In what seems to be the latest entry in Valve’s selective moderation saga, Phantom Thief Angels: Twin Angel – Labyrinth of Time and World – Re:light, a modern-day remake of Alchemist & AlterCIWS’s 2011 visual novel has stumbled into an unexpected obstacle.
Initially slated for a December release, the game’s launch has been pushed back indefinitely due to Valve’s drawn-out review process. According to AlterCIWS, they have yet to receive any response from Valve regarding the final review, despite the process taking far longer than usual.
The official reason? Valve’s content moderation team needs “more time” to evaluate the game, an industry shorthand for, “We’re meticulously nitpicking for a pretext to ban it in the most roundabout way possible.”
Fans are left wondering if this is yet another example of Valve’s opaque and seemingly arbitrary content policies at work.
AlterCIWS apologized for the inconvenience caused by the delay and reaffirmed their commitment to delivering the game as soon as possible, though that promise feels uncertain given Valve’s well-documented reputation for inconsistent and hypocritical moderation practices. Valve has become infamous for banning games outright, prohibiting their approval for the Steam store, or even removing titles post-release.
A recent example of this was Valve’s decision to block Eastasiasoft’s Tokyo Clanpool from launching on Steam. The game was rejected due to Valve’s stringent policies regarding “young” or “petite” female characters, often categorized as loli in Japanese media
Tokyo Clanpool faced scrutiny over a minigame involving a ritual where players clicked on such characters in ceremonial leotards that shifted to a flesh-colored appearance during activation.
Despite the game eventually finding a home on alternative platforms, it suffered from censorship. Nintendo of America and Europe barred its release on the Switch, and even GOG required a censored version.
Eastasiasoft representative Joshua Michael French confirmed that Valve rejected the game outright, even after the minigame was censored. This reinforced the perception that Valve’s disdain for such content goes beyond concerns about explicit material, signaling a broader unwillingness to accommodate certain types of Japanese media regardless of context.
Valve has no issue allowing erotica and raunchy, overtly pornographic material to flood its storefront. However, when it comes to games featuring short anime girls, completely fictional works it seems Gabe Newell and his team suddenly draw a hard line. Meanwhile, games containing explicit scenes involving short or “young” depictions of male characters remain readily available, showcasing a glaring double standard.
One glaring example of this hypocrisy was Valve’s decision to bar YuzuSoft’s Angelic☆Chaos RE-BOOT! from the platform just last year. It’s one of many visual novels banned in recent years, including Order Us!, which was pulled only days before its scheduled release.
Despite lacking any romance or sexual content, Phantom Thief Angels finds itself in Valve’s crosshairs, seemingly because of its inclusion of short and petite characters, a hallmark of the series.
This ongoing prejudice against such character designs only reinforces the perception that Valve’s moderation policies are inconsistent and rooted more in optics than in any coherent standard.
Even though Phantom Thief Angels: Twin Angel – Labyrinth of Time and World contains no explicit CG imagery, that doesn’t mean Valve won’t find a contrived reason to block its release on Steam. This wouldn’t be the first time Valve intervened with dubious justifications. The so-called “Waifu Holocaust” effectively began with the abrupt banning of the all-ages visual novel “The Key to Home,” a decision that sent shockwaves through visual novel fans and those against adverse censorship.
Similarly, the release of Kimi ga Nozomu Eien: Enhanced Edition was delayed on Steam because it allegedly failed to meet Valve’s ever-shifting standards, even though the visual novel had already been censored. These instances highlight Valve’s inconsistent and often arbitrary content moderation practices, which seem particularly harsh toward games rooted in Japanese media, regardless of context or content.
Currently, the Steam store page for Phantom Thief Angels: Twin Angel – Labyrinth of Time and World remains active, as does the visual novel’s demo. However, this is no guarantee the game has successfully navigated Valve’s notoriously hypocritical standards.
A similar situation occurred with AliceSoft’s Evenicle 2, which was abruptly denied release on Steam due to its sexual content, even though the demo is still available for download. Meanwhile, its predecessor, Evenicle, can continue to be purchased without issue.
This precedent makes it clear that the presence of a demo on Steam is in no way a reliable indicator that the full game will see release. Another notable example of Valve’s double standard occurred with Dungeon Travelers, where Dungeon Travelers 2 was blocked from Steam in 2022, yet its predecessor, To Heart 2: Dungeon Travelers, was inexplicably allowed over a year later.
Given that Phantom Thief Angels: Twin Angel – Labyrinth of Time and World features lolicon characters, its chances of approval appear slim, despite there being no legitimate reason for it to be banned even by Valve’s nonsensical moral code.
The delay might be attributed to a holiday season backlog, as Christmas has just passed and the new year has begun. However, considering the sheer number of games being published on the Steam store daily, this explanation feels more like a convenient excuse than a valid justification.
It’s highly likely that the next time this visual novel makes headlines, it’ll be when Valve’s moderation team finally delivers their verdict, most likely condemning the game as “too inappropriate” for its platform. Meanwhile, a flood of AI-generated fetishistic smut will undoubtedly continue to be approved without hesitation, highlighting the absurdity of Valve’s inconsistent standards furthermore until the cycle repeats.
