Adult DLC

[Unckle]

Does buying the adult DLC uncensor the game, or is there still mosaics? I read a post a while back saying they saw scenes uncensored but couldn't take uncensored screenshots with Steam. Was this patched and everything is censored now?

[fllthdcrb]

There is not, and has never been, a version without mosaics, because it's published in Japan, which requires such censorship by law. Any time you see something originally published in Japan that has no optical censoring, it's because either the Western publisher got ahold of uncensored imagery, or an artist employed by such a publisher redrew the relevant areas. But that didn't happen in the case of Nekopara. We don't know why (well, maybe some know, as I once saw someone post about it, but I can't confirm), but it's worth noting that the same version is published both inside and outside Japan, which couldn't happen without mosaics.

As for the issue of taking screenshots, I think you misread the post. The issue wasn't about there being mosaics or not. The issue was that the DLC makes it so that screenshots of H-scenes, as well as the gallery, taken by the Steam client have the whole image blurred or something, in order to avoid a potential problem with Steam Community, which doesn't permit explicit images. If you want screenshots of such, just use an external screenshot application instead of Steam's screenshot command; just don't post them here.

[Rogue The Avali]

I'm like 99% sure steam doesn't give a ♥♥♥♥ about "explicit images" for like half a year at this point.

[fllthdcrb]

Originally posted by Stranger:

I'm like 99% sure steam doesn't give a ♥♥♥♥ about "explicit images" for like half a year at this point.

Not in games, necessarily. But Steam Community is another matter. It's still against the rules.

[Unckle]

Originally posted by Stranger:

I'm like 99% sure steam doesn't give a ♥♥♥♥ about "explicit images" for like half a year at this point.

Yeah exactly lol there's tonnes of screenshots shared in community for adult games that are explicit.

[Unckle]

Originally posted by fllthdcrb:

There is not, and has never been, a version without mosaics, because it's published in Japan, which requires such censorship by law. Any time you see something originally published in Japan that has no optical censoring, it's because either the Western publisher got ahold of uncensored imagery, or an artist employed by such a publisher redrew the relevant areas. But that didn't happen in the case of Nekopara. We don't know why (well, maybe some know, as I once saw someone post about it, but I can't confirm), but it's worth noting that the same version is published both inside and outside Japan, which couldn't happen without mosaics.

As for the issue of taking screenshots, I think you misread the post. The issue wasn't about there being mosaics or not. The issue was that the DLC makes it so that screenshots of H-scenes, as well as the gallery, taken by the Steam client have the whole image blurred or something, in order to avoid a potential problem with Steam Community, which doesn't permit explicit images. If you want screenshots of such, just use an external screenshot application instead of Steam's screenshot command; just don't post them here.

That's actually factually incorrect. There's tonnes of developers that make uncensored content and then add censoring to the base game. The censoring can then be removed with a patch they release for use only outside of Japan. If you look at most (all that I've encountered) 18+ or adult patches for Japanese games that remove censoring, it says as much in the description and agreement for downloading. It must simply be that the dev for this game didn't bother to make an uncensored version and then add censoring that can be unlocked by a patch they release outside of Japan. It's just sad when developers do that. They loose out on a lot of lost profit. I'm surprised so third party made an unlicensed uncensored patch for this. I guess it takes a lot of time to make one.

[fllthdcrb]

Well, I guess I was unclear. When I said "the Western publisher got ahold of uncensored imagery", I meant that it was drawn uncensored and then censored for use in Japan, and they then gave the uncensored art to a Western publisher. Or are you saying the devs sometimes self-publish outside of Japan?

For the case of Nekopara, I heard that Sayori refuses to allow uncensored versions to be published. As I said, I can't confirm this. But if true, I'm not sure why.

[Unckle]

Originally posted by fllthdcrb:

Well, I guess I was unclear. When I said "the Western publisher got ahold of uncensored imagery", I meant that it was drawn uncensored and then censored for use in Japan, and they then gave the uncensored art to a Western publisher. Or are you saying the devs sometimes self-publish outside of Japan?

