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.
“Recently there’s been a trend in games where if you put out a character that shows a lot of skin, later on you might have to make a lot of revisions, ‘although she’s erotic, there’s not a lot of skin showing’ is the feeling you get,” said Yasuda.
“In fact, it got a rating of C by CERO (Editor’s Note: Cero C is ages 15 or older),” Yasuda continued. He explained why the game’s spellcaster, Fiore, is wearing such a revealing outfit. “Fiore uses a lot of displayed crests on her skin to cast curses. That was part of her setting.”
Caption: “Don’t make light of my camera work.”
Finally, the developer confirmed they’ve slightly censored the game, in the form of Miki’s panties. You can view a comparison above, with the first image before the change, and the second image after the change.
“Recently, there’s been a lot of flak from overseas countries saying that if you put teens in ‘sexual’ underwear it’s not good,” said Kobayashi. “So we increased the amount of clothing.”
“How distressing (laughs),” Ogawa said in a follow up.
Star Ocean 5: Integrity & Faithlessness is set to release on March 31st in Japan on PlayStation 4, sometime this summer in the west on PlayStation 4, and on April 28th in Japan for PlayStation 3.
How do you guys feel about this change in Star Ocean 5: Integrity & Faithlessness? Despite it being a small change, how do you feel about the reasoning behind their decision? Sound off in the comments below.
Editor’s Note: Translation help provided by Claude Smith
