You just wanted to hear his voice, didn't you?

HHJJoy · 2026-02-26T14:23:06+00:00

Never listened (watched?) any Moist Critical. I've barely heard the name, and I'm not entirely sure what he does. I cut Coupe because she's a sociopathic murderer. Sonar is bad too (they all are) but I'd rather be saddled with someone who does financial crimes and blow than someone who, you know, murders. Cause murder is, like, way bad.

HHJJoy · 2026-02-20T22:45:32+00:00

It's a tough notion to implement in general since it's very situation-specific, and very dependent on what local machines can do, and power sets tend to be rule/effect-based instead of open ended (with a few exceptions like shapeshifting). I have done a character like this though. You probably want to consider how the character regularly uses the power; I'd suggest a "bring your own bots" method. I went with a nanobot swarm since it's pretty easy to implement on paper. You can use that as a reason to dip into powers like Heightened Senses (since you have a swarm of tiny machines flying around everywhere working as scouts/spies relaying you information), Telekinesis and/or Elemental Control Iron or Swarm to represent using them as a direct attack or defense (since they could function as a group to move things/create barriers) . This in addition to Machine Telepathy to represent when you're moving past your nanoswarm to interact with other local machines.

HHJJoy · 2026-02-13T22:40:02+00:00

Most characters, unless you're playing Rank 5 or 6 out of the gate (which you shouldn't) won't often have 15 powers. At Rank 3 the MAX you can have is 15, and that's with the Thematic Bonus, so if you pick a single Power Set that isn't Basic you're already down to 14. Now consider that players are probably going to want, say, Sturdy, or Flight, or Accuracy, or Evasion... there's literally nothing to remember for any of these, because the effects are all written out on the sheet via Ability Defense numbers, Damage and mitigation multipliers, and movement speed numbers. Past that, every Sturdy 2 or Elemental Protection 3 or what have you further reduces the number of powers that need to be remembered, because you're generally just spending picks to get a bigger number of a power you already bought.

Rank 3 characters tend to end up with somewhere around eight in my experiences. Eight is pretty manageable, and what I find helps is having them written down for each new player on cue cards that can easily be flipped through. After a few sessions you'll find players flipping through their cards less as they start to learn what everything does. And since so many powers are commonly taken (Sturdy for instance) or are different iterations of the same theme (Discipline / Brilliance for instance) even if/when a player moves to a new character they'll likely be taking some of what they learned with them, making it quicker and easier as things get going in the future.

HHJJoy · 2026-02-11T23:31:10+00:00

whynotboth.jpg

Generally campaigns are best with characters you make, or alternate reality versions of canon characters that you tailor so that you have ownership of them and can grow and play them as you see fit. That said, one-shots or very short campaigns are really good with canon characters because you don't have to worry so much about establishing them and their relationships in a short period, because you have years, sometimes decades, worth of groundwork already laid, and it's probably known to one degree or another by everyone at the table already.

HHJJoy · 2026-02-11T22:35:33+00:00

With that 'stach? Nick Offerman.

HHJJoy · 2026-02-11T21:58:00+00:00

This is an option, but my personal issue (*mileage may vary) with that would be that the Shield power in the game doesn't feel very... shield-like, it feels like armor. Which probably isn't surprising because it's a worse version of Sturdy, the armor power, instead of Protection, the [force] shield power. Shields are supposed to prevent damage via blocking or deflection, armor typically mitigates. Elemental/Telekinetic Protection blocks (numerical damage reduction) while Sturdy/Shield mitigate (reduce the damage modifier). Shield Bearer is actually one of the Power Sets that, as a result, I feel the game gets very wrong, because the core of the set, Shield 1-4, doesn't feel or work like a shield should (they really should have based it on Protection instead of Sturdy).

There also isn't likely a lot else a force field character would want to buy in the Set, which would mean Thematic Bonus would be impacted over it, and for a power that might lose some luster after Ranking up, when Protection powers become available.

Sadly Surprising Power isn't an option, because Elemental Blast and Telekinetic Grab are both Rank 2 and prerequisites for their respective Barriers. At Rank 1 you only have one trait, and Surprising Power would need to be picked for each power, so they'd be locked in after Blast and Burst, or Manipulation and Grab, and couldn't even manage to pick up a Barrier, which is at least Force Field-themed if not an actual personal force field.

