The first Evenicle managed to release on Steam during a pivotal time when Valve had said that anything that wasn’t illegal or “straight up trolling” would be allowed on the store. This also came directly after one of Valve’s staff stood up on stage and said that they weren’t going to be the “taste police”. That, however, didn’t last long. While a few games managed to release on Steam unscathed and uncensored, such as Evenicle, many others since then have not. Evenicle 2 is one of those games that was unable to escape Valve’s new censorship policies.
In a couple of threads made on August 18th, 2020 via Twitter, the game’s developer, Alicesoft, first explained that the release of Evenicle 2: Clinical Trial Edition contains mosaics due to Japanese law.
The only thing we can say for the moment is that we hear your voices loud and clear and we’re investigating a way to satisfy your wishes. It won’t be simple but fingers crossed (although Hannies don’t have any), you can be sure we’ll keep looking carefully over this matter!
— Alicesoft Official (@Alicesoft_en) August 18, 2020
If they can find a publisher to publish the game outside of Japan, then they can release a version without the mosaics.
Sometimes uncensored patches are released as well to remove the mosaics for the Western audience.
However, mosaics aren’t much of a problem compared to another big issue: cut content.
Alicesoft acknowledged that in order to get Evenicle 2 published on Steam, they had to censored a sex scene between Alex and Kano.
Now, it’s time for the big 2nd topic: cut content!
Again, there have been many comments on the matter, so let’s tackle it directly.
Yes, you heard it and sadly it’s true: Evenicle 2 – Clinical Trial Edition on Steam is missing one explicit scene that was in the original. pic.twitter.com/3FOctjnBgg
— Alicesoft Official (@Alicesoft_en) August 18, 2020
This is the only content that has been removed from the Clinical Trial Edition, and we’re mildly (keyword: mildly) optimist that it will be the only change from the original that will be also present in the full game we’re working to release on Steam in the future.
— Alicesoft Official (@Alicesoft_en) August 18, 2020
I’m talking with multiple digital distribution companies to try secure a way to let you have a fully uncut version of the full game on a different platform. So again, please keep your fingers crossed (I sure will)!
— Alicesoft Official (@Alicesoft_en) August 18, 2020
At least Alicesoft is in talks with other distritbutors so that gamers can purchase a version of the game that isn’t hacked down and butchered to meet the tenuous and ever-tightening rules set by Valve’s ideologically-driven staff.
Many other games have also had to either censor, remove, or alter content to appease Valve’s staff in order to secure a release on Steam.
Simon Creative, for instance, had to completely remove an entire character from the all-ages version of Food Girls because Valve didn’t like the fact that the character was a loli.
Lilith also had to remove some of the violent and sexual imagery from the Taimanin Asagi: Trial Edition in order to secure a release on Steam.
The same thing happened with both Saya no Uta Remastered and Jianshi x Daoshi.
Expect the censorship requirements to keep escalating now that Valve’s staff knows that they can force Asian developers to butcher their games in order to make it onto Steam. Characters, scenes, and concepts are all fair game for censorship and now that this has become the standard don’t expect it to change.
(Thanks for the news tip Master Nemesis)