So, there's been a recurring pattern with DoA6's director, Yohei Shimbori, where he makes comments to foreign press--often about the game's sexual elements--then through the Japanese media, or in tweets, apologizes and states he was misunderstood.
This pattern has again resurfaced, due to comments recently made to Taiwanese game outlet GNN. His comments in reference to clothing damage, and translated by Google into English, were essentilly, "...because of the perception of women, it is unlikely that there will be too much exposure."
As it involves multiple direct and reply tweets from Shimbori's personal account, I'm not going to try and reproduce the content. The site One Angry Gamer has covered the matter, which can be read at the following:
article link. To summarize, however, Shimbori's say he was misunderstood and blames translation issues.
I know some aren't exactly a fan of the above website, so here's an archived version of the article:
article link (I will say, though, One Angry Gamer did reach out to Shimbori via twitter in Japanese, so the site might deserve a direct click for the effort).
That said, while Shimbori was active on Twitter, the following question and answer occurred:
The Q&A in English (via Google, so please excuse some of the potentially confusing language): "Can you tell me at least whether PS 4 version breaks down competition or is censored due to Sony? At the moment we can not pre-order games unless we know if the game will be the worst in PS4. " Answer: "That's right. Sorry to make you worried. It will take a while until you can answer, please wait."
Considering the statements supposedly made to the Western media, as well as foreign articles that have been allowed to apparently remain uncorrected, Shimbori at this point is just lying to different audiences about the game's sexual elements. It's not that the girls are ugly or draped in burqa, but clearly some combination of personal preference, esports focus, and issues surrounding the current global social climate have resulted in tonal shifts to the fighting game. I expect once Shimbori hits the US on his current press tour, he will again make comments about the game being adjusted to meet current social norms, and he will at a later date again apologize in Japanese about being misunderstood.
Otherwise, while I'm well aware of the tendency of Japanese developers to be reticent and not speak above their authority level, it is concerning that Shimbori is not outright able to dismiss any fears of censorship on, or impacted by, the PS4. Going back to the GNN article, hopefully we will be getting that table with platform differences, sooner rather than later.
::edit:
And while basically known, the most recent tweet on Shimbori's twitter is still trying to dispel the perception of the game lacking jiggle, with him writing, "揺れ方は服次第 (
Yure kata wa fuku shidai, or "the shaking depends on the clothes"). I found it interesting, because of how direct it was of a statement. I expect the DLC offering to sell sexy back into this game is going to be egregious.
