Bloodstained Feedback Survey is live!

I just hope that this feedback does not end up causing new censorship in the game as in the case of the Vepar. Sometimes it's better for developers to make all the decisions without external pressures.

I was worried about answering that question, made me wonder if there was some sort of "secret" outcome kinda like the Sword or Whip thing

That answer option actually answers some questions I've had for a while. It would seem that the co-op, at the moment, is redistricted to the challenge and boss-rush modes and not an option in the main game yet.

I completely agree, I'd love to see coop fully implemented across the main game. But, reading between the lines, it looks like we'll have to wait for a DLC or later update... castle-editor would be awesome too!

Yes to this 💯

Hey Taburisu, the Vepar changes definitely weren't intended as censorship, our goal was to actually make her more seductive and realistic. If we had wanted to censor her we would have given her a seaweed bikini or something lol. But like I've told others elsewhere, we will never let external agendas or activism of any kind influence the way we make the game. Iga is making the game he wants, with 100% support from me and 505 Games, no doubt about it.

reynoldszahl thanks for taking the time, glad you enjoyed filling out the survey!

Monomona I personally agree with what you're saying, and I'm looking forward to sharing survey results and our plans with everyone as soon as I can.

The change was for sure related to the feedback from fans, they heard and agreed with them, but the question is of "censorship" itself. Is an intended artistic change censorship or just an artistic change?

If someone designs something, anything a certain way before it is ready to be released and desires to change it to improve their art, are they not able to in the event that it involves breasts or nudity? Those features, just because they're the parts of a body that they are, seem to become locked in arbitrarily because of the sensitivity behind changing what they were at first showing. The shading, ship design, the dragon being added on the side, I believe even the sky and we're hearing about the water being all changed, and that seems to be all fine, but if it's the chest of the monster it's out of bounds artistically because there is a potential perception of censorship?

It just seems silly to apply that standard to one thing, and to not allow a design change for any stated reason under the assumption that it had to be censoring because it's breasts.

Things change during development all the time its just that Bloodstained, due to it being crowdfunded, is one of the rare instances where we've gotten access to stuff extremely early in development. It's not censorship (not even self-censorship) if they changed it out of their own accord. They think this new version fits better with the rest of the artstyle (agreed) and looks way better, more detailed, and less goofy (yes, yes, YES).

When they changed the look of the entire ship level between the 2016 demo and the 2018 trailer nobody cried "censorship!" because of that change which, objectively, is a bigger one than Vepar. The only reason you're saying the Vepar change was censorship was because of boobs.

If we go by your way of thinking it could also work the other way around, you asking to have the old Vepar back even though Iga wanted that change could be considered censorship then. 

TL;DR Vepar was changed because they wanted to. It is not censorship.

I don't think he misrepresented. Look at this way, this game is Iga's work of art if you will. He made the decision to reduce the breast size, however, because he did it in the midst of people requesting the reduction it gets presented as them doing it as a form of self-censorship. There is no consideration here that just maybe Iga and his team just felt the over large bust just didn't fit their vision and decided to tone it down to fit their vision and their artistic style. At what point, do you break the line between the developer just adjusting their art cause it fits better vs when it's being done for self-censorship?

Aztec's post is an example of this, but the feedback specifically taken was not about their offensiveness and sexualization, but because they were garishly colorful and animated weirdly, looking out of place with the gothic/scary aesthetic the game was otherwise going for. I saw many of these comments myself while I was moderating the E3 demo feedback discussion. Complaints about just the size of them etc or sexuality were mostly moved to a different thread entirely, as it happens.

I realize of course that you can look at this and still say "well, they said that but didn't mean it, it's still the size/sexual nature that bothered them", and I mean sure, that's possible, but in the end it wouldn't matter because what was said at face value was what the developers agreed with and moved ahead on. Their only channel to receive that feedback at the time was Mana, who summarized and reported on it, and I can't imagine she word for word gave them the "angry about boobs" earfuls. Most likely just about color, aesthetic and atmosphere. Vepar is supposed to be pretty scary, but I have to admit, much as I did like the previous design more, it made me chuckle more than afraid.

edit: oh also I don't think they give a darn about the current climate and all that.