'Hyperdimension Neptunia' & 'Death End' Switch Releases Scrapped For "Not Complying With Nintendo Guidelines"

It was a good ride while it lasted, but all things must come to an end.

Kinda bizarre imo...

Does seem odd considering all the stuff you see being shovelled on the eshop that these would be canceled.

Though in the case of the nep trilogy the most offensive thing about those seems to be the switch performance.

Oh well I own the originals not double dipping unless on switch.

Oh wait is out in Japan…nevermind. Will buy later.

Curious which branch decided this because it's kind of ass if one of them just went and mucked it up for everyone.

Especially strange considering NoJ don't seem to have issues with the games.

Play Asia to the rescue, I hope. I like playing some of these games for the... uh... culture. Yep. For the culture. As I am a man of quality.

Is there such a thing as Nintendo Guidelines anymore?
I'm looking at you, Hentai Girls Solitaire

(Back then, Nintendo's mandatory Tech Check before release was extremely rigorous, nowadays, I'm not sure)

We get so much spam on the eShop, but a couple 10 year old games + some newer entries can't qualify?

We Nintendo California now 😭

There goes the support from this publisher.

What the heck? This makes no sense. I was looking forward for these games to be on the Switch.

I don't believe these games violated the guidelines, someone has to be screwing them over. This is not good. Just look at all the AI hentai games on the Eshop that they approved.

Plus other games from these series are available in the Eshop in the west. Makes me even more suspicious.

It's over.

I want to know the guidelines though.

This absolutely bites. I don't know what those "guidelines" are, but something tells me Nintendo (of America and Europe) themselves haven't seen each of those games thoroughly and just drew the line. I have played most of the Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth trilogy myself and honestly, most of their risque content is "Tom & Jerry" compared to most of the other anime-like games I played/seen that went towards that same risque route.

Sony : "Hey, NOA! You wanna switch back to being hated again?"
NOA: "Sure Sony. I missed rejecting 3rd party games that don't follow our guidelines, even though there's a rating system for this stuff."

We’ve gone a long way since the Nintendo Seal of Quality.

That’s weird. They let all kinds of stuff on switch.

Yeah, the guidelines in question definitely compel to ask for clarification, especially considering all the stuff released on Switch without issues (including Neptunia and DerQ franchises themselves).🤔 A definite bummer, too; at least the Nep-Nep trilogy is also on Vita (where I had the first game long backlogged and recently reinstalled to start the binge before promptly scrapping it in favour of the announced Switch port as usual...😅), but the newer Code Z isn't even targeting Steam for the one remaining natively portable option in my arsenal. Seriously, eShop curation bellyachers, which one of you got a holiday deal on a monkey paw?

First the suing for patent infringement and now this, Nintendo is fully turning heel this year.

I am shocked at this. This flies directly in the face of what Furukawa said in 2019.

I quote "Nintendo, as do 3rd-parties and their software, applies for an objective rating from 3rd-party organizations prior to release. If platform-holding companies choose arbitrarily, the diversity and fairness in game software would be significantly inhibited. We provide parental controls that can be used to apply limits."

This has to be NoA and NoE pulling some shenanigans. and I'd REALLY urge everyone who even remotely cares about freedom of expression in games to email Nintendo of Japan talking about this situation. If we can bully Nintendo of America into releasing the Operation Rainfall games in the west by being relentless, we need to do the same here. because this is simply unnaceptable.

If you look at Gameplay Footage of the Game, you kinda understand why.

(Tops 15FPS? sometimes even lower, so i guess 30FPS might be a norm for Nintendo?)

@Lightgazer
yeah looking at the footage of the games the performance seems pretty damn heinous. its odd since weren't these ones the vita games and i remember them running pretty well on that.

This is ridiculous. I was waiting for news of this trilogy and I figured it would be coming sooner rather than later. Especially baffling that we have other games in the same series (even the new racing game that’s coming out early next year). I’m curious as to what guidelines they are violating.

@IceEarthGuard @Arcwave @nhSnork @ottoecamn @Jhena

https://youtu.be/BLFSfrod6VM?feature=shared

You guys wanna know why the games aren’t coming west??? Jump to 11:40 in the vid, and you’ll see why: It runs like molasses on Switch.
More than likely, that’s why it probably didn’t meet Nintendo’s quality standards.

@Lightgazer If it's because of FPS issues, then I would understand why it's not available. Which makes me wonder, did they even took their time to optimize it for Switch or they just try to release it right away for a quick buck, that is not a good look...

Sony have been the ones coming under criticism for strange censorship decisions in recent years, so I wonder which guidelines they breached (if any - this is of course one-sided). Not a great loss for my perspective though, these games have never interested me.

