Square Enix Gave Star Ocean 5’s Miki Bigger Panties in Fear of Western Criticism

In an interview with 4Gamer, Square Enix has revealed some interesting tidbits regarding Star Ocean 5: Integrity & Faithlessness, as well as how the developer is viewing worrying ongoing trends in the modern, western part of the gaming industry.

In the interview, Star Ocean 5 character designer Akira Yasuda, director Hiroshi Ogawa, and producer Shuichi Kobayashi revealed that not only is the studio aware of western criticism of revealing female character designs, they’ve made changes to the game because of that very same western criticism.

[ZaWarudo]

They should fix her face before doing anything else. That face offends me.

[Bansai]

Geez, more of that sjw bullsh*t... I'm really hoping the day comes when publishers grow a pair of balls and start pandering to their core fans, not some vocal minority that don't even play or buy their games.

[Griever]

I am curious why teenagers are treated like babies in western culture?? They see a 17 year old's panties and get their own panties in a bunch. In Asia boys are working full time and girls are getting married in teenage. If you have reached puberty then you are an adult who can get married and have sexual relations regardless of age differences. Over here we do not see a 17 year old as a child; they are old enough to have children of their own.

Let me give you guys a summary of age perception in Asia. Teenage is considered the prime years of youth and life in Asia. You are an adult, you can fall in love, work towards your dreams and enjoy life.

-When you reach mid-20s it is time for you to get married, settle down and have children.

-When you reach late 20s you are in the twilight of your youth. Better get married soon or you wont find a partner except for widows/widowers, divorcees and middle-aged individuals.

-You reach mid-30s, you become a middle-aged person and kids start calling you uncle/aunty instead of elder brother/sister and treat you with respect like an elderly person.

-You reach late 40s or early 50s and life is over for you. You are an elderly person who should spend the rest of his days playing with grandchildren and looking forward to the afterlife.

The pace of life and perceptions of age over here are very different from western cultures where adolescents are pampered/protected like children and people believe themselves to be young even in the 50s.

[Imortus_san]

Dead or Alive Extreme Volleyball 3.

[Haru]

dem pantsu tho

[CoNn3r_B]

It would help if she didn't look like a child

[Griever]

Asian women are smaller and younger looking than western women. My wife is 31 years old, 5 feet 2" and only 48 kg after 2 children. She also has a baby face compared to western women who look like men to us. And she is considered normal, slim and beautiful in my society. I am sure your 12 year old girls are taller, older-looking and heavier than her. The problem is that western people look at other cultures from their own views without realizing how they are different genetically and culturally.

[DafunkyRebel]

she is a teen in the game though

[Kalebninja]

This is actually the funniest thing I've seen today, they bothered giving the kid some actual underwear but here she is standing next to a witch with her ass hanging out. They avoided some flak with the the underwear but as long as the witch is still as is, some sales will be lost.

[Eonjay]

Now I disagree with you here but I respect your view point. I think her outfit is extremely creative. For kids? No way but I really like her look. I think it will raise sales actually :).

I feel that the adjustments made by this studio are fair enough as they were made in respect to western criticism. Just let us have this one sexy witch and we can put grandma sized panties on everyone else lol.

[Lon3wolf]

That Witch is wearing an outfit, that is not skin.

[Kalebninja]

Um the black and gold is part of the outfit but the rest is definitely skin.

[Spyroo]

She's 18

[Kalebninja]

didn't originally know that but I'm not surprised, i see that a lot in the anime industry, they design characters to look/sound underage but make them 18+ so they can put them in sexual situations with the excuse of "oh but they are actually adults".

[goldwyncq]

@ Kalebninja

Have you seen real Japanese girls? Most of them look literally 10 years younger than their age.

[Adrian_v01]

@kaleb

There's something in Japan called Lolita fashion, where girls WILLINGLY dress in clothes like this cause they think it's attractive.

I know right, girls wanting to be attractive, no way that exists. Burn them with fire before they lay eggs.

Also, if you want to complain about a FOREIGN game, better read about the country's culture first, it might make you seem less egocentric and ignorant.

[Phunkydiabetic1]

Adrian_v01

So they dress themselves to look like little girls to attract men....and you find nothing wrong with that? At all?

[Adrian_v01]

@phunky

I said dress to be attractive, not dress to attract men. Thee's a difference in those two.

And no I don't find it disturbing. It's a cultural thing. I may not find it appealing for myself, but my opinion isn't fact (something which a lot of people on n4g seem to forget).

The same way I don't find women being covered from head to toe in the Middle East disturbing, or women having huge lip piercings in some areas of Africa etc. It's their culture, if you have no insight into it, leave it alone.

[Phunkydiabetic1]

@Adrian_v01

And why do people dress to look attractive? To get attention. Generally from the opposite sex. Come on man.

[annoyedgamer]

To much skin! The horror! We should mandate all women cover themselves with a certain amount of clothing or risk severe punishment. Perhaps a lashing in the town square.

[Yi-Long]

@Kaleb; this kind of self-censorship from developers actually makes me NOT want to buy the game. Absolutely hate it, each and every time.

