

Edit: People still try and pull the horseshit about '' it's their artistic vision not censorship '' even tho they've literally stated otherwise in interviews.
 
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To be honest with you, I'm at the point where I'm going to start doing that as well.

Other than the Trails games and anything Monolithsoft makes and Star Ocean, I have Dragon Quest VII Reimagined on preordered. I know it's censored but I figured due to the way the graphics style is which is chibi style, I don't mind as much. I've wanting to play a big JRPG on my Steamdeck for awhile now. Truthfully for me, it's on a case by case basis. I loved Unicorn Overlord which was made by Vanillaware, but I felt some of the female characters looked kind of bland to the point of where I think there was some censorship involved. When their previous game 13 Sentinels had more fanservice than Unicorn Overlord, it just sticks out even more so. So their next game, I'm taking a wait and see on it. I'll still play their new game if the gameplay is good but I'll wait for a massive sale on it

Something like Tales of Berseria Remaster I'm skipping due to them going out of their way to actively censor the skimpier outfits in the game. And yes I have played the original on Steam and it was pretty much uncensored where the costumes were super revealing at times

With Code Vein II, it's not only the censorship issue I have with it, but I hate how it looks in regards to how the characters look. It just stinks of them trying to appeal to western audiences since the first game characters were more anime looking. I love the first game and part of the appeal of the first game was how the characters looked. Now Code Vein II just looks generic to me
 
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Other than the Trails games and anything Monolithsoft makes and Star Ocean, I have Dragon Quest VII Reimagined on preordered. I know it's censored but I figured due to the way the graphics style is which is chibi style, I don't mind as much. I've wanting to play a big JRPG on my Steamdeck for awhile now. Truthfully for me, it's on a case by case basis. I loved Unicorn Overlord which was made by Vanillaware, but I felt some of the female characters looked kind of bland to the point of where I think there was some censorship involved. When their previous game 13 Sentinels had more fanservice than Unicorn Overlord, it just sticks out even more so. So their next game, I'm taking a wait and see on it. I'll still play their new game if the gameplay is good but I'll wait for a massive sale on it

Something like Tales of Berseria Remaster I'm skipping due to them going out of their way to actively censor the skimpier outfits in the game. And yes I have played the original on Steam and it was pretty much uncensored where the costumes were super revealing at times

With Code Vein II, it's not only the censorship issue I have with it, but I hate how it looks in regards to how the characters look. It just stinks of them trying to appeal to western audiences since the first game characters were more anime looking. I love the first game and part of the appeal of the first game was how the characters looked. Now Code Vein II just looks generic to me
I have a massive Trails backlog. Finished up to "Into Riverie", I have everything so far released in English, just haven't started them. And I would really like a new Star Ocean, but you know what I'd like more from Tri-Ace, a Resonance Of Fate 2 or something similar. The Steampunk world, the artstyle and the combat is still amazing till this day. I love Resonance of Fate so much. But back on topic, it's depressing that Japanese developers also censor so much, to please people who don't play games or never had any intention to buy it.
 
Game has likely reached it's highest ccu: 11,499. The first game reached an all time high of 33,905. Guess chasing the moden audience didn't work out for them.
Maybe it wasn't a great idea to let localizers alter your content? I will never understand why devs/publishers listen to these parasites. They are a short time away from being replaced by AI. And that day can't come soon enough.

16ocEFqZf3TCrIEr.jpg
 
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I have a massive Trails backlog. Finished up to "Into Riverie",

You are a good chunk into the series already. I would say I love the Cold Steel/Erebonia Arc but I understand why it's the hardest Arc for lot of players to finish due to there being five games and that's when that series starts to go more anime due to just that Arc is the first time Trails went into full 3D. People complained about that than, but Libral Arc and Crossbell Arc were just as anime as the Erebonia Arc but due to those games being mostly 2D Sprites with 3D Backgrounds, no one noticed. It just became much more noticable once the series went full 3D

I love all of the games but the Cold Steel games I felt were the weakest. And that Arc is five games with each game totaling 100 hours if you want to do everything. Must have taken you a long time to get through the Cold Steel games. Have you played the Sky/Crossbell games?

I have everything so far released in English, just haven't started them.

I have multiple versions of every game released on Steam and Switch. That includes versions not released in NA

And I would really like a new Star Ocean

Star Ocean is in my top five in regards to favorite JRPG franchises. I'm surprised we got six Star Oceans so far, and I'm of the minority that prefer 3D Star Ocean more than 2D Star Ocean but that new 2D Remake of Star Ocean The Second Story was fantastic. I'm surprised that SquareEnix hasn't censored any of the Star Oceans (Yet)

Star Ocean 5 I consider the worst but it has one of the best ideas when it comes to the battles where everyone fights and no one is put into the reserves

but you know what I'd like more from Tri-Ace, a Resonance Of Fate 2 or something similar. The Steampunk world, the artstyle and the combat is still amazing till this day. I love Resonance of Fate so much.

Resonance of Fate is a great game, what I love about Tri-Ace especially is their willingness to experiment with their gameplay systems. They tend to be very unique and memorable

But back on topic, it's depressing that Japanese developers also censor so much, to please people who don't play games or never had any intention to buy it.

