Most likely because it featured wholesome heterosexual relations.
Valve have once again shown themselves to be hypocritical bastards when it comes to the curation of games for release on its Steam Store by delisting YuzuSoft’s Angelic☆Chaos RE-BOOT! visual novel from its store page.
Tenshi☆Souzou RE-BOOT! as it’s alternatively called was due for an English translated release this January however before its official release it had unfortunately failed Valve’s “strenuous” review evaluations which previously were proclaimed to be more lenient towards adult-oriented video games so long as the aforementioned game itself wasn’t obviously “trolling” according to Valve.
Which is why just this week alone in fact games such as “Nothing” managed to be released on the Steam store.
The game itself lives up to its name in that it’s quite literally nothing. You download the game, you run the game, you press a key and then you do absolutely nothing. If you do something you fail Nothing. Very exciting and very much a real game that deserves to be on the Steam store.
Given the nature of YuzuSoft as previously mentioned when they heroically donated the sum of 1 Million Yen to the Noto Peninsula earthquake victims, they are an eroge developer. They make 18+ adult visual novels and nothing but 18+ adult visual novels.
Valve has deliberately targeted these sorts of games, preventing many such Japanese games from being accepted for a Steam release or outright banning them post release, those in the know call it the “Waifu Holocaust”, but I like to call it Valve’s hypocritical wall of shame.
Like many Westerners, Valve has immense issue with depictions of fictional female characters, specifically if such games are based around a school setting, because fictional characters need to have a credible birth certificate to ensure that they are appropriately aged, which is why Valve has extensively banned games that feature short female characters. Otherwise known as “lolis”.
It’s well known that Valve’s curation team have prejudices against Japanese games, regardless of whether or now they’re rated for adults-only or are all-ages.
While simultaneously, Valve has allowed a plethora of video games to launch on its Steam storefront featuring depictions of small, child-like male characters instead, they are referred to as “shotas”, and Valve seemingly has a preferential bias towards fictious depictions of little boys opposed to little girls, very suspicious.
Winter Memories, a sequel to Summer Memories is one of many pornographic games that have found a home on Valve’s Steam store, albeit in a neutered state with an offsite patch provided, the point remains the same however.
Winter Memories is a pornographic game featuring depictions of male child-like characters, while at the same time Valve are more than happy to impose the ban hammer on games that feature much of the same content but with the opposite gender, because suddenly that becomes “child exploitation” which is very peculiar.
They’ve even allowed such wholesome games that allow you to have homosexual BDSM sex with Adolf Hitler himself, again, these are pornographic games available for sale on Steam without any issues whatsoever.
Angelic☆Chaos RE-BOOT! follows the tale of Tanikaze Riku, a young man accustomed to an ordinary school life until an angel from Heaven enters the scene. Her mission is crucial: she seeks the reincarnation of the Demon Lord, who, as it turns out, is the protagonist.
The unexpected arrival of this winged woman with snow-white wings sets in motion a series of chaotic events, unveiling memories from his past life and attracting visitors from another world.
The reason why Valve banned it somewhat obvious, given their prejudice against Japanese games, specifically those that are pornographic, Valve have allegedly removed its listing due to “minor exploitation” infractions, likely stemming from the high school setting which is one of Valve’s major pet peeves.
Directed by Famishin (known for Café Stella and the Reapers’ Butterflies and Senren * Banka), the story is crafted by Ritsu Amamiya, Fumi Kazuki, Kei Hozumi, and Kotatsu Ando. Character illustrations are skillfully created by Kobuichi, Muririn, Hokan, and Rio Hazuki.
Angelic☆Chaos RE-BOOT! itself is quite lengthy, with VNDB reports averaging out to just over 49 hours of total play time, the visual novel contains a wholesome story that culminates in depictions of straight heterosexual relations between the protagonist and several heroines, with absolutely no twisted funny business going on.
It’s unknown whether or not the intended Steam release version would have contained its 18+ CG artwork or whether or not it was intended to be censored to some extent, regardless its sudden Steam delisting has halted its release which has been indefinitely delayed as a result of Steam’s hypocritical bullshit.
Steam continues to allow low-quality shovel ware and obvious asset flipping smut games to be sold on its platform without hinderance or objection.
While actual developers are continually scrutinized by the largest PC storefront for allegedly featuring exploitive material while we’re all entirely able to purchase games on the Steam store that allow us to fulfill out fantasies of having gay relations with Adolf Hitler or incestuous relations with little boys, while games such as Dungeon Travelers 2 and Evenicle 2 are randomly barred from release due to the differing opinions from Valve’s curation team.
