I learned about Lipschultz after interviewing XSEED vice president Ken Berry, who revealed Lipschultz almost quit over his beliefs. XSEED had hoped to test the American waters with Senran Kagura as a downloadable eShop-only game. To help the game operate with less controversy, Berry planned to remove the ages from the profiles of the games female characters. In that game, Senran Kagura Burst, many of the characters are 15 years old and most are under 18.
Berry believed this to be a minor change, but it drove Lipschultz up a wall. As a compromise, Berry let Lipschultz publicly criticize the decision, so the community understood there were divisions.
Lipschultz told me he wasnt against removing the ages, but altering them. One changes a games plot, the other doesnt.
Senran Kagura Burst is, at its heart, a coming-of-age story, said Lipschultz, so changing a 15-year-old to an 18-year-old would suddenly recontextualize a lot of character actions and motivations, turning characters who come across as well-meaning but young and inexperienced into characters who simply come across as immature and misguided. Three years makes an awful lot of difference in human development, after all, and I just felt like making drastic alterations of that nature would irreparably harm the narrative. And I didnt want to be part of a company that would consider making artistic changes of that magnitude for no other reason than because cultural differences might make people feel a little uncomfortable.