With new screens comes new information on Doki Doki Majo Saiban, the somewhat infamous witch-hunting game from SNK. All we can say is that either we're reading a lot more into this due to our inferior translation abilities, or we're missing something completely. We are, however, happy to announce that there are lots of non-touching screens! We've put them after the jump, along with a few gameplay details.
So, it looks like this game may have a Pedobear alert after all, but we'd again like to stress that it's highly doubtful that we'll see a non-Japanese release on Doki Doki Majo Saiban, which may be a shame, because overall, the gameplay sounds intriguing. Maybe it's just our love for adventure games -- and this is an adventure game, just without the phallus Funghi. You, as the sullen main character, hunt around for clues on witchery, with help from your little friend, an angel who doesn't always seem to be quite happy with your behavior and performance. We're guessing that the main character may not be the best of fellows.Here's where it gets interesting (or not, depending on who you are): once a suspect is identified, your mission is to make the "crest of the witch" appear. Apparently this is accomplished by staring at the witch in a creepy way that isn't too creepy, but only just creepy enough. Then you have to touch her in order to make her witchy form appear. And you can't touch her too quickly, or she won't like you. Which, really, only makes sense. But it's a little disturbing due to the age of some of the characters. One of the suspects, as listed in Famitsu's profiles, is only fourteen years old, and that certainly raises a few brows around here. But again we stress the idea that the Japanese audience is different from the American audience, and it looks like, at least, developers who are working to create for the Japanese audience realize that not all games are for children. This is something that a lot of other developers (and ad-makers) are a little late to the party on, but SNK is just powering across the line with a lot of their recent titles.
We can't really defend Doki Doki Majo Saiban any more than we would try to defend the idea that it's okay for young models to frolic half-clothed in Japan (the law says as long as they're not "indecent," it's allowable), and we're not going to try. But we do think it's an interesting measure of how very different things are in these two countries -- and that makes it even more fascinating because there are so many games that win over both audiences. At best, we can only shake our heads and mutter something about those wacky Japanese, and eyeball the screenshots with a sort of bemused tolerance.
In the end, we're glad there's an actual story, even if it only does seem to exist to encourage the stroking of young girls.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
4-10-2007 @ 5:09PM
TheRockBoS said...
I'll be the first to say it.
"She's a witch! Burn her!"
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4-10-2007 @ 5:43PM
ermitron2 said...
SNK also updated the site with an image of all the characters you can touch and they cover most of the japanese fetish(athletic girl, intelligent, gamer, tomboy, costume girl(she is like 8 years old btw), priestess and nurse)
http://www.dokimajo.com/chara.html
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4-11-2007 @ 11:09AM
Scott said...
You guys need to get off of it with the "OMG! TOTAL PEDOPHILIA ON THE DS!!!!1!" bull.
"One of the suspects, as listed in Famitsu's profiles, is only fourteen years old..."
Yeah, and she also has blue hair and really huge eyes, a characteristic that all minors have in real life.
They're freaking cartoons. It's fantasy, that's why it's a game. Just because a person loves to play the GTA game, does that make him want to wreak havoc in real life?
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4-11-2007 @ 1:49PM
Jarrett Kaufman said...
Hey, if there's going to be pedophilia in the world (and like it or not, there is), wouldn't we all rather there be digital alternatives to actual child abuse? Besides, it's only cultural differences that decide age issues like this. The age of consent is 14 in Canada... they just more strictly enforce the CONSENT element (if she was coerced, she was coerced, and you're going away). I think we're just a touch too high and mighty here and trigger-happy about what is and isn't abuse or exploitation. But that's not a topic for DS Fanboy.
Whatever, I think the game's cool, although will probably prove shallow in the gameplay department. I'm disappointed that slightly perverted games like this don't hit our shores enough. I think they can be fun and since they're not real I don't feel the least bit of shame in enjoying them. I'd import this if it wasn't so text-heavy. I enjoy all sorts of forms of entertainment and I don't see what's wrong with crossing sexuality with games in a quality form. We accept nudity and sex in movies and cable television. I want them in my video games.
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4-11-2007 @ 4:04PM
Joe said...
I feel obligated to point out that the "age of consent" in Japan is 13. Not sure why that never comes up in this discussion.
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5-23-2007 @ 2:59PM
VOODOOTECH said...
Im playing it .. people here in the states are so christian uptight freaks.you know those things you did when you were 14? its the same thing every 14 year old does...you are trying to combat a force larger than life.the hormonal exsplosion of young adults -
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5-23-2007 @ 3:02PM
VOODOOTECH said...
when will nintendo ever learn...?
we as americans can handle any content they can come up with , so translate this wounderful game and let us play it...
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5-23-2007 @ 4:27PM
Mr Khan said...
@ VOODOOTECH
Sexuality is still somewhat taboo in American culture, much more so than (the other major gaming regions) Europe and Japan
But then again, each region has their taboos, too. Japanese society is extremely intolerant of rudeness, and the Europeans have a stick up their collective asses about violence (Crackdown was banned there, and "Ninja" was replaced with "Hero" in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon there)
This is a game very much tailored to one distinct culture, which is why its a bad idea to localize
Of course, given the region-freeness of DS, anyone with varying knowledge of Japanese can import this if they hold no objection (it depends, how text-heavy is this game?)
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6-22-2007 @ 1:44PM
grgspunk said...
Taboo or not, Atlus should definitely localize this game.
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