@CrimsonDragoon but as others have said, the quality cesspit that is the eShop exists. So I would be surprised if it was performance-related.
We had that King Kong game earlier this year and apparently that was criminally poor.

Edit: Saw another video, and the game looks fine actually.

@CrimsonDragoon Damn that is really bad. I didn't saw gameplay yet for the Switch version. Now I see why they would not approve it.

What is Idea Factory thinking when releasing it like this?

There is no way something as basic as the VITA trilogy is running that freaking poorly. Idea Factory is somehow worse at optimizing than Game Freak. How do you even pull that off?

For anyone that skipped most of the article (myself included), this is the statement:

"due to the contents of the Re;Birth series and Death end re;Quest: Code Z not complying with the Nintendo Guidelines."

So it’s definitely not performance.

They let absolute crap on the eShop so there has to be more to this.

@CrimsonDragoon
Yeah that is reeealy bad. But I still want to know the official reason for the cancellation and what Nintendo's guidelines are in general.

As @PessitheMystic said, it seems to be because of the content.

@Arcwave yeah, that's weird. Sony isn't rejecting this game, yet Nintendo is whole selling a bunch of shovelware games that have the word Hentai in the title. I would say that they just hate Compile Heart, but there's that Seven Pirates game, and that's more "objectionable" than the two games in question now.

@PessitheMystic Then explain how the other games in the series ended up on the eShop??

Can't keep track of which censorships I'm allowed to get upset over. What's this company's stance on the middle east?

@CrimsonDragoon it evidently met those of NoJ and the scene in question is the very first dungeon I've already tried on Vita myself. Such framerate hiccups in such games are more suggestive of crunched optimization and normally take but a patch or two to dispel. The fandom's "Underpowered Switch" faction has accused other long available western releases of worse.

What the heck guidelines does NepNep break but the entire catalog of Fun Box doesn't!?

Super important to understand that it's Nintendo OF AMARICA and Nintendo UK which made these decisions, not NINTNEDO.

Nintendo, the Japanize game developer and console maker, is not involved in deciding which games are allowed on the NA/UK e-shop. That's up to a completely separate entity, a marketing and distribution company called Nintendo of America (or UK).

Market regulation means that while Nintendo owns this entity, they can not be part of it's day to day operations. They can't step in and override or even influence this decisions. They could technically fire the high level management that allowed it to happen and hire someone they thing would make a better decision, but that level of micromanagement is never a good thing.

It's important to understand because decisions like this are often due to the increasing right wing Christian nationalism in the US that says sex is bad (but graphic violence is fine) and not Nintendo trying to protect their "kid friendly" image globally. The Japanese Switch e-ship has extremely sexualized games, and many don't even contain the warning tags we see in the US ... because in Japan, that content is generally not seen as "dangerous" to children.

Good, I won't buy any Idea Factory games in the future.

@CrimsonDragoon yeah... no. A game running like ass never stopped a switch release (look at Arkham knight) I don't but that for a second.

@PessitheMystic @CrimsonDragoon

Because when they were published, Nintendo of America was working under different standards. There has been a DRASTIC shift over the last few years towards Christian nationalism in the US, and games that would have been completely fine only a few years ago are unpublishable today.

As a huge fan of the series, I can guess that the content in question here isn't that panty shots or the outfits ... it's that most of the girls in these games are EXTEMELY and openly gay. They molest each other constantly. In the game in question, one is contently talking about marrying one of the other girls.

It's hard to publish something like that in a country that removes books from libraries if they are written by gay authors, even if the books contain no sexual content.

Remember, Nintendo (a Japanese hardware manufacture and game developer) has NOTHIGN to do with decisions like this. They are all made by a completely independent entity in the US or the UK.

@CrimsonDragoon that clip is probably of an emulator running it poorly on a PC, here's a clip of it running fine on the Switch https://youtu.be/xlg-lwHh3iU

@HeadPirate oh please, right wing Christian nationalism hasn't had the power for censor thing since the early 2000s, lately its far left DEI that has been responsible.

But whatever the side or reason, that doesn't matter. It shouldn't be happening and this directly contradicts what Furukawa said in 2019.

Weird. All the Idea Factory games have been uncensored on Switch compared to PlayStation lately. Man, this sucks! I’d much rather play on Switch than PlayStaion. This totally ruined my brother’s day, Neptunia and Pokémon are his favorite game series…

@jennraye Holy crap, you’re right.

I hate to use this word but I think this feels like some "woke" Western choice by NOA.

Here's hoping for a Asian English release from Play-Asia.

@ottoecamn

Correct, They didn't have it for a long time. Now they do again. That's how democracy works, thing shift over time. That's why it's often described as a pendulum.

