
Sense - 不祥的预感: A Cyberpunk Ghost Story
About
Sense – 不祥的预感: A Cyberpunk Ghost Story / Sense: A Cyberpunk Ghost Story, previously known as Project Sense, is a cyberpunk-themed survival horror side-scrolling point-and-click adventure indie game developed by Suzaku and published by Top Hat Studios. This game is inspired by classic survival horror games Clock Tower and Fatal Frame.
History
Sense, developed by Top Hat Studios,[1] launched on Kickstarter on May 15th, 2018 (trailer shown below).
The game released on August 25th, 2020 on Steam.[6] The game is a side-scrolling horror game focusing on atmosphere more than jump scares. The game features mature content; although there is no nudity, the developers say there are skimpy outfits and gory deaths.
Harassment Controversy
After the game was announced for the Nintendo Switch on December 31st, 2020, there was some backlash on the game's depiction of women. For example, Twitter user and writer @Jo_Bartosch[12] wrote a comment implying that the game's stylized depictions of women were emblematic with unrealistic beauty standards, saying, "Hmmm- I wonder why so many young women are unhappy with their bodies…" (shown below).

On the day after Bartosch's tweet, January 1st, 2021, Top Hat Studios released an official statement on Twitter[5] claiming that they had faced calls for censorship, which they are categorically refusing ahead of the game's console release.[8][9][10]

This led to some doubt about if the "calls for censorship" were a real problem the game was facing. On January 2nd, 2021, gaming journalist @DominicTarason[13] tweeted that he'd looked into the matter and there are no calls to boycott the game on its Steam page and some mild jokes and criticisms about the character designs (shown below, left). Later that day, however, Top Hat Studios on Twitter released a large collection of the harassment and death threats[14] the devs had been receiving on social media, which included transphobic remarks, racist remarks, and doxing threats (examples shown below, right).

