Identity politics has been nothing but a bane to modern day gaming. Everything is about identitarianism, so much so that all Western games these days have become bogged down with some sort of speech, quest, theme, or orientation around gender politics in some form, fashion or way. It’s become so pervasive that some gamers have opted out of supporting some of their favorite franchises due to the overt politicization that have overtaken them, such as Mass Effect: Andromeda or Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus.

Well, the upcoming Catherine: Full Body is expected to release in Japan next winter, and a Western release is scheduled to arrive shortly thereafter for the PS4 and PS Vita. However, the game is already being labeled as “transphobic” by some, and some of the typical Social Justice Warriors are drumming up non-troversies on social media in order to tinder the flames of sociopolitical outrage that has done nothing but ruin video games for many a gamer in recent times.

So what’s going on and where did it start? Well, it started with the trailer below.

The trailer plays on the concept of Vincent, the main character, sleeping with the new character, Rin.

SJW gaming journalists have immediately assumed that Rin has a penis, and therefore when Vincent saw that he actually slept with a man, he was shocked and appalled. This led to Kotaku’s Laura Kate Dale complaining about it on Twitter, as chronicled by the Daily Dot, where Dale writes…

“They use a god damn trans symbol as the website icon for the official new site. All the key art is her lifting her dress to reveal her crotch. Gender neutral name. I don’t see how people are reading this as “oh he’s just shocked the same as every route in the game. “Further allussion to Rin being a trans woman with a penis, the teaser site for the game has a huge image of her lifting her dress, fading before you see the crotch. Everything here screams trans woman route.” [sic]

The full image on the website does fade before you see Rin’s genitals, otherwise if they did show the full thing the website would need an age gate and would likely be considered pornography.

Complaining about it on Twitter wasn’t enough, however. Not-so-subtle jabs were taken at Atlus, with Dale claiming in the Kotaku article that the company has a “poor track record with trans representation”. The most upvoted comment on the article takes jabs at Dale and questions the credibility of Kotaku’s writers, since the comment claims that they likely never played the original Catherine.

Nevertheless, Polgyon took a similar angle to Kotaku, attempting to shame Atlus into improving “queer representation” in their games. Polygon’s comment section reinforced the SJW mindset.

Attack of the Fanboy attempted to approach the situation as a moderate, but actually still fell on the side of wanting Atlus to essentially approach Catherine: Full Body in similar tone and fashion to what Kotaku and Polygon are asking for.

Many also pointed out that people on Twitter getting outraged at Vincent having a shocked face while looking at Rin’s crotch isn’t any different than Vincent’s reaction to finding out he slept with the blonde-haired Catherine, as evidenced with the screenshot below.

Some gamers even took this opportunity to criticize Kotaku for attempting to create outrage bait based on a teaser trailer and Vincent’s reaction, which was similar to how he reacted during the original Catherine.

No, Kotaku, this controversy is only engineered by your own writer. pic.twitter.com/f2OyWoARTF — (((R🎃r👻n_St☠️hl))) (@Roran_Stehl) December 22, 2017

But it wasn’t just Polygon and Kotaku who tactically positioned themselves to pressure Atlus into adopting Social Justice Warrior antics for Catherine: Full Body. The Leftist media outlets mobilized their followers to also go after Atlus, attempting to use social media as a battleground to impose their ideological representation of gender politics and gender identity onto the upcoming Catherine: Full Body.

Sites like TheGG and Dangerous caught wind of the tweets, and shared a few, including one from an autistic CPTSD pansexual fictionkin.

Get a job at Atlus, then lobby for gay options and female protagonists in the Persona games. Also, add more female protagonists in general to MegaTen games. Also also, stop all the transphobia going on. — Momcubus (@FairlyLip) December 19, 2017

A UI designer and translator who happens to be Japanese, part of RPGSite and Nova Crystallis, and part of the LGBTQIA community, also implored gaming websites to reach out so that those representing the alternative lifestyle in Japan could have their voices elevated.

I would actually like to see gaming outlets speak or consult Japanese people who are part of the LGBT+ scene about this issue because watching people who are unfamiliar with this constantly gloss over the issue of representation of LGBT+ in popular Japanese media is exhausting. — kazuma (@MadAdam_) December 19, 2017

Atlus managed to weather the storm when the SJW media came after them for the localization of Persona 5, but the pressure, criticisms, and attacks from the Social Justice Warriors is becoming increasingly sodden with the weight of wailing voices. Unless anti-SJWs can counter the complaints, it may just be a matter of time before Atlus eventually caves in and begins altering their games to suit the sensibilities of SJWs.

If you feel compelled to do so, you can contact Atlus directly through their Japanese Twitter account, and let them know how much you support their creative ingenuity and originality, possibly in hopes of drowning out those who would attempt to use their social media clout to further dilute gaming into a battleground of gender identity politics and sociopolitical embitterment.