NIS America announced on its website that Criminal Girls 2: Party Favors will be coming to the PS Vita in North America on Sept. 20 and in Europe on Sept. 23 — over half a year since it was released in Japan.
As you may recall, the first game, Criminal Girls: Invite Only, arrived in North America on the PS Vita in February 2015 and was immediately met with harsh criticism. Aside from annoying battle mechanics, such as the fact that you didn't have direct control over what actions your party members would take in battle (rather, they would suggest actions based on the current situation), fans and critics immediately zeroed in on the rampant censorship the international version had in comparison to the original Japanese release.
One of the most notable criticisms were aspects surrounding the "Punishment" mini-game used to help develop your party members' abilities. For starters, the name of the mini-game was changed from "Punishment" to "Motivation," which seemed off, since the very focus of the game was to help a group of girls who were sent to Earth for various sins to find redemption and resume their lives back on the surface. In addition, the girls didn't say a single thing during the mini-game. In the Japanese version, they would make sounds based on what the punishment was, but the girls were completely silent in the International version. Last was this weird thick pink mist that is apparently some new American standard for making inappropriately sexy things more appropriate.
Many argued that NIS America was damaging the artistic integrity of the original, and swore they would not support this or any censored product. Unfortunately for those fans, they better prepare to not support this game, either, as there is just as much censorship this time around.
However, unlike the first time when these changes came out of the blue, in an apparent move to allow fans to learn what they were getting themselves into, NISA announced the censorship in advance and explained the reasoning behind it.
As NISA explains in a blog post, the reason why the game has been censored is because it needs to ensure the games can be released on the platform they're made for, as well as to the territories where it sells them. Due to the nature of the game, it ran the risk of rated Adults Only instead of Mature, which presents two major problems for the company: first off, that rating is not allowed on many platforms, and typical retail outlets don't usually carry it. More importantly, however, NISA has a policy of not releasing games with an AO rating. The publisher needs to be sure that something it submits to the ratings boards will be the final product, so it preempted the problem by making changes to the game before it was rated, allowing it to save time and money.
So, what are the changes that NISA made to Criminal Girls 2? Most are pretty much identical to the changes made in the original. First off, there will be various terminology changes such as the aforementioned "Punishment" to "Motivation." In a similar vein, there will be no dialogue whatsoever during these scenes. The last change, and the one that truly sets it apart from the original, is re-drawn art. NISA worked with the original artist to re-draw the art for the Motivation scenes. However, so as to not adversely affect the game experience, NISA will incorporate the game's Live 2D effect into the new art.
It certainly is nice of NISA to announce the censorship ahead of time, as well as explain the reason behind the changes. However, with censorship being such a hot topic nowadays, it's unlikely to change the minds of anyone who has a strong stance against it.
The most recent trailer for the game can be viewed here.