![Harassment comments 1/5 it is unbelievable that a company women's voices are being denied in the industry, men pretending to be women are invading safe spaces for female developers, and now you gotta bring out a game like sense to make things even Cannot belive Nintendo is allowing P--- on their consoles. Will be contacting them as soon as posible. U should be ashamed such as Nintendo allows you to Demonic. I think there's a whole heap of mental health mess coming down the would never have allowed my son to buy games like this. It's grotesqu disseminate rhetoric such as yours against women. evil. what misogynist hell is this - these hyper sexualised images are not appropriate and can lead to different forms of sexual violence. Please sort this out. harder for women like can you not do this? 98 27 29 39 Disgusting. Hope you get shot, f------ incels how many f------ real, actual women do you have on your team? any? even one? trannies don't f------ count. you have no idea how much i want you to hurt. right now. Everyone involved in the creation and sale of this material is guilty of violence to the highest degree. Consider revoking sale. Sort this out. What age is the designer fecking 5yrs old. Nintendo get a fecking grip there is no fecking need for this s----. P--- soaked feckers. Do you have any idea the harm you are causing to women? Legitimately f------ disgusting that anyone would make this. Hope you reconsider. 1 7 Show replies Reported. disgusted you would MARKET P--- TO CHILDREN. insane. will be contacting Nintendo If you cared about women, at all, you misogynistic pricks would consider taking down this game. 4 Gosh what porny misogynistic trash. 000 23 2 3. 14 This is p---. Just some sad fantasy from an adolescent boy thoughts. would be a shame if something was sent to Is your address huh? 17 7 74 14 The arts over sexualized. It's degrading to women. Typical japanese anime | looking sexualized trash. 000 stupid f------ garbae incel bs you're peddling. hope you get the rope Nintendo dedicates itself to promote a male-gazed, pornified version of women. I feel for the young girls starting to realize how objectified their bodies are in society. I understand their pain and desire to scape femininity. Why would you want to be this hypersexualized object? 000 Is the woman on the left smuggling watermelons through Australia airport customs? This is the only explanation I can think of because real women do not look like that. Sort it out Nintendo. Sack the incel game designers. Hello, Will make sure you never work in this industry aga This is from I recently saw an article on "Nintendo Life" about your "game". This is, presumably, how you've gotten onto it, by lying about the content on your "game" when it is clearly p---. The fact you would so brazenly attempt to sell this to minors is not only morally deficit, but a blatant breach of child safety and obscenity laws. Do you understand this? Do you even care? We will be contacting Nintendo. O Nintendo Life @nintendolife Dec 30, 2020 A Cyberpunk Ghost Story Will Be Haunting The Switch Soon nintendolife.com /news/2020/12/a.. #SwitcheShop #NintendoSwitch O 27 14 Sent from my iPhone The fact both you and Nintendo (and whoever else is involved in this mess) feel fine pushing out harmful products encouraging violence against women is a blatant breach of the law. Expect a writ in the mail G00 Seriously so much wrong! These oversexualized pictures look like kids. Who vetted this? 10 sometime soon. I hope your director or company management sees this. This is vile, and the fact that you are perpetuating these images of women is heinous and reflects poorly on you. Whether or not Nintendo cares enough to take down your game or allow violence against women on their platform, I want you to know my child will never play any of your games. 00 rot in hell. absolutely sick you feel okay encouraging r--- and violence against women and children. misogynistic dogs Disgusting and on-brand. Men sexualize and objectify women in all aspects of media. 6. 19 8:43 AM. Dec 31 2020. Twitter for Android If i find my child playing this, expect both you and NINTENDO to hear from both me and my lawye Sick, sick, sick. Twisted. Hope you enjoy the coming legal action. So glad my sons don't use Nintendos - and never will, now. Truly pathetic. Why is Nintendo allowing p--- on their platform? Ridiculous. You better have a lawyer. 21 27 You will be happy to know regarding your misogynistic "game", I have already contacted Nintendo warning them of your sexist, pornographic game. How this got "approved" in this first place is a Do you even realize the people you enable? Are you ignorant? Do you not realize the violence against women you perpetuate with products such as this? vile t----- game. sincrely kill yourselves and don't repopulate. vile t----- b-------. how dare you put this in front of youth Disgusting, sexist, offensive. mystery. This is so f@cked up, why are gaming designers so p--- addled? And why « we never see massive male genitalia? well, it's an asain game. so, yeah? Massive t--- / Facial expression of a sex doll / Wonders why our young men have no respect for women Knows why autogynephiles love Nintendo / Nightmare in Japan. None of these games should be allowed, but how do you stop them now? Kill yourself for giving these right wing f--- a platform Internet has brought both Blessings and Evil. Disgusting incl garbage. Can't you 000 Stacey Dooley Investigates - Young Sex for Sale in Ja. keep your cesspools on 4chan? Stacey Dooley explores Japan's problem with the sexualisation of children. 8 bbc.co.uk Excuse me if my age is showing here but is this game intended for children as well as adults? And why the sexist p--- fuelled graphics - totally unnecessary and offensive to women. 3 17 O 16 someone needs to show you the harm this does to 200 It is no wonder that perpetration of r---, dv, a misogynistic outlook is ri amongst young males. They are consuming a pornified image of female diet of Objectification. As Catharine MacKinnon has argued 'Fantasy expresses ideology, [it]is not exempt from it'. women. men need to understand it. stupid AGPS. you are doing ireversible harm to women. off yourselves Offensive sexist tawdry incel fodder. P*rn culture everywhere FRE 27 3 48 000 000 Hey @nintendolife it's not a bad idea to let your devs out of their caves occasionally to interact with actual human females. It looks like the only women they've ever known are in anime p---. The sexual objectification of women is off the scale. The fact that is so mainstream renders the tragedy even more unbearable. The brains who came up with this need a thorough lobotomy. A lot of japanese media is very sexualized and aimed on teen boys and adult men in age at the same time. And paedo catering in media there is very prominent. Starting from Pop Idols who are "too old" after they hit 20, and ending up with animated series and anime-games. 000 t7 3 ♡ 17 Laws should always be made that protects us from society's weakest members. I always thought that a tad sad. Anime is kinda outrageous but most of us manage to keep our hunter/killer instincts in check n Nintendo Life @nintendolife · Dec 30, 2020 This exact game is chinese, but aimed to be sold on japanese market. Game looks overlysexualized with unrealistir nronortions: I don't think Nintendo are gonna be happy to lear incel fantasies are being thrown out on their platform. Everyone in my network is letting them know. You're gonna feel really stupid when they pu the rug out from under you. 00 00 Always said #Nintendo was a huge part of the problem .. and there you are, proving the point. #epicfail hey folks i know you're probably steeped in toxic masculinity but could y'all lobotomize yourself so you don't keep teaching women to hate themselves? ust saw an article about your fetish p--- game coming out next week. I don't want to talk to you, but I'm just saying - you know this is why you'll always be outsiders in the industry, right? Like, I get it- you're a bunch of macho wanna be chuds who think they can change the industry. Newsflash: the rest of us ain't letting you in. This is just unbelievable- what is WRONG with you Nintendo?? O 23 ♡ 33 thanks O 12 M 10](https://a.kym-cdn.com/assets/blank-b3f96f160b75b1b49b426754ba188fe8.gif)
Still, some suspected that the situation may have been overblown by Top Hat as a means of viral marketing. At The Gamer,[15] writer Cian Maher also noted that the game saw little backlash prior to the controversy and that recent reviews were overwhelmingly positive with users expressing how they'd purchased the game because developers stood up to SJWs. Regarding the harrassing messaged, he added:
The public tweets here are relatively tame for the most part. They’re not really calls for censorship so much as they are expressions of general disapproval towards the game’s stylistic choices, which is something that happens with… every game ever…
From what I can see, there has been no review-bombing and no mass cries for censorship. The parts of the statement that quote criticisms against the game represent things that very few people actually said, but they have been sensationalised to make the game appear as some kind of anti-censorship, anti-SJW product that is enticing for the same kind of people who abused others about Cyberpunk 2077 before even playing it.
Search Interest
External References
[1] Top Hat Studios Itch.io – Project Sense
[2] Top Hat Studios – Top Hat Studios
[3] Top Hat Studios – Sense – 不祥的预感: A Cyberpunk Ghost Story
[4] YouTube – Top Hat Studios
[5] Twitter – Top Hat Studios EN
[6] Steam – Sense – 不祥的预感: A Cyberpunk Ghost Story
[7] Prodigy Gamers – Sense 不祥的预感: A Cyberpunk Ghost Story Is Inspired From Clock Tower
[8] Niche Gamer – Top Hat Studios “Categorically Refuse” to Censor Sense: A Cyberpunk Ghost Story After False Information Spread and Death Threats
[9] Twinfinite – Sense: A Cyberpunk Ghost Story Publisher “Categorically Refuses” Censorship Ahead of Console Release
[10] Go Nintendo – Sense: A Cyberpunk Ghost Story developer "categorically refuses" to censor the game following backlash and death threats
[12] Twitter – @Jo_bartosch
[13] Twitter – @DominicTarason
[14] Twitter – Top Hat Studios
[15] The Gamer – Top Hat Studios And Cyberpunk Anime Game "Sense" – Anti-Censorship Or Viral Marketing?