Nigoro's "Problem of Faith"

One of the difficult things when Japanese make games for foreign countries is the problems with faith. From the historical background of Japan the interest in faith has been weak. It’s difficult to understand the feeling of things such as making vows with a hand over the Bible during the presidential inauguration; or how Islamic faith views the absolute moral...

And it can’t just end there, so what’s OK and what’s bad needs to be thought out, but there is no such rule existing.

Nigoro, developers of La-Mulana, "Problem of Faith"

I'm an atheist and I don't necessarily agree with the choices they've made in this instance. But I also see it's a difficult problem, and I can't read their minds and see what they were trying to do in the first place.

What I do know is that this kind of public discussion about how we use cultural symbols - especially other's cultural symbols - is desperately needed. In the West it really only happens among tiny development teams, one or two people. So to read a reflection on it, from a "large" independent studio whose native language is not English, is a rare treasure.

The comments, unfortunately but expectedly, are horrible.