Ahhh... the smell of censorship in the morning. Does 2AM count as morning?

[Feba]

On the left, Soul Caliber's Japanese website. On the right, America.


The worst part is that it was done so poorly that the covering doesn't even match, so it's very obvious, and to obscure THAT they decided to ruin the picture by adding a lot of crappy smog and colouring effects that obscure the character and the color.

[twoshoes]

Re: Ahhh... the smell of censorship in the morning. Does 2AM count as morning?

/sniff

mmm boobies

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: Ahhh... the smell of censorship in the morning. Does 2AM count as morning?

That isn't censorship, that's marketing.

Tell me, Feba, what message of value is Soul Calibur IV sending out the the masses that is being crushed by patching up character design that, in the opinion of much of the western audience, was totally in poor taste to start with?

The only message Soul Calibur IV has is "We're trying to boob it up and sell out by adding Star Wars characters to it."

Soul Calibur II tried to improve upon what was already essentially perfect, Soul Calibur III tried to fix what wasn't broken and was the worst game for it. Soul Calibur IV is going right for the airheaded DoA fans who need tits or popular media flavoring to buy a game because SCIII didn't sell so hot.

Here's an idea Namco, put it back through the arcades before putting it on a console. Yeah, I know there aren't many to go around in the US, but you can improve and refine the design of fighters a lot better than just slapping them on a console format. Do it in Japan at least. SCII's console version was very refined in contrast to its arcade versions and it was a better console fighter than most for being arcade-tested. VF4 and VF5 won respect on those same merits.

SCIII failed because it didn't even see arcades. The series lost the hardcore fans the moment they took up the DoA route of going straight to console. If you lose the hardcore fan, how do you expect to win the mainstream gamer without cheap tactics?

Also note - VF5 succeeds without enlarging boobs. Yet, at the same time, they're somewhat guilty of what you'd consider "censorship," Feba. Vanessa was a rather athletic-looking woman in VF4 and the boys didn't like that. They "softened" her look up quite a bit in VF5.

So tell me, is that censorship or is that marketing? Are they saying a really athletic looking girl is a bad thing? Was a girl with a little muscle on her in poor taste?

My issue with SC's character design is that thier women have gone from sensual to slutty. I don't particularly like that they slimmed Vanessa down in VF5, but the women in that game don't exactly scream "whore" to me.

At any rate, I wouldn't consider either game to have a deep social message or that they were being censored. They're fighting games, people who look for a message or worthwhile story in fighting games are morons.

[BurningPanther]

Re: Ahhh... the smell of censorship in the morning. Does 2AM count as morning?

If it's a relatively shallow fighting game to begin with, then there wasn't much call for them to add class by changing Ivy's costume design. What interests me is that, when people finally buy the game, Ivy's get-up will look nothing like what they advertised, rather, it'll look just like Namco's original ad. However "little white lie" or "kid friendly" it may be, that's false advertising.

In the end, there's really no need to dig too deep into it, just another case of archaic western views on sexuality perverting someone's original product.

EDIT: I'm gonna disagree with Feba and say that I do, however, like the fog. I felt that(and that alone), was a nice touch.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: Ahhh... the smell of censorship in the morning. Does 2AM count as morning?

If it's a relatively shallow fighting game to begin with, then there wasn't much call for them to add class by changing Ivy's costume design. What interests me is that, when people finally buy the game, Ivy's get-up will look nothing like what they advertised, rather, it'll look just like Namco's original ad. However "little white lie" or "kid friendly" it may be, that's false advertising.

Soul Calibur wasn't a shallow fighting game, its prior installments - namely Soul Edge, SC and SCII were top-tier fighters. The series took a turn for the worse when it was no longer arcade-tested before console release.

And before you call something "false advertising," you should know what the term means. False advertising is saying you'll provide this service and then not do it or refuse to provide it when its clearly seen in public view that you will provide a service. Namco is promoting a fighting game, they're coming out with one. No falsehoods here.

I remember an old lady getting belligerant with a McDonalds manager about not having a certain Happy Meal toy. Accused them of false advertising. Its not false advertising when you just ran out of a product. Its not false advertising when a slight cosmetic change to a product is made.

In the end, there's really no need to dig too deep into it, just another case of archaic western views on sexuality perverting someone's original product.

Its not the first time Namco has done it. Xenosaga anyone? They just happened to realize we weren't into pedophila.

[Grizzlebeard]

Re: Ahhh... the smell of censorship in the morning. Does 2AM count as morning?

American censorship never ceases to make me chuckle. It's perfectly okay to scream obscenities, show people being blow apart, tortured, and dismembered but you show the naked human form and there's an uproar!