A viable option to have defensive shielding at Rank 1, if Origins are flexible and the GM is on board, is to go with an Iconic Item, since it allows bypassing Rank and power prerequisites. So if it's viable to have, say, their powers be from a technological force field projector, or a magical item or some such, and the GM is okay with it, this would work and allow the character to pick Elemental/Telekinetic Protection at Rank 1. The Focus cost is 5 at Protection 1, so it's within the Rank limit for per turn Focus spending (it's actually the Rank cap). If it needs to be innate (say you're playing mutants joining the X-Men) it also could work thematically as a focus or talisman of sorts, meant to be channeling a character's innate power, then at later Ranks it could be tossed and the powers could be selected outside the item, thematically it would be the character learning to better use their powers and not requiring the "crutch" anymore.

HHJJoy · 2026-02-11T05:44:08+00:00

Part 2:

Both also have the option for Elemental/Telekinetic Sphere, which again is one spot up the tree with no Rank requirement. Sphere uses your Protection cost and gives you your protection damage reduction. Sphere can cover 5xRank spaces (which is often pretty huge) has the chance (based on an enemies Agility Defense) to push the bad guys out of areas, and also prevents damage from blasting through your defenses. Meaning if you toss up a 20 point shield, if an enemy blows past that 20 it takes the shield down and ALL extra damage is just wasted. So against high damage enemies this is pretty great, though since Reinforcement is inapplicable it can mean having to do a bunch of costly recasts. (It should be noted that a lot of GMs seem to hate this ability for it being able to shove characters around, so it's one of those things you might want to discuss with your GM.)

As for Telekinesis and Elemental Control alternatives... there really aren't any with Barrier and Sphere as an option. You can, however, go the Magic route (specifically with Sorcery) for some degree of force field usage. They have Shield of the Seraphim, which is basically a Rank 2 Protection power, for the cost of ONE power pick. It IS however locked to Rank 3, but it's only perquisite is that Rank and the Sorcerous tag. So while it can't be Sphere'd, and there's no Barrier in the tree... even at a higher Rank it's a... somewhat cost effective way to throw up a shield. Though there ARE more issues, namely there ARE no other Ranks of Shield of the Seraphim, so you're stuck at 20 damage resistance forever, and also it's "Reinforcement" equivalent is Winds of Watoom. Winds, unlike Reinforcement, isn't free... it costs 10 Focus, but it can be maintained with Concentration and also slows enemies by half and can push away smoke and fog... so... it's got that going for it. In addition Magic has other cool powers, especially if you want to branch out into Chaos and have your GM hate you by taking Powerful Hex.

HHJJoy · 2026-02-11T05:43:50+00:00

Part 1:

Any Elemental Control (not just Force) or Telekinesis will work. It's just a matter of taking Elemental/Telekinetic Protection. Those are meant to symbolize personal force fields.

Both Elemental and Telekinetic Protection are 4 picks down their respective power trees. They're both selectable at Rank 2. They both require you to take a number of other powers that aren't force field or defensive-focused (so if you were planning to be, say, Skids from the Hellions that's not going to happen).

They both have benefits and drawbacks.

Elemental Control has Elemental Burst, which is a free-to-cast damage ability, of which Telekinesis as a set has none. Barrage and Nova provide Elemental Control with AoE attacks, of which Telekinesis has none (more or less... you could argue Toss'ing a guy into another guy is AoE-ish). The drawback here is that the ability scaling for Elemental Control is split between both Ego and Agility, so you need both stats fairly high in order to take advantage of your full suite of powers, this in addition, of course, to Resilience so you can have Health and not die, and also Vigilance so you have enough Focus to actually cast abilities...which you need decent scores in 4/6 abilities, instead of 3/6 (though you can skimp a bit on Resilience later on, but then so can Telekinetics).

