Kotodama: The 7 Mysteries of Fujisawa is part visual novel, part "candy crush" like puzzle game where, in the puzzle sections, the more combos you get, the more clothes are ripped off of a young female character. This happens at a very minimum up to her wearing nothing but underwear. (I don't know if it goes beyond that, or if there's perhaps some kind of uncensored version where it goes beyond, because I haven't actually played the game.)
There's nothing wrong in such a game. What's wrong is its PEGI age classification: PEGI 12. In other words, suitable for people as young as 12.
My ass.
Would you allow your 12-year-old son to play this game?
Now, compare it to The Turing Test, which is a puzzle game played from the first-person perspective, similar in genre to the Portal series and The Talos Principle (but without being a ripoff of either one). There's nothing in this game that could be considered risqué, questionable or inappropriate to players of any age. It's a very clean and slow-paced game about solving puzzles, with some dialogue thrown in about deep philosophical questions about machine sentience.
Its PEGI age rating? PEGI 16.
Why? I don't think even they know.
By comparison, both games are ESRB rated "T" (suitable for ages 13+) in the North America, which suprises me. I'd have thought Kotodama would have gotten a "M" (17+).
ReplyDeleteIf there's a reason why The Turing Test got PEGI 16, I think it has to do with the appearance of a "gun".