Criminal Girls 2: Party Favors Screens, Trailers, and Delays

By Alex Frost,
Criminal Girls 2: Party Favors (Vita), the sequel to the redemption-fan service game Criminal Girls: Invite Only (Vita), is finally due for a lot of screens, trailers, and information as the news for this game is a little old. That being said, enjoy the deluge of details that we've got for this interesting sequel from NIS America.

With Criminal Girls 2: Party Favors, you are in charge of another group of Delinquents who must go through a Reformation Program to, in effect, save their souls. These poor girls were about to be criminals but died before any one of them could ever perform their heinous act, In order to be redeemed, they must travel through and up the Hell Spire for any chance at saving themselves. You are their leader, their task master, and their "motivator." You are to escort all seven of these girls up through the Hell Spire in the hopes that each will be saved.

However, you were only supposed to be given six. Who is this seventh girl and could she possibly already be a convict? How will she interfere with the other girls' possible redemption? With each girl having a unique story, you must help them to overcome their obstacles and lead them to redemption.

For a quick intro, we have a short English trailer. Please note that due to the rating of the game (Mature), you will need to be logged in to Google to verify your age to view the trailer.


There are also a good number of screens that are available. They're shown below before we get to some of the bad news regarding this game.


Now, for the two pieces of bad news. One, the game has already been delayed from an original release date of September 20th in North America to October 11th, with NIS America citing "manufacturing delays." European regions will still get the game at its original release date of September 23rd.

Second, the game will have some censoring from the original Japanese release, with four major points of change to keep the game at a Mature rating.

1 - Redrawn art.
We had a bit more time to work on this title. We didn’t want to make any alterations to the game that would be jarring to the experience or feel “off,” so we worked with the original artist of the game who redrew the art for the Motivation scenes that might have caused issues due to their explicit nature. We didn’t want the game experience to change though, so we are also investing the extra effort into incorporating Criminal Girls 2: Party Favors’s unique Live 2D effect into the new art.

Screen 15

2 - Terminology changes.
As with the first in the series, Criminal Girls: Invite Only, “Punishment” will be framed as “Motivation,” and other terminology changes from the first game will also apply here. There may be a few other translation changes as well. This reduces the power distance between the player character and the girls in the Reformation Program and makes the activities of the game more consensual.

3 - No native language dialogue.
Like with Criminal Girls: Invite Only, we will not be dubbing the game in English. The game’s text will be in English, but the spoken dialogue will be the original Japanese voice track.

4 - No Motivation scene dialogue.
Some of this could cause an issue with power distance, or perceived consent of the activities of the game. This dialogue also represented a technical challenge to localization, because there are no subtitles. Thus, another reason this dialogue was removed was to avoid a situation of no text to accompany several lines of untranslated Japanese being spoken.
In addition to talking about the changes that were made to the Japanese release for the import to America and Europe, NIS America also release an FAQ for those interested in the changes (and why).

FAQ:
1. If you knew this game was going to get censored, why did you bring it over in the first place?
There is still a demand for the game and its content. Although some players might not be happy about the changes, we expect many will still appreciate the product for what it is and localizing it allows them the chance to enjoy the game's unique story, gameplay, and characters without needing to speak Japanese or deal with the pains of importing.

2. Why make changes to the game before it is even rated?
Two main reasons: time and budget. When we submit something to ratings boards, we need to be absolutely sure that it’s going to be the final version, or we risk costly delays and even the game not being released at all.

3. Any chance of an uncensored, unrated version being released? Maybe on PC?
Releasing an uncensored version on PC would require having the game reprogrammed and rerated. It is also against our company policy to release “unrated” games, so this possibility is quite unlikely.

4. Why not just release the game with an AO rating?
AO-rated games are not allowed on many platforms, are not carried by many typical retail outlets, and as a company we have a policy of not releasing games with an AO rating.

5. Why was the terminology changed?
Two of the main concerns that ratings boards had in regards to Criminal Girls: Invite Only were power imbalance and consent. To avoid this, we decided to change some of the terminology to reframe the situations to be accepted by the ratings boards. Criminal Girls 2: Party Favors follows the same trend for consistency.

6. What about the story and characters?
Other than some specific instances where characters’ apparent ages are mentioned, no significant changes have been made to the dialogue or story. It’s still Criminal Girls 2: Party Favors.

7. How about Criminal Girls: Invite Only uncensored on PC?
Probably not happening, either. That would require the game being rerated, reprogrammed, and retested, and, unfortunately, it also runs the risk of receiving an AO rating. In addition, almost all of those resources are going into Criminal Girls 2: Party Favors instead. We only have so many Prinnies to go around, dood!

8. Isn’t it possible that the game would have received an M from the ESRB, no changes necessary?
From our experience and the conversations we’ve had with ratings boards about the content, it is extremely unlikely that the game would have received an M (and equivalent) rating. Unfortunately, it is so unlikely that we cannot take that risk as a company.

9. But what about [Other Game]? That got an M and it was way worse!
Though the debate about precedent and what “should” qualify as AO vs. M is ongoing, the only opinion that really matters is that of the ratings boards. We can (and often do, trust me) argue our position, but at the end of the day, we have to conform with the guidance the ratings boards give us. If they inform us that a title is going to be rated a certain way, we cannot persuade them otherwise by bringing up [Other Game]. They’ve made their decision, and we have to respect that and work with it rather than against it.
Considering that AO ratings are pretty much a death cry for any game wanting to sell a single copy, and that most games with any amount of fan service coming from Japan need to have some changes made, this is looking like pretty standard fare for the genre. Having played some of the first Criminal Girls, there is definite cause for concern about an AO rating or more censorship of the game due to the nature of the game mechanics. In my experience, NIS America does the best that they can with imports from Japan and this doesn't appear to be any different. Let's all be happy that we've got another game to add to our list of previously Japanese-only games and continue to support their development.

Criminal Girls 2: Party Favors will release on the PlayStation Vita system on October 11th in North America and on September 23rd for Europe.

We've got the full list of Criminal Girls 2: Party Favors (Vita) trophies - check the list for guides to unlocking them.
Alex Frost
Written by Alex Frost
Alex has been a Newshound since early 2015 and a Game Info editor since late 2015. Although plagued by chronic pain, she enjoys being a part of TT and enjoys writing the weird stories. When not online or gaming, she's working at her paid job at a University Library.
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