Japanese siteInside gamespublished a new interview with Kenichiro Takaki, the president of Honey∞Parade Games, the studio at Marvelous Entertainment handling theSenran Kaguraseries. The interview was conducted during Taipei Game Show 2019 at the end of January. Takaki talked aboutPeach Ball Senran Kagura, censorship, and how it affects the development ofSenran Kagura 7EVEN: Shoujo tachi no Koufuku, along with other points. Here are the main tidbits.

Takaki started by talking aboutPeach Ball: Senran Kagura, the pinballSenran Kaguragame now available on Nintendo Switch in Japan. As he already explained in the past, he got the idea to makePeach Ballbecause he thought it’d be fun making the HD Rumble of the Switch react with a pinball game where the ball would hit girls' breasts.

Seeing the interview was for promoting the Chinese version ofPeach Ball Senran Kagura, Takaki was also asked if it had any of its content censored. He answered that the game’s Chinese version is the same as the Japanese version.

Rather than making more DLC forPeach Ball Senran Kagura, Takaki would rather wait and see if the game is popular enough, and if it is, make a sequel with more characters and content.

The reporter also asked Takaki about theincident where aPeach Ballstream was stopped by Youtube,but kept going on Niconico Douga:

We actually kept in mind what to do and what not to do, to avoid the stream getting banned from YouTube, but it did get banned in the end. I was a bit happy about it actually (laughs). It gave us free advertising as everyone talked about it on Twitter, and then the views for the stream on Niconico skyrocketed (laughs).

When asked if Honey∞Parade is planning to make a new series ofSenran Kaguragames on Switch, Takaki answered that he can’t share anything as of now, but it might happen at some point. He’d also like to make proper, realSenran Kaguragames on Switch too.

Moving on toSenran Kagura 7EVEN.The reporter asked Takaki to comment on his previous claims, that regulations of sexual content are getting stricter on PlayStation 4:

This isn’t something limited to PlayStation platforms, but more like something affecting all media in general, on a worldwide scale. I always thought this would happen. But it happened a bit faster than what I expected, so I’m worried about how things will go from now on.

Because of this, Takaki added that the final version ofSenran Kagura 7EVENwill be different from what they originally planned:

There’s a high chance we won’t be able to release the game if we keep going with our initial plans. I’m pondering on what we should change and think over.

The reporter proposed multiple solutions to Takaki, like making two versions ofSenran Kagura 7EVEN, with different age ratings. And if they could move the series to PC:

I didn’t think about doing two versions but…(pauses to think), it’ll probably be very complicated to put in place. As for moving the series to PC and Steam, I’m not ruling out the possibility, but I don’t think it’ll change much. In the first place,Senran Kagurais a part of a niche genre, wherever it is. You’ve got a lot of realistic violent games like FPSes on PC doing fine though. So if we think moving the series to PC is the right choice, we’ll do it.

On whetherSenran Kagura 7EVENwill get a worldwide release or not:

Well, we’re already trying to do that for years now, at the very least we aim to do simultanous releases in all of Asia. For7EVENitself though I don’t know how things will go, but I’d at least want to release the Chinese version at the same time as the Japanese one.

The reporter asked ifSenran Kagura7EVEN’s development is complicated because of its sexual content, and if theSenran Kaguraseries will be unable to express the ideas and elements it did until now without it:

Now, I’m pretty much asking myself “is it fine to do aSenran Kaguragame without clothes getting ripped and boucing breasts?”. I don’t know how far it will go, how stricter things will become, and what we won’t be able to do anymore, but there’s definitly things that will become forbidden. I’m extremely anxious about it. Needless to say,Seran Kagura’sappeal isn’t solely itssexiness, but cutting it would remove a lot from the series' essence. And of course, you can make interesting games without that much sexualization… but right now, I don’t know how we could do that withSenran Kagura.

Lastly, Takaki said that he regularly discusses these issues with Team Ninja’s boss Yosuke Hayashi andDead or AliveDirector Yohei Shimbori.  Takaki would also love to do anothercollaboration event with theDead or Aliveseries.

Personally, I think Takaki is way too pessimistic there about the state of things. I don’t think you should be taking everything he said in this interview at face value and instead relativize, by taking into account more information and more opinions. I also think Takaki is making a mistake by only be considering Steam for PC releases.

You should also take into account other comments by Takaki himself. For example, during another recent interview where he talked aboutSenran Kagura 7EVEN, we reportedthat he blamed Sony’s new regulationsfor the game’s hectic development. Others in the game industrybelieve only Sony is at fault as well.But in fact, Takaki mentioned in that same interview how the biggest change isn’t Sony butJapan as a whole striving to become cleaner for the 2020 Olympics.This includes changes like removing adult magazines from visible shelves at 24H open minimarkets like 7-Eleven.

Takaki was also optimistic then. He said that there will always be people like him making console games with a lot of sexualization, and that there will always be people who buy these games, so, whatever happens, they’ll find ways to keep going. Sure, that interview was one month ago, but I don’t think his view on the matter changed this much in such a short amount of time, and he’s probably dramatizing too much in Inside’s interview.

Ironically, I think it’s a good thing that Takaki is thoroughly thinking what to do withSenran Kagura 7EVENbecause I don’t think Honey∞Parade has been picking the right choices recently. The company releasedShinobi Refle: Senran Kagura, for 10$, while it’s pretty much a demo for the Joy-Cons instead of an actual game, with overpriced DLC to get to use other characters. And then they releasedPeach Ball, a pinball game no one really asked for, who don’t even have half of the characters in the franchise, instead of a realSenran Kaguragame,and again with overpriced DLC. At this rate, I think the series will just do itself in rather than being affected by Sony’s regulations or the Olympics or whatever.

Senran Kagura 7EVENhas no release date planned, and it’ll be exclusively on PS4. We already got a peek atAsuka’s new look in the game.