For the case of Nekopara, I heard that Sayori refuses to allow uncensored versions to be published. As I said, I can't confirm this. But if true, I'm not sure why.

lol that's a big stretch. If that's what you meant then you would have said that. Those two things are completely different so I find it hard to believe that's what you meant. Yeah some devs self publish and others don't. That's unfortunate if that's true. I assume Sayori is the publisher of Nekopara? The dev should have partnered with an better publisher then. I assume these devs and publishers must make enough money in Japan that they don't really care about pleasing the Western audiences that want it uncensored. Too bad. They miss out on a lot of money.

[fllthdcrb]

Originally posted by Unckle:

lol that's a big stretch. If that's what you meant then you would have said that. Those two things are completely different so I find it hard to believe that's what you meant.

Well, what did you think "they got ahold of uncensored imagery" meant, then? That some third party drew it and the publisher just appropriated it? Why would they do something like that, if they can get it from the source? 😆 (Maybe if they're desperate to save money or think they can get away with it, or whatever, I guess.) Or what? I'm genuinely interested in your thinking on this.

Also, you can find other threads where I've said the same sort of thing in the past, but with different words. I almost never say things exactly the same way twice, so you can compare. The only reason I said it in an unclear way this time is because I thought for some reason that I might have been making too narrow a statement, but I should have been clearer.

I assume Sayori is the publisher of Nekopara?

No, Sayori is the main artist and leader of NEKO WORKs, the doujin circle that develops Nekopara, among other things. Sekai Project provided the English translation and published to the English-speaking market, as well as here on Steam.

I assume these devs and publishers must make enough money in Japan that they don't really care about pleasing the Western audiences that want it uncensored.

Sayori might be a bit of a special case, as she is Chinese-born, and apparently as a result, these works are hugely successful in China.

But that said, I do think she cares. Nekopara has been trilingual (Japanese, English, Chinese) on day 1 for every release. How many Japanese devs are even involved in localizations, let alone make those available alongside (or, as in this case, as an integral part of) their domestic releases?

[Unckle]

Originally posted by fllthdcrb:

Originally posted by Unckle:

lol that's a big stretch. If that's what you meant then you would have said that. Those two things are completely different so I find it hard to believe that's what you meant.

Well, what did you think "they got ahold of uncensored imagery" meant, then? That some third party drew it and the publisher just appropriated it? Why would they do something like that, if they can get it from the source? 😆 (Maybe if they're desperate to save money or think they can get away with it, or whatever, I guess.) Or what? I'm genuinely interested in your thinking on this.

Also, you can find other threads where I've said the same sort of thing in the past, but with different words. I almost never say things exactly the same way twice, so you can compare. The only reason I said it in an unclear way this time is because I thought for some reason that I might have been making too narrow a statement, but I should have been clearer.

I assume Sayori is the publisher of Nekopara?

No, Sayori is the main artist and leader of NEKO WORKs, the doujin circle that develops Nekopara, among other things. Sekai Project provided the English translation and published to the English-speaking market, as well as here on Steam.

I assume these devs and publishers must make enough money in Japan that they don't really care about pleasing the Western audiences that want it uncensored.

Sayori might be a bit of a special case, as she is Chinese-born, and apparently as a result, these works are hugely successful in China.

But that said, I do think she cares. Nekopara has been trilingual (Japanese, English, Chinese) on day 1 for every release. How many Japanese devs are even involved in localizations, let alone make those available alongside (or, as in this case, as an integral part of) their domestic releases?

I have no idea what you meant by "got a hold of uncensored imagery" lol. It was very ambiguous. Also following the thought of "There is not, and has never been, a version without mosaics" it would stand to reason following that thought that the dev never made one. So "got a hold of" seemed to imply from a different source than the dev, which would imply a 3rd party. If they got it from the dev, then it just makes much more sense to say that instead of being ambiguous. Clarity and concise communication is always best I think. I've talked to lost of folks on here who believe that devs never make uncensored content, so a third party always has to draw it themselves. They are always the ones who chime in with comments like yours, so I assumed you were one that also believed that devs never make uncensored content themselves. I'm glad to hear you believe that they do, because believing in facts is the way to go! Also how did you break up your comment to reply to different parts of my comment? ah okay that's cool, good to know. Sad that she's dead set on censored content then. So she's Chinese-born Japanese then? I guess China has just as strict censorship laws as Japan? I'm not familiar with theirs. She cares about her fans who don't care about censorship for sure. She isn't interested in growing her fan base to those who want uncensored content though. There's loads of devs that are very involved with localization. The problems happen when you partner with big publishers. It's the same across many industries. They have deals a dev must sign which usually limit their involvement in publishing. Support for games is usually done by the publisher rather than the dev too. It's mostly independent devs that are directly involved with it, and they get their support through Patreon and other services/platforms usually. There are loads of them though, even just for adult games and have released on Steam too.