Sorry for going off topic. The issue that I have with Japanese Developers censoring so much is that they don't realize that the people who don't like anime style games are never gonna to like thier games as you say

I think a lot of Japanese developers took to heart what happened during the PS3 Era. There were lot of reasons why I didn't like that Era. Don't get me wrong I still enjoyed some of the games but that Era is when Western Game Journos and some Western Game Companies would shit on Japanese games constantly for being too anime etc.

I remember with X-Play if it wasn't one of the big Japanese IPs, they would shit on other Japanese games just for being anime style. Unfortunately the Japanese Game Industry took the wrong message from that since now lot of stuff they are making looks as bland as the Western games
 
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You are a good chunk into the series already. I would say I love the Cold Steel/Erebonia Arc but I understand why it's the hardest Arc for lot of players to finish due to there being five games and that's when that series starts to go more anime due to just that Arc is the first time Trails went into full 3D. People complained about that than, but Libral Arc and Crossbell Arc were just as anime as the Erebonia Arc but due to those games being mostly 2D Sprites with 3D Backgrounds, no one noticed. It just became much more noticable once the series went full 3D

I love all of the games but the Cold Steel games I felt were the weakest. And that Arc is five games with each game totaling 100 hours if you want to do everything. Must have taken you a long time to get through the Cold Steel games. Have you played the Sky/Crossbell games?



I have multiple versions of every game released on Steam and Switch. That includes versions not released in NA



Star Ocean is in my top five in regards to favorite JRPG franchises. I'm surprised we got six Star Oceans so far, and I'm of the minority that prefer 3D Star Ocean more than 2D Star Ocean but that new 2D Remake of Star Ocean The Second Story was fantastic. I'm surprised that SquareEnix hasn't censored any of the Star Oceans (Yet)

Star Ocean 5 I consider the worst but it has one of the best ideas when it comes to the battles where everyone fights and no one is put into the reserves



Resonance of Fate is a great game, what I love about Tri-Ace especially is their willingness to experiment with their gameplay systems. They tend to be very unique and memorable



Sorry for going off topic. The issue that I have with Japanese Developers censoring so much is that they don't realize that the people who don't like anime style games are never gonna to like thier games as you say

I think a lot of Japanese developers took to heart what happened during the PS3 Era. There were lot of reasons why I didn't like that Era. Don't get me wrong I still enjoyed some of the games but that Era is when Western Game Journos and some Western Game Companies would shit on Japanese games constantly for being too anime etc.

I remember with X-Play if it wasn't one of the big Japanese IPs, they would shit on other Japanese games just for being anime style. Unfortunately the Japanese Game Industry took the wrong message from that since now lot of stuff they are making looks as bland as the Western games
I've played all the Erebonia Arc games(PS3 and PS4, replayed ToCS 1&2 again on PS4), Crosbell Arc. What I still have to play is: Through Daybreak 1 and 2, Beyond the Horizon(just got it about a week ago) and Trails Into The Sky 1st chapter. After the Erebonia Arc I was a bit burned out on the series. But I do look forward to start again soon. But the question is, do I continue with the Calvard Arc, or continue from Into The Sky 1st Chapter.

The PS3 gen was rough for Japanese developers. Everyone was shitting on them(sometimes rightfully so), but I still loved Japanese PS3 games regardless. I think all this shit also started during the PS3/360 era where a lot of these western developers and western indie developers started thinking of themselves as some fucking auteur or some important fart smelling douche who has a message they need to preach to you about to show how virtues they are. While there are still amazing games coming out, I can't help but feel that I don't really like where to gaming industry is at the moment. It all feels so soulless and uninspired. But that's my opinion, I'm sure many will feel the opposite.
 
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I've played all the Erebonia Arc games(PS3 and PS4, replayed ToCS 1&2 again on PS4), Crosbell Arc. What I still have to play is: Through Daybreak 1 and 2, Beyond the Horizon(just got it about a week ago) and Trails Into The Sky 1st chapter. After the Erebonia Arc I was a bit burned out on the series. But I do look forward to start again soon. But the question is, do I continue with the Calvard Arc, or continue from Into The Sky 1st Chapter.

I would highly reccomand that you take a break from Trails if you have burnout and wait for Trails In The Sky 2nd Chapter to come out so you can play both remakes back to back. As for Trails In The Sky 3rd Chapter, I would say that one is more standalone so you can put off playing that. So my advice is to play Trails In The Sky First Chapter Remake and the Sky Second Chapter Remake before you play the Calvard Arc

The PS3 gen was rough for Japanese developers. Everyone was shitting on them(sometimes rightfully so), but I still loved Japanese PS3 games regardless. I think all this shit also started during the PS3/360 era where a lot of these western developers and western indie developers started thinking of themselves as some fucking auteur or some important fart smelling douche who has a message they need to preach to you about to show how virtues they are. While there are still amazing games coming out, I can't help but feel that I don't really like where to gaming industry is at the moment. It all feels so soulless and uninspired. But that's my opinion, I'm sure many will feel the opposite.