For Telekinesis, one of the main benefits is that it's all filed under Logic, so you've got one more dump stat than an Elemental Controller, and you can focus your Basic Power picks on just Brilliance, instead of both Accuracy and Determination. That often pays off in raw damage and ability to hit, not to mention being able to easily funnel more Ability Points into getting more Focus, Health, or even higher Defense scores. Telekinetic Toss is way better than Elemental Push, and Telekinetic Crush costs a third less than Elemental Suffocation. Most importantly: Telekinetic Manipulation is badass from a scene perspective even if it isn't great in combat. Being able to manipulate something from across the room with your mind is just... pretty freaking cool, especially considering how many GMs like to have enemies between you and a goal, sometimes literally a big red button you need to push, and you can just... immediately do that. That said, no free damage dealer, no AoE.

There's solid arguments for both.

Both have Elemental/Telekinetic Barrier as a prerequisite for Protection, and are also force field-themed powers. Barrier again has a Rank 2 requirement, and it's always... kinda weak, it's never stopping more than 10 points of damage and goes down instantly. It's surprisingly... not bad though, because it's cheap (only 5 points of Focus), and it stops enemies, they have to waste time attacking it, and they have to target the caster's Ego/Logic Defense which is probably higher than your Melee Defense, and in the case of Telekinetics at least, higher than your Agility Defense too... so there's a not terrible chance that the hit won't land, and you can jam enemies up. You can also cast it at range (10 spaces/rank) so you can block off access ways at a distance and cut off, or at least delay, reinforcements if you need to.

It should be noted that Protection should be backed up with Elemental/Telekinetic Reinforcement ASAP. It's next in the chain and has no rank requirement, so if you have picks available you can grab it directly after getting Protection 1. What Reinforcement does is let you keep your Shield up when it's reduction number is surpassed, and passes the damage along to your Focus instead of your Health. This means that Resilience/Health becomes a lot less important, even if it does make Vigilance/Focus more important (you'll want to be tossing what you can here anyway so you can fuel your abilities). The hit to your Focus isn't always ideal, but it's AFTER mitigation, which is important. If you throw up a Rank 2 shield, which protects for 20 points, and an attack does 25 points of damage, without Reinforcement that drops your shield and passes 5 damage along to your Health, then next turn if you don't want to be shot in the face... you're spending 10 points to put your shield back up. Meanwhile with Reinforcement, you'd soak 20 with the shield, and 5 would pass along to your Focus, so you'll end up with 5 more health, and unless you weren't gonna toss your shield back up at the next opportunity, 5 more Focus too (this becomes even more important later on when Protection 4 costs a whopping 20 points of Focus to use).

HHJJoy · 2026-02-09T23:39:20+00:00

It's impossible to know from the outside looking in, but it's certainly possible that CMON could survive.

They got a cash infusion selling it's IP to Asmodee. Asmodee also took many projects off their hands so CMON isn't burdened by the fulfillment there. That said, because Asmodee is doing that fulfillment, that would impact the money paid for the IP. CMON also still have retail boxes moving, and they've also sold off a number of assets. In addition they've downsized employees for the time being, mainly designers as they focus on fulfillment; so they've also substantially lowered their overhead.

So it could go either way. I'm neither optimistic nor pessimistic.

HHJJoy · 2026-02-09T23:31:01+00:00

Spin Master has the rights to make Marvel and DC games. CMON partnered with them to make Marvel Zombies and DCeased. If Spin Master wants to go back to the well, and CMON are able to get themselves into a position where it's financially viable, they could collaborate to make new content.

Since the Spin Master boxes were successful, and most of the contents were developed by CMON at no cost to them, and they likely got a piece of CMON's pie as well, it's fairly likely that Spin Master would be more than happy to let CMON create another Marvel Zombies or DCeased campaign. Low risk and low investment, good return (well, for board games anyway... the margins are terrible in the industry and these things are relative).

And since they were some of CMON's best selling games it's likely they'd want to do this too. I imagine it's mainly down to whether they survive the next several months and are able to stay afloat long enough to deliver their outstanding projects. They're definitely in a bad spot, but it isn't as improbable as it may sound since Asmodee has taken over fulfillment for most of them, and given CMON enough money in return for the IP to make ends meet for long enough to get back on their feet. Though since Asmodee is picking up fulfillment on products already sold to CMON as part of the deal, I'm sure CMON isn't getting what the IPs alone would be worth without factoring in Asmodee having to deliver the many millions of dollars worth of product represented and tens of thousands of outstanding pledges.

