Diablo 4 has been confusing players since the beta with its strange mix of revealing clothing and demure demons. Now Blizzard has introduced the newest class and its clothing has reignited the discussion. There is ridicule for the decisions of the past and some frustration about the current circumstances.
What’s the deal with the lack of nudity?
This is what Blizzard is showing now: On July 18, 2024, Blizzard officially introduced the new Spiritborn class in a one-hour livestream. The livestream covered the class’s skills, gameplay, and history, among other things. You can find the details about the class in our Spiritborn preview report.
There were a few Spiritborn armor sets shown on the stream, and one of them is just a few strips of wrapped cloth (via Reddit). The Spiritborn here is basically naked.
When we visited Blizzard, armor was a topic: The Spiritborn don’t actually need armor. Their spirits are all the protection they need, and they only wear clothes to physically resemble their patron.
But it is precisely this new clothing that is now causing a big discussion about how appropriate the censorship of nudity in Diablo 4 really is.
Spiritborn will be released with the new expansion Vessel of Hatred. You can see the gameplay for the class here:
How to play Spiritborn, the new class in Diablo 4: Vessel of Hatred
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“The game is not for children, so don’t treat us like that”
The thread’s creator simply posted a picture of the armor, and in less than 20 hours it has garnered over 1,000 upvotes and nearly 400 comments. The top comment is straight-up mockery: “Why is Blizzard so afraid to show skin?”
Similarly, most of the comments make fun of the appearance. Not so much because the armor is ridiculous, but rather because Blizzard is unnecessarily strict in other areas – as if the community is full of horny players. In one detailed review it says:
So far, Blizzard has invested a horrifying amount of time and money to prevent every bit of skin in a last-minute change in an enormously bloody adult game […]
I just helped a lady find her completely flayed Hellraiser husband and slaughtered the demonic mother of humanity. I’m covered in a five-inch thick layer of blood, ichor, and pus. Seeing a succubus in her obvious last-minute burqini, or the doodles some insane cultist made of the literal supernatural embodiment of motherhood just to take the time to demurely wrap her in a cloth, makes me roll my eyes and takes me out of the game.
The game isn’t for kids, so don’t treat us like we’re kids. Just make it an optional setting or something. There are enough raunchy innuendos everywhere and in item names. Most people will survive seeing an ankle or two.
A similar discussion took place earlier when Blizzard released a skin for huntresses – which could have appeared in an adult catalog. In the Reddit thread, players say that this was not a problem in the past, in Diablo 2, for example. And in the beta of the game there were also some uncensored corpses.
Users suspect that there was a turning point at some point when lewd innuendo was no longer acceptable, and are pointing to the “Hot Coffee” incident from GTA. This was almost repeated in Red Dead Redemption 2: 15 years after GTA, Red Dead Redemption 2 has a sex mod – Take-2 bans it