In an interview with 4Gamer, Star Ocean 5 character designer Akira Yasuda, director Hiroshi Ogawa, and producer Shuichi Kobayashi explained that due to Western concerns about the clothing on female characters, they have altered Miki’s panties, citing an ongoing trend where designers have to make revisions for characters who show lots of skin. You can see the difference in the before and after pictures, they look more bunched up now. So why was this change made for Miki and not for Fiore, who wears a sexier outfit? Akira Yasuda explains: “Fiore uses a lot of displayed crests on her skin to cast curses. That was part of her setting.”
Here are the before and after pictures:
It should also be noted that these changes are being made to both the original Japanese release and the localized Western version of Star Ocean 5.
My take: This is an ugly situation, in more ways than one. Japanese Star Ocean fans were not too happy (warning: language) to hear their game was being changed to protect Western sensibilities. Aside from that, the change itself is ugly. Poor Miki now looks like she’s wearing diapers rather than proper underwear. What a mess.
