Random: Guilty Gear Strive's Latest Update Apparently Censors "Inappropriate Angles"

Sounds like a completely reasonable change to a meaningless side mode to address the ratings board thing, but also I'm sure people will lose their minds screaming about it anyway.

Why am I not surprised? Even the tacky granny spats...

Besides that, I wouldn't consider Guilty Gear a 12+ series to begin with, considering how the past games went heavy with the heavy metal aesthetic. Maybe not gory, but they did embrace things like blood rivers and such.
But it's guilty gear STRIVE. They sold themselves out a long time ago...

@Lizuka Give an inch and they take a mile. Even in a side mode meant for creativity, I dunno why this is ok.

Cue the screaming uh... gentlemen whining about "B-but, muh curves & "melons"!"

I can slightly understand the censorship but what parent would let their child(ren) play this game in the first place?

Man. Eastern studios sure do like to gut content they put in their own games. Interesting. I wonder if this is a case of it just being reported more frequently or if something changed that has people clutching their pearls more? I'm guessing the former, since people lose their minds over this stuff.

HAHAHAHAHAHA! 😂😂😂
Edit: Just want to remind that I hate censorship. Censorship is evil, and a lot of people seems to not understand that.

@Lizuka How does this address any type of rating issue when the game has been out for literal years and not a single soul ever complained about it.

I said it before and I'll say it again.
Strive is what happens when a Typically anime-style over-the-top japanese property tries to cater to the west. every design gets toned down (not just the female characters, every single design is more boring and less striking than Xrd), the colors get muted, and every edge gets sanded off. and everything that's "problematic" has to get removed.

This game is a piece of *****. I'm glad I never bought it, They didn't need to give another reason to never wanna touch it but I guess they did now. It's not like I hadn't already long lost my respect for this team.

Censoring a feature long after a game's been released so you can't refund it's a one-way ticket to guarantee I'll never buy another game by these developers again.

@nessisonett well mate, if you want an example of "what else are they gonna do?" look no further than Senran Kagura.

Senran Kagura Burst Renewal came out on both PS4 and PC, however, the PS4 released had to be delayed to remove a feature called "Intimacy mode" from the dress up menu (mind you, this feature was in every single Senran Kagura game after Shinovi Versus, and is present in Senran Kagura Reflexions and Peach Ball on the Switch).

Next thing that happens, due to Sony's censorship policy and an allegedly exclusivity contract, the franchise is now dead. the series creator left Marvelous and expressed in no uncertain terms that with their new regulations, it'd be impossible to make Senran Kagura 7EVEN (the next game in the franchise that was highly anticipated by fans) in its original vision.

Ever since that, SK only exists as a Mobile game thats Japanese exclusive.

So yes, they DO take a mile if you give them an inch. I'm honestly surprised they haven't covered up Baiken yet but it wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if they did.

Imagine being the guy who publicly announce to the world they found out this.

@nessisonett "Why apply logical thinking to serious matters like genocide or economic collapse when you can be the Bernard Russell of gooning instead?"

Sorry if your having a bad time with finances and propaganda from both sides, but that conversation is for people who know how to talk about it, and really doesn't belong under this article just because you care about those things more. Stay on topic please.

"What is the ‘mile’ scenario with removing these angles"
Well for starters, more and more art gets stripped of it's identity and sincerity, all because a prudish closet pervert on the ratings board, for example, can't stop looking at every character sexually and wants their paycheck.
If you're gonna be on a gaming website, you should probably expect people who care about art first, not the political leanings you agree or disagree with, and ESPECIALLY not out of me given my hatred of contemporary politics.

@ottoecamn "every design gets toned down (not just the female characters, every single design is more boring and less striking than Xrd)"

I can concur, looking at May's design alone, and you see a loli who's the epitome of pirates and heavy metal, which was an obvious play on Pirate Metal, an actual music genre, and then they made her a generic Kyoto Animation rip-off character for Strive. She went from cute and interesting to stock cute. Was willing to go with it at the time, but now I'm fully disappointed after seeing the full direction Strive went in.