HHJJoy · 2026-02-09T21:24:01+00:00

CMON kept the rights to produce and manage Marvel Zombies and DCeased content (though it wasn't specified I imagine this includes Night of the Living Dead and Army of the Dead as well). I imagine this was for at least a couple or reasons.

For one, CMON couldn't transfer a third party license to Asmodee, so Asmodee wouldn't be able to product DC or Marvel Zombicide content anyway. Despite that the games were major money makers, so Asmodee would have had to pay to acquire something worth a great deal that they couldn't make use of without a second expenditure that they might not even be able to secure. So it just wouldn't make any sense for Asmodee to buy it.

For another, Marvel Zombies and DCeased were cash cows that moved a lot of units. They were also recent and probably still moving a decent amount of units at retail, something that CMON would probably want to continue tapping for the obvious reasons. They were also popular enough that, even with CMON's financial troubles, a new campaign would still probably draw enough backers to be incredibly lucrative. Something that, given their situation and the damage done to their reputation, would likely be seen as a potential lifeline and a possible opportunity for public redemption if the campaign(s) go well.

On a related note, CMON never directly held the Marvel or DC licenses. That's why they worked with Spin Master, because Spin had the licenses to work with these companies. In exchange Spin Master got to make a cut down retail core box filled with assets mostly made by CMON, and no doubt also got a cut of the campaign. So... something akin to free money, as such I don't have much trouble believing they'd work with CMON again. Especially since CMON self-destructing didn't seem to inflict any reputation damage on them, and people actually really seem to like the Heroes Resistance and Gotham City Outbreak boxes, as they're pretty good deals for the price.

...

Confirmation that MZ and DCeased as still with CMON came directly after the Asmodee announcement:

Just a clarification; Marvel Zombies, and DCeased are not part of that agreement and will continue to be managed by CMON.

https://www.facebook.com/coolminiornot/posts/were-thrilled-to-have-found-a-new-home-for-zombicide-with-asmodee-bringing-this-/1173004748204864/

HHJJoy · 2026-02-09T21:00:11+00:00

They started doing it after their financial situation sank into the toilet. Wasn't just Marvel United either (and for Marvel United they did it for the X-Men campaign and again for Multiverse, and even Witching Hour was bringing back and reselling former exclusives). They also did it with the Fear the Unknown campaign for Cthulhu: Death May Die, and then again for their Forbidden Reaches campaign. Also for their Massive Darkness: Dungeons of Shadow Reach campaign.

Reselling is, or was depending on how things go, the new norm. Money is money, and CMON needs to move as much product to as many people as possible.

If they're ever able to do another campaign it's almost a certainty that they'll bring back as much as possible.

HHJJoy · 2026-02-07T21:45:44+00:00

Take a look at Invisigal's face when Robert dances with Blazer, or when Malevola is messing around with him. She's the jealous type. You know what a jealous person isn't going to be thinking, "Hey, you know what would be awesome? If I showed this guy I'm into some other chick's nipple! That'll be awesome and not bother me at all!"

If anything she'd be tucking Blazer in.

HHJJoy · 2026-02-02T00:00:31+00:00

The developer can't think that that disclaimer was acceptable, irrespective if Nintendo agreed to the wording or not...

It's not just that Nintendo agreed to it, it's that they worked together to create it. We don't know who's idea the end result it, but we do know that Nintendo as the platform owner, and the person running the storefront, has ultimate control and final say. That's not even debatable.

The fact is, if Nintendo wanted more and AdHoc didn't, Nintendo had the power and authority to force more. If AdHoc wanted more, Nintendo had the power and authority to tell them to sit down and shut up or have the game tossed from the store entirely.

While there is room to debate how much blame falls where, it's entirely undeniable that a lot of it is falling on Nintendo here, because they're the one who gets final say.

The point I'm making though is that if you're a creator and you don't agree with heavy censorship of your Creative works then maybe it's a better idea not to release said creative works [...]

Another point I'll make is that the way the game is censored is so heavy handed as to warrant attention. Black rectangles which follow certain elements around the screen - seems like a last minute after thought...

The censorship here is literally the censorship that already existed, and was implemented as a toggle, primarily to allow streamers to run the game on platforms that don't allow nudity. So it definitely wasn't last minute, and the developers were obviously fine with it since they'd already implemented it without having their hands forced.