That's how I feel, I do think some of the critcism was warrented but it just sucked for me in generally since lot of the great stuff coming from Japanese developers were on the DS and 3DS. Back than the hardware especially in the screen department wasn't up there to snuff where I couldn't play for hours without getting a headache due to the low resolution of the screen. Which would happen to me constantly when I had a DS, PSP, Vita and 3DS. Which is why I love the Switch so much, first time that a portable device didn't give me a headache. Yes it had a 720p screen but it didn't give me eye strain and the games that looked better docked I tended to play on dock mode

That bolded is one of the reasons why I wasn't a big fan of the PS3 Era. Lot of developers were just going the ultra realistic cinematic route to the point that it felt kind of soulless. Despite my issues though, there were some great games that released during that Era like Mass Effect Trilogy that came from western developers. It's just interesting to see how much that attitude really screwed them in the long run though
 
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More generally, in gaming before the 2000–2005 period, creative freedom wasn't constrained by quotas, genres, representation, or "the message".
In Japan's case, I think adopting the UN's SDG's is at fault in said suffocation. Didn't one of the Dragon Quest creators mention this? There were a couple games recently that I think protested against the totalitarianism that results when Utopian ideologies take over once God/Demiurge is defeated (Xenoblade 3 and Persona 5 Royal) so I will continue looking out for and respect JRPGs that explore the aftermath of overthrowing God (any suggestions JRPG fans?), what happens to humanity and the human mind afterwards. I don't know of any Western games that criticize utopian doctrines, though Western literature and philosophy has written a lot about it for the last 150 or so years. Rather, in the West, college indoctrinated professionals have already taken the leap of faith that erasing distinction would be a good thing, and use entertainment as a vessel to guide the erasure of distinctions and to mold the mind to lose the language needed to describe distinction (Body Type A, Body Type B, etc. instead of Male and Female).

Something I'm personally coming to terms with, is that I benefitted from the cultural enjoyment that came from the aftermath of the 1960's sexual revolution, while it also may have contributed to the attack on the family unit. However, I think there was also a movement to quit treating the female body like it was controversial, and that lead to comical amusement of lewdness as a way of showing that sexuality, the amusement value of the attraction of the sexes, and the female body weren't controversial and didn't need to be suffocated in the culture. Looking through history I can see that there was a slippery slope that lead to women being subjugated and locked out of public appearance "for their own sake." This happened in many different societies, and if I recall didn't both Western and Asian theater keep women from being on stage? There are even religions that do away with depicting humans in art altogether, and now I think I see why (people keep complaining about who gets to be depicted and who gets to be given a larger than life presence artificially instead of just letting artists make what they want).

When I was younger I even learned about the sexual revolution in history class, and the teacher too mentioned how fashion and entertainment got over prudishness, and the youth of the 1960s wanted that. Even in the 90s people rebelled against dress codes. I definitely know that my classmates, male and female alike, enjoyed each other in that way in the 2000s and the culture and fashion reflected that too. So I thought humanity was on the way to moving on from treating the female body, the human body, like it was controversial and was proud that the West overcame that, compared to, say, Afghanistan. But now it's returned somewhat. I am so happy I got to enjoy the times mainstream creators, comedians and artists, would boldly express what amused themselves about the reality they were in. I remember too back then how to find entertainment that depicted homosexuality, when Gay was used as an insult, I found it in Japanese manga and anime. So now, I hate that there is this backstabbing against a people whose own culture let them explore these themes in their own way before the West did. What if, the same aesthetic freedom is what led them to explore depicting LGBT in entertainment when the West still used Gay as an insult? What if suffocating mainstream freedom to depict lewdness is a slippery slope that leads to resentment against those people, people who now seem to have tied a totalitarian doctrine to their sexual identity, when it doesn't have to be that way?

A good book that explains "woke" entertainment is The Mind and Face of Bolshevism by Renee Fuellop Mueller, written in the 1920s. I once thought Communism was about classes and factory workers and forcing an economy that distributes everything equally; but it is rather a New Age project that cultivates the erasure of distinct identities through a dialectical process (overcoming dualities that are brought forth into conflict) adopted from esotericism and mystical religions, and cultural products are a big part of that. In that world, there is no need for contemplative entertainment, but only the kind that has an educative purpose (which group you're in, what its next steps are in the transformation process towards oneness/sameness). In that world, sexuality is a transaction, and the Bolsheviks did away with sentimentality so that "love" would only be directed toward the production system itself as the provider of needs. Entertainment that criticizes such a project would be counter examples that break the illusion needed to maintain the state of mind of the Utopia. I think Maruki's Palace in Persona 5 Royal is a depiction of a kind of "clinical Utopia," and I wonder if it was done in response to their Western colleagues who demanded changes to their brand of aesthetics and entertainment. I personally did not get Metaphor yet because I could sense something affected by ideological pressure in its aesthetics.
 
In Japan's case, I think adopting the UN's SDG's is at fault in said suffocation. Didn't one of the Dragon Quest creators mention this? There were a couple games recently that I think protested against the totalitarianism that results when Utopian ideologies take over once God/Demiurge is defeated (Xenoblade 3 and Persona 5 Royal) so I will continue looking out for and respect JRPGs that explore the aftermath of overthrowing God (any suggestions JRPG fans?), what happens to humanity and the human mind afterwards. I don't know of any Western games that criticize utopian doctrines, though Western literature and philosophy has written a lot about it for the last 150 or so years. Rather, in the West, college indoctrinated professionals have already taken the leap of faith that erasing distinction would be a good thing, and use entertainment as a vessel to guide the erasure of distinctions and to mold the mind to lose the language needed to describe distinction (Body Type A, Body Type B, etc. instead of Male and Female).