They should never change a game (or movie, or comic, or manga, or whatever), out of fear of offending some oversensitive extremely small demographic.

(Self-)censorship offends me MUCH more as a consumer, than extreme violence or nudity/sex. Why!? Because in the case of violence and nudity; when I don't like that content, I can CHOOSE not to buy it, however when it comes to censorship, EVERYONE loses access to that content, regardless of personal opinions, choice, whatever.

I don't believe in censorship, self-censorship, and I won't support developers who are willing to sacrifice their own creative decisions in order to please a few oversensitive complainers who most likely had no interest in the game in the first place, but are mostly just trying to impose an extremely conservative agenda upon the rest of the gaming industry. It's sickening behaviour.

[Phunkydiabetic1]

I was wondering when the weeaboo weirdo's would show up.

[user6666047]

Boo.

[CrimsonWing69]

So...ok ok lemme get this straight, we get panties, but not to offend SJWs who probably won't get this game you gave us granny panties!? What is happening to my world!?

[Lon3wolf]

Bridget Jones panties................

[Phunkydiabetic1]

People make big deals over bullshit, that is what's happening to your world.

[Chaosdreams]

This is where I find things are just getting silly. Go ahead and make a change if you want but if the reason is because there's a bunch of cry babies who cry foul at everything, well, sigh.

[jimmywolf]

it funny you say that, make you wonder if the only way to get world peace is to censor everything less we offend someone.

[rainslacker]

This seems more preemptive than any actual outcry on the issue. While I understand a company wanting to cater to a broader market, it is sad that they feel that one's choice of underwear is something that most westerners obsess about.

I honestly don't know many women who would wear a short skirt, and big panties...that to me is a crime of fashion, and I"m kind of outraged about it.

[Chaosdreams]

It does seem silly. When I said outcry my mind was thinking of similar stories going on lately. Now it sort of seems that studios view the Western market, as a whole, as very sensitive lol. Which is a shame, because it's the equivalent of being pampered and talked to in "baby talk."

Like we can't handle something, something normal lol

[rainslacker]

I think the companies themselves are very aware that this is a vocal minority who complain. And they know that people that buy the games don't generally care or will be upset about it.

But the changes are to avoid the negative publicity that it will bring the game. It may be they feel that the negative publicity will actually hurt sales since they aren't on their home turf.

That to me tends to mean they actually ignore their target audience, and honestly makes me think that they ignore history to show that meaningless controversy often brings in more sales.

[Yi-Long]

"That to me tends to mean they actually ignore their target audience, and honestly makes me think that they ignore history to show that meaningless controversy often brings in more sales."

... Maybe, but this kind of self-censorship just offends me extremely as a consumer, which means I'm more than likely to boycot this game as a result, at least when it comes to a full-price purchase.

If the Asian release doesn't have this RIDICULOUS kind of tampering with the content, and comes with English subs, I -might- buy that version instead, but like I said, certainly not at full price.

[rainslacker]

For me it's a case by case basis. It certainly is frustrating as a consumer to see this kind of stuff, because as a consumer of the product, the original content didn't bother me, and I'd personally the devs do what they think is the most creative. When it comes to the character design...such as this case....they created the character a certain way.

I don't think they spent copious amounts of time discussing the type of panties she was wearing during the conceptual phase as that's probably just part of the natural design process and they would have said something sooner(concept art gets lots of modification before a final model is created), but they must have spent some time to discuss if it needed to be changed, as well as more time to actually change it to avoid western criticism.

This particular change wouldn't upset me if they did it from the perspective that it fit the character more, or they just felt it was better just because, but when they do so because of fear of western criticism, it goes from being art, to them trying to maximize potential market. This obviously isn't a bad thing in a consumer product, but at the same time, the art takes a back seat because they prefer more to not be controversial, and maintain a status quo that they believe the market will accept, as opposed to keeping to their own creation, and pleasing their actual target market.

I doubt most people playing this game would care if they just changed it on their own decision without outside influence, but as of late, any change is becoming too much, and then when it's said they change it because of other influences it's pissing people off more than it used to because of the pervasive groups which dictate how games should be...which isn't something most gamers care for.

Unfortunately, this isn't likely to go away. We can hope some devs/pubs stand up for themselves and say that they will release what they want, hopefully in a respectful way as much as it's worth. But ultimately, this will go on for as long as the people complaining feel they are achieving something, because it feeds their own ego. The only other option right now is to hope they just get bored with it, but as long as certain people within the group are making money hand over fist without creating a damn thing, they'll keep instigating all this unwarranted criticism.

A few years ago, before Sarkeesian came into the picture, much of this was discussed. I thought, at the time that it was mostly just a lot of hyperbole from the various groups going to the extreme, but the hate overall never escalated to such levels as they do now. Looking back at how it's devolved, I can say that in comparison, the discourse of a few years ago was much more civil, and actually more productive to reaching a consensus, as opposed to this division which has been driven in among the community and the developers. In addition there is a division within the community, which went from people being able to discuss mostly without the hate, to each side either not listening to the other, or barely listening, so no hope of reaching a compromise...which should be the normal track for this type of discussion.

