>>714987995
That’s because it was never meant to be a franchise in the first place. The first game was a one and done kind of game, but Mel and only Mel wanted more out of the franchise so he pushed to have all the other stuff made. Him bending the knee to california was just him being forced to obey orders from above. Of course he doesn’t give a fuck about global audiences or censorship, he only wants to see young girls in underwear just like the rest of us. But california is a tyrant that forces devs to conform and stand in line. The answer to this is for Japan to encourage their home devs to stop catering so much to global markets and focus more on their loyal and longtime consumers right at home in Japan. Japanese devs trying to “Americanize” their franchises ultimately hurts both the studios and especially the gamers both in Japan and America. Americans buy Japanese games because they want to experience Japanese games. If Americans wanted Americanized games, they would buy American games. The Americans who complain about sexualization and problematic content in Japanese videogames are an extremely small minority of Americans who hold no value or power that concerns studios. Studios only listen to this small minority of haters because they choose to. Haters only have as much power as studios give them. If Gust really wants to appeal to Americans for whatever reason they should just make a whole new franchise instead of corrupting their longtime beloved franchises. Notice how terribly Atelier Yumia sold. This will become the standard if Japanese devs keep trying to reach a “global audience”.
As the saying goes, a game for everyone is a game for no one