[fllthdcrb]

Originally posted by Unckle:

I have no idea what you meant by "got a hold of uncensored imagery" lol. It was very ambiguous. Also following the thought of "There is not, and has never been, a version without mosaics" it would stand to reason following that thought that the dev never made one. So "got a hold of" seemed to imply from a different source than the dev, which would imply a 3rd party.

Ah, okay. The latter part was meant as a general statement about uncensored versions, rather than being about Nekopara's case. I'll try to make that clearer in the future.

because believing in facts is the way to go!

LOL

Also how did you break up your comment to reply to different parts of my comment? :CatDumbfounded:

Well, (1) I use this thing called editing, and (2) I use multiple [ quote ] tags. It's just normal BBcode. When you're writing a reply, there's a button below that says, "Formatting help", that shows you what all you can use in here. (It only shows up when you're writing a new reply and the box is not empty.) Note that you don't have to specify who you're replying to in the [ quote ] tag. It's a good idea for the first quote, and the reply buttons automatically put that in for you, but subsequent quotes can leave it out; it's too much bother otherwise.

Sad that she's dead set on censored content then.

Again, I can't confirm that. It's just what someone said somewhere. It would make sense, of course, but it'd be nice to see an actual statement about it from her or NEKO WORKs. Maybe it's on Twitter, either hers or the Nekopara one; if so, it'd be hard for me to find, since don't know much Japanese, and nearly all of her tweets are exclusively in Japanese.

So she's Chinese-born Japanese then?

Yup.

I guess China has just as strict censorship laws as Japan? I'm not familiar with theirs.

I don't know. China is a whole different matter, as I'm sure you're aware. Maybe they don't require the same kind of censorship, or maybe they do.

She cares about her fans who don't care about censorship for sure. She isn't interested in growing her fan base to those who want uncensored content though.

Maybe? The problem is that we don't know what's actually behind this state of affairs, beyond what I consider to be a rumor.

There's loads of devs that are very involved with localization.

Maybe I just haven't looked at the right VNs/games. Very possible. But from what I see, it's certainly not unusual for the Japanese devs to make something and release it in Japan, and then later a publisher picks it up and localizes it. NEKO WORKs apparently sought out the translations proactively and made their original releases incorporate them. (Maybe I shouldn't call them localizations in this case.) Is that something that actually happens a lot with VNs? I didn't think so, but maybe you know better.

The problems happen when you partner with big publishers.

Yeah. Speaking of which, Nekopara recently got a TV anime spinoff that aired early this year (first episode was given special previews at cons months before, though). I thought it was okay. Nothing special, but interesting enough. But guess who got exclusive streaming rights (at least in the west)? Funimation. Imagine our disappointment that they made such a deal with such a garbage company. But I digress.

They have deals a dev must sign which usually limit their involvement in publishing.

I certainly don't know what kind of agreement NEKO WORKs has with Sekai Project. But from the outside, it does look like NEKO WORKs has more control, or at least freedom to publish themselves. Just my impression. But Sekai Project certainly hasn't been publishing exclusively. The series—with the exception of Vol. 0 and Extra, which have no 18+ content—was also on NEKO WORKs' own BOOTH store (now removed from it, though), as well as DLsite. Why not 0 and Extra? My guess is that they hosted on other sites due to Steam's (at the time) prohibition on 18+ content, but didn't feel the need to bother for those entries that lacked it. (Fun aside: Most or all of them have had physical releases, which were sold at Comiket, among other venues. The Vol. 0 physical was sold exclusively at C88, although that package included an 18+ artbook where the VN itself is not 18+.)

Support for games is usually done by the publisher rather than the dev too.

TBF, this does make some sense for a developer that might have trouble communicating in English. But it's a problem if said publisher has their own agenda that conflicts with the devs' values.