Akira Akagi Games made a shocking announcement that Muse Genkaroku will have to be dropped due to religiously sensitive material that could cause an uproar. The game featured heavy persecution of Buddhist individuals by people of other faiths. As Akira Akagi is based out of Vietnam, doing business in the country means Drillimation must comply with a list of material that cannot be used in media, including video games that are produced in the country.
In accordance with the rules set by the Communist Party of Vietnam, we cannot include this material. Although the CPV censors content that is critical of the government or obscene, religiously sensitive material can fall under this as well. While the country has no national organized religion, the vast majority of individuals who live there are Buddhist, while the others practice folk religion.
There can be a lot of consequences if you insult a particular religion. We all know Saudi Arabia adopts Sharia law which can be quite strict, and criticism of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia or Islam itself has serious legal consequences.
As you might expect, this game is having a troubled development, and it could take months and possibly years before the game can be fully released. Don’t worry, the game will be replaced by a new game titled Tenrai Bakufu, a visual novel RPG hybrid game. Drillimation will continue to compose new music for that project, and the music that was composed for Genkaroku will be used in future Drillimation projects due to Drillimation owning the copyright to it.
When Touhou Tenkijou was dropped, some of the songs that were composed ended up being reused in Chuhou Joutai 3. Tenkijou was dropped in favor of Genkaroku before religious censors stopped that project as well! It also came when Akira Akagi was banned from Discord due to an alleged COPPA violation where the age requirement is higher. We only have roughly a month left on her ban before she can return.
Despite normal uploading activity on YouTube, Akira Akagi reportedly tested positive for COVID-19 two weeks ago, despite being vaccinated. Thankfully, she made it out alive, and catching it once does not mean you can’t get it again. Vietnam reportedly blew up in cases last month, with new cases reaching a peak of 350,000, but the vast majority of individuals were fully vaccinated, but only half of them got their boosters.
Chuhou Joutai 3 may have to have changes made to the music comments as they were written when Tenkijou and Genkaroku were in development. The music that I composed will be released in a compilation album titled Susumu Takajima’s Memorial Works, and I intend on releasing it on Memorial Day weekend. We apologize to those who were looking forward to Genkaroku.
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