Blame Sony, not Ghostlight (probably). Or not...

[BenkeiKuruma]

Edit: I have no idea if any of this is true. I can only hope it is. But given some of the replies, I'm leaning toward Ghostlight just being out of their minds.

This is a port of the Playstation version, not the Switch version. Why they didn't port the Switch version instead, lord knows. I'm not a game developer and 99.99% of the people posting here also aren't, so they can't really sit in their desk chairs and claim how "easy" it would be to hack the mini game back into the port... when it probably was never there to begin with.

Sony (and not Nintendo, shockingly) has been cracking down on sexual stuff in games for a few years now, it seems.

https://www.businessinsider.com/sony-metoo-censorship-playstation-games-2019-4

https://www.reddit.com/r/playstation/comments/9rygqg/new_sony_censorship_policy_you_may_not_have/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrvyYVemmfA

Lots of other stories, just Google it.

Anyway, the reason I'm saying this is because Ghostlight didn't censor Mary Skelter 1, Omega Quintet, and probably a few other games. So it just seems like it would be inconsistent for them to decide to censor some games and not others. Like, if you're a conservative prude, you're a conservative prude. I just don't see it.

Unless... Ghostlight ported the game to Switch and Playstation as well? That is the only argument I could see being feasible, because that would mean they had the source code containing the mini game from the beginning. But dIdn't Idea Factory themselves port to consoles? The game has been out for at least 2 years, I don't think Ghostlight had anything to do with the original ports.

But hey, they have yet to post anything in the forums. Seems like at least one dev would come in here and sticky a post that explains all this, rather than me having to go Google up stuff and try to interpret their reasoning.

[okazaki2552]

I know storys like that too.
But get this: World End Club (ex switch, apple arcede exl) got a steam rel late last y
The devs are not in any way a big company, and the game is not a "go buy a switch now" type. Only thing special about it is Kodaka (danganronpa games), and Uchikoshi (zero escape). And it looks super cheap even for a low-end switch.
And yet thay portet it. So gl going for the ps cuz its hard sound stuped.
Or thay at least can say that thats the problem, and not stay silend

[BenkeiKuruma]

The silence is what's killing them, if you ask me. They could shut this entire forum up if they just came out and confirmed what I posted above. People would just shrug and either buy the game or not buy it. Then you'd see more topics talking about the actual game itself and not censorship. This is all kind of lazy if you ask me. They have somebody posting to their Twitter account, why not have that person come post a quick message here explaining all this too?

[SleepingSeaweed]

Originally posted by Martin Lockheed:

This is a port of the Playstation version, not the Switch version.

Do you have any source stating they ported it from the PS4 version? And even then, according to some other users here, only one specific regional version of the PS4 version had the minigame removed, and apparently its removal also resulted in game-breaking bugs. I haven't heard of any bugs related to that being present in the PC port.

We haven't been told much about the reason, but Ghostlight have stated they had to remove the minigame, which wouldn't make sense if it wasn't there in the first place.

https://steamcommunity.com/app/1496250/discussions/0/5845107457317156851/#c3198118348347653140

Honestly, if we can verify it wasn't their decision, that would be a relief. But I'm sure they would simply tell us if that were the case.

[okazaki2552]

Originally posted by Martin Lockheed:

The silence is what's killing them, if you ask me. They could shut this entire forum up if they just came out and confirmed what I posted above. People would just shrug and either buy the game or not buy it. Then you'd see more topics talking about the actual game itself and not censorship. This is all kind of lazy if you ask me. They have somebody posting to their Twitter account, why not have that person come post a quick message here explaining all this too?

Thare twiter is hilarious tho.
Like yesterday thay posted "you can still get it 15% off". Usually that s*hit is postet on the last day not second

[BenkeiKuruma]

Originally posted by SleepingSeaweed:

Originally posted by Martin Lockheed:

This is a port of the Playstation version, not the Switch version.

Do you have any source stating they ported it from the PS4 version? And even then, according to some other users here, only one specific regional version of the PS4 version had the minigame removed, and apparently its removal also resulted in game-breaking bugs. I haven't heard of any bugs related to that being present in the PC port.

We haven't been told much about the reason, but Ghostlight have stated they had to remove the minigame, which wouldn't make sense if it wasn't there in the first place.

https://steamcommunity.com/app/1496250/discussions/0/5845107457317156851/#c3198118348347653140

Honestly, if we can verify it wasn't their decision, that would be a relief. But I'm sure they would simply tell us if that were the case.

It's totally conjecture on my part, given that the PS4 version was also censored and (I assume?) not by Ghostlight (who didn't do that port, right? Idea Factory handles their own console releases internationally, AFAIK). I just figured, why go through all the work to port the Switch version and censor it, when the PS4 version is already censored to begin with?

(And I know absolutely nothing about how easy or hard it is to port a Switch game... I'm assuming it's a PITA given how few of them I've seen on Steam, but I'm n=1 in that regard).