Something I'm personally coming to terms with, is that I benefitted from the cultural enjoyment that came from the aftermath of the 1960's sexual revolution, while it also may have contributed to the attack on the family unit. However, I think there was also a movement to quit treating the female body like it was controversial, and that lead to comical amusement of lewdness as a way of showing that sexuality, the amusement value of the attraction of the sexes, and the female body weren't controversial and didn't need to be suffocated in the culture. Looking through history I can see that there was a slippery slope that lead to women being subjugated and locked out of public appearance "for their own sake." This happened in many different societies, and if I recall didn't both Western and Asian theater keep women from being on stage? There are even religions that do away with depicting humans in art altogether, and now I think I see why (people keep complaining about who gets to be depicted and who gets to be given a larger than life presence artificially instead of just letting artists make what they want).

When I was younger I even learned about the sexual revolution in history class, and the teacher too mentioned how fashion and entertainment got over prudishness, and the youth of the 1960s wanted that. Even in the 90s people rebelled against dress codes. I definitely know that my classmates, male and female alike, enjoyed each other in that way in the 2000s and the culture and fashion reflected that too. So I thought humanity was on the way to moving on from treating the female body, the human body, like it was controversial and was proud that the West overcame that, compared to, say, Afghanistan. But now it's returned somewhat. I am so happy I got to enjoy the times mainstream creators, comedians and artists, would boldly express what amused themselves about the reality they were in. I remember too back then how to find entertainment that depicted homosexuality, when Gay was used as an insult, I found it in Japanese manga and anime. So now, I hate that there is this backstabbing against a people whose own culture let them explore these themes in their own way before the West did. What if, the same aesthetic freedom is what led them to explore depicting LGBT in entertainment when the West still used Gay as an insult? What if suffocating mainstream freedom to depict lewdness is a slippery slope that leads to resentment against those people, people who now seem to have tied a totalitarian doctrine to their sexual identity, when it doesn't have to be that way?

A good book that explains "woke" entertainment is The Mind and Face of Bolshevism by Renee Fuellop Mueller, written in the 1920s. I once thought Communism was about classes and factory workers and forcing an economy that distributes everything equally; but it is rather a New Age project that cultivates the erasure of distinct identities through a dialectical process (overcoming dualities that are brought forth into conflict) adopted from esotericism and mystical religions, and cultural products are a big part of that. In that world, there is no need for contemplative entertainment, but only the kind that has an educative purpose (which group you're in, what its next steps are in the transformation process towards oneness/sameness). In that world, sexuality is a transaction, and the Bolsheviks did away with sentimentality so that "love" would only be directed toward the production system itself as the provider of needs. Entertainment that criticizes such a project would be counter examples that break the illusion needed to maintain the state of mind of the Utopia. I think Maruki's Palace in Persona 5 Royal is a depiction of a kind of "clinical Utopia," and I wonder if it was done in response to their Western colleagues who demanded changes to their brand of aesthetics and entertainment. I personally did not get Metaphor yet because I could sense something affected by ideological pressure in its aesthetics.

What I bolded is one of the main reasons why I love JRPGs, it's just too bad most of them decided to listen to the West in regards to certain stuff

WIth Trails, I think that's the only JRPG series where the Christian like religion isn't viewed as the villain and that series is still my favorite in terms of modern JRPG Franchises
 
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Yeah, they really screwed the pooch on this one. I went from really looking forward to it, to dropping it from my wishlist and probably not going to ever bother with it. There are so many other games to play.
 
What I bolded is one of the main reasons why I love JRPGs, it's just too bad most of them decided to listen to the West in regards to certain stuff

WIth Trails, I think that's the only JRPG series where the Christian like religion isn't viewed as the villain and that series is still my favorite in terms of modern JRPG Franchises

Yeah, I recently started playing the Trails series (I got Cold Steel IV and Trails In the Sky First Chapter) and I think I got half way through IV
Where you play as Rean after the party reaches him
but as I read the synopsis/the story so far summary before playing the game, I couldn't help but take note that the series parallels the evolution of Western civilization up to and beyond the consequences of the Industrial Revolution, and my personal realizations about what's happening in reality make me excited to check it out more deeply at some point if my hunch about the nature of the series is correct based on what I've played so far, that it takes a step back to chronicle the evolution of Western civilization (with a touch of magic of course). It also stands out to me how in First Chapter the characters mention things like Sunday school, and Aidios, as a part of the characters' experience. Religious belief and faith are real parts of the human psyche, with real consequences depending on what doctrines fill that space, or how aggressively people use them for control.
 