This is the equivalent of just less than 1% of the game's content and it isn't even the main content for the game. This shouldn't change the rating for the game, but Cero is at it again for the littlest of things.

I don't really care since it’s just figure mode, before this article I forgot this mode even existed. Had these changes been made for the actually game then I would have an issue.

I can't believe you people are laughing about this when this is is literally exactly what happens in 1984 (I think, I haven't read it, but I gather from YouTube there's some stuff in there about panty shots being taken out of videogames). When your civil liberties start getting stripped away by PEGI stormtroopers, don't say I didn't warn you.

(To give a real opinion, just in case somebody somehow thinks I'm actually agreeing with them: this is a perfectly reasonable thing to do, most instances of ""censorship"" are a bit silly at worst, and getting genuinely angry and boycotting over them is a deeply stupid thing to do. Get a real problem)

Game age ratings, the system that destroys fun for adults.

Yes, that is sarcasm.

@YaGirlSkyByte
And on the other hand you have nothing short of strip shows on Instagram and TikTok. I haven‘t read 1984 but our world is nowhere close to censorship in nudity.

Theres a lot of #gamers™ who hem and haw over "artistic vision," until the artistic vision decides to be less lewd/crude.
Big win for cognitive dissonance.

That explains the Guilty part of the title.

Would be cool if it wasn't censored in Switch version. Ninten does what Sony doens't.

@Samalik What do you mean "sold themselves out?

Do not accept the excuse of "It's just a small change, it's just something unimportant, you shouldn't care, get a life, grow up, touch grass."

If it's something small and unimportant, they shouldn't have changed anything in the first place.

The worst part is not the censorship.

What annoys me the most is people on the internet that would usually complain about the censorship, actually defending it, and shifting the blame by saying it's not them who are crybabies for censoring, the ones complaining about the censorship are the crybabies.

I'm not talking just about this game, I'm talking about censorship overall.

@JohnnyMind @Samalik @ottoecamn Well said, guys!!

I appreciate knowing about this, NintendoLife. I had this on my Steam wishlist, and now it's on my ignore list. From the newer reviews there, this isn't their only detested "update". I'll be looking at Arc System Works with a very critical eye going forward

Baiken "fans" truly are at their lowest point.

Jokes aside this ain't bad at all, this just really affects the hard-core gooners (or at least the ones that care way too much about stuff like this), so it's not the end of the world, but I will say the article picture did make me think Goldlewis somehow had a suggestive angle on him lmao

@LillianC14 Appeal to everyone, and you appeal to no one.
Guilty Gear use to have a strong identity, it was Rock and metal personified. Now it's trying to be everything. And it's showing in how the characters keep returning only to feel like mass departures from looks alone.

I mean, ffs, the first guest character GG gets isn't even from a franchise known for its metal inspirations like Brutal Legend or DooM, but from Cyberpunk Edgerunners which thematically and stylistically has nothing in common with GG. Not even the character in question they chose.

@Samalik Strive feels like it's been for the Gooners and the Shippers for a while now.

Yeah, yeah, I know, I'm not supposed to say that.

At most this news should get indiference from most of us. The fact so many people go out of their way to actually argue FOR censorship in these comments simply exposes there is an actual agenda against lewdness in videogames.

i've lived through the christian mom panics of the early 2000s, it's sad to see it come full circle.

@YaGirlSkyByte Personally, I laughed because a lot of modern people will defend censorship no matter what. I guess they aren't old enough to make decisions by themselves, HA!
We are losing the battle against censorship. A lot of people are pro-censorship.
I hate censorship. Censorship is evil, and a lot of people seems to not understand that, sadly. I've lost belief in society years ago...

Oh well, Strive’s gonna Strive.

Goes back to playing Accent Core +R

@Vyacheslav333

I'm with you. So many people are a-ok with rights that others care about being stripped away, but when someone comes for their rights, it's a big deal.