However, that post you shared leads me to think this might actually be a fresh port of the original source, assuming the dev who posted that *literally* meant they had to remove the mini game (and not them kind of being loose with words and really meaning it wasn't there in code they were given access to).

What a bunch of BS, honestly. I agree, if it wasn't their decision, they would just flat out tell us. It sounds like they are kind of doing that in the post you shared, though. I just wish they would give more detail. Is there some legal crap that forbids them from doing it?

[Louis Cypher]

it does not matter who to blame, little child, it is about solving the problem with an (unofficial) uncensor patch

[BenkeiKuruma]

Originally posted by Dirtyhands:

it does not matter who to blame, little child, it is about solving the problem with an (unofficial) uncensor patch

Good luck with that!

[darklinkpower]

Originally posted by Dirtyhands:

it does not matter who to blame, little child, it is about solving the problem with an (unofficial) uncensor patch

Sorry for the offtopic but why do I have you blocked, big adult. Do you cheat in Dark Souls 3 by any chance?

edit: yep, that was it :/

[SleepingSeaweed]

Originally posted by Martin Lockheed:

What a bunch of BS, honestly. I agree, if it wasn't their decision, they would just flat out tell us. It sounds like they are kind of doing that in the post you shared, though. I just wish they would give more detail. Is there some legal crap that forbids them from doing it?

My guess is that statement is the best we can get. "Circumstances outside of their control" can be fairly subjective, so without any more substantial details it can't be verified, and as such they can't really be accused of lying.

It's not impossible they're not allowed to tell us due to some agreement or contract, but I can't for the life of me figure out where it would come from. IFI? Doesn't really make sense. It always comes back to the same question; why only the PC port, why only Ghostlight?

[Framehacker]

Originally posted by Dirtyhands:

it does not matter who to blame, little child, it is about solving the problem with an (unofficial) uncensor patch

an unoffical uncensored patch just dodge the problem, or make it worse if that make more ppl buy, it solve nothhing. censorship need to have consequences for the censors to make them learn, and to send a message to companies who consider censorship.

[☦₪TBC₪☦フェルニー]

Last night I was surfing the infamous 4-chan site, and in one of the threads they were talking about the PC version of Mary Skelter 2.

Now, I don't know how reliable the following information is, so take it with a grain of salt:

According to the Anonymous user who posted this, he was saying that he was part of the Beta Test and that Ghostlight actually ported the Nintendo Switch version, since the PC version has almost all the content of the Nintendo Switch version, including the unaltered CG's that were later altered in the PS4 version. Besides that, in the beta versions of the PC version the mini-game was fully accessible.

The mini-game was censored and cut at the last minute by Ghostlight's decision, in the final game port, the programming routines were altered taking the mini-game execution instructions and a routine as if it had been completed successfully, and certain files with the mini-game content were removed from this port, files present in the Nintendo Switch version.

Again I don't know how true all this is, it was an anonymous post coming from a supposed Beta Tester, but in my opinion the information fits too well to be a hoax. And from experience I know that Ghostlight always has had full access to the censored content of the other games they have ported to PC(Agarest 2, and Mugen Souls), they have the ability to restore the lost content, but they always keep quiet and refuse to do anything in good faith to their customers.

[☦₪TBC₪☦フェルニー]

Interesting, a Steam user, has noticed that this port does not have the GxArchive066 and GxArchive067 files present in the Nintendo Switch version:

https://steamcommunity.com/app/1496250/discussions/0/3198119216809793025/#c3198119216812099419

[etch]

I have no doubt Ghostlight used the Switch version and removed it, that has been clear since their initial statements.

[BenkeiKuruma]

Damn, you guys are probably right. My post is just me trying to make sense of all this. Like, why would they censor the game?

1) More sales. But... blobbers are a niche already, dudes. It's probably hard to sell them as is. You're taking maybe the one thing people who wouldn't otherwise play blobbers out of the game? Come on, we know horny dudes exist, and these kinds of games cater to them. Let them have their harmless fun, as long as it's skippable, and we can still get a decent game out of it in the end. Same thing is happening with fighting games; tons of fan service to sell the game to people who otherwise wouldn't touch a fighting game with a stick.

From the looks of it, this game is selling a lot worse than Mary Skelter: Nightmares. Hell, I'd be interested in seeing how this is selling compared to Monster Monpiece or Moero Chronicle.

2) Potentially future-proofing the game for when Steam cracks down harder on sexual stuff. This is far-fetched.

3) They have a boss who is some kind of weird conservative. Okay with violence, death, blood, guts, etc. but not cartoon sexy girls. That's where we draw the freakin' line!

Ugh...

[okazaki2552]

Originally posted by Martin Lockheed:

From the looks of it, this game is selling a lot worse than Mary Skelter: Nightmares. Hell, I'd be interested in seeing how this is selling compared to Monster Monpiece or Moero Chronicle.

Ugh...

MSN had a peack player number of 386, MC - 345, MM -159, MS2 -35
Acording to SteamDB, but thay are right mostly so its posible