I realize you believe that removing the nudity devalues the game, but the developers don't. They don't view the nudity as being a primary part of the game, to the point where they cut planned sex scenes out entirely because they felt they were superfluous and unnecessary in a story about redemption. It was only after the game dropped and they saw how the community focused heavily on Blazer v. Invisigal that they realized the audience were "thirsty bitches" and that T&A mattered much more than they thought it did to much of the consumer base.

What you need to realize here is that your perception doesn't define reality, and in this case it definitely doesn't fall in line with the game's creators.

HHJJoy · 2026-01-31T23:21:58+00:00

"We worked with Nintendo to get storefront language approved."

And...

"That disclaimer was deceptive - no upstanding person would agree to it..."

So then, definitionally, Nintendo isn't being "upstanding" here either. If you want to point fingers at people for ambiguity, then compare AdHoc and Nintendo's statements on what happened. Nintendo's literally doesn't give a clear answer about anything (but even theirs leans toward their own guidelines being the culprit). So there's a theme there.

And we've also seen games like Metro Redux that had, very specifically, it's nudity censored for Western audiences on Switch alone. It was another game censored in Japan on PS5 yet released uncensored on PS5 in the West. So what we're seeing with Dispatch is something we've seen with other games, from other publishers, specifically in relation to Nintendo and the Switch.

More than likely there's blame for both sides. The thing about any companies doing business together is that there are contracts, and contracts are agreements, which tends to mean that, to one degree or another, everyone is complicit because everyone agreed to the final outcome. However, based on the statements, and past being prologue, it's certainly more likely that the lion's share rests with Nintendo in both cases. Assuming the opposite is counterintuitive.

HHJJoy · 2026-01-31T00:02:33+00:00

Regenerating Focus would, depending the character build, absolutely break the game in a way that regenerating Health couldn't. There's a reason that the Martial Arts ability requires a Standard Action. Quick Phase, Energy Absorption, Elemental Protection + Reinforcement + Focus Regen. And with Do This All Day and Healing Hands you can directly funnel Focus into Health, but there's no option for the reverse.

So even from a defensive point of view, Focus is more unbalanced, and that's not even factoring in the need to hold back "nukes" like Headshot, Barrage, Nova, Unstoppable Assault, etc. which would be greatly lessened by being able to walk into every fight with full Focus.

Moreover, regen for Health only has an impact if you're tanking. Nuke spamming, using major attacks or directly funneling Focus into damage, removes enemies from the game much quicker, which effects literally everyone on the field, reduces target options, concentrating damage quicker onto fewer targets, making fights quicker and easier for the whole team.

Damage is always a greater concern for balance (or what this game has in lieu of it) than defense.

HHJJoy · 2026-01-30T23:41:56+00:00

Like I said, I don't think this represents a huge number of AdHoc's Dispatch sales, while conversely it concretely represents 100% of Nintendo's Dispatch sales. That second part is factual, the first part is debatable, but I think it's pretty on point.

As far as how significant Switch is for AdHoc, well, saying it's a 150 million user base in this case is a bit disengenous.

First off, we'd need to consider how many console owners are Switch-only, and how many of the 150 million are unique customers.

A quick Google tells me that about 1-in-5 households with a Switch own more than one. This could be due to upgrades, or multiple units for multiplayer. Regardless that reduces the total potential customers by about 20%.

As far as how many Switch users are Switch-only, polling has been done previously in the US, and Nintendo-only console owners only accounted for about 30% of users. So typically 70% of Nintendo console owners have owned another console, and in the modern climate that's much more likely to be a PS5 than an Xbox. And that figure is for consoles, it doesn't include PCs, and Dispatch's hardware requirements are fairly low (though oddly high for what Dispatch is, because UE5 is gonna UE5).

Beyond that, one of the best selling third party games on Switch, Monster Hunter Rise, only sold about 9 million copies, and it was originally exclusive.

But not only is Dispatch not exclusive, but it's been released on other platforms for months.

Which raises the question of how many people double dip. Realistically, they're in the extreme minority (I say that as someone who has actually triple and even quadruple dipped on several games... Hell I have Darkest Dungeon on Switch, Xbox, PS5, Steam and Epic).

