Yuri Game: Okujou no Yuri Yurei-san / Kindred Spirits is coming to Steam

September 2nd, 2015

kindred-spiritsGood News Everyone!

In July we reported that Manga Gamers was bringing the massively popular Yuri game Okujou no Yuri Yurei-san to the west as Kindred Spirits.

Now, Kotaku (with excessive vulgarity) has announced that Kindred Spirits is going to be available on Steam! Not surprisingly this is a really big deal. For a number of reasons.

First, the fact that we’re getting such a popular Yuri Game localized is big news on its own. Secondly, it’s getting distribution on Steam, which will make it available to a much wider audience than a straight-up download or hard copy distribution stream would otherwise garner.

Thirdly, Kotaku reports that it will remain uncensored. Since Valve is known for censoring explicit games, this may either indicate a change of policy, or it may be that this game gets an exception. There’s also a case for since it has no penile penetration, someone is relying on archaic definitions of “sex.” Or, that precisely because it is two girls, that Steam expects the always-presumed-male audience will be enthusiastic about it in a way that they definitely would not for an Otome game. We don’t know what the actual justifications for it are. We may never know.

I was asked by someone sane how it could be a high school girl sex game and in good taste at the same time and the answer is that I have no idea. I can tell you that for the past few years this game has been a major obsession of some Yuri mangaka, and I haven’t seen any really explicit fanart (but, too, I was not looking for it.) The two manga volumes based on the game (Side A and Side B) were surprisingly and pleasantly free of service of any kind. I frankly had no idea the game even has sex scenes. Apparently, the Yuri manga artists I followed were more interested in the relationships. ^_^

In any case, this is big news for Yuri fans!

Open comments. Discuss!

12 Responses

  1. Liz says:

    I’m not much of a gamer but I do love Visual Novels. This is perfect for me.

  2. Jackie S says:

    Huh, that is an excellent question, and one I might have to think more about before buying this game. But then again, how is it really different from a volume of manga that has high school girls having sex? Are those in bad taste too?

  3. Orphireus says:

    Re: Yurirei – the sex scenes are very brief and the visuals show no more than a nipple here and there. I mean, it’s obvious what the characters are engaging in, but I get the impression it’s the showing of genitals that make or break a rating and it’s all tastefully obscured here. Nothing to censor in the first place.

    So yes, no worse than a Morinaga Milk manga.

    • That’s what I thought. Hardly “explicit” by my standards. But, I guess we’ll see. ^_^

      • BruceMcF says:

        Yes, there’s a range of different connotations possible there, and “they are quite explicitly having sex” does not necessarily entail “this explicitly portrays the sexual contact in graphic detail” … with the Steam censorship boundary seeming to be somewhere shy of the second.

        Here in China, it seems likely that the puritanical authorities would likely place the boundary a good ways shy of the first.

        • Yes, and I wonder, with the overblown obsession on the lack of censorship, how many players will be bitterly and angrily disappointed when it is *not* a porn game, but actually about the relationships.

  4. Cryssoberyl says:

    For better or worse, this has apparently become something of a topic in video game circles, with several industry news sites besides Kotaku coming out with articles on the subject, more than one of which characterize the game as explicit lesbian smut when in fact it is anything but that.

    Who knows, maybe the extra publicity will be good for the game’s sales, but I find myself angered at the ignorance and sensationalism of some of the coverage.

  5. Stacy L says:

    If this game is indeed all about the relationships and not a porn game, that dramatically increases the likelihood of me playing it. It’d be the first time I’ve ever played a game that wasn’t a tetris variant.

    Do you receive a higher score for how often you can make the characters gaze lovingly into each others eyes? ;) That’s the kind of game I want.

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