If you are interested in a more informed decision, you could look at resources that track things like rejected Media content and see what's been happening over the last few years. The number of banned books in the US had increased by at least 50% a year for the last 5 years,. taken them for the G7 nation with one of the least number of banned books to the MOST, by far, in half a decade.

For reference, last year over 2000 books where challenged in Canada by Christen nationalist groups, covering 650 unique titles. Of them, less then 50 were restricted in any way.

In the US, 4,240 unique titles where targeted by Christian groups, and while it varies by state, virtually all of them face a complete or near complete ban.

So as a marketing company, you have to ask yourself if you want to publish a hyper sexual games that promotes homosexuality into that environment. You don't ask yourself if it would have been okay 5 years ago, you ask yourself if it's going to be okay next year, when the game comes out.

@jennraye Thanks for the video. Now that looks better. So now I am suspicious again XD.

@IceEarthGuard Exactly right. Also, don’t we have DOOM 2016 and Mortal Kombat on Switch?! So the new Death End can’t be THAT much worse than the previous two. Which were pretty brutal. Maybe someone at IFI dropped the ball? Sisters vs. Sisters they screwed up with ESRB and had to go back and remove all the swearing. There is definitely something fishy to all this.

@HeadPirate You’re so far off target on this that it’s hilarious. Look at the other games that Nintendo is still currently allowing to be sold on the eShop and then tell me that the Neptunia series is somehow unacceptable to NoA or Nintendo of UK.

You’re either trolling, misinformed or have to drag politics into everything. Nintendo allowed SENRAN KAGURA REFLEXIONS to be sold for Pete’s sake, and still does.And you essentially GROPE GIRLS in that game.

@dskatter

"due to the contents of the Re;Birth series and Death end re;Quest: Code Z not complying with the Nintendo Guidelines."

Sony at it again.....oh wait.

@dskatter Yeah, I always like HeadPirate’s long and insightful posts, especially on lawsuit stuff, but this seems like a stretch. There’s so much smut on Switch. Now suddenly these cutesy in Neptunia’s case, or rather disturbing (Death End) aren’t acceptable? We had freaking Doki Doki Literature Club! And that game left a horrible impression on my brother to the point he couldn’t even get rid of the game for anything.

@LavenderShroud Exactly. I suspect that for whatever reason NoA/UK/whatever just isn’t down with having their previous/current consoles mocked/compared to other consoles.

Or Idea Factory made some other boo-boo. Either or. But saying it’s a “oh no Christian censorship!” thing is ludicrous.

@HeadPirate Which says exactly NOTHING about what content. You grabbed that and ran into the distance screaming Christian censorship with exactly zero basis in fact. XD

@HeadPirate I find it hard to believe that far-left christian nationalism is an issue in California of all places.

@dskatter I think Idea Factory messed up somewhere. Wouldn’t be the first time. One of their most recent games they forgot to tell ESRB the game had swearing, and had to rewrite a lot of it.

@LavenderShroud

Thanks for calling out my other posts as insightful. I really appreciate that.

I can understand how difficult it can by to shift a paradigm, but both the publisher and the developer have confirm that this is due to a NOA and NUK rejection the game based on content. If you had some theories on what content you think causes they games to unacceptable for release in the US, while already released in Japan, I would be very interested in hearing it.

@ottoecamn If it were true I wouldn’t be getting some of the awful ads I somehow get and rather would not see. And I LIVE in California.

This shouldn't surprise anyone who has been paying attention over the last few months. Prison Princess 2, REDNEG ALLSTARS, and now these games. All canceled recently for this reason. Nintendo has definitely changed their stance on games with suggestive content this year.

@CrimsonDragoon Simple if you think about it - that content must not have violated the guidelines…

@HeadPirate You are absolutely welcome! I love how you always make the point about how legal stuff works in lawsuit posts, especially PalWorld.

As for theories. I have no idea. There’s never been any problems before. Plus some of the other stuff that IS on Switch makes these games incredibly tame. I feel like someone somewhere messed up at IF and that led to this unfortunate situation. But I guess we can only wait and see if anything more is said about all this. They’ve dropped the ball with ESRB once and forgot to mention one of their games had swearing one time, which led to a lot of reworking to be done. Hopefully we get some update though.

@ottoecamn

As someone not from the US, I think I used the words "Far right Christen Nationalism" not fully appreciating the emotional response they would invoke. Christian Nationalism is a thing that is present in all countries, and is independent of pollical system or leadership. In Japan, it was Christen Nationalist that imposed censorship on the porn industry, for example, even though Japan has never really had a (self imposed) Christian leadership.

It simply refers to a group pressuring other groups to adopt strong Christian values. In some places in the world, this movement is weak and unable to influence policy making, but in the US it is extremely strong right now, and able to influence policy making of both parties.