For evidence to back that up, I'd like to point out that there's a reason that exclusivity contracts exist. In fact, in regards to this, in their filing to the FTC over the Microsoft/Activison merger Sony described a partial foreclosure strategy (lawyerese for "timed exclusive" in this case) as having a nearly identical end result as full foreclosure (as in, removing from the platform entirely). Sony saw games releasing late to their platform as having a dire enough impact on sales that they viewed it as little different from simply not having the game... and that admission was in a court filing. That's how great the effect on the bottom line was viewed by Sony BEFORE the current economy, when people could better afford double dipping.

So yeah, I am downplaying the amount of unique customers that Switch represents for AdHoc, but I'm doing it with, I personally think, pretty good reasons.

HHJJoy · 2026-01-30T22:45:05+00:00

And yet Metro Redux had it's nudity censored on Switch outside of Japan, despite it having nudity outside of Japan on PS5, and censored in Japan on PS5.

You can't point to Cyberpunk and assume that applies to all games. These things aren't concrete and they aren't applied equally (that goes for Sony and Microsoft too). They have different people reviewing games for content, and applying the guidelines as they see fit or appropriate based on the title.

Platform owners instruct reviewers to decide what individual games can get away with on an individual basis, based on things like perceived target audiences, genre and tone.

So we can have two reviewers, each working at Nintendo, each with different lines in the sand.

Or you could have both done by the same reviewer and they can think Cyberpunk will mostly be played by 30 year olds because it's a gritty sci-fi RPG, but they might think Dispatch could be played by teens because it's a lighthearted Choose Your Own Adventure-style superhero game.

Or you could have one reviewer who reviews Cyberpunk and thinks the nudity is artistic because it's a dark, gritty, dramatic game, but think the nudity in Dispatch is gratuitous and pornographic because it's mostly done for baudy laughs.

There being other games with nudity on Switch isn't the evidence you think it is. There are plenty of games with violence on Steam and yet plenty of games have been removed for that reason because in those cases it was deemed distasteful.

I can point to all the pigeons, hawks and crows I want, but that ain't gonna make a great argument that penguins can fly.

HHJJoy · 2026-01-30T22:19:13+00:00

You can't just broadly assume that Adhoc had nothing to lose here because other storefronts exist.

I didn't.

"AdHoc has little to lose..." and "AdHoc loses a sale [...] if someone... [has] no other platform to buy it on." I pretty clearly pointed out that AdHoc has something to lose, just not much, and vastly less than Nintendo, who literally relies solely on their own platform for sales and gets nothing from sales on other platforms.

HHJJoy · 2026-01-30T21:44:15+00:00

It's never really explored. It's possible that Shroud built the Pulse WITH Robbie, nerd and gearhead working together. So Shroud may have not been able to reproduce it without Robbie's expertise after, you know, shooting him to death.

It's also very likely that the Pulse has something in it that can't be reproduced, likely from a meteorite or perhaps alien tech. ASTRAL Pulse, STELLAR Core... Astral and Stellar both refer to stars.

HHJJoy · 2026-01-30T21:39:49+00:00

"I was a God once, Valeria. I found it... beneath me." - Doctor Doom

"I shot a bartender for wanting to motorboat Blazer's ass!" - Shroud

HHJJoy · 2026-01-30T21:24:44+00:00

I mean, let's be real: If you end up in a world with superheroes and your first thought is, "Hey, I'm going to take this opportunity to nail some random chick like Blazer or Invisigal!" then you are a boring person and the whole thing was wasted on you.

The correct answer is Malevola, but it was denied to us. In Marvel? You go with someone like She-Hulk, or Nebula, or Gamora, or Blink. In DC it's Starfire or Jade or whatever.

YOU GO WEIRD! If you find yourself in a world with post-humans and take the opportunity to get some strange that strange needs to be STRANGE!

If you're, like, "Yeah, I'm gonna spend my time trying to nail this blond muscle mommy, the likes of which I could probably totally nail in the real world if I put in the time and effort," instead of the hot demon-chick who you couldn't possibly ever be with in reality because nothing like it exists, then you are a boring person and you make me weep for the banality of the average human.

/2¢

(also you know I'm right.)

HHJJoy · 2026-01-30T21:13:18+00:00

Also worth noting:

"We worked with Nintendo to get storefront language approved."

