Long, rage-inducing post incoming – cover your ears! (eyes?)
—
Isn’t it amazing? The famous visual novel Cross Channel is getting a Xbox360 port. And the limited edition extra is this.
The original release of Cross Channel was rated 18+ for PC. Many will add this information together with that limited edition and reach the very same impression:
“Eeew those crazy Japanese and their sex games!!”
What a perfect example of the niche that Japanese visual novels have dug themselves into, even when releasing a non-adult port of their game. When presenting visual novels to outsiders, it won’t take them long to find out that these games really originated from interactive sex stories (and mostly stayed there). And that’s a real shame, at least I believe so, as I have really come to love the medium of visual novels.
“Rage! Why present the games like this? Stupid public who don’t know anything! Visual novels are so much more than sex, you know!”
Let’s see….
The developers:
In reality the ones who do this to games like Cross Channel are the developers themselves. When looking at marketing like that, how can you blame news sites for presenting the products that way? Or the readers for getting the “wrong idea”?
Now, Cross Channel is just an easy example to bring up because of these news. I read Cross Channel myself. Even in spite of reading the version with no detailed sex scenes, it was definitely still an adult story. It also showed me a very interesting way to present and tell a story, even if the trip through it was quite long-winded at times.
FlyingShine may have had something good going there, but in its presentation they never tried to push the game as anything else but an outlet for gushing over cute girls. By reading the non 18+ version, did I miss out on anything important? No. Circumstances of the protagonist and the bloody happenings in the plot gave reasons why the game will always be for an adult audience, but in spite of that there is no reason why it would ever have to be with porn included.
And it’s the same thing for countless other VN companies out there. You have something interesting, but instead they will mostly be marketed as entertainment for lonely men/women. (And be stuffed with fluffy/racy content to live up to the hype).
Is it really needed? In some stories adult scenes may be appropriate for what the writer/artist wishes to convey. Most of the time they are just fillers.
Even games that are not 18+ will often be marketed just the same way.
Reception / The fans:
When discussing the erotic content in visual novels, it often ends with a debate on whether said content should be included or not. Sometimes the discussion is a civil one, other times not.
Many will complain that removing erotic scenes is censoring – and yeah, censorship sucks and all that. Some will even go as far as to say that removing it is crippling the involved creator’s artistic expression, but I wouldn’t go that far. That would only be true in the very (very) few cases where those scenes actually mean something.
On the flip side, how much are you crippling the creator’s artistic impression when you force erotic content in there in order for the intended audience to even look at the work?
In the case of a story like Kanon, this is said to be the case. In recent times Key has even moved on to create their games as “all ages” first, then create reprints with added sexual content to appease fans.
Then what is it when a game like Little Busters gets translated, but some of those same fans complain “that they are not doing the 18+ version, bah!”? Isn’t that editing the original product as well…?
In the end most sex scenes are just extra content, made for the enjoyment of fans. Remove them and you lose little of the story, just as you won’t loose anything by removing X standard lunch break scene. But it will have a serious impact on the image of said story.
Besides, if a writer cannot convey the feelings between two people to the reader without showing graphical sex scenes, that writer isn’t very good to begin with.
Boo, you want my precious galge banned!
I’m not writing this to try and convince anyone that all 18+ visual novels should have their adult scenes removed, or that they shouldn’t exist to begin with. I’m just saying that if you want other people to take these things seriously, at least try to do it with the right arguments, and don’t give excuses.
Besides, the erotic content itself isn’t the only result of this situation – not every visual novel in existence has to be stuffed with the tooth-rotting and predictable cuteness that is considered obligatory for the intended audience these days.
Even I think that mindless entertainment can be great, but it would be nice if visual novels could be seen as something more diverse, like other mediums are, instead of having all their titles lumped together in the same pot.
If visual novels are ever to be seen as anything else than dating games for lonely people, then it’s going to take a lot of change in how these games are presented and marketed. If a title is truly meant to be something else, then it should let go of its seedy roots and be something else. The image of the product is also part of the developer and publishers responsibility, so if you’re going to blame someone, start by blaming them. At the same time the fans need to let go of some of their preconceptions of what they believe a visual novel should be.
