It’s worth pointing out that in Japan, there was a live-action Spider-Man series (made with Marvel’s blessing!) produced by Toei, the studio that made Super Sentai/Kamen Rider. In order to make Spider-Man more platable for Japanese viewers, they basically turned him into Kamen Rider: instead of a nerd from Queens who…

Kaplan seems to be coming from a very genuine place, and I think that needs to be appreciated. But man, people really need to learn that even claiming an apolitical stance is a political statement in and of itself...

“Bending the translation isn’t too popular with fans”, they say.

How many hundreds of thousands of copies did Fire Emblem: Fates sell again? Nintendo’s still not back from the bank. XD

I read that other article where someone explained how playing and meeting Vilia in the game felt like a slap to the face to the Transgender community, and I totally get that. I can understand and empathize with people who feel really insulted with that. It’s not cool.

It’s *really* disappointing this game isn’t generating more buzz! I mean, normally people are so heinously mad when “sex” is taken out of a game, but here’s one that’s “keeping it in!”

I mean, Kindred Spirits made all kinds of buzz when it was announced. I’m guessing that when the “no cleavage = censorship grr” crowd…

This is... really awesome? I mean, wow, never thought I’d live to see a US celeb get an appearance in a Final Fantasy game. This is cooler than the Miku/ScarJo crossover!

I agree with this. The problem with allowing third-party “fan”-devs is that it’s too hard to control the output. Regardless of how you feel about Uranium, Nintendo’s feelings on how Pokémon should look and be presented would be the first concern.

It sounds totally fair. If you care for the franchise that much and have the kind of programming know-how to make a fan-game, why waste time skirting legality in the first place when you could send an actual job application and get to work on the proper games? Much less drama that way.

Nobody complains about Gardevoir being “too feminine”.

All the fan love in the world doesn’t suddenly leave IP laws completely irrelevant. It’s Nintendo’s properties, ultimately—we don’t have a say in how they handle that stuff, no matter how many of their T-shirts and Funko Pops we buy. That doesn’t entitle us to anything.

It’s only been extremely recently that people have started producing these things in the U.S., courtesy of crowdfunding platforms for the most part. There IS a demand, but production of these things is hard when your team isn’t at each others’ throats.

Holy crud. What a nightmare.

Blessed be Magikarp.

I agree with you, and I also offer another point to consider: Skullgirls is heavily inspired by Tex Avery cartoons, which were pretty dang ribald. This is one of those situations where you kinda have to go cheesecakey in order to fit with the tone. The up-frontness of it all that you mention is also important.

VII was not-so-well received because it was released in the U.S. at around the same time as Final Fantasy X. So, here we have this very slow-burning JRPG from a franchise that hasn’t changed much from the SNES era, and here we have this flashy, pretty-looking RPG showcasing the PS2's greatest strengths (at the time)…

So, when’s the “censorship” crowd going to get riled up over this? I mean, the creator’s very artistic intent is being threatened, right there in black and white. Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?

‘Scuse me while I go to JCPenny and buy a pearl necklace so I can clutch it and faint.

There are also people who just plain-old have it in for Kotaku, because...

It really was a nice move on NISA’s behalf to explain why the changes were made. It serves to underline that people in the U.S. working on games don’t necessarily have moral compunctions against this kind of content on games, but a responsibility to ensure that their games reach as wide an audience as possible—which…

Yes, characters all shouted “WHATCHU TALKIN’ BOUT WILLIS” when they died and the scene where Corrin chose his family was interrupted by Peter Griffin singing “Shipoopie”. /sarcasm