Back in the 80's and 90's, there were countless rock and metal acts that had to go to D.C. and fight battles for their right to expression.

Censorship back then was also something that was embraced by hokey "squares" and puritanical people, and it's quite odd that so many younger people these days are embracing their same attitudes.

Also, the disdain for sexuality while embracing over-the-top violence is incredibly selective and hypocritical.

I eschewed buying Dragon Quest 3 HD because of the censorship. And no, I'm not some right-wing incel. Left-wing guy, married for over two decades, voted against Trump three times, so don't put us all in the same boat just because we disagree.

Also, there's nothing wrong with enjoying seeing a pair of animated boobs.

Edit:

I'd also like to add that a logical solution would be to release a separate version of the game for young eyes rather than just patch it out for all buyers. Part of the alure of these games is the sexuality. If they want to patch things out of the game, then the developers shouldn't be using skin as a selling point in the first place. There are simple technical solutions to keep things out the wrong hands without ruining it for everyone else. As to those who are 18 and up and have an aversion to jiggly woman parts, simply don't play that game or use that feature. "Things that don't directly affect me suddenly don't make sense".

Watch them censor Baiken next in another Guilty Gear, what are they gonna do?

Belts covering it up?

Cutting them off since Baiken, realistically abandoned her gender entirely?

Uhh... getting a larger kimono to cover them up?

I just ran outta ideas.

Watch the next Guilty Gear abandon the metal music in favor of... I don't know dubstep music?

@daveMcFlave I like your comment a lot. And just to highlight how hypocritical this whole discussion is. The same argument that has been said a thousand times for other games with "Its just an option!, you can choose to ignore, but do not take that from others who might enjoy it!"; could easily fit in here. But it won't because it does not fit the conservative narrative that some people like to go for.

@Carck exaclty. it's one thing to be indifferent, if you're to personally bothered by the changes, that's one thing, but to come out and attack people who are upset and actually defend the censorship is a whole 'nother thing.

@Solomon_Rambling On consoles that have "social media aspects" (Mii-verse on Wii U and the activity feed on Playstation), it makes sense so you can get a photo with carefully posed characters and without the HUD. But on Switch, I couldn't care less. Sure, you can transfer photos to outside social media, but I tried the Switch related FaceBook groups, and it's just not the same as a platform tied directly to the console.

Anyway, it's an outstanding fighter. Must own

@nessisonett you’re the same person that then excuses the mile taken, saying it’s a good thing that it happened

GG has never really been aimed at younger audiences right?

Isn't it the same franchise where I-no removed her top in one win animation?

Those inconvenienced by this change has clearly not experienced the Internet in all of its depravity.

What in the world did they do to Goldlewis? What kind of evil person on ArcSys's balancing team decided that this already good character could use the ability to chain three Behemoth Typhoons together?

@Samalik "give them an inch and they'll take a mile" is the same as the slippery slope logical fallacy. Terrible argument. There has never been a time in history where almost anyone at any given point can see whatever they want... who cares if a company tries to cover their a$$. They censured themselves.

I can tell some people here don't go outside if they think watching under girls to see their panties is normal and reasonable.

@Corvus96 We are talking about video games, right? because as @silverdamascus brought up...

Besides that, it's already happened with visual novels on steam as is getting butchered to hell and back just to get released there. So it ain't no slippery slope fallacy, it's already happened and we don't want more of it.

Who cares? I care. And apparently, 30+ other people in this comment section.

@MirrorFate2 aaaand what does that have to do with this game? or anything really?

I don't like censorship and I definitely don't like treating sex or sexuality like something to be ashamed of.

Half the comments here forgetting our history. “And then they came for me”. You can’t give an inch, even if it is ridiculous stuff, because we will all slide down the slope, as it surely gets slipperier.