5 years ago, the most common reason a book was banned in the US was that it encouraged anti-establishment ideas, and very few books were banned. Today, 1000s of books are banned a year, and the most common reason is that they are Anti-Christian. This is a clear indicator of a strong Christian Nationalist voice, even though that time frame was one where the democrats were in power.

Strong state laws mean you always have outliers. Utah vs California. But Nintendo of America is making decisions based on national trends.

But I think the idea that NOA has updated their content guidelines to reflect this growing shift is not unlikely, and is a pretty reasonable explanation as to what is happening here.

Damn, I was so looking forward Death end re;Quest: Code Z, and the Hyperdimension Neptunia Trilogy if it came out physically as well.
Hopefully the developers do right by the fans and update the Japanese version to have english subs?

@LavenderShroud

Your reasoning is sound, but I think I might not of expressed my core argument as strongly as I would like.

My argument is that BECAUSE content more questionable then this exists on the E-shop already, it suggests their might be a shift in NOA's guidance towards this type of content. This would be consistent which a broader shift in US, where books that were fine to publish 5 years ago are now being pulled from shelves.

The terms "Christian Nationalism" doesn't single out a political party, it simply means that the most common reason that books and other media are facing increased scrutiny is that they violate national Cristian values.

I don't consider that statement contraveral, but I understand that might be because as someone not from or invested in the US, I see things from a much farther removed paradigm.

Edit: Honestly, I hope you're right and I'm completely off base here. I very well may be. I really appreciate people like you who take the time to attempt to inform my opinion. Thank you!

Hopefully we’ll still at least get IF games on Nintendo. The only next one is Neptunia Riders vs. Dogoos, I hope this doesn’t mean they’ll give up with Nintendo entirely. I really like what they make. Hmmm. I wonder if this is why they’re suddenly releasing their games on Xbox? I wonder if this means they’ll end up releasing the Re;Birth trilogy on PS4 in the west after all? Hopefully something!

I skipped to the end of the comments and now they're about Christian nationalism and stuff

What the hell happened in here lol

Guess I'm sticking with my Vita copies of the Re;Birth trilogy.

I’d like to know the specifics because something ain’t adding up, between NoJ being seemingly fine, and especially given some of the trashy games they still allow on the eShop

This is embarrassing on Nintendo's end if true, and horrible for game developers. Very sad

Ugh, I'm reading a lot of political conjecture in the comments... Theories, however sound they may very will be are exactly that: theories. I'd rather hear it from the source. I'd like to know myself, because their answer wasn't exactly transparent, but I'm not gonna assume to get my answer.

In response to a request for additional information, an Idea Factory International representative told Gematsu, “Although the Neptunia series and the Death End re;Quest series have prior entries on western Switch eShops, we were informed that the contents of the Re;Birth trilogy and Death end re;Quest: Code Z did not comply with Nintendo Guidelines. As a result, we are unable to release these titles physically or digitally for Nintendo Switch.”

Getting Sony 2018/19 vibes.

@HeadPirate
I think you're overlooking some fairly crucial stuff when it comes to your conclusion. In the past few years, Nintendo localizations have become extremely stringent regarding their content. They don't want even a pinch of anything that could be construed as offensive. Which is how we end up with stuff like Pikmin 2 on Switch removing references to gambling and gender roles/gendered language (https://nichegamer.com/pikmin-1-2-removes-references-to-gambling-gendered-language/), or The Thousand-Year Door getting hit with an extensive number of changes like removing basically any jokes about weight or changing all instances of words like "crazy" or "nuts," to the point it can obfuscate the meaning of the text. MarioWiki has an extensive list of all the changes made to its script; it also notes that similar changes in wording were made to Super Mario RPG. That kind of censorship is not characteristic of the rightwing. And coupled with the fact that, just a few short months ago, Nintendo was advertising games like "Date Everything" in their most recent presentation...I really don't think there's reason to believe they've taken a complete 180° in their stance since then over the results of the US election. If I remember correctly, Washington moved the least to the right out of any state in the country in the results as well, so I feel like that would lend at least a bit of credence to the idea that Nintendo of America wouldn't change policies over its outcome, given they're based there.

NoA strikes again. I thought we were pass this already.

@Coalescence lmao! Outrage everywhere isn’t it?

@PikaPhantom

While I very much apricate what you are saying, I think the disconnect here comes from how "right wing" and "right wing Christian Nationalism" are not the same thing.

Christen Nationalism is ideology that believes we should be beholden to Christen values, but only our national values (rather then ruled by the central Christian authority). "Right Wing" means support of a King or traditional rule. So "right wing Christian Nationalism" is the idea that a single interpretation of Christian ideas should be imposed universally by the established leadership. Left wing Christian nationalism, which is totally a thing, would instead suggest that Chastain values should be imposed by local leadership, not a central authority.

