A little birdie within the JAST USA corporate HQ leaked thispress release to me, and I couldnít resist sharing the good news!
JAST USA Announces Starless: Editio Regia
April 1, 2015 ñ Gunma, Japan
As part of its ongoing efforts to increase its offerings onSteam, JAST USA is proud to announce the upcoming Fall 2015 release of Starless: Editio Regia. This will be anall-ages port of the infamous Sei Shoujo eroge Starless: Nymphomaniacís Paradise, due for release later thismonth.
ìAfter the groundswell of support we received for releasing Littlewitch Romanesque: Editio Regia onSteam, doing the same thing with Starlessseemed like a no-brainer,î says JAST CEO Peter Payne. ìWe contacted Will/Empressabout the idea a few months ago, and their response was very enthusiastic. Itconsisted mostly of a string of incoherent emails full of question marks andexclamation marks, followed by a few months of radio silence. After consultingwith our legal team, weíre comfortable interpreting that as tacit approval forthis project.î
JAST USA staff confirmed that Starless: Editio Regia has posed some problems for them above andbeyond those encountered with previous all-ages releases like Aselia the Eternal or the upcoming Littlewitch: Editio Regia. Adult contentis slightly more prevalent in Starless than in those titles (if only slightly),so cuts and edits have had to be proportionately greater.
According to project manager Nicholas Graham, ìIn ourinternational English release of NymphomaniacísParadise, the cuts we had to make to stay on the right side of obscenitylaws were very modest: a few edits to one of the endings, removing fewer than100 of the gameís 3,000 CG images, and no mosaics whatsoever. Starless: Editio Regia has required usto be a bit more draconian, with some major changes to the story, the loss ofall but about 6 of the original 3,000 CG images, and some artistic tweaks tothe remaining character sprites.î
He provided the following image as an example of one suchtweak:
JAST has also released an updated plot description that willbe attached to the game once it goes up on pre-order:
When Yukito Sawatarifinds an amazing part-time job that pays $20,000 for just two weeks of work, hethinks he's the luckiest guy in the world. But the job isn't an easy one; he'llhave to move into a mysterious mansion and constantly clean the place for thewomen who live there. Every day there's a new cabinet to dust or floor to mopas he works tirelessly to please Maria, the mistress of the house, herdaughters Marika and Marisa, and a host of other women. When the innocent Yuunaarrives, ready to take on similar activities as a ìcleaning/custodial staffî inthe mansion, Yukito is torn. Can he allow this pure girl to get dishpan hands,or should he allow her to take laundry duty?
Payne also confirmed that in addition to appearing on Steam,the game will get a limited physical release available on J-List. The limitededition includes a deluxe game box, the game on DVD-ROM, and a 2 Ω -pageartbook mostly featuring pictures of the mansionís floor plan. It also comeswith a special set of ìmaking ofî postcards. Images on the postcards includePeter staring at Steam product guidelines with a mixture of exhaustion andquiet fury, and numerous pictures of a frazzled-looking Nicholas and Makotositting in the floor of a vast warehouse littered with pornographic CGs,frantically trying to piece together all-ages-acceptable images with scissorsand glue.
JAST USA has sent beta copies of the game to several former staff membersand active forum users for feedback; response to the all-ages port has beenmixed so far.
ìThe game is over already with all routes cleared? Thatcanít be! Kumiko has only been playing the game for 30 minutes!î said K.Komiyama. ìWowÖ Kumiko finished faster than those guys on the rape bus from theoriginal X-Change.î
ìItísÖ ahÖ interesting,î said Lamuness. ìSei Shoujoísproduction values are intact, but Iím a little on the fence about thebelievability of some of the plot edits, specifically the game's insistence that allthe white stuff on the girlsí faces is floor wax. Exactly how clumsy are thesegirls to keep falling face-first, and how many floors does this mansion have,anyway? I wonderÖî
Other forum users, such as Jacksprat1, have embraced theall-ages rating as a green light to spread the word about the game. He has reportedlychanged his work email signature at an elementary school to a picture of Marisain her edited 1920s-style bathing suit, and he also gift pre-ordered the gamefor his entire extended Mennonite family.
Veteran forum member Nargrakhan came out of hiding to offerthis critique: ìThe music is great. The art is acceptable. I could almost getbehind thisÖ but for Peteís sake, whereís the twincest?!î
Payne confirms that, regrettably, no twincest is to be hadin Starless: Editio Regia, but he isworking on a downloadable patch that will allow sisters Marika and Marisa tohold hands under the table and wink at each other during one of the dinner scenes.
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Please support this release by up-voting it on its page on Steam Greenlight! In the meantime, bishoujo gamers can enjoy insane hardcore fun and deviantfetishes galore in the 18+ Starless: Nymphomaniacís Paradise, available later this month.
Will there be a patch available for those who want to upgrade from the all-ages version to the less censored version?
A censored version??????No thx I'll don't buy ¬¬
Guys… Keep in mind that this was published on 4/1/15. You know, April Fool’s Day.
Our version was here, with slightly better Photoshopping.
https://www.facebook.com/jastusa/photos/a.768515803198232.1073741827.765717596811386/830858040297341/?type=1&theater
April Fool's everyone.
I loved your version – and I was mighty amused that we arrived at the same silly gag independently. 
However, I’ll have you know that my “can’t-believe-it’s-not-butter-eroge” version was created with the technological wizardry of Microsoft Paint! Get it right, now! Nothing but the most cutting-edge will do for Mr. Sprat…