@Samalik You should not buy this game. Make it known to the publisher that the reason you are not buying their game is censorship, etc. I'm not being a smart ass here, that's really the only thing that makes sense. If it were myyyyyy game releasing, I would request a higher age rating, not censor, and not respond to anyone clutching pearls about some skin.
The FGC/evo is just going to get bigger, and that means they will want to appeal to everyone that they can. I imagine that has something to do with it? If so, this is just going to get worse.

@Milk_ What history do you mean? Games are stripped of content less often nowadays than they have been. We have ratings now, that's a good thing (not that the ESRB is also, necessarily, a good thing). Games are just largely not going to have it both ways, with perfect artistic integrity but also made for a huge enough swath of people to recoup hundreds of millions of development. We will get our rare huge game that also has integrity, but that is the outlier.
We need to stop blaming each other here. The problem is that publishers want to sell a copy of their grand fantasy role playing game for nerds to everyone on the planet, so they just make an action movie and call it an RPG instead. I didn't ask for $400 million dollar games that appeal to everyone/no one, just like most of the rest of us here didn't. Not our fault. When you start setting your eyes on that huge, blue sky audience you start making concessions on anything subversive or interesting that would separate it from any other game out there.
This is all the result of the thing you like becoming hugely popular, that's all

Emphasis on the “guilty” part of the title, eh?

Censorship cheer squad not doing too hot on this one. C'mon guys, defend the slop! Tell us all about how the game's better now like we haven't been through this same cycle ad nauseum since the 90s.

@AllieKitsune - I mean, that sort of trend comes with popularity and social media. Not quite the fault of GG and Arc Systems.

People would ship anyone to their perverse, socially okay fantasy they see fit if it meant approval of the right groups and ruffling of the wrong groups. Literally every anime has this whole sub-community doing that now, even older anime. Cause it's popular to, I guess, "goon" over personal fantasies that activates your almonds and share it to the world.

@Corvus96 it is a valid argument. What’s invalid is y’all excusing it once that mile is taken. You’re at best stupid, and at worst disingenuous

@Corvus96 and companies like Apple use slave labor to attain more profit. Is that excusable? You would clearly say no. At least I hope you would

One step forward, three steps back. All for the sake of a non-player audience.

@Vyacheslav333 I despise censorship. Me and my brother often compare Switch and PS4 versions of anime-type games to check if there’s any differences in censorship, and will opt for the Switch version.

@Paraka

(question: "activates your almonds")

@silverdamascus Well stated. I hate censorship in media, accepting it is a slippery slope into puritanism.

@Samalik yes... clearly I'm the one whose pissed off and had their day ruined. Everything you just claimed is the definition of irony, and without any useful rhetoric. But I do hope companies stop censoring their products so you can enjoy more artistic expression.

@FRBA94 didn't excuse the mile. Simply pointing out that it's a logical fallacy. The argument that if they censor this, then they'll censor far more is ridiculous. There's probably less censorship now than ever.

@Milk_ logical fallacy. That's what everyone actually seems to forget about. The "argument" has been used for virtually every regulatory debate for the last century or more. Not only that, but it's a company doing this.... not a government agency.

"The slippery slope fallacy is an argument that claims an initial event or action will trigger a series of other events and lead to an extreme or undesirable outcome. The slippery slope fallacy anticipates this chain of events without offering any evidence to substantiate the claim."

@FRBA94 Oi. Chill out

@daveMcFlave I'd also like to add that a logical solution would be to release a separate version of the game for young eyes rather than just patch it out for all buyers.

I'm not for that either, especially when you come to realizing that the jiggly bits are meant for children first.

It's probably better to just own up to it or get on the people who pressured for it to begin with.

lol another fighting game hit with long post release censorship. The genre just can’t get a break for something nobody was complaining about.

@Arawn93 Are there enough of these to make a pattern? Genuinely curious — a quick search turned up Skullgirls, but are there many more? I also found Capcom Fighting Collection removed a couple things, but that's not really long post release, but censored on a new re-release, unless I'm mistaken.

@timtimtim Street Fighter V was a notable example.

Aww man, I was hoping to get a look up Brigets skirt for a look at his huge hog.