The type of changes you are talking about are based on inclusive vs. non-inclusive ideology, and are not the "opposite" of Christian nationalism. Both can happen at the same time, you don't have to pick on or the other.

The main disconnect seems to be people seeing the words "right wing" and thinking that means a right wing political ideology vs. a left wing political ideology, rather then the accurate way of using the English language to differentiate between a group that seeks central authority over a group that seeks distributed authority.

It's also important to note that the decisions to make changes to the content of Nintendo games and what is part of a Nintendo direct are made by the Japanese game developer "Nintendo". They had no hand in the decision not to allow these game on the e-shop in the US or the UK, and these games are currently available on the e-shop run by that company. "Nintendo of America" is the one blocking these games.

That was actually my key point; it's important to understand what NINTENDO does, and what Nintendo of America does, to better understand who is behind this decision.

@Smackosynthesis every time there's a game that gets censored or a Japanese titles gets canceled for "reasons". The conversation about it always turns into a mess.

@IceEarthGuard @Lightgazer

This isn't performance related.

There is a game called "REDNEG ALLSTARS" which is also cancelled in the west on Switch due to "expression restrictions"

Looks like NoA and NoE have new content guidelines.

i dont think censorship has anything to do with these games not coming to switch like some people on here stated its because these games are running like crap on the switch reason why nintendo is putting their foot down with these lazy ports.

@RiasGremory Although there was apparently a patch on the Japanese versions that fixed a lot of it. So if that were the case, the western versions would likely already have it added in by default, right?

@TheTony316 Yeah I saw other gameplay videos, it's not because of the performance.

I don't know if it's confirmed, but I read a comment somewhere else about a new guideline saying "they revised their guidelines to not allow sexualization of what can appear as underaged characters."

Which is a good thing, but there is a catch, a guideline like that can be abusive/not used properly when it comes to Anime style art games and cause problems when they shouldn't, and Hyperdimension Neptunia and Death end re;Quest does not violate this guideline.

@IceEarthGuard I love anime style games. But yeah, regulations like that can definitely be abused because most of the time the characters do look young. *****.

@IceEarthGuard that's the problem with regulations like this. it's a good thing in theory, but in practice, it'll be up to whatever agent is in charge of approving what "looks underrage", specially when highly stylized art is involved.

@LavenderShroud well thankfully most devs know to put the age of those characters either on their info on stat menu like on most games

@ottoecamn the only thing that would give them more headaches is loli characters.

@Chimichanga were pass --> were passed

@PikaPhantom Actually, it is. All manner of wings have been doing that since about 70 years ago, but conservatives entrenched themselves on that type of content moderation so much better that young folks today aren't cognitive of it.

Wait, THAT'S what this series is about? Interesting.

Hmmm. To import or not to import. That is the question.

Damn, I started collecting the Death End games on switch after I got the PS4 version of the first one for like $5. Now I guess I'll buy the stupid second one & eventually Code Z on my PS5 cause my dumb brain wants the whole set on one console. Not a huge loss imo cause they ran pretty bad on switch tbh, for no good reason considering it's like PS2/PS3 style graphics.

@MeloMan

Haha, Leanbox is Xbox, Vert is a huge breasted "audit" who is heavy into "gamer" culture and shooters, Lowee (Wii) is Nintendo, which is why Blanch if always worried about how she looks like a child. Lastation (PlayStation) is Sony, and Noir is a closeted nerd who always has to look "cool". Neptune is literally the Saga Neptune. Even the colors line up!

The sisters are the portable systems. The DS is Ram and Rom who are twins and really childlike, Uni is the PSP and always trying to be just like her big Sister, Vert has no sister and is really jealous of the others, and Nepgear is the Game Gear.

I have a friend who is CRAZY into this series and played it for over a decade without realizing any of that, so if that wasn't a sarcastic post, don't feel bad.

Guess somebody decided that these games are degenerate? Good thing we have wholesome games like Hentai Tennis Aces.

@Zadaris Hentai Golf is good too! I haven’t played it myself though.

@HeadPirate @HeadPirate

It's important to understand because decisions like this are often due to the increasing right wing Christian nationalism in the US that says sex is bad (but graphic violence is fine) and not Nintendo trying to protect their "kid friendly" image globally. The Japanese Switch e-ship has extremely sexualized games, and many don't even contain the warning tags we see in the US ... because in Japan, that content is generally not seen as "dangerous" to children.

From someone inside the U.S. let me assure you, these changes are not being made to appease Christian conservatives. Conservatives, and especially Christian ones, haven't had that type of influence for over 20 years. There aren't enough of them anymore.