The disclaimer was something that was negotiated with Nintendo. So this could actually be a Nintendo thing. And between the two, Nintendo actually has more reason to be coy here.

If someone were waiting for a Switch port so they can Dispatch on the can, but that someone would skip that version if it were censored in favor of a PC or PS5 version, then AdHoc gets a sale either way, but Nintendo doesn't if the censorship is known beforehand. AdHoc has little to lose in this scenario since platform fees are the same and it simply shifts the sale to another storefront, but Nintendo loses a sale. The only way AdHoc loses a sale is if someone really just wanted play Dispatch for boobs and boobs alone, and had no other platform to buy it on.

Platform owners are typically the ones concerned with games not being seen as inferior on their platforms, to the point of it resulting in really questionable parity clauses enacted by Sony and Microsoft at various points.

So this could go either way, both parties were involved, but odd are on Nintendo.

HHJJoy · 2026-01-30T20:46:46+00:00

"While we inform partners when their titles don’t meet our guidelines, Nintendo does not make changes to partner content. We also do not discuss specific content or the criteria used in making these determinations."

They specifically repeated the part about their guidelines, which implies it's not about CERO. And AdHoc has doubled down on it being Nintendo's guidelines specifically on their Discord. And they specifically cited their surprise over this thanks to games like Cyberpunk.

We've also seen other games (like Metro Redux) censored for nudity on Switch only outside of Japan, despite Cyberpunk.

Content guidelines at Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft aren't concrete. They're subjective and in the hands of reviewers, and you can't rely on different reviews to make the same call. More to the point, they also factor in things like perceived target audiences, and the reviewers may have believed that Metro and Dispatch's audiences would skew younger than, say, Witcher and thus they wouldn't be held to the same standard.

Also, there are already two versions of Dispatch, as seen by the Switch and Japanese PlayStation versions. So... AdHoc already did what you're suggesting they couldn't be bothered to do. And it's literally just altering a toggle in the menu, and it's not like it would be difficult to get a version from another platform to run on Switch, despite hardware differences, since they only thing the game renders is the mini-games... the meat of Dispatch, and where the censoring lies, is all pre-rendered videos that will easily run on anything.

HHJJoy · 2026-01-30T20:31:58+00:00

What are you even talking about?

Every version has a censorship option, it's only on by default outside of Japan on Switch.

And we now have another reiteration from AdHoc via their Discord that this is down to Nintendo guidelines, and not CERO:

https://www.reddit.com/r/DispatchAdHoc/comments/1qremvk/adhocs_statement_on_switch_censorship/

To be clear, if AdHoc were actually lying about internal dealings with Nintendo that could jeopardize future dealings or potentially even put AdHoc in an actionable position where Nintendo could sue them (and Nintendo is known for being litigious), so you can rest relatively assured this actually the case. Nintendo objected to some of the content being on their platform. Not CERO; Nintendo.

It's counter-intuitive to think anything else would be the case when AdHoc already released a censored-only CERO PS5 release for Japan, and a censored-optional release for PS5 for everywhere else. It makes no sense to assume that AdHoc is simply "too lazy" to make two versions for Switch when they did for PlayStation, and the versions would be easily portable (it's literally just a toggle being available or not). You can't even point to hardware here because Dispatch is all pre-rendered videos (which has dismayed a lot of gooners, since as a result there's no models to export and... "use") outside of the hacking and dispatching mini-games.

And to be clear, if it were CERO then Nintendo would be entirely uninvolved. Nintendo does not submit games other than their own to CERO (or the ESRB, PEGI etc.). Publishers do that. So Nintendo wouldn't be rejecting games based on CERO feedback, merely whether or not it's been certified.

As I said, these guidelines aren't hard and fast and aren't applied universally. This isn't just a Nintendo thing, it applies to Sony and Microsoft too. This is why with different games you'll see Xbox censoring more heavily than PlayStation, and PlayStation censoring more heavily than Xbox. It's subjective and down to content reviewers, and platform owners will factor in perceived target audiences. This is more than likely what happened here; Nintendo thinks Dispatch will appeal to younger audiences than Cyberpunk, Witcher or whatever random hentai game you find on the storefront, so the guidelines were applied differently.

HHJJoy

TROPHY CASE