Censorship in Family Project Kazoku Keikaku

gtharby · July 20, 2009, 3:48pm

http://www.nnl1.com/

So JAST USA made the claim that the game is “fully uncensored [18+].” Wrong! While most of the game is indeed uncensored, they photoshopped several images of Matsuri, the youngest girl. The following pics have nudity. See the before and after right here!

Before and after! (Another 2 similar images censored this way)

Before and after! (Again, another 2 similar images censored this way)

UPDATE: We missed one more!
3. Before and after! (This one really doesn’t make sense. She’s wearing two bras! Also, you eventually do see her breasts here[link to an image of a later scene], so there’s no excuse for this one!)

It’s the principle that matters. We wouldn’t have complained if there was full disclosure, and we would have still plunked down $50 CAD for the game. Now we simply feel burned and ripped off. JAST USA already announced that all girls were 18 or over. Why did they have to censor these images? Whatever the case, there is no evidence of anyone being informed of this, so what we have here is a flat-out lie.

Boo, JAST USA! Boo! Makes you wonder how they’ll handle the Nitro+ titles. Send them your complaints, and maybe they’ll include the uncensored images in their upcoming patch!

Not posting the NSFW pics here, but they are linked at the website.

ADDED
From http://www.sankakucomplex.com/2009/07/2 … red-eroge/ (NSFW)

Peter Payne responded to the claims here presented thus:

Yes, we did have to make some changes for the American market, which is something we always potentially do for every game.

In the Japanese original, there was some vagueness about the age of one of the characters during parts of the game, and since they contained nudity we made the necessary decision to make some small changes.

We hope that fans will take into consideration that these games are licensed for the Western markets which means a different set of potential problem areas for us, and as fans love to play eroge in English, we hope they'll be understanding when we have to clarify parts of a certain game.

We didn't mislead anyone and we strove to make we avoided referring to this game as "100% uncensored" since we knew some changes were going to be made.

The story is actually preserved this way, if you play the game, as it's part of the game that the main character waits for Matsuri to be old enough for a relationship, which we didn't want to derail by saying she was 18 from the start of the story.

Edited since the story was edited on their website, adding a third censored scene.

Edited again to add Peter Payne’s response from sankaku complex

Shade453 · July 20, 2009, 4:09pm

gtharby:

http://www.nnl1.com/

So JAST USA made the claim that the game is “fully uncensored [18+].” Wrong! While most of the game is indeed uncensored, they photoshopped several images of Matsuri, the youngest girl. The following pics have nudity. See the before and after right here!

Before and after! (another 2 similar images censored this way)

Before and after! (again, another 2 similar images censored this way)

It’s the principle that matters. We wouldn’t have complained if there was full disclosure, and we would have still plunked down $50 CAD for the game. Now we simply feel burned and ripped off. JAST USA already announced that all girls were 18 or over. Why did they have to censor these images? Whatever the case, there is no evidence of anyone being informed of this, so what we have here is a flat-out lie.

Boo, JAST USA! Boo! Makes you wonder how they’ll handle the Nitro+ titles. Send them your complaints, and maybe they’ll include the uncensored images in their upcoming patch!

Not posting the NSFW pics here, but they are linked at the website.

Wow,

Shingo said that the Game wouldn’t be edited quite some time ago. Are they going to fix this?

AG3 · July 20, 2009, 4:38pm

Can’t say I get the point of editing in underwear on her in those pictures, as you’ll see her naked later on anyway >_>

Ojamajo_LimePie · July 20, 2009, 4:41pm

This is unacceptable. I want answers, NOW. :x

umarekawari · July 20, 2009, 4:58pm

I smell another X-Change 3-Gate…

This pisses me off. Royally.

After the petition, the request for openness, and the PROMISE, the PROMISE YOU MADE, PETER, TO LET US CONSUMERS KNOW OF SUCH CHANGES… I had forgiven you for X-Change Three.

Now you’re just screwing with us. You don’t care about the consumer, you care about their money.

Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t black-list you again, along with everyone else who forgave you for your previous lapse in judgment.

B173_M3 · July 20, 2009, 5:07pm

Dude, I’ve been waiting two years and this happens? Glad I didn’t preorder.

Duke_Jukem · July 20, 2009, 5:29pm

The only thing that bothers me about this is how much this doesn’t make sense. The only thing I can come up with is this was last ditch option because they couldn’t find the uncensored CG’s. Which explains some but not all. Official word would be nice and damn does that website just try to scare people from buying jast games. I understand warning people but throwing in.

