The publisher, Critical Bliss, did not want to use the art of the original because the quality of the original images varied throughout the game. The game had a long development so there are minor differences in skin tone, hair color, etc. could be noticed. The publisher decided to drop all the images and remake them using a new unified style for the entire game.
The thing is, it all comes back to one thing that is genuinely making me scratch my head with this situation;
who the fuck asked for this?... At the end of the day, this is not the publisher's job. Whatever the creator, publisher or people/fans think about the OG art or the new is completely subjective and doesn't mean fuck all. If a game is good, it'll sell, if it's bad, it won't. However, it's so unnecessary. If people want a game to be localized, they want it for what it already is or shaping to be, they don't want a reshaped version of a board of people in suit think they want or will stick.
Again, this type of publisher meddling is just unnecessary, and this is becoming a reason as to why more and more studios prefer self-publishing or having staff in the west (or vice versa) who can take care of it rather than relying on other companies that have their best interest in mind instead of the devs or fans.
No matter how the finished product ends up being, no one should be denying the incompetence behind this whole situation.
