Atlus recently announced Persona 5: The Royal. It’s a new entry for Persona 5, taking all of the base gameplay and then adding new characters and gameplay elements to the story, effectively turning it into a brand new experience. The upcoming game is due out in Japan on October 31st, 2019 for the PS4 and is scheduled to release in the West in 2020. However, there are already organized groups of Social Justice Warriors trying to get the game censored.
It started with the reveal trailer, which dropped on April 24th, 2019. You can check out the trailer below courtesy of GameSpot Trailers.
As reported by Personal Central, there are new scenarios to encounter in the third semester, new mini-games to play like darts and pool, new places to explore in the Kichijoji map, new characters to meet like school counselor Takuto Maruki, and new cinematics to watch, but all of the new additions to Persona 5: The Royal were completely overlooked by groups like ResetEra and the social media Social Justice mobs all due to a single character: Kasumi Yoshizawa.
Things gained traction over on ResetEra in a thread titled “Should Persona 5 Royal Remove The Problematic Stuff In This New Version?”.
The forum group came to a consensus that Persona 5: The Royal needed to be censored and have certain content removed, which included the gay characters whose portrayals they felt were “problematic”, as well as covering up the characters and removing any innuendo directed to characters like Ann.
It wasn’t long before the contents of the forum began to spill out over into Twitter.
YouTuber Hero Hei did a quick 10 minute video covering how the game was coming under attack from the woke brigade who now want the title censored before it’s even been released.
The new female character was the main focus of criticism from Twitter’s SJW denizens. They targeted her because her thighs are exposed in her leotard outfit, which plays up to the fact that she’s a rhythmic gymnast. Some went as far as to call Atlus “cowards” for not covering Kasumi up like one of the burqa battlers from Mortal Kombat 11.
atlus cowards! atlus cowards! atlus cowards!
— 🥀琳 (@EENlX) April 24, 2019
Another Social Justice Warrior called Kasumi’s original design “horny” and proceeded to offer an edited version, putting the rhythmic gymnast in a tutu and leggings.
quick edit because atlus is back on their horny bullshit again pic.twitter.com/qXGWPKq5yd
— DRINK YOUR RESPECT GIRLS JUICE (@ubefish) April 24, 2019
wtf is this design…why is it so much more skimpy than the male protag UGH persona sucks pic.twitter.com/unPhxg48GQ
— kogane lovemail (@tsutsuchuu) April 24, 2019
…Atlus why is the new Persona 5 character not wearing any pants… I thought all the skin tight bodysuits on the female characters was bad enough but at least their LEGS were covered… #P5R pic.twitter.com/CFHnmrRGGE
— elena the nerd (@AceBystander) April 24, 2019
Ha ha. What a silly joke! In the trailer for Persona 5 Royal, Atlus forgot to give Kasumi pants for her Phantom Thief outfit. Hah! Those jokesters. What a fun prank to play on a high schooler. Very excited to see her definitely wearing pants in the final game.
— 🛡️Jenny The Dark Wizard, Catwoman With Legs (@DenimBubblegum) April 24, 2019
okay, do new persona girl
her legs are like, 66% of her hieght and that makes me hella uncomfortable
if your legs were that long you couldn’t find leggings either
— 💙Bluwu💙 (@Amateur_Writer_) April 24, 2019
Thankfully there were people quick to fire back after the SJWs helped to get certain characters and themes trending on social media. Satomii was quick to call out these SJWs for their “sexist” standards.
Let me add that this whole thing feels a bit sexist
Like have you people ever gone to a beach or something?
Not everyone that sees a foot of thigh skin is gonna go “OHFUCK HUBBA HUBBA”
Like…girls have legs. Legs have skin.
It’s a thing that exists
— Satomii🌈 (@SatomiiSenpaii) April 24, 2019
Another meme from user BesuBaru ended up going viral, where he criticized the Social Justice Warriors for covering up the character and claiming they “fixed” the design. It ended up getting more than 4,000 likes, nearly double what the SJW posts were receiving.
These same people would go up into flames when I edit the red nose out of their Tumblr art, or their MHA Deku fat pube fanart, and then claimed that I fixed it, so why should they act in complete hipocrisy.
— ベスバル-君 (BesuBaru) (@BesuBaru) April 24, 2019
Ultimately there’s a battle going on for the soul of gaming, and gamers are fighting back against the SJW menace with all their heart to preserve its creative integrity.
They seem to be standing up against the calls for censorship of Persona 5: The Royal, but it remains to be seen if the pushback will be enough to keep the developers from kowtowing to the minions of the intersectional miasma that has brought a putrid and foul stench of sociopolitical corruption to the realm of gaming.
For instance, ResetEra’s misrepresentation of the Japanese version of Catherine: Full Body has left the Western localization up in the air in terms of whether or not it will be censored following the complaints of SJWs. The voice actress working on the Western version acknowledged the SJW complaints and said they would be addressing the bigotry in the game. So it’s a toss-up if that means the game will be censored.
We do know that the Ryu Ga Gokutu studio did censor the remaster of Yakuza 3 to remove the cross-dresser sub-plot and the Japanese imperial flag. So it’s not out of the question that the pressures from the politically correct parish could end up affecting Persona 5: The Royal.
Hopefully that’s not the case and the pushback against the SJWs calling for censorship wins out over all of their yelling. One major drawback is that SJWs have Sony on their side, and if Sony dictates that Atlus has to cover up Kasumi’s legs, then they will have to comply with the PS4 censorship policies. Some users on Twitter are worried that they’ve already spotted signs of censorship with the girls legs being covered and a character being replaced, but these haven’t been confirmed.
Looks like P5R has already seen changes if this user is correct pic.twitter.com/KzvRs47zzk
— NepsKnight of I SWITCHED to PC (@NepsKnight) April 24, 2019
We’ll find out if any of the cries and whines have had an effect when the game launches this October in Japan.
(Thanks for the news tip GSOne, Dan, Hero Hei and Animatic)