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I would highly reccomand that you take a break from Trails if you have burnout and wait for Trails In The Sky 2nd Chapter to come out so you can play both remakes back to back. As for Trails In The Sky 3rd Chapter, I would say that one is more standalone so you can put off playing that. So my advice is to play Trails In The Sky First Chapter Remake and the Sky Second Chapter Remake before you play the Calvard Arc



That's how I feel, I do think some of the critcism was warrented but it just sucked for me in generally since lot of the great stuff coming from Japanese developers were on the DS and 3DS. Back than the hardware especially in the screen department wasn't up there to snuff where I couldn't play for hours without getting a headache due to the low resolution of the screen. Which would happen to me constantly when I had a DS, PSP, Vita and 3DS. Which is why I love the Switch so much, first time that a portable device didn't give me a headache. Yes it had a 720p screen but it didn't give me eye strain and the games that looked better docked I tended to play on dock mode

That bolded is one of the reasons why I wasn't a big fan of the PS3 Era. Lot of developers were just going the ultra realistic cinematic route to the point that it felt kind of soulless. Despite my issues though, there were some great games that released during that Era like Mass Effect Trilogy that came from western developers. It's just interesting to see how much that attitude really screwed them in the long run though
We went from the PS3/360 Gen where everything was brown, now to the PS5/Xbox gen where everything is purple. I was quite impressed when I found out back in the day that Mirror's Edge 1 was actually made with Unreal 3 with an amazing artstyle and colours instead of the brown that the rest of the Unreal 3 games were.
 
Yeah, I recently started playing the Trails series (I got Cold Steel IV and Trails In the Sky First Chapter) and I think I got half way through IV
Where you play as Rean after the party reaches him
but as I read the synopsis/the story so far summary before playing the game, I couldn't help but take note that the series parallels the evolution of Western civilization up to and beyond the consequences of the Industrial Revolution, and my personal realizations about what's happening in reality make me excited to check it out more deeply at some point if my hunch about the nature of the series is correct based on what I've played so far, that it takes a step back to chronicle the evolution of Western civilization (with a touch of magic of course). It also stands out to me how in First Chapter the characters mention things like Sunday school, and Aidios, as a part of the characters' experience. Religious belief and faith are real parts of the human psyche, with real consequences depending on what doctrines fill that space, or how aggressively people use them for control.

I'm fine with JRPGs making religion as the villain but I'm also fine if they are a force for good like they are in the Trails games. As long as it's not preachy, that has been my issue with lot of stuff lately that have lean super left lately and I would have the same issue if something that is more right leaning was super preachy too

My issue with Code Vein II since this is what the thread is about is that they let the West censor their game at the source and they are willing to bend over backwards for it too. There's a large gaming audience in the West that will never like anime games due to how it looks so these Japanese companies need stop aiming it at that crowd when that crowd won't buy their stuff anyways

We went from the PS3/360 Gen where everything was brown, now to the PS5/Xbox gen where everything is purple. I was quite impressed when I found out back in the day that Mirror's Edge 1 was actually made with Unreal 3 with an amazing artstyle and colours instead of the brown that the rest of the Unreal 3 games were.

Funny enough, I don't have a PS5 or any of the new Xbox consoles so can't say I know about that purple issue. But man lot of the games from PS3/360 Era looking brown was such a turn off for me. Funny enough that made them age the faster graphically but as much as I complain about the PS3 Era, there were some great games. And yes there are a few PS3 Era games that have aged well like you mentioned Mirror Edge, they were smart and used an actual good artstyle and combining that with colorful graphics and I still think it looks beautiful. I remember loving Fable II and yes even Fable III and I bet if I do go back to those games, they most likely would have aged well too when it comes to graphics
 
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I'm fine with JRPGs making religion as the villain but I'm also fine if they are a force for good like they are in the Trails games. As long as it's not preachy, that has been my issue with lot of stuff lately that have lean super left lately and I would have the same issue if something that is more right leaning was super preachy too

My issue with Code Vein II since this is what the thread is about is that they let the West censor their game at the source and they are willing to bend over backwards for it too. There's a large gaming audience in the West that will never like anime games due to how it looks so these Japanese companies need stop aiming it at that crowd when that crowd won't buy their stuff anyways
Yeah, I think it's very risky for companies that have survived for so long by nurturing their own flavor, that sell entertainment/amusement as their business, to start cutting corners on something that contributes to amusement and their unique flavor, the reason "suggestive themes" as the ESRB calls it have amusement value at all is because of nature, and the reason culture relaxed on that at all back in the 60's was because of dislike of the prevailing prudishness and dogmatism and environment of shame, and I think in a way suggestive themes was a proud proclamation that the body and the natural effects of its image in entertainment need not be controversial. These developers might have been caught off guard by what their younger employees were indoctrinated into maybe 6 years ago, but by now they should be intellectually prepared to make the case for themselves and their flavor of amusement rather than leave it to a fading momentum of the 60's.

It looks hypocritical to have criticized institutional dogmatism and use fiction to criticize it, only to let another dogma take over their operations in reality. But, I also concede, that it could be a choice by the Japanese public to want to adopt things like the UN SDG's and to have faith that what results is good for humanity. The human mind does seem to want to re-engineer reality, once God is dethroned. I like that those JRPGs I mentioned took a step back and acknowledged that fact and got their words in before the dogma took over parts of their companies. Xenoblade 3 even went as far as to have a sex ed scene that reintroduced the truth of natural reproduction founded in male/female, amusingly. Besides, there would be a shift towards game mechanics as the main selling point for those companies rather than suggestive themes, which...I bet there are also people who would actually say "amen" to that!
 