Out of all the games released by jast this and x-change 3 are the only two censored. There are several games which have loli looking character which weren’t censored at all so that quote sounds like it’s trying to scare people.
I would be more worried if the story is censored then the cg’s in a game like this.

olf_le_fol · July 20, 2009, 5:44pm

Well, my first reaction to this would be “if you guys care about the ero-scenes in a game such as Kazokei then you got it all wrong” but then, apparently, Peter promised to “let consumer know of such changes”, which he apparently didn’t, which changes the problem. A promise is a promise, no matter how laincursed awesome the final product is; just look at light’s Dies Irae fiasco. It’s one thing to tell your customers “Well, two pictures will remain mosaicked because the original un-mosaicked CGs were lost, but that shouldn’t alter your enjoyment of the game at all because the story is what makes the game” and another to tell them “Don’t worry, every ero picture shall be un-mosaicked --and in the extra-ordinary case one isn’t, I’ll forewarn you.” and not keep your word.

le_nuage · July 20, 2009, 6:17pm

olf_le_fol:

Duke Jukem:

I would be more worried if the story is censored then the cg’s in a game like this.

Well, my first reaction to this would be “if you guys care about the ero-scenes in a game such as Kazokei then you got it all wrong” but then, apparently, Peter promised to “let consumer know of such changes”, which he apparently didn’t, which changes the problem. A promise is a promise, no matter how laincursed awesome the final product is; just look at light’s Dies Irae fiasco. It’s one thing to tell your customers “Well, two pictures will remain mosaicked because the original un-mosaicked CGs were lost, but that shouldn’t alter your enjoyment of the game at all because the story is what makes the game” and another to tell them “Don’t worry, every ero picture shall be un-mosaicked --and in the extra-ordinary case one isn’t, I’ll forewarn you.” and not keep your word.

Seconded.

Dalburnan · July 20, 2009, 6:24pm

100% agree.

While yes, they should have said something about the images, I feel people are going WAY too overboard with something like this. I hate censorship of any kind just as much as the next person, but good god you people take even the SMALLEST chance or reason to explode on a company before they even have a chance to explain themselves. (LET ALONE the fact it’s already known there is a patch to be in the future, that none of you have any idea what it will and will not fix as of yet.)

Customers are far too spoiled and demanding now days, and it’s called biting the hand that feeds you. Censorship is wrong, but make sure you know all the information before you throw a tantrum. It’s a story driven game, if your focus is porn, go fap to porn instead, cause this isn’t and wasn’t intended as a sex romp.(Which I’m sure most of those complaining prefer.)

Duke_Jukem · July 20, 2009, 6:26pm

olf_le_fol:

Duke Jukem:

I would be more worried if the story is censored then the cg’s in a game like this.

Well, my first reaction to this would be “if you guys care about the ero-scenes in a game such as Kazokei then you got it all wrong” but then, apparently, Peter promised to “let consumer know of such changes”, which he apparently didn’t, which changes the problem. A promise is a promise, no matter how laincursed awesome the final product is; just look at light’s Dies Irae fiasco. It’s one thing to tell your customers “Well, two pictures will remain mosaicked because the original un-mosaicked CGs were lost, but that shouldn’t alter your enjoyment of the game at all because the story is what makes the game” and another to tell them “Don’t worry, every ero picture shall be un-mosaicked --and in the extra-ordinary case one isn’t, I’ll forewarn you.” and not keep your word.

I understand the frustration, but the point I was making was if there are cg’s that are censored couldn’t the story also be changed or toned down. I am more worried about that prospect then any cg being toned down. But yes both suck and I wouldn’t want either on any game I’d rather not have a game then have one censored.

Sudo · July 20, 2009, 6:35pm

Yes, how dare people demand not to be lied to and told a game is uncensored when it clearly isn’t. The nerve of them.

Dalburnan · July 20, 2009, 6:37pm

Yeah the nerve of them, bum rushing the company with torches and pitch forks before even hearing what their reasons were.

Sudo · July 20, 2009, 6:43pm

There’s no legit reason to lie, period. The censorship is inconsistent and makes no sense. You see Matsuri naked later in the game anyway, so what’s the point of censoring three scenes but not others? If they had just said the game would be censored in the first place, this issue wouldn’t exist.

B173_M3 · July 20, 2009, 6:43pm

Dalburnan:

olf_le_fol:

Duke Jukem:

I would be more worried if the story is censored then the cg’s in a game like this.

