The global version of Blue Archive has been accused of censorship, after the program director promised no alterations to the art. In a comparison image from a player, it appears that the scene in question has been cropped / zoomed in for territories which are not Korea or Japan.
A comment says Blue Archive is already a niche game, and this censorship wouldn’t suddenly bring in more players to the global version. “This additional discussion and attention would never have happened if they didn’t do this,” another observes, which is true enough. Across two threads, the issue has garnered almost 1000 comments adding in their two cents at time of writing.
You can find plenty comments complaining about the community at large being “prudish”, while others yet grimly noting that this is merely the start. After all, the player is supposed to be a “sensei”, a teacher / authority figure, and the playable characters are “students”. When you remember that one of the future events features the students in bunny girl outfits, you can imagine the potential for more alterations. That’s not even mentioning any already existing “objectionable” designs, or the events in between the bunny girls.
Whichever side you’re on, the main takeaway is that players are deeming this a breach of trust from a broken promise. We’ll see if Nexon will address these concerns.
UPDATE 16/12/2021
- 14:58: The game has been review bombed to a score of 2.0 on the Google Play Store.
- 15:18: An official response was released.