It seems like self-censorship, given their previous titles as comparative points.
A shame. If a company is willing to compromise their ideals in imagery for short-term ease of Chinese use, they're likely willing to compromise their ideals elsewhere as well, such as worker treatment ethics, fair pay, or work environment, and I wouldn't want to support a company abusive to its employees. They already don't respect their original fans or original concept artists, after all, so how far does their lack of respect go?
On top of this... Going to level with people here, GUST games... Aren't all that good, objectively speaking. The Atelier series peaked with Iris 1, and never reached anywhere as good again. They get by on being mediocre games with cute, attractive character designs that have Teen-rated sexualization. If they're willing to compromise on what is basically their sole selling feature compared to competitor products... People will probably just play the competitor products.
On top of this... Going to level with people here, GUST games... Aren't all that good, objectively speaking.
Agreed. Now, I really do enjoy Nights of Azure and Atelier. But they're definitely carried by their characters and character designs. From a gameplay perspective, they can be pretty damn clunky.
It seems like self-censorship, given their previous titles as comparative points.
A shame. If a company is willing to compromise their ideals in imagery for short-term ease of Chinese use, they're likely willing to compromise their ideals elsewhere as well, such as worker treatment ethics, fair pay, or work environment, and I wouldn't want to support a company abusive to its employees. They already don't respect their original fans or original concept artists, after all, so how far does their lack of respect go?
On top of this... Going to level with people here, GUST games... Aren't all that good, objectively speaking. The Atelier series peaked with Iris 1, and never reached anywhere as good again. They get by on being mediocre games with cute, attractive character designs that have Teen-rated sexualization. If they're willing to compromise on what is basically their sole selling feature compared to competitor products... People will probably just play the competitor products.
Agreed. Now, I really do enjoy Nights of Azure and Atelier. But they're definitely carried by their characters and character designs. From a gameplay perspective, they can be pretty damn clunky.