Well, my first reaction to this would be “if you guys care about the ero-scenes in a game such as Kazokei then you got it all wrong”

100% agree.

While yes, they should have said something about the images, I feel people are going WAY too overboard with something like this. I hate censorship of any kind just as much as the next person, but good god you people take even the SMALLEST chance or reason to explode on a company before they even have a chance to explain themselves. (LET ALONE the fact it’s already known there is a patch to be in the future, that none of you have any idea what it will and will not fix as of yet.)

Customers are far too spoiled and demanding now days, and it’s called biting the hand that feeds you. Censorship is wrong, but make sure you know all the information before you throw a tantrum. It’s a story driven game, if your focus is porn, go fap to porn instead, cause this isn’t and wasn’t intended as a sex romp.(Which I’m sure most of those complaining prefer.)

Dude, shut the hell up. If censorship is wrong, [color=#FF0000]THEN IT’S FUCKING WRONG, END OF STORY[/color]. It might not be a sex romp, but that’s no reason to deny that it has sexual scenes and adult themes in it. Even if sex isn’t the focus, it isn’t an all-ages game: If it was intended from the beginning to have sex scenes in the plot, then I see no reason why the sexual elements should be treated with less respect than the non-sexual elements.

That still doesn’t explain why Peter even bothered to promise that any changes would be disclosed early on, yet they changed it without telling anyone (and labeling it “uncensored”) in the first place.

Dalburnan · July 20, 2009, 6:59pm

Read what you’ve just said. It makes no sense. So there are a few possible answers here. 1) They didn’t have access to the original images, which they can’t be held responsible for, however they should have notified the customers of. 2) The images will be corrected in the upcoming patch. Hence why no comment was made on the censorship. 3) They lied and you have my full agreement to continue your torch and pitchfork march.

Fact is no one knows yet. Censorship be damned, but get your facts straight before you damn the company with it.

As to you, B173 M3. No, I wont ‘shut the hell up’, my reason is sound. None of us know any of the facts yet, and haven’t even bothered to give the staff time to explain themselves. It’s plainly obvious they’ve been extremely busy as of late, so much so they haven’t even been active on the forums.(Which as most know they were quite often active here, even when it wasn’t company related topics.) Cut them some slack till you have your answers. If it turns out it is indeed number three, trust that I’ll be among those with a torch and pitch fork, as I’ve already repeatedly stated my dislike of censorship.

B173_M3 · July 20, 2009, 7:01pm

Well here’s your facts, Dalburnan. Straight from Peter Payne’s mouth. Now shut the hell up.

Quote from the Sankaku Complex article:

Yes, we did have to make some changes for the American market, which is something we always potentially do for every game.

In the Japanese original, there was some vagueness about the age of one of the characters during parts of the game, and since they contained nudity we made the necessary decision to make some small changes.

We hope that fans will take into consideration that these games are licensed for the Western markets which means a different set of potential problem areas for us, and as fans love to play eroge in English, we hope they'll be understanding when we have to clarify parts of a certain game.

We didn't mislead anyone and we strove to make we avoided referring to this game as "100% uncensored" since we knew some changes were going to be made.

The story is actually preserved this way, if you play the game, as it's part of the game that the main character waits for Matsuri to be old enough for a relationship, which we didn't want to derail by saying she was 18 from the start of the story.

Looks like that patch isn’t going to fix anything at all.

And why didn’t I hear anything about this before the launch?

Reikon · July 20, 2009, 7:07pm

Unlikely. They were able to uncensor the rest of the images, weren’t they? I highly doubt only several images would be lost. Not to mention they ADDED clothing to some of the pictures, so that theory really goes out the window. There isn’t any censorship of breasts for them to need an original

Also unlikely. The patch is described as a text patch:

Therefore, this is the most likely answer.

Sudo · July 20, 2009, 7:10pm

“Images Fully Uncensored”
And then Peter goes on to admit that they censored it and lies that they didn’t say it was 100% uncensored. Classy, lying to your customers like that.

Kabraxal · July 20, 2009, 7:10pm

If the true reason for the “censorship” was because they wanted to preserve the story of waiting for her to reach the age of “consent”, then I’m not all that pissed here. Especially considering the vicious nature of the moral majority here in this country. Would you rather have the company play it safe and still keep the story intact… or would you rather them keep everything as it was and then possibly be slammed with a law suit that could cripple the company?

Really, the answer should be pretty obvious here.