Sense - 不祥的预感: A Cyberpunk Ghost Story
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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).
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?