Corporate power in the U.S. rests very firmly in the hands of militant left-wing ideologues. Those who would cancel anyone or anything that doesn't align with their neo puritanical outlook on the world they hope to transform. One of their chief targets is anything that appeases the male appetite for female beauty. This is why you hear things like people complaining so vehemently about female characters in Marvel Rivals. There is no lewdness, or exposed flesh in that game. All the characters are fully clothed, but they are traditionally attractive. This is a threat to the groups I am speaking about. Those who would hijack and transform western culture according to their own image.

People often wonder why companies bow to the vocal demands and outrage of these zealots, but it is partially because, they have infiltrated the companies themselves, attained positions of authority and influence and only hire others who align with their socio-political views.

Yeah I don’t buy it. Last week I saw something on the Eshop that is way more offensive than NeP games lol.

What is it with Nintendo trying to piss off literally every avenue of gamers online this year right before their next big console launch? First - everyone, from developers to players, are getting tired of them dragging the whole generation with their ancient Jurassic tablet this year, then the whole industry getting rilled up from Palworld and the whole lawsuit shinenanigans, taking down roms and emulators which rile up big youtubers to go against you(I understand them doing this, but it still creates a chunk of people yelling at them online) and now they're going after niche Japanese games again? I noticed this with some games recently like "Yuuna and the Haunted Hot Spring" being released on PS and skipping Switch in the US for no apperant reason but now it's becoming even more prevelant.

Neptunia games are so tame, they're rated T, why the hell would you block multiple games that are ready for release from a partner you were just showing off as "building relationships" with during your last investors meeting? I was waiting for proper Neptunia games to finally hit the Switch, I wanted to play the first 3 games and as soon as we're finally close to getting them - this BS happens, I can't play them anymore unless I go to different avenues like PC or PS Vita because Nintendo apparently wants to play my parent and tell me what I can and can't play. They allow literal garbage like AI picture hentai slop that gets rereleased every week yet real games get told to f&ck off.

Extremely dissapointed with this news and it's now a definite sour spot for the upcoming next generation of Nintendo.

@LavenderShroud
A mean Neptunia x Senran had a character dropping s**t with almost every breath (of course she was a villain so you’d kinda expect it) still rated T and i honestly think the series is just fine at a T rating. Or did they forget not everyone is such purityrannical prude?

i think this getting blown out of proportions i dont think nintendo is going back the old censorship ways look how successful the switch has been by letting 3rd partys do their own thing the right way and i do agree underage characters needs to be handle more properly

@Itachi2099 Could be them getting arrogant, but this seems to rest solely on their Western branches and not NCL over in Japan. I think Nintendo of America is also the division that commandeers their legal department, since they're almost always the one named in Nintendo's litigation. The Palworld suit is a rare exception to that, but sensationalism blew that out of proportion compared to the low damages Nintendo is asking of Pocketpair (no, it won't set the precedent of only Nintendo being able to use certain mechanics in monster catching games, they're not gonna go after random indies, and they're not gonna establish a monopoly on the genre).

In general, Nintendo of America seems to be run worse than the rest of the company, given they're also the division of Nintendo that's made headlines for workplace issues, and they seem to have grown a lot lately in a way that's translating over into worse quality control. Little bloopers in their trailers (Brothership had a single frame spoiling part of the endgame in its overview trailer), issues with their interview translations, more problems with Treehouse beyond censorship such as typos...that sort of thing

these games were rated T on the vita...

Thank goodness all of the Neptunia games are on Steam, cheaper than they would ever be on the Switch, and run fine on my laptop. Disappointed for sure, but I'm not surprised. Between this and deciding that the west doesn't want EDF games (aside from that terrible World Brothers game) I'm thinking it's about time to hang up my switch and wait to see if it's successor can wow me.

NoA works I guess, NoJ should be more in charge about this stuff, if ESRB already okay with it, NoA shouldn't be able to block titles to be release in usa 😕

@CrimsonDragoon the game runs great on switch look at that video that show the game running on switch
https://youtu.be/xeixd101KtQ?si=RuZ6osmTmScwyc1p

@AshFoxX I really don't understand the EDF release problem, I want to play the games and I bought world brother and it wasn't the edf I wanted 😁 noe and noa made a really bad decision with the edf

@PikaPhantom may be it's because it's run by bowser 😉

Nintendo has became a second Sony. Worldwide, not in Japan, at least... Though, it's still really awful, anyway! I was happy to be a Nintendo Switch user for the last years, but now... Thanks to NoA and NoE, I'm disappointed in Nintendo now.
Now I'll try to save money to become a PC user in the future.
Also, where are all that pro-censorship crowd, huh?

