I just played through one sex scene in (the unrated) Sabbat of the Witch and have to admit I was slightly disappointed that the genitals were mosaiced out (though only slightly because the dialogue was still erotic and the game's plot and characters are so good). I am currently assuming the unrated version on GOG and Steam was the one released to full viewing in Japan, given the nature of Japanese censorship laws. However, that leads to a question about GOG's NSFW catalog....

Just how censored or uncensored are the various unrated NSFW titles on GOG? Can I expect different things from different publishers? I was just wondering if there was anything more explicit than Sabbat of the Wtich (the first NSFW GOG game I have played).

There is a notice (on the main game page) saying check site for details, and the FAQ for the game on the site says:
"3. Are H-CGs going to be mosaic-free?
Unfortunately there's nothing drawn beneath the mosaics, so it's not an option."

If you're talking about visual novels, you're best off using VNDB to figure out what each title contains, such as mosaic or unrated status. They use a color-coded system for each release that shows the presence of mosaics or not. Or you can just click on each release to see the info there.

Some titles just don't have demosaiced versions, even in their western release. From what I understand, often those cases are because the Japanese company doesn't want their title being backported to Japan and getting in trouble. Companies may also refuse to have an artist draw in the missing parts, which is done for cases like Cavalary pointed out where there is nothing under the mosaic (or the assets that were mosaiced were just temporary stand ins)

Whatever their reasoning, Yuzusoft, the dev of Sabbat of the Witch, is one of those companies. The unrated version is the most uncensored version you're ever going to get from them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOTmy9J4KQU

I'm sure some modders would jump at the opportunity even if that were the case, and it got no official endorsement.

I'm not necessarily a proponent of erotica on GOG (nor am I a detractor really), but doing a "nsfw" game in a half-assed manner sort of defeats the purpose. My 2 cents. But I understand Japanese culture has its particular taboos.

I don't know the exact ratio, but it seems a lot of them are censored.

One way to check, sometimes, is to see if the title is listed on JAST and then see if it says "No mosiacs" and/or if it is listed on Mangagamer and then see if it says "Without mosaics."

But really, GOG itself should be putting this information directly onto the GOG store pages for AO games to which this issue is relevant.

A game only counts as censored if it's different from the original.
Since in Japan it's illegal to show genitals, one must assume that all games from japanese developers have mosaics.

However, a "dirtyness" level for games would be a fun enhancement for the store and topic for some very interesting forum threads.

Only in published media surely :D

Nope. If it has mosaics, then its censored. Just because it's the law in Japan that they have to censor AO Japanese games and just because it's very common for it to be done, that doesn't make it any less of being censorship.

And no, there is no reason to assume that all Japanese AO games have mosaics, as many of them do not, since the devs often give the original uncensored artwork to publishers in other countries, who release the uncensored, no-mosaics version of those same Japanese games.

As for the "dirtyness level" you mentioned: that's not what I was saying GOG should put onto the store page. That is a subjective and therefore meaningless term when it comes to practical application.

On the other hand, GOG listing clearly whether an AO game has mosaics, or no mosaics, is an objective, easily-defined thing, of which there is therefore no good reason for GOG not to be listing that information on the store pages of all such games.

That is odd.....then they are all androgynous ? Man that kills the mood :( Well they could be nice and add (includes mosaics) to the game page, absolutely agreed.
Generally any western publisher will want to remove the mosaics but as milky said above if the original Dev/publisher doesn't want their Mosaics removed then it's basically out of the hand of western publishers.
Except for just not releasing it.

RPGs like Skyrim have underwear shown when all equipment is unequipped.

Is that censorship?

No,that is called giving nude modders a job.

True :)

My point is you can't claim censorship if the developers haven't done so.

Maybe they chose to follow the law as happens a lot here and didn't want the bother of releasing an international version that might bite them in the arse later.

Or maybe they didn't want to release images of genitals in the first place.

Assuming censorship is just stupid and disrespectful to the developers.

Oh dear, I remember AC Odyssey with the group of so called nudists ...

In my experience (from playing Song of Saya, Dead End Aegis, Mokoko, the Imperial Gatekeeper and Alternate Dimansion Diary), not censored at all.

Note that some games like Huniepop that are (were?) censored here have patches outside of GOG.com that can apply so it is worthwhile to do a bit of research too.

Look, I'm not really interested in participating in a debate about the morality of censorship. I just want to know if you guys can recommend any place(s) on the internet I can use to research whether a given NSFW game is censored (i.e. mosaicized). (Yes, this is probably something GOG should do for itself, but there are many things GOG should probably do that it's being extremely slow about. I don't want a debate on that either. These subjects are endlessly discussed, sometimes in a trollish manner, on these boards anyway.)

I appreciate that some of the above posters have already offered some suggestions. I would like to know about any others, as well as what information I might expect to find on these sites.