People often credit Japan as the birthplace of every strange fetish out there, yet I often see stuff like
this or
this pop up... routinely laughed off and just accepted as something that exists, even when they are celebrated and top charts ("It's an astounding novel, both earthy and mythical, which leads into the human self and also outward to suggest and celebrate the mystery of life itself." << Haha yeah, that's basically fanservice is in a nutshell, and why people enjoy it.) Seriously though, this is why censorship is nothing but a form of bullying. I don't care if people make fun of me for the passive hobbies I enjoy, but when they
choose to work with these kinds of games, only to impose their arbitrary restrictions on the creative works of
other people, that is irrational and needs to stop. Localization should only be trusted to people with enough balls to accept the original work in its entirety. (People like Tom from XSEED.

) If you want to appeal towards a wider audience, then you make OPTIONS, not cuts. (e.g. blood & gore toggle, difficulty settings, voiceover language options all exist... so let me toggle bath scenes and minigames on/off too.)
Companies often blame ratings boards for their censorship decisions, but don't be fooled. They could make cuts for countries they're "legally" required to (which has been done many times) instead of forcing everyone else to abide by those foreign censorship laws. Ratings boards are far more lenient than you might think too, especially with the ESRB. (Go poke around
their database, they give detailed write-ups of most games they rate. You'd be surprised what kinds of things you can feature in a T-rated game. Speaking of which, I don't think I've seen the ESRB rate a game differently based solely on the fictional age of sexualized characters. They seem to only judge the explicitness. Probably why Senran Kagura Burst got a T, since it's just innuendo and not at all explicit.)
Actually, they didn't change the ages at all. The only thing they did was remove the characters ages entirely from the character bios/info of whatever was in the game. That might still count as a change, but it's very trivial when compared to everything else. Especially with the newest title to receive censorship treatment.
The more trivial, the more it exposes the petty nature of censorship. Think about this logically. Senran Kagura features the erotic consumption of sushi rolls and intricate costume destruction, complete with moans and blushing faces, but to some people, the breaking point is an offhand reference to the fictional age of characters. Nevermind that "high school age" is heavily implied within the story itself. But this is the "compromise" that Tom managed to get the team to agree on. I'm amazed there was even a need for such a silly compromise, considering everything else that was allowed in the localization.
I can't remember if it was this game or another, but I recall reading that changes had to be made because some of the team members felt uncomfortable working on it otherwise. Let that sink in: not because of ratings boards, but because some people localizing it are uncomfortable with the source material. Then there is NISA who likes to guilt people into accepting their personal censorship stance: "In addition, as a company, we did not want NISA to release or be known for content that could be seen as sexualizing or objectifying children in this way." Amazing that they still put NIS in their name, since these were the same games their parent company develops and publishes in Japan. Are they that ashamed of their relation?