@Vyacheslav333

Second Sony? Nintendo is just going back to its roots. They're the "original" Sony when it comes to censorship, lol.

Regarding Death End Z. It scored a 29/40 in Famitsu so no great loss really. If you cant even hit 30 in a publication as sketchy as the big F then something went very wrong.

Also, I cant forgive the horrendous port performances of DE2 and NepV2 on switch. IF had their chance and spoilt it.

@RiasGremory @IceEarthGuard "they revised their guidelines to not allow sexualization of what can appear as underaged characters.

Which is a good thing, but... "

I'm gonna have to stop ya right there. It's NOT a good thing. Telling an artist how they are allowed to make their art is going to cause more issues, not helped by Nintendo making their own RPGs for teens and adults using lolicon tropes as is because japan and otaku tropes like to have their fun in that way.
An artist shouldn't be stifled because someone with certain closet feelings tells them they can't do it. The consumer should have the right to choose if games are made with them in mind or not, assuming the art used ethical means to be made,of course.
Nintendo should not be a middle man on content inclusions for 3rd parties, especially not with the AI slop breaching their shop and burying actual artistic endeavors. (Why aren't they taking that down?!?!)

@TheTony316 Ah, yeah. 😅

@Grail_Quest Makes ya wonder how they are gonna go through with future Monolith and Fire Emblem games.... Block those too?

@HeadPirate Also wanna note, "Lowee" is a pun on loli.
So yeah, all future goddesses that come from that land are cursed to be no taller than 4''5! 🤣🤣🤣😭😭😭

@PessitheMystic It runs super bad. Theres porn games on the Switch so it can't be about censorship.

@Andyv01 Those two games ran perfectly fine on Switch. Trust me, I’d know. Plus, I’ve never seen anything actually rate low with Famitsu. I’ve always assumed they give everything high marks and weren’t as picky as western reviews.

@IpsoFacto I mean it literally says ‘content’. What more do you need explained to you?
And they’re also not ‘real’ porn/hentai games, Nintendo would never allow the stuff that you find on Steam.

Between this and the Palworld stuff, it looks like I will not be buying a Switch 2. Part of why I bought the Switch in the first place is because it was like a proper successor to the Vita, and Nintendo was allowing games that Sony wouldn't (Omega Labyrinth, anyone?).

But with all this stuff happening as of late, it is clear that Nintendo has lost their way. Luckily I have a Gaming PC and a Steam Deck too, I guess.

@LavenderShroud

I appreciate your opinion but i've owned and completed them both and personally couldn't tolerate their overworld frame rates. Im not usually a critic of ports onto Nintendo systems (I loved 3DS snake eater!) but for me these ports were shoddy at best and far from fine.

@Samalik

Makes ya wonder how they are gonna go through with future Monolith and Fire Emblem games.... Block those too?

They won't block those franchises in the west, but they will likely begin to sterilize content from them that would be traditionally alluring. Fan service that focuses on female characters will not be tolerated. In order to avoid criticism of "censorship" that could impact sales in the west, they will begin focusing on controlling this type of content at the conceptual and design stages within Japan. They make more money selling to the global market than they do within Japan. They will allow western offices to dictate terms.

@Samalik Well that was what I was getting at in my comment. I agree with you. I guess I should have been more clear. What I meant about it "being good," I was thinking about the more realistic stuff. But then again I doubt something like that will get submitted to the Nintendo platform, so it's pretty much useless that guideline, if they have it implemented that is.

@Itachi2099 same, even with the Rom and Palworld stuff, that was on their legal side.

but this legits gives me pause about getting their next console. this does seem to be NoA's doing, So I really hope the HQ in Japan starts putting their foot down like they did at the start of the Switch's generation (If you'll remember, the 3DS and Wii U days were pretty awful with censorship. the Switch's first year weren't perfect but they were MUCH better with allowing Japanese Devs the freedom to make games as they wanted. Now it looks like we're going back again).

I'm gonna wait a bit and see how things go with launch line up for the next console, but I'm legit considering a Steam Deck now.

@SpiderPirate4 "And nothing of value was lost."

Freedom was lost. They are going to start censoring games more and more.

@ottoecamn California specifically has that mentality towards anything manga or anime related.

said the company with a plague of bespoke "hentai" games and "triple A clocks", which werent very good mind, clogging the front page

This makes me a sad nep

With all the weird stuff on the eShop, what could possibly have caused such a brutal cancellation?

I hope we get in insider scoop with some specifics eventually.

If this is about the underage stuff, then I welcome it. But you have to be consistently and stop other degenerate stuff too, so please no bear hugging games Nintendo.

