No Shredded Clothes, No Game

Source: Kotaku

Battle damage brawler Ikki Tousen: Shining Dragon is known just for that: battle damage. And since it's girls in sailor suits and maid outfits, damage comes in the form of shredded clothing.

Known as Battle Vixens in the West, Ikki Tousen is also a manga and animated series. The above image is taken from the anime's third season, Ikki Tousen: Great Guardians.

Publisher Valcon Games was was planning on bringing PS2 game Ikki Tousen: Shining Dragon to the West, but those plans are in a holding pattern. Blame a "Mature" rating from the ESRB, which pumped out this description:

All the female characters are dressed in short skirts or skirts with a high slit. The game features frequent depictions of panties, cleavage, and exaggerated breast jiggle. A special attack move allows some characters to rip opponents' clothes to shreds – exposing even more of the female anatomy (legs, breasts, partial buttocks).

And that right there, that dreaded "M" rating seems to have sealed the game's fate in the West. Colin Goron, Co-founder of Valcon Games, put it best: "We could remove all the stuff that makes it an M-rated game, but then we don't think the customers would be very happy buying an Ikki Tousen game without all the shredded clothing." Talk about knowing your audience.

Rating something "M" almost means nothing. People will just get older people to buy it. Most orders are online now anyways.

Seems a harmless game to me. A little clothes shredding, a little jiggling, big deal. At least nobody is raping anyone.