(Left) Tekken’s Katsuhiro Harada and (Right) FEXL’s Akira Nishitani

Blair Dame’s new design in Fighting EX Layer

(UPDATE: Recent comments from a Japanese Reddit user have pointed out certain inaccuracies with the translation provided by the referenced article. The correct translations are provided below. My official response to the comment can be found here.)

With the Western gaming industry increasingly embracing political correctness and censorship, many gamers have been worried about the future and integrity of Japanese titles in the Western market. With newly translated information from an interview with Akira Nishitani and Katsuhiro Harada, new evidence has surfaced that may explain a recent design change to one of Fighting Layer’s oldest established characters, Blair Dame.

Blair Dame’s original design

Fighting EX Layer (FEXL) is the newest title being developed by ARIKA. The project is being spearheaded by Akira Nishitani, co-creator of the genre-creating fighting game, Capcom’s Street Fighter II. It will feature characters from the cult classic 3D Street Fighter EX series, such as Kairi, Shirase (previously named Hokuto), and many others, including the wildly popular Skullomania. ARIKA announced on the 5th of December, 2017, that Blair Dame will be making an appearance in the latest entry of the Fighting Layer series.

Fans and observant viewers noticed something different, and expressed concerns about censorship once it was revealed Blair has undergone a redesign. With the ever increasing amount of censorship almost entirely as the result of a politically correct environment established by a far-left conglomerate of activists, game developers and publishers, the feedback regarding Blair’s FEXL design seems warranted.

So what caused the change? It turns out we may have an answer. In a Denfaminicogamer interview with Tekken’s Katsuhiro Harada and Nishitani, it was revealed Harada has been advising Nishitani in his spare time on what to do with FEXL. Nishitani explained:

We talked about Skullomania earlier [regarding his global popularity], but things like what characters would be popular overseas, and what kind of things we must not do. I’m not really very knowledgeable about things like that, so after listening to Harada’s personal advice we decided on some design choices. CORRECTED TRANSLATION: The story about Skullomania came up earlier, and that was a discussion about what things would go over well overseas and moreover, things we really should avoid. That’s the type of thing we don’t know much about, so personally I listened to that part of the conversation carefully and decided on the direction I would take his design.

He continued later:

Yes, you [Harada] gave me character advice then [back in April Fools’]. Also advice on things like different views around the world and things that you [Harada] learned while working on Tekken. It’s without a doubt thanks to Harada’s cooperation that we decided to reveal Skullomania at EVO. CORRECTED TRANSLATION: Advice about the characters came around then. Also, advice about the world the game takes place in, things like that, and he was kind enough to share with me the things the Tekken series had already noticed about the marketplace; it’s been helpful. There’s no question that the choice of Skullomania for EVO is thanks to his generous cooperation.

At first glance, these comments seem innocuous, mainly because much of the interview consisted of Harada expressing his knowledge about fighting game mechanics. Considering Nishitani had not developed a game in ten years, it makes sense to consult someone who has not only been consistently making games in that time period, but also has vast knowledge about fighting game design and different gaming markets.

However, “different gaming markets” is where the correlation lies. Harada is perfectly aware of the goings on in the Western gaming industry, hence why Summer Lesson will probably never see an official Western release. He also ran into a bit of controversy when asked if Tekken 7 will include bikini costumes, by answering, “Ask your country’s SJWs. HAHAHAHAHA”.

One would think Harada would be the kind of man who blows moral grandstanding off his shoulders and continues his business like usual. His friend Motohiro Okubo showed signs of this when a silly-goose journalist asked him about censoring the female character designs in SoulCalibur VI. Harada himself still released the bikini costumes in Tekken 7 (as DLC), and the game has remained uncensored ever since.

At this point in time, we can only chalk this up to a correlation, rather than direct confirmation that Blair Dame was censored to appeal to “Western sensibilities”.

In more worrying news, Nishitani confirmed that conversations have been happening regarding the Gougi system. His producer Ichirou Mihara (EDIT: I originally forgot his first name and have now added it in) has been pushing the idea of selling individual Gougi as micro-transactions to recuperate development costs. The exchange can be read below:

Nishitani: Right now I’m arguing with Mihara over that. He wants to sell Gougi to try and recoup the development costs. But I don’t want to turn them into something to sell. *laughs* Harada: *laughs* Looking at it now, Gougi are almost like the power-ups in Gradius. If you heard something like, “They going to charge for the individual power-ups in Gradius,” imagine how much of a scoundrel you’d think Nishitani was. *laughs* Everyone: *laughs* Nishitani: But aside from the money issues, there’s also the topic of, “Won’t these cause problems when running tournaments?” When playing in a big tournament you don’t play on your own personal console, and there’s also no way you can have everyone log in to their accounts. So right now we are coming up with ideas like, “Why not include a Tournament Mode which lets players use all Gougi?” [Interviewer:] It does seem like there might be issues with tournaments. But also I feel like depending on how they are presented, people might have an interest in buying Gougi. Nishitani: Mihara is always saying, “Please don’t do the same volume and pricing that Tekken 7 did!” *laughs* Harada: Hmm…. Speaking of presentation; besides the obvious talk of UI, there’s also the game’s presentation as a fighting game. Before release, it would be good to create an image so that people don’t think, “So this is just a regular fighting game but more complex?” Nishitani: Mihara is saying the same thing. But something I’m worried about is that if we just have everyone simply think of Gougi as Cards, there will be some people who are instantly against the idea. But on the other hand, if we don’t explain things well and people don’t understand the game, then they won’t be interested in buying or spending money on it. Thinking about it from a business plan perspective, we really would like to include a system like this, and the ideas we came up with seemed to work well with it so we went forward with it; but really it comes down to whether or not the players would feel ok about spending money on the game, and also keeping the balance fair as a fighting game. At the current stage, our mentality is, “For now let’s just finish the Beta test and then think about everything”.

Taking Electronic Arts’ Star Wars: Battlefront II as a prime example, having only sold 882,000 (physical) copies of the game in the United States, gamers — or perhaps worse, government legislators — will obliterate FEXL if such a system is introduced. It would be rather ironic if the one takeaway Harada gave to Nishitani turned out to be regarding women in video games, instead of the ongoing controversy surrounding the nature of loot boxes, micro-transactions and DLC. To put it simply: if Star Wars was the final straw for loot boxes within AAA gaming, what possible hope does FEXL — a niche game in an already niche community — have in surviving such an environment? Asian whales addicted to gacha systems may participate, but for long-term success and positive community relations, micro-transactions will be the fastest way to kill such a delicate game in a highly anticipated series.

Censorship and micro-transactions. What a combo that would be.