Possibly one of the biggest fan requests for Square-Enix’s upcoming action/shooter title The 3rd Birthday, is for the game to replicate the shower scene that appeared in Parasite Eve 2. This scene didn’t particularly add much to the game’s story, but it did show a vulnerability in the lead character that helped endear players to her.

Earlier on in The 3rd Birthday development process, it was stated several times through the game’s official Twitter that there would be no shower scene in this iteration of the franchise. But, apparently popular demand rules all. Because of fan requests, about half way through development, the producers decided to add the scene in.

The reasoning behind leaving it out in the first place was to avoid a higher, more restrictive rating. It seems, because of that scene, the game did get bumped from a CERO C to CERO D (possibly a difference comparable to being bumped from ESRB T to ESRB M over here). The producers were worried the “D” rating would lessen the reach that the title could have if it was available to a wider audience with the lower “C” rating. However, ultimately fan requests and, apparently, internal cheering, caused them to add a shower scene into the game.

There are a couple things I find interesting about this. It was all revealed in a Famitsu interview with the producer, and he was detailing an account of how, usually when someone needs a movie made by that particular team at Square-Enix, they talk about production time and costs. But, when it came to this particular scene, the movie guys said, “You decide if you’ll end up using. We’re just going to make it.” Way to go, guys!

Secondly, because of this one shower scene, as I mentioned, the rating bumped from a CERO C to a CERO D. This is a higher rating than another, seemingly much more suggestive title that we’ve all come to know and love over the last few months, Catherine, which is rated CERO C. If you want to check out the shower scene from Parasite Eve 2, I've embedded it below.

http://www.youtube.com/v/StvH4RS9F-I?fs=1&hl=en_US