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Yeah, I think it's very risky for companies that have survived for so long by nurturing their own flavor, that sell entertainment/amusement as their business, to start cutting corners on something that contributes to amusement and their unique flavor, the reason "suggestive themes" as the ESRB calls it have amusement value at all is because of nature, and the reason culture relaxed on that at all back in the 60's was because of dislike of the prevailing prudishness and dogmatism and environment of shame, and I think in a way suggestive themes was a proud proclamation that the body and the natural effects of its image in entertainment need not be controversial. These developers might have been caught off guard by what their younger employees were indoctrinated into maybe 6 years ago, but by now they should be intellectually prepared to make the case for themselves and their flavor of amusement rather than leave it to a fading momentum of the 60's.

It looks hypocritical to have criticized institutional dogmatism and use fiction to criticize it, only to let another dogma take over their operations in reality. But, I also concede, that it could be a choice by the Japanese public to want to adopt things like the UN SDG's and to have faith that what results is good for humanity. The human mind does seem to want to re-engineer reality, once God is dethroned. I like that those JRPGs I mentioned took a step back and acknowledged that fact and got their words in before the dogma took over parts of their companies. Xenoblade 3 even went as far as to have a sex ed scene that reintroduced the truth of natural reproduction founded in male/female, amusingly. Besides, there would be a shift towards game mechanics as the main selling point for those companies rather than suggestive themes, which...I bet there are also people who would actually say "amen" to that!

I agree with a lot of your points even that Xenoblade Chronicles 3 scene. I love all the Xenoblade games but that one in terms of ranking for me is my least liked and that's due to the localization and censorship. And yes it is hypocritical since it's all about control but it's fine if they do it since it goes with their values instead of the other sides. I'm saying this as someone who is a atheist but not liberal. And the Japanese population in the country that are actual gamers have been against this censorship from the start

They said that? They can fuck right off into deep space. My money doesn't reward censorship.

Well lot of Japanese Companies has more or less said this by hinting at it. That's why I said that nowadays I just wait on a sale for most Japanese games now. Falcom especially has been having this issue. Once the Trails story is officially done, I'm done buying their games day one since I'm only there for the story when it comes to Trails games. The creator of Trails has said the story of the Trails is 85 to 90 Percent done
 
If anything, it kept the Dead or Alive franchise alive and the gooner bait DLC costumes proves it.
After rocking the ship with the launch of Dead or Alive 5 they should have been aware of the franchise's target demographic. For someone that plays DoA for the combat, style, and interactive stages it is unfortunate that it does not have mainstream appeal as the developers are basically forced to cater to that audience or drastically cut the budget.
 
After rocking the ship with the launch of Dead or Alive 5 they should have been aware of the franchise's target demographic. For someone that plays DoA for the combat, style, and interactive stages it is unfortunate that it does not have mainstream appeal as the developers are basically forced to cater to that audience or drastically cut the budget.

DoA5 is honestly one of the most egregious cases of self-goals I've ever seen.
The game itself actually wasn't any less fanservicey than usual they just keep being asked about it by interviewers and kept trying to tell them what they wanted to hear to get them to stfu.
It's funny because in reviews after the game actually came out a lot of these same people were upset because it was still full of fanservice.

So everyone felt lied to and once your game has the reputation of being censored it's a very difficult stain to wash off and people will look at everything you do with skepticism when they otherwise wouldn't have.
What they really should've done imo is quite simply have told the game journalists '' we're not answering questions about that, next '' they could even had told them before the interviews start that they won't take questions on that and to keep it to the gameplay etc itself.
NRS actually did this back in the day with the violence in the game when the whole ban violent video games crusade was going on, they had a rule that journalists weren't allowed to ask questions about it.
They really should just have a rule for that with DoA and games in general honestly, no one gives a shit about listening to some idiot virtue signal and do the whole '' not like other guys '' performative spiel because a woman wears a bikini in a game.
Like at that point why are you even interviewing for that game at all?
Everyone would recognize this as being dumb if it was an interviewer who was afraid of and hated gore in games reviewing and interviewing for games like Mortal Kombat.

In the end of the day I think it should be someone who is the actual target demographic of the game who covers it, not someone who actively hates what the game is that's hardly fair to the developers or the readers/ listeners.
But then again when it comes to game journalism for whatever reason there's like zero standards it's a kindergarten.
Pretty sure in the music industry they don't have people who hate metal review metal music.
 
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After rocking the ship with the launch of Dead or Alive 5 they should have been aware of the franchise's target demographic. For someone that plays DoA for the combat, style, and interactive stages it is unfortunate that it does not have mainstream appeal as the developers are basically forced to cater to that audience or drastically cut the budget.

I feel that DoA combat mechanics is perhaps why it doesn't have much mainstream appeal. The game's fast pace feels too frantic to play almost to the point you feel like its just button mashing while movesets look less impressive when compared to Tekken.

Often when I go back playing older fighting games, I always end up playing Tekken 5 over DoA 4 Ultimate (on OG Xbox and still looks incredible) simply because it plays better.
 
