What's with the new art?

[Planguy]

Aiko looks funny in her at home artwork.

Is a new character posing as the old characters as some kind of easter egg, or did the art just get changed for some reason?

[C-zom]

Trying not to over saturate this forum with my replies, this is the last one.

There has been a few years of controversy/speculation that the developer for the game isn't as talented as he appears to be, and that the years of delays and lack of patching or support have actually been due to this. One of the major things rumored to be outsourced is the artwork. Namely, protagonists and enemies. That he has traced/scanned a ton of Junji Ito + Fans of his on Tumblr, and that the new 1.0 patch cleans this up with his "original" art (e.g: his, and his alone)

The rationale being that any potential lawsuits or boycotting won't catch up with the console + Chinese release, and hundreds of thousands of people won't catch on to the scam. This is, of course, speculation and a very fresh outcry at that because the patch only dropped today. We'll see. I know the Discord is a dumpster fire right now and plenty of staunch fans are in an uproar about how crap everything looks, officially making the store page (Lovecraft, Ito) false advertising and obsolete.

[no im jory]

Originally posted by C-zom:

Trying not to over saturate this forum with my replies, this is the last one.

There has been a few years of controversy/speculation that the developer for the game isn't as talented as he appears to be, and that the years of delays and lack of patching or support have actually been due to this. One of the major things rumored to be outsourced is the artwork. Namely, protagonists and enemies. That he has traced/scanned a ton of Junji Ito + Fans of his on Tumblr, and that the new 1.0 patch cleans this up with his "original" art (e.g: his, and his alone)

The rationale being that any potential lawsuits or boycotting won't catch up with the console + Chinese release, and hundreds of thousands of people won't catch on to the scam. This is, of course, speculation and a very fresh outcry at that because the patch only dropped today. We'll see. I know the Discord is a dumpster fire right now and plenty of staunch fans are in an uproar about how crap everything looks, officially making the store page (Lovecraft, Ito) false advertising and obsolete.

Is there any concrete evidence or source to lawsuit threats or traced art etc or is it just hearsay?

[C-zom]

It's hearsay, I'll be the first to say it. But it's been years in the making. These forums are fishy with links, and google, but finding any combination of "tracing art" and this game won't be tough.

To reduce everything down to what we objectively know as reality, all the sprite work got reworked for protagonists, Junji Ito's easteregg cameo got changed into a mustache man, and a few enemies (screenshots in the other thread) got tamer, work safe looks. Censorship for Nintendo? Correlated to making sure everyone knows the MC's are 20+ years old? Avoiding a copyright strike? Everything is up in the air, but silently for 1.0 the unique art style and "Junji Ito Inspired" marketing tagline on the store page got invalidated and no one is entirely sure why.

[no im jory]

really weird to just spread rumors like that without any concrete evidence imo. My initial guess to changed art, especially with the player characters, is intentional for a bigger mystery to solve within the game or something. If there's proof of other reasons behind the decision I'd be willing to listen to it but hearsay is a bit much. Even if its something like having to have changed the assets for a different region and the update that got pushed through went to everyone.

considering how often rumors of the guy dying went around I'm not buying into anything without proof lol

[SuperBearCat]

Originally posted by C-zom:

It's hearsay, I'll be the first to say it. But it's been years in the making. These forums are fishy with links, and google, but finding any combination of "tracing art" and this game won't be tough.

To reduce everything down to what we objectively know as reality, all the sprite work got reworked for protagonists, Junji Ito's easteregg cameo got changed into a mustache man, and a few enemies (screenshots in the other thread) got tamer, work safe looks. Censorship for Nintendo? Correlated to making sure everyone knows the MC's are 20+ years old? Avoiding a copyright strike? Everything is up in the air, but silently for 1.0 the unique art style and "Junji Ito Inspired" marketing tagline on the store page got invalidated and no one is entirely sure why.

so it's just censorship and watered down.
a literal demake. yikes.

[C-zom]

Originally posted by no im jory:

really weird to just spread rumors like that without any concrete evidence imo. My initial guess to changed art, especially with the player characters, is intentional for a bigger mystery to solve within the game or something. If there's proof of other reasons behind the decision I'd be willing to listen to it but hearsay is a bit much. Even if its something like having to have changed the assets for a different region and the update that got pushed through went to everyone.

considering how often rumors of the guy dying went around I'm not buying into anything without proof lol

The Discord and Reddit have more, though a few threads here are talking about it too. My "objectively know" post should sum it up for the more wary players. Yes rumors of this guy being dead, or a rich dentist, or a university professor, or a complete hack who outsourced the entire game have been around since the reveal in 2018.

All we actually know is a crap ton of art got changed, Ito's cameo got removed, and a lot of other "original" art got cleaned up. Why? Who knows. Same devs won't even post patch notes on Steam.