BlazBlue Continuum Shift II Box Art Censored in US

Since this has been nagging me for a while now, I figured I might as well post about it. Back when I heard BlazBlue Continuum Shift II was coming out for the 3DS, contrary to some skeptics (aka my husband), I was actually quite excited about it. See, we played the original BlazBlue Calamity Trigger together in the arcades when we were living in Japan, and the series brings back lots of fond memories for me, even though we never ended up purchasing Continuum Shift for the PS3 when it came out. With Continuum Shift II coming out for the 3DS, I figure it'd be killing two birds with one stone since I don't have any particularly enjoyable games for my 3DS yet and I'm long overdue for a new BlazBlue game.

Honestly, I haven't really been keeping track of BlazBlue. I know they added a couple of characters for Continuum Shift, and figured they'd probably add one or two more for this release. Now that I've seen the Japanese box art for the game, I dare say I've seen a little too much of the game's new characters.

Japanese box art with a lovely sleek black logo bar and...

Hm, well, I guess that's cute? I think she's supposed to be a squirrel. I really am not impressed with her clothing design and whoever decided to make her breasts larger than the other characters on the cover. I'd like to see more of the old guy with the seriously pointy beard–I seem to remember he was a vampire buddy of Rachel's in the first game. I have a feeling he'll probably be similar to Guilty Gear's Slayer.

It seems as though I wasn't the only one who was a little displeased by the Japanese cover choice, as the US box art is much more covered up (hah, I can't help it, the bad puns just make themselves).

US box art is a little more tasteful

I have to admit, though I do like the positioning of the characters so that the one girl's barely covered breasts are no longer a focal point of the image, but I actually dislike the American cover as a whole because it seems too cluttered (and I've gotta say, that black 3DS logo is nice). I think I also preferred the BlazBlue logo in the center, rather than to the side. But we can't have everything, right? Which one do you prefer?

BlazBlue Continuum Shift II is coming to the 3DS and PSP on May 31st (pushed back from the 24th) in both Japan and North America

Posted in: 3DS, box art, games