Falcom especially has been having this issue. Once the Trails story is officially done, I'm done buying their games day one since I'm only there for the story when it comes to Trails games. The creator of Trails has said the story of the Trails is 85 to 90 Percent done
Trails series sales have also started dipping in Japan also. So luckily we're not the only ones who feel that way. Kondo himself even said that they are more focused on the overseas market now that Japan. So censorship is what they will do more and more of given that each entry sells less and less in Japan. Trails In The Sky 1 sold dismally in Japan. I've luckily got quite few Trails games to finish myself and then I'm done with any Falcom releases.
 
In Japan's case, I think adopting the UN's SDG's is at fault in said suffocation. Didn't one of the Dragon Quest creators mention this? There were a couple games recently that I think protested against the totalitarianism that results when Utopian ideologies take over once God/Demiurge is defeated (Xenoblade 3 and Persona 5 Royal) so I will continue looking out for and respect JRPGs that explore the aftermath of overthrowing God (any suggestions JRPG fans?), what happens to humanity and the human mind afterwards. I don't know of any Western games that criticize utopian doctrines, though Western literature and philosophy has written a lot about it for the last 150 or so years. Rather, in the West, college indoctrinated professionals have already taken the leap of faith that erasing distinction would be a good thing, and use entertainment as a vessel to guide the erasure of distinctions and to mold the mind to lose the language needed to describe distinction (Body Type A, Body Type B, etc. instead of Male and Female).

Something I'm personally coming to terms with, is that I benefitted from the cultural enjoyment that came from the aftermath of the 1960's sexual revolution, while it also may have contributed to the attack on the family unit. However, I think there was also a movement to quit treating the female body like it was controversial, and that lead to comical amusement of lewdness as a way of showing that sexuality, the amusement value of the attraction of the sexes, and the female body weren't controversial and didn't need to be suffocated in the culture. Looking through history I can see that there was a slippery slope that lead to women being subjugated and locked out of public appearance "for their own sake." This happened in many different societies, and if I recall didn't both Western and Asian theater keep women from being on stage? There are even religions that do away with depicting humans in art altogether, and now I think I see why (people keep complaining about who gets to be depicted and who gets to be given a larger than life presence artificially instead of just letting artists make what they want).

When I was younger I even learned about the sexual revolution in history class, and the teacher too mentioned how fashion and entertainment got over prudishness, and the youth of the 1960s wanted that. Even in the 90s people rebelled against dress codes. I definitely know that my classmates, male and female alike, enjoyed each other in that way in the 2000s and the culture and fashion reflected that too. So I thought humanity was on the way to moving on from treating the female body, the human body, like it was controversial and was proud that the West overcame that, compared to, say, Afghanistan. But now it's returned somewhat. I am so happy I got to enjoy the times mainstream creators, comedians and artists, would boldly express what amused themselves about the reality they were in. I remember too back then how to find entertainment that depicted homosexuality, when Gay was used as an insult, I found it in Japanese manga and anime. So now, I hate that there is this backstabbing against a people whose own culture let them explore these themes in their own way before the West did. What if, the same aesthetic freedom is what led them to explore depicting LGBT in entertainment when the West still used Gay as an insult? What if suffocating mainstream freedom to depict lewdness is a slippery slope that leads to resentment against those people, people who now seem to have tied a totalitarian doctrine to their sexual identity, when it doesn't have to be that way?

A good book that explains "woke" entertainment is The Mind and Face of Bolshevism by Renee Fuellop Mueller, written in the 1920s. I once thought Communism was about classes and factory workers and forcing an economy that distributes everything equally; but it is rather a New Age project that cultivates the erasure of distinct identities through a dialectical process (overcoming dualities that are brought forth into conflict) adopted from esotericism and mystical religions, and cultural products are a big part of that. In that world, there is no need for contemplative entertainment, but only the kind that has an educative purpose (which group you're in, what its next steps are in the transformation process towards oneness/sameness). In that world, sexuality is a transaction, and the Bolsheviks did away with sentimentality so that "love" would only be directed toward the production system itself as the provider of needs. Entertainment that criticizes such a project would be counter examples that break the illusion needed to maintain the state of mind of the Utopia. I think Maruki's Palace in Persona 5 Royal is a depiction of a kind of "clinical Utopia," and I wonder if it was done in response to their Western colleagues who demanded changes to their brand of aesthetics and entertainment. I personally did not get Metaphor yet because I could sense something affected by ideological pressure in its aesthetics.
This post really articulates part of the argument that I keep wanting to express but can't think of the right words. Anytime someone like me argues against this censorship, it's shrugged off as "eh, not a big deal" but it IS a big deal because I grew up in a time where we moving past such prudish bull shit, and seeing how we're regressing as a society is frustrating as hell.

Yes, I won't deny I love looking at beautiful women, and looking up a fictional girl's skirt in a fucking video game just still makes me chuckle like a dumb teenager, but that should be my right to do so as an adult. It's one thing if it was the creators vision, but it's another thing when you have these assholes in western parts of a business demanding the change.
 
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This post really articulates part of the argument that I keep wanting to express but can't think of the right words. Anytime someone like me argues against this censorship, it's shrugged off as "eh, not a big deal" but it IS a big deal because I grew up in a time where we moving past such prudish bull shit, and seeing how we're regressing as a society is frustrating as hell.