Incredibly sad that you guys think, or even believe to know, that NoA and NoE (or NUK as one put it for some reason) somehow act solely as distributers and publishers of Nintendo hardware and software. No. Nintendo of Japan runs the show, and there are no regulations that prevent this; it's how the company has run its international branches since the get go. NoA might have decided to change some sort of content guidelines, but no Japanese company lets its western branch tell it how business will be done; Gary Bowser or whomever got this passed did so with tacit approval from NCL.

NCL doesn't permit total independence among its international branches, or we wouldn't have missed out on so many first party titles until the Wii U and 3DS era (and I'm not talking about titles that ran amok of the early NES/SNES content guidelines; remember when Japan thought Americans couldn't handle console rpgs, despite console rpgs being exclusively based on crpgs from the west like Ultima?). Given that Japanese companies have at times prevented publication of objectionable media to the west based on differing cultural views, and the fact that the West is a far larger market than NCL's home market, without any evidence of NCL objecting to a rogue Gary Bowser, we have no reason to believe NCL is anything but happy with these decisions. They clearly believe what NoA has changed to the guidelines, whatever they may be, will protect their brand in the west, which means international revenue will stay the course and not lead to them losing face. NCL's honchos don't care about otakus getting fan service, they care about money. Letting niche Otaku rpgs or visual novels be published in Japan makes them money in that market. Allowing people to publish them in other markets might cause controversy, which would cause them to lose money. It's silly in this day and age, especially since practically every country has a ratings board that every store abides by, other than, ironically, the digital store fronts themselves.

Remember, all those game changes that were made during the wii u/3ds era couldn't have happened without NCL's complete and full cooperation. Treehouse wasn't reverse engineering those games after all, and they don't have the development team to make every change they did. Even today, much of the changes have to be made with NCL's involvement. This is a Nintendo as a whole problem, even if it's only affecting us in the West. All that it means is that Nintendo is, again, a Japanese company: they have a certain set of rules for their market, and a different set of rules for others.

I hope more news comes out for this, but even more so, I really hope people stop deifying Nintendo of Japan as though somehow they're saints in all this. I can't tell if that's just bizarre weeabooism, western paternalism, or just straight up racism.

@metaleggman
Yeah, "this is Nintendo of America's doing and not Nintendo of Japan's", was my favourite copium when they started to implement modern audience stuff into the games. I read the same copium quite alot. Then The Thousand Year Door happened and I knew that Japan is fully on board with it.

@PessitheMystic Nintendo Europe allowed Lust for Darkness and those Funbox minigame collections featuring the heroines from Lune's visual novels. Yes, naked in their physical releases

@Andyv01 Nep's footage was running on an emulator, from what I saw from others

@Samalik good to know, been looking for a game to play with the family over Christmas. Thanks.

@CrimsonDragoon please read the comments of videos before jumping to conclusions. That person's video is either messed up or from an emulator. The switch performance is actually fine. Jump to 3 minutes in this video if you don't believe me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xeixd101KtQ&ab_channel=WalttheDog

Come on guys. Do some research, even two minutes of research before taking what people say online at face value.

@jesse_dylan Nintendo isn't the problem. The problem is in the changes made to the rating system in America and Europe. They made it stricter, and it simply wouldn't be profitable for Idea Factory to release the games in the West on the Switch.

@AlexUbel
Lmao, how come these strict rules didn't stop the releases on Sony?

@mohok
I think some of the impressions were also from early japanese versions of the game (pre-patch) though i would assume that a theoretical western release would have said patches already included.

@Arawn93
Thats what is confusing me, and while i imagine none of these "hentai" games actually have any H-scenes the stuff in them neither do the Nep games (iirc most of them are T-rated) i havent played Death end so i cant speak for that but did play some of the Neptunia games on vita.

@AlexUbel yeah, I think people miss this important fact when they're on their anti-"censorship" high horses...

@jesse_dylan
wasnt the issue that these were specifically cancelled on switch, same with how some of the costume DLC to an upcoming one was cancelled specifically for the switch release but not the playstation version.

@Mgalens it’s just odd in that case since there’s apparently so much actual soft core hentai sort of stuff on the eshop already.

@jesse_dylan
does make me curious if this is some kind of huge overcorrection to letting those games flood the eshop (will have to see if they still keep coming over the next few months) despite the main complaint of those kinds of games being more that they were emblematic of larger problems with the eshop.

@Mgalens Right--a total misassessment of the actual problem, as usual--very likely

I’d like to point out that Nintendo UK is just a branch of Nintendo of Europe, so they’re the ones that handle distribution, marketing and customer service for Nintendo products in the UK, as well as the British English localizations for Nintendo games if I’m not mistaken. They don’t have a say on which games get released or not. That’s done by Nintendo of Europe, which then lets the other European branches (including Nintendo UK) know.