[twoshoes]

Re: Ahhh... the smell of censorship in the morning. Does 2AM count as morning?

but you show the naked human form and there's an uproar!

that is exactly why the original picture was shooped, so it can be sold in all those stores to the younger bracket of people without any problems.

marketing is announcing two starwars characters, but splitting them up having one on the PS3 and one on the 360 (cant remember who went where)

in terms on marketing taking boobies away is bad! there is nothing that cant be sold with the use of more boobies, thats just how the world works.

[Jarre]

Re: Ahhh... the smell of censorship in the morning. Does 2AM count as morning?

It made me Laugh, we had a Uk comedy sitcom called Bottom. It aired on one of the US's comedy channels 5 years ago, and after one episode it was axed due to being "too obscene"

I attach a youtube vid for you to make your own decission, was excellent. If they think thats obscene, they obviously never saw one of teh 5 stage shows that was produced from this, I've been to 2 and got dvd of the other 3. British humour at its best

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISWAjs9Evbw]YouTube - Bottom S3 EP2 "Terror" (1 of 3)[/ame]

[Feba]

Re: Ahhh... the smell of censorship in the morning. Does 2AM count as morning?

Tell me, Feba, what message of value is Soul Calibur IV sending out the the masses that is being crushed by patching up character design that, in the opinion of much of the western audience, was totally in poor taste to start with?

You're kinda forgetting SC's target market. Boobs would be helpful.

But more than that, it is censorship, and rather badly done at that. Like I explained in the op, the problem isn't even that they covered it up, so much as they did such a poor job of it that it's fair to say they ruined the picture.

It reminds me of myCards - TCG-Database: Yu-Gi-Oh! - Details Zensur - 69140098 -- so incredibly pointless, obvious, and destructive to the art.

Might the original have been over the top? sure. But if you're going to do something different for another region, do something different. Photoshop patching and fogging it to cover up your shitty patching is just poor form. It wouldn't be that hard to draw a more tasteful image if you wanted.

[Malacite]

Re: Ahhh... the smell of censorship in the morning. Does 2AM count as morning?

Pretty much every form of Media in NA is sexualized to no end, and yet we continue to pick and choose at it. Sometimes it's okay, sometimes it's not.


Well who the fuck gets to be the judge on that?! Either it is or it isn't, that simple.

[DakAttack]

Re: Ahhh... the smell of censorship in the morning. Does 2AM count as morning?

They're not going to do that to the actual games are they?

[Armando]

Re: Ahhh... the smell of censorship in the morning. Does 2AM count as morning?

I see where BBQ is coming from but I still have to side with Feba. All they did was hide a couple of square centimeters of skin. Each of her breasts is still larger than her head. Might as well just have left it as it was. Plus they fogged up the image, making it lose detail.

Also, holy crap at that Yu-Gi-Oh card, that was just sad. Speaking of this sort of thing, it was also done to the Pokemon manga. The one that I've heard didn't suck, and actually stuck to the game's plot(!)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...9235629209.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...9235667231.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...9235710986.jpg
Misty has as much ass as a plank of wood, and she has pretty average breasts, but they still doubled the amount of clothing on her, and flattened her chest to match her rear. No surprise they tried to make Ivy more "decent."

[TheGrandMom]

Re: Ahhh... the smell of censorship in the morning. Does 2AM count as morning?

It made me Laugh, we had a Uk comedy sitcom called Bottom. It aired on one of the US's comedy channels 5 years ago, and after one episode it was axed due to being "too obscene"

I attach a youtube vid for you to make your own decission, was excellent. If they think thats obscene, they obviously never saw one of teh 5 stage shows that was produced from this, I've been to 2 and got dvd of the other 3. British humour at its best

YouTube - Bottom S3 EP2 "Terror" (1 of 3)

I'm sorry this video is on longer available.....

I busted out laughing so hard that I scared the crap out of my 2 yr old! LOL

[Akashimo]

Re: Ahhh... the smell of censorship in the morning. Does 2AM count as morning?

Other horrible examples. Harpie Lady, Mai and all her Harpie related cards.
Tenchi Muyo: Need I say more? Or do we need to point back at getting drunk from tea.

Feba you're good at wording, make a petition to make US licenses of material illegal to edit the meaning or designs.

[TheGrandMom]

Re: Ahhh... the smell of censorship in the morning. Does 2AM count as morning?

Misty has as much ass as a plank of wood, and she has pretty average breasts, but they still doubled the amount of clothing on her, and flattened her chest to match her rear. No surprise they tried to make Ivy more "decent."

Average breasts in the JP version?? She's at least a C cup in that picture! Thats not average for a girl that age!! FYI, her age is TWELVE...she should be flat as a board!!