Star Ocean 5 character’s underwear made bigger for a number of reasons, explains producer

When Suqare Enix and Tri-Ace revealed that Star Ocean 5: Integrity and Faithlessness would be censored to some degree, there was immediate backlash from the gaming community. What was being changed in the game? Underwear.

One of Star Ocean 5's characters would be featuring larger underwear in the Western version than the original version of the game. In an interview with GameSpot producer Shuichi Kobayashi has offered more details on the larger underwear and why the team made the decision to put a bigger pair of panties on the character.

"It's fundamentally just a ratings issue. But as for Star Ocean, it's not that different–it's unfortunate that a lot of people took the change in a bigger way than intended and interpreted things in a way that haven't actually happened. But the game hasn't changed, and the size [of the character's underwear] hasn't really changed, it's really not that different than what was originally created.

"The essence of the game is not that part, and I really want players to not focus on that, but the rest of the gameplay. The Japanese rating system is different from that in the West and that is why these changes have to happen. Rating checks and submissions happen after most of the game is finished, so it's inevitable that changes occur after some things are done. That's why we had to make that kind of change this time, but it's not that different, as much as people want to make it sound that way."

Kobayashi went on to explain that 'normal' players wouldn't have noticed the difference and that the game was altered to fit different cultures.

"I think that at least for Star Ocean, it was because of what we were depicting. What players were picking up [the larger underwear] was a lot easier to make fun of. At least for Star Ocean, that's why they blew it up the way they did.

"It's not that different. The users actually wouldn't know what the original size is [from the game], so they picked it up and made fun of it. Normal users wouldn't even worry about it, or look at it even, so…

"Going off the difference in ratings, even gestures and hand signs are really different from culture to culture. For instance, in Star Ocean 5, when you first meet Relia, Miki pats her head to reassure her. In Japan that a reassuring motion, like what you do to little kids. But in some countries it was not taken that way, so that's been changed in the game to fit the different cultures. It was picked up during QA, and we changed it."

TL;DR: It was changed for ratings and made appropriate for different cultures. Also, 'normal users' wouldn't have noticed.