[MilkMan]

Dumb!

[DivineAssault]

Im so sick of this political correctness.. What happened to this strong proud country? Its filled with a bunch of whiny babies now.. "Lets not offend the westerners who cant handle a video game!" Digital software that isnt real life! Dont F up square.. Treading on thin ice even though i love the series.. I wont buy it at launch if they keep screwing around.. Ill take this change as a cheap shot but keep it up and i wont support the initial launch..

[quent]

Would probably have to raise the age restriction to 17.5 if they were victoria secret, btw how young are some of those models on those runways ?

[HawaiianDreads]

Lol you think we're annoyed, check out how angry the Japanese fanbase is taking this news.

https://twitter.com/mombot/...

[Kalebninja]

Uh that's from 2chan so don't take it so seriously, unless you think 4chan represents the west that is.

[Spyroo]

Wrong. Its from Japanese blog

http://blog.esuteru.com/arc...

Stop trying to lie SJW

[Kalebninja]

From what I read, thats where it originated from so mind not calling me a liar? And the link you gave looks like its also just quoting the posts in its article rather than it coming from their comment section.

[Auron]

Dude thats so effed up because we hate the pamper too! This isn't cool at all having the other side mad at us because of a small small group of morons WHO WON'T EVEN BUY THE GAME!! Don't hate us Japan its not our fault! America is so sex crazy its unreal dont believe these SJW just look at our music, movie and tv industry! They give condoms to our kids at school for crying out loud! Sex and violence is out of control in America dont believe the lies!!!!

[gangsta_red]

Granny panties inbound!

[ArmoredCoreVI]

Japan is trolling the SJWs in the west with this.

[DDMNeo]

You know this doesn't change the game at all though, right guys? I mean I'm more worried they're screw up the game like they did the last game. Not someone's underwear.

[MasterCornholio]

Hey didn't you know that staring up women's skirts is a next gen feature?

Heck with the fake NX controller you could strap it to your shoe and emulate using a mirror to look up women's skirts.

#smallpantys!

[DDMNeo]

I'm sure a good segment of the N4G audience would buy an NX if that was the case. Then they'd complain about something else when the smallest thing isn't how they like it.

[MasterCornholio]

"I'm sure a good segment of the N4G audience would buy an NX if that was the case."

Thats one way to cater to a more mature audience.

;)

"Then they'd complain about something else when the smallest thing isn't how they like it."

Yeah they will say that peaches butt needs to be bigger.

[DDMNeo]

Mature isn't the word I'd use, but they're not all man children. Some actually are children :P

"She also needs to make out with Rosalina twice. You're a SJW if you don't agree!"

[goldwyncq]

SJWs are going to take over the industry within ten years if this keeps happening.

[annoyedgamer]

They already control it. They control Hollywood too.

[Bass_fisherman]

More moe in jrpgs no thanks! FFXV come already!

[Relientk77]

Oh yippee more damn censorship

[nitus10]

It seems Western sensibilities are dictated by the moral minority who would probably never buy the game anyway. What next, demand that all women and girls in games, movies and in real life cover up in a berkah less they lead to depravity for god fearing males ... Oh wait! 😉

[Blackcanary]

You guys really do need to get girlfriends!!! Lmao

[josephayal]

yes yes panties!

[feraldrgn]

It must be truly horrible for people to walk through the women's section to get to the men's section in clothes stores.

[Chaos_Order]

Meh, she's not my waifu anyway. That sexy witch on the other hand... :P

[MRJefferson]

Star Ocean 3 have better looking characters ( not graphics but concepts) than this little girl and witch both of it ugly.

[MilkMan]

Lame. Nothing distracts better (when it comes to JRPG's) than watching some skin. What can you do, America was founded by puritans. It runs in the DNA of the whole place.

[MoveTheGlow]

It's highly possible, as it's been in the past, that Japan's toning down this stuff because particular countries that aren't the US and don't even have the term "political correctness" in their vocabulary would object to it, and for FAR different reasons, including national religions and extreme cultural conservatism. This is a move toward PEGI and ESRB, not SJW Twitter and Tumblr. The dev cites CERO's (the Japanese ESRB) rating as to why they know they have to make changes now.

Call it like it is and get that they're running a business here. They are defraying potential costs. It costs more to delay the game due to surprise prohibitive ratings, because that's extra staff time spent on a game that should be out the door. We're not even talking about physical distribution yet, that's a nightmare when it comes to ratings revisions, as we've seen with the Hot Coffee thing.

Yes, this is because we have nearly an entire globe that's uncomfortable with all nudity - that's a different can of worms that no game dev could fix. They can only try to pre-empt bans or "adults only" tags. Also, adults-only tags shouldn't be a mark of death like they're currently made out to be. Physical retail's heading out anyway.

This is not a "trend" though - this has happened for decades. Blame Joe Liebermann, John Stossel, and Jack Thompson for the way we self-police our industry.