Rune Factory Given An AO Rating
The ESRB has just announced that Natsume’s as yet unreleased Rune Factory: A Fantasy Harvest Moon has been stamped with the dreaded Adults Only, or AO rating.
The game is said to contain gratuitous sex, drug usage and extreme violence.
“I think this a very strong, albeit long delayed, statement to the troglodytes at Natsume that the American public will not tolerate anything that contradicts my – er – their way of life,” said U.S. Senator Joe Lieberman. “While we’re at it, I say we re-rate all previous Harvest Moon games as Mature due to the excessive milking animations. Who knows how that affects out children?”
Natsume expressed disagreement with the rating in the following press release:
"We at Natsume are committed to family oriented entertainment and would never explicitly design an AO game. We feel that the ESRB has been overzealous in their rating. The gratuitous sex they claim is merely a mini game in which the protagonist attempts to woo the fair maidens in his town, similar to previous Harvest Moon titles. The only drug usage is simply alcohol consumption and power-up berries, which is a gameplay device that has been quite common in RPG’s for years now. Finally, the extreme violence comes from a dungeon in which the player is given an AK-47 and instructed to shoot up an orphanage. As we can see, none of this classifies Rune Factory: A Fantasy Harvest Moon as an AO title."
Natsume hopes to edit down the game to an acceptable rating in time for its August release.