Mugen Souls is coming back — with all the stuff that was missing from last time

The fine folks at eastasiasoft have dropped a very welcome announcement today: they are once again partnering up with Idea Factory to bring us a new release of a classic from the Era When Lewd Was Allowed on PlayStation. Following the former Vita legends Moero Crystal H and Seven Pirates H, the spotlight now turns to Iffy’s PlayStation 3 output, and one of the company’s most notorious games: Mugen Souls.

Mugen Souls was first released in March of 2012 in Japan, and it came west later that year. However, the title attracted some controversy for the localised version editing and even outright removing certain components from the Japanese original.

Specifically, a bathing-themed minigame was taken out of the western release completely, and a character personality type was altered quite significantly from the original Japanese script. The latter option was taken in order to tone down what was essentially non-stop vulgarity into innuendo-laced sadism.

At the time of Mugen Souls’ PS3 release, original localiser and publisher NIS America felt that the material was too “sensitive” on legal grounds — mostly due to loli characters — and there was also concern that even if it was actually “allowed”, it would still net an “Adults Only” AO rating from the ESRB, which has long been seen as the kiss of death by many publishers.

The reason for this is that historically brick-and-mortar retailers would outright refuse to stock Adults Only titles — or at the very least not put them on display for casual browsers to discover — and thus it was felt that netting an AO rating would significantly hamper sales. A decade later, very few people buy games from brick-and-mortar stores any more thanks to continued improvements in online shopping — and the Asia-English market has also sprung up as a means of localised releases being able to get around the usual ratings boards and the potentially drastic edits they may require.

That’s at least partly how this new rerelease of Mugen Souls for Nintendo Switch has happened. Although eastasiasoft does release most of its games digitally in global storefronts, much of their business, as their name suggests, is done through Asian distributors. The vast majority of their physical releases are handled through partners such as Play-Asia, and lewd-loving console owners have come to understand and accept that for games like this, grabbing a copy for one’s shelf usually involves importing. Thankfully, this is another thing which has become much easier and more affordable in the last decade.

If you’re unfamiliar with Mugen Souls, it’s an anime-style RPG in which you take control of Chou-Chou as she attempts to conquer the universe and subjugate its seven worlds. Much like the Neptunia series, the game features turn-based combat on a free-roaming battle map, making movement and positioning important as well as the skills and equipment that you make use of.

Distinctive features of the game include a heavy degree of customisation on the “minion” characters you can recruit; you’re able to adjust body parts, facial expressions, job classes and personality types. The new eastasiasoft release of the game will apparently include all prior extra content from the PS3 original as well as the uncut material from the original Japanese release.

As with most of eastasiasoft’s other physical releases, there will be both open pre-order standard editions and limited collectors’ editions available. There will be 3,000 copies of the limited edition available and they will include the game, manual, soundtrack CD, art book, sticker set and numbered certificate. Both versions will be available for preorder from Play-Asia from November 24, 2022. The digital version will be available in spring of 2023.

Like most PS3-era Idea Factory titles, Mugen Souls released to a rather mixed critical reception — particularly from bemused mainstream games journalists who never quite figured out how to react like mature human beings to lewd content. Since its original incarnation, though, it’s remained a cult favourite among RPG fans, even with the cuts that were made to its initial localisation. This new version represents an opportunity to enjoy what should hopefully be the definitive Mugen Souls experience — and potentially opens up the door to even more resurrected Idea Factory and Compile Heart PS3 and Vita titles in the future.

I’ve still got my fingers crossed for Monster Monpiece, myself — but this is certainly a good start.

^{Disclosure: Some links in this article may be affiliate links, which means we may earn a small commission if you make a purchase after clicking on them. This is at no additional cost to you and helps support Rice Digital!}

• Author
• Recent Posts

Pete Davison

Pete is Rice Digital's editor, and a proud champion of any and all games involving pretty girls hanging out, saving the world or both. His first waifu was Rit from Rod Land.

Latest posts by Pete Davison (see all)

• Letter from the Editor: passing the torch - June 30, 2023
• Super Woden GP 2 is looking promising - June 30, 2023
• Inti Creates is making a 32 bit-style Love Live action platformer - June 26, 2023