Yes, I won't deny I love looking at beautiful women, and looking up a fictional girl's skirt in a fucking video game just still makes me chuckle like a dumb teenager, but that should be my right to do so as an adult. It's one thing if it was the creators vision, but it's another thing when you have these assholes in western parts of a business demanding the change.

People only say it's not a big deal because they don't happen to care about the specific thing.
If it was a '' muscle mommy '' getting her abs censored or some furry character or a characters boobs being made bigger instead of smaller most of these same people would lose their minds.
Note that most of these people are 500 times more heated than the people actually complaining about censorship usually are, imagine if it was censorship that actually upset them instead.
Even just the most mild reaction ever like '' this is what was censored and meh I am disappointed.. '' will get reactions like '' OMG WHO THE FUCK CARES WHY ARE YOU CRYING YOU GOONER TOUCH GRASS STFU I CAN'T BELIEB UR TALKIN ABOUT DIS AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA ''.
Most of these people are extremely culture war brained and chronically online and can't separate the issue from that at all they think everyone even so much as mentioning censorship is a walking stereotype of every '' chud '' trope in their mind, they just hear the word '' censored '' and become extremely reactionary right away.

I remember when Mortal Kombat getting a gore *toggle* ( as in optional.. ) was a topic on Twitter because there's issues with sponsors and tournaments because of the gore in that game.
And Twitter collectively lost it's shit about it people were unironically very upset about the mere suggestion and were calling it censorship, and suddenly that was okay?
I didn't see any big tweets with thousands of updoots making fun of them or anyone in general really arguing against them.
Same when Rainbow Siege censored blood.
But suddenly when it's suggestive content it's verboten to talk about and everyone just circlejerks about shitting on you.
 
This post really articulates part of the argument that I keep wanting to express but can't think of the right words. Anytime someone like me argues against this censorship, it's shrugged off as "eh, not a big deal" but it IS a big deal because I grew up in a time where we moving past such prudish bull shit, and seeing how we're regressing as a society is frustrating as hell.

Yes, I won't deny I love looking at beautiful women, and looking up a fictional girl's skirt in a fucking video game just still makes me chuckle like a dumb teenager, but that should be my right to do so as an adult. It's one thing if it was the creators vision, but it's another thing when you have these assholes in western parts of a business demanding the change.

Believe it or not, it was Megan Thee Stallion who responded in a New York Times interview, what she would say to people that criticize her stage attire. She said something like "The problem is people keep treating the female body like it's controversial." Or that female sexuality is shamed while males can dress or act how they want. I wrote about and quoted her for a Black History Month DEI thing at work lol I was like, if we have to do ERG (employee resource group) DEI things, I'm going to do it on MY terms. I'm going to show that just because someone has been placed in one of the "P.O.C." identity groups doesn't just mean having to adopt the prudish aspects of DEI as an ideology.

I found it bizarre how some pop stars and fashion continued their raunchiness but I was also seeing more and more prudishness or bashfulness in video game character design. If it's a "females need to get all the profits from the male gaze" thing or "females need to approve", well, video games allow even "normal" looking people to profit off of the desire to look at attractive things, and Japanese women made it a respectable profession to voice characters in Otaku entertainment. Back in the 1960s it was a bold decision to "quit treating the female body like it was controversial" or to move on from shaming its natural effects on viewers who would slip off to enjoy it anyways in privacy. I think from then on it was an artistic movement to boldly "get over it." We're so far from then that the philosophical underpinnings might be taken for granted, when they actually need to be reasserted (hence, what Stallion said in her interview).
 
The game's fast pace feels too frantic to play almost to the point you feel like its just button mashing while movesets look less impressive when compared to Tekken.
You can button mash if you want, but you are going to get destroyed by someone who knows how to play and knows the characters movesets.
The movelists in DoA games are massive, each character has a ton of subtleties. Reminder : this is made by Team Ninja, the guys who make Ninja Gaiden. And in Ninja Gaiden, characters have a billion combo variations.

And the game has a ton of very spectacular moves. It looks way more spectacular than Tekken, and doesn't need the ridiculous lighting effects to do so. The games are also superbly optimized, have a perfectly clean picture, a perfect framerate, non-existent loading times. Unlike Tekken games that run on Unreal Engine. DoA6 is still an absolute looker.

The last game simply became a good contender to shit on for whatever reason, so that's how it ended. But as far as I am concerned, this is the best modern 3D Fighter.
 
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Game has been out for a week no and I see it has all ready faded into obscurity, no one anywhere is talking about it. Where as Code Vein 1 was talked about quite often online. Wonder who Bandai Namco is going to blame for poor sales?
 
Game has been out for a week no and I see it has all ready faded into obscurity, no one anywhere is talking about it. Where as Code Vein 1 was talked about quite often online. Wonder who Bandai Namco is going to blame for poor sales?
Maybe the shit performance of the game ? Constantly dropping below 40fps on consoles.
 
Nioh 3 is going to do well I think. Obviously there's a dedicated fanbase, but hopefully the demo will convince more people to give it a shot even if its not a graphical powerhouse. TN have certainly gone out of their way to make it more accessible, but its still very much for people not really a game for casuals.
 
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