3rd Birthday not intentionally "erotic"

Square Enix has admitted some gamers may find upcoming PSP game The 3rd Birthday: Parasite Eve "erotic", but insisted it's not intentionally courting such attention.

Legendary Final Fantasy producer Yoshinori Kitase said the gradual ripping of heroine Aya Brea's clothes as she fights beasties is "plausible and realistic", and if gamers get off on it, well, so be it.

"You may actually find some of the features erotic or sexy. But that's not our intention, really," he told Eurogamer.

"For example, Aya, as she continues to fight, sometimes what she's wearing gets ripped and torn to reveal more of her skin, which lots of gamers may find quite sexy.

"But we didn't do that because we wanted to show her in a very sexy light. It's more like that's reality. If you keep fighting obviously you'll get ripped and damaged and injured and wounded.

"So we just wanted to make it plausible and realistic. That's all."

The original Parasite Eve, released for PSOne in 1998, was a survival horror role-playing game that did rather well.

The 3rd Birthday is a PSP exclusive RPG shooter that's set for release in Japan this winter and in North America and Europe "soon after".

Kitase described the game not as a sequel but "a new start".

And if it sells well, he'd "love" to do a sequel.

"If this game turns out to be a success I would like to continue to be involved with gun shooting, which is very popular at the moment," Kitase said.

"I'm really hoping that that could be a sequel to The 3rd Birthday."