Don't you think the people searching for games containing rape content are missing out, if they can't find this game? Smashing faces into rocks before fucking them should be right up their alley.
If we must look at it seriously...
The latest I've seen float by was someone who's patreon got blocked because his game had the rape tag on here.
If the board of review at patreon can't be arsed to do their job anymore and base their decisions on whether content they haven't actually looked at should be banned purely on what that content is classified as on what is, essentially, a website dedicated to pirating the very same content that is their source of revenue as much as it is the creator's... I'd rather not have the tag assigned arbitrarily and then Z getting booted off the platform because of it.
Add to that what the trade-off would be even if the patreon issue was a non issue...
The nr of people who go out of their way to look for straight up rape on here are a subset, however large, of the total. Off them, only a small fraction will be stepping up and become a supporter of the game. So for the relatively minor benefit of a handful more supporters, we get a tag that is questionable in its relevance and risks inducing expectations of the kind of content that we actually don't want to offer.
That was my consideration as a party involved in the making of the game and who wants Z to do well and pay his rent.
From a personal point of view, how I rationalise the 3 questionable instances is as follows:
1) Asha at the beginning... she challenges Z and loses the challenge. As such, she is fair game and she knows this, even, in her particular case, accepts this finding herself gratified by the submission. This is consistent with the winner takes all ethos of the setting. This also establishes a precedent for the player, to understand the kind of morale that rules the setting and the mindframe of the characters.
2) Kyra... of the 3, this is the one where I personally struggle the most with, in relation not so much with internal consistency of the game, but in relation to real world parallels with imprisoned women being taken and abused (my grandmother spent her teenage years in a Japanese concentration camp, so she would probably not appreciate me getting even tangentially involved with putting out a similar scenario)... That said, if the only reason was her being unconscious at the start of the act, I would invite all of you to raise your hand if you have ever woken up frisky and started playing with your partner when they were still fully or half asleep.... I'm sure some will have appreciated it and others will have kicked you in the nuts, but... is that rape too?
I agree however that compounding that with her being a prisoner does plunge that scene in a massive grey area.... then again, in Zeta, prisoners and slaves can expect nothing less.. and that's just how the setting sees it (and most people don't have a big problem with it when the chubby guy at the start is beating on his slave, so I guess that the overall vibe of the setting is fairly clear).
3) the Queen's prisoner. I have 0 issues with that... there is no grey area, corporal punishment is pretty much par for the course in a setting like this, explicitly so, as we have established with the existence of slavery, with the butchering of the market raider and so on... that it takes on a sexual component is again, part of the hyper sexualised culture Zeta is part of... then again, it happens exactly the same way with Ain's punishment too.
I accept that most of my 3 points can and will, by some, be nitpicked to death or just straight up argued or disagreed with, and that's ok. Again, this is my (slightly more informed) personal take, yours can be just as valid.
Putting my Lore hat back on.. yes, Asha and Kyra are Asian.. and yes, this is lore consistent... as you will probably find out, one day.
