The developers of Little Devil Inside, the upcoming survival action RPG for the PS4 and PS5, have sent out an apology. The apology was released to address criticisms over the game's showcase trailer last Thursday, which included an enemy design with some unfortunate design choices.
First introduced on Steam Greenlight back in 2015, Little Devil Inside is a survival action RPG set in an atmospheric semi-open world. Players will be tasked with exploring and surviving in an unusual world with a paper-mache aesthetic. There aren't many concrete details on the gameplay, but it looks like a Victorian-era version of Monster Hunter.
However, the showcase trailer did have something in it that didn't sit well with some of its viewers. Around the forty-five second mark, you can see the protagonist running from some tribal-looking creatures with dreadlocks and a mask with large red lips. Both of these features are often synonymous with black stereotypes, which is especially tone-deaf given the worldwide Black Lives Matter protests currently taking place.
Neostorm, the developers behind Little Devil Inside, posted a response to these complaints on its Facebook. "Racist stereotypes of any kind were absolutely not intended, we were not aware of the stereotypical connotations and wish to apologize to anyone who may have been offended by the character design," they said. According to Neostorm, its intention was to create characters that were protectors/guardians in a more magical part of the game's world. It also showed the steps it's planning to fix the design, which includes removing the dreadlocks, changing the bold lips and skin tone, and make the dart blower look less like a joint.
Given that Neostorm is a South Korean company and thus somewhat distanced from America's long history with race and civil rights, it's understandable that they might make a slip-up over this problematic bit of our culture. There have been other companies that made changes to characters to avoid potential blackface comparisons. Amanita Design, a Czech-based video game company, swapped around the colors of the titular character in the point-and-click adventure game Chuchel to avoid such an unfortunate design choice.
Little Devil Inside will be releasing for PC, PS4, and PS5.
Sources: Facebook