Western "Censorship" In Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness

[Freya]

015.jpgDuring an interview on 4Gamer, Producer Shuichi Kobayashi and Director Hiroshi Ogawa of Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness mentioned how the character Miki Sauvester will be showing a little less skin in the western release than originally shown in the Japanese version.

Miki originally used to wear more "normal-looking" panties under her short dress but Kobayasi mentioned that they received feedback from abroad that it was inappropriate for a teen to be wearing "sexualized underwear". To combat this, they added more fabric onto her model turning the underwear into shorts. Director Hiroshi Ogawa had laughed and said that making the change was "regrettable."

Surprisingly, the character Fiore will have her checkered outfit untouched. Dualshockers elaborated on her design with the Character designer "Akiman":

"... the idea for her costume came up by chance, as in the series it has always been considered all right to design sexy outfit. Yet, in the industry there have been recent issues about revealing clothes, causing developers to have to make fixes at later stages of development. That’s why he purposely designed Fiore’s costume to be sexy, but still not showing too much skin."

Take a look yourselves. If you're not keen on seeing butts, ignore this spoiler!

Before:


After


What are you thoughts on changes to characters like this?

[Fynn]

oh my God


People are gonna lose their trout again

[Rez09]

I . . . really wish they had decided to change Fiore's outfit instead. Not as a matter of sexiness or censorship, either -- that outfit just looks really bad.

[Fox]

""""""""Censorship""""""""

There are not enough air quotes in the world to adequately dilute that word's meaning to make it appropriate for this discussion. So, basically what has happened here: a company has made a creative/business decision based on how it perceives the taste of its western demographic.

​The horror.

[Sephiroth]

I will import it anyway.

[Freya]

""""""""Censorship""""""""

There are not enough air quotes in the world to adequately dilute that word's meaning to make it appropriate for this discussion. So, basically what has happened here: a company has made a creative/business decision based on how it perceives the taste of its western demographic.

​The horror.

Yeah some people are a lot more upset. Like the dualshockers link I sourced from, their comments are full of people every upset about this change

[Fox]

I know, I was looking at 250 Eurogamer comments earlier. It's baffling why it's such a big deal.

Do you think we can treat every change in the same way? Did the SJWs force Square to include airships in FFXV?

I think there's a lot of hiding behind "protecting the artistic vision" from people who are actually just interested in seeing sexy butts. And it's fine to want to see sexy butts, I'm sure many of us here on eoff are fans of such, I just wish we could admit that's what it's about.

[Shauna]

There will be a very important plot reason that you have to have these outfits scantily clad, and then you will feel bad for judging prematurely.

[Freya]

Have you seen the backlash for Blizz about Overwatch yesterday/today? More butt craziness!

I keep seeing that "protecting the artistic vision" angle too. Just say you like butts! It's okay! But them adding some extra underwear, on SO5, or changing it to a less sexual pose when a character wears really tight clothing, on overwatch, isn't really destroying artistic vision or anything.

[Fox]

Have you seen the backlash for Blizz about Overwatch yesterday/today? More butt craziness!
.

Oh wow, I was overreacting so hard to the overreaction from Overwatch on other sites that I forgot we weren't actually talking about Overwatch in this thread!!!

I think everything I said applies exactly the same to Star Ocean though, so I think it's still on topic xD

But them adding some extra underwear, on SO5, or changing it to a less sexual pose when a character wears really tight clothing, on overwatch, isn't really destroying artistic vision or anything

Exactly. I mean, it is possible to make such sweeping changes that you do compromise the 'artistic vision'. Remember in the original Sailor Moon anime where Sailors Neptune and Uranus were "cousins" in the US dub? Yes, America, sure thing. Very close lesbian cousins.

The response from the commenters on these sites is more appropriate for that level of change than "She's wearing slightly less risqué underwear".

[Wolf Kanno]

I know, I was looking at 250 Eurogamer comments earlier. It's baffling why it's such a big deal.

Do you think we can treat every change in the same way? Did the SJWs force Square to include airships in FFXV?

I think there's a lot of hiding behind "protecting the artistic vision" from people who are actually just interested in seeing sexy butts. And it's fine to want to see sexy butts, I'm sure many of us here on eoff are fans of such, I just wish we could admit that's what it's about.

tumblr_m3o0c827ch1qmiqzl.jpg

[CimminyCricket]

The argument from the guy who said "overwatch chick shouldn't do this" made sense. If that character has a specific personality and having them do a victory pose that clashes with that personality, it doesn't serve a purpose other than for fan service.


The underwear thing doesn't bother me, if she's of an age that it would be questionable for me to want to look up her skirt in the first place I just wouldn't look up her skirt.

[Freya]

Oh man a guy just tried to argue with me on twitter that we shouldn't make changes because of the artistic integrity thing. Said he's passionate about games and so he cares more about those changes. Then when i mention the Lightning's bigger boobs thing he said that was okay so the game could get more "attention".

You can't say you're against changing things because of artistic integrity and then say it's okay if it's boobs being changed. Just say you're upset cause you like sexual things. That's okay if you like that! Use that as your angle, don't try to veil it as something else.

[Fox]

Oh man a guy just tried to argue with me on twitter that we shouldn't make changes because of the artistic integrity thing. Said he's passionate about games and so he cares more about those changes. Then when i mention the Lightning's bigger boobs thing he said that was okay so the game could get more "attention".

You can't say you're against changing things because of artistic integrity and then say it's okay if it's boobs being changed. Just say you're upset cause you like sexual things. That's okay if you like that! Use that as your angle, don't try to veil it as something else.

"EVEN with the changes to the breasts, it didn't make it better".

Look up, twitter person, that spec flying over your head is the point. Sorry, I went and looked at your argument because I was curious, I hope that wasn't weird. My absolute favourite was when he pulled a "First they came for the socialists" argument, but with Butts.

[DMKA]

It makes me sad that the west has become so full of uppity whiners that Japan actually feels the need to take these measures before releasing their games here.

That being said, I don't care about Star Ocean or anime panties, so I won't be losing any sleep over this.