This video is brought to you by NordVPN.
See the link in the description to get a big 75% discount for a limited time only.
That's only 2 dollars 99 a month for the only VPN to get a perfect score from PCMag.
With the release of the Resident Evil 2 Remake, now makes a good time to take a look back
at the original version of the iconic game and how it was changed in different countries
around the world.
Unbeknownst to many gamers, the Japanese version of the original PlayStation release actually
had many differences to the versions released in the rest of the world.
Aside from, like other games, being called "Biohazard" rather than the west's "Resident
Evil", in Japan there were actually many alterations made to lower the game's difficulty.
Whilst no official reasoning has been given for this, this was most likely due to the
dev's feeling that Japanese gamers were perhaps not as accustomed to the 3D games that had
just started to become popular during this time - as Censored Gaming has previously covered
numerous other titles from this period with similar changes due to this reason.
In fact, the first Resident Evil game also had various changes in Japan to lower the
game's difficulty - including Jill and Chris having more health, enemies having less health,
ink ribbons containing 3 rather than the west's 2 and the game having auto aim, which was
removed completely overseas.
The Japanese version of the second game though would be made arguably even easier.
Like the first game, enemies have less health, the player has more and ink ribbons contain
3 rather than 2.
Auto aim is also always on with no way to disable it, whilst overseas it's automatically
disabled unless you manually choose control Type C.
As well as this, there are now not only less enemies in total in the game but the positions
of some enemies have been changed to make things even easier.
Item placements were also changed and there is now more ammo and health to pick up.
This all culminates into a much different and easier experience in the Japanese release.
Japanese games would eventually be able to experience the Western version of the game
though, as in the later Dual Shock version, the Japanese version included a new optional
mode called "U.S.A Version", which reverted these changes.
But that's not all for the changes found in Japan.
A curious change was made to the rankings, were the highest rank upon completing the
game is a S rank in Japan and then A, B, C and D. In the Western release, the S rank
was removed and it now goes from an A rank to an E rank.
Despite this however, the English instruction manual still says that the highest rank is
a S rank even though it doesn't exist, likely leading to a lot of confusion for players.
Rather infamously, Resident Evil 2 would also be the first game in the series where the
Japanese version would start to get censorship changes to tone down the game's violence.
Most games in the series have been toned down in Japan since then and, whilst nowadays this
is the result of the rules of Japan's CERO rating system, which has strict limits on
how much violence can be shown in-game, Resident Evil 2 was released before the Japanese rating
system was even created.
However, due to a recent series of school murders in 1997 which were dubbed the Kobe
Child Murders and blamed on violent games and media, there had been a growing concern
over violent content in the public leading to developers to start to begin to self censor
their games until the Japanese rating system was finally introduced in 2002.
In Resident Evil 2's case, the player death scenes were reworked so that the screen fades
to pitch black with the words "You Died" appearing over the screen.
In the overseas release, you could continue to see the monsters viciously mauling the
players and delivering their final blows.
Published nearly 2 year after the original PlayStation version, the Japanese Dreamcast
release was titled BioHazard 2 "Value Plus", unlike the West where it was just called Resident
Evil 2.
There were also some differences in-game, with the Japanese version having Hunk, Tofu
as well as Extreme Battle unlocked by default.
The Japanese Dreamcast release also contained a demo for Resident Evil Code: Veronica, which
would be released a few months later.
Moving things away from Japan for now though and over to Italy.
In a rather rare move for the country, the game would actually be banned in the region
for a brief period in 1999.
This was due to a political civil rights movement campaigning over the game's violence, leading
to a seizure decree of the game.
Over 5000 unsold copies of the game were then seized by law enforcement until Sony managed
to convince those responsible in Italy to reconsider their decision, allowing the game
to once again resume sale as normal.
Over in Germany, on the other hand, gamers wouldn't be so lucky.
Whilst initially released in the region with no issues, the game would be shortly after
release placed on the German government's "index".
In short, this means that the game would no longer be able to sold in public view, restricting
the sale to under counters, and it also outlaws any form of public advertising.
This effectively kills a game's commercial viability in the region and thus all future
releases of the game were heavily censored in Germany.
The censored versions contain the same censorship to the player death scenes found in the Japanese
version, meaning you will now no longer be able to see the character's gruesome final
moments.
The German versions though, toned things down even more than that.
All of the blood effects when inflicting damage were changed for the German market so that
the blood is no longer crimson red but instead a whitish grey colour.
However, these blood changes weren't done consistently, as when enemies died their corpses
would be surrounded by a new green blood colour instead, rather than the red blood found in
all other countries.
These problems with Resident Evil 2 in Germany lasted for many years and various later entries
in the series also had to be toned down in the German market as well
In 2014 however, both Resident Evil 2 and 3 were finally removed from the German government's
index - meaning uncensored releases are now finally possible.
Furthermore, the more modern entries in the series have been able to published in the
country with no issues.
This includes the brand new Resident Evil 2 Remake, which was confirmed by Capcom over
on their German Instagram page to be 100% uncut in the region.
Nowadays however, the censorship seen back in 1998 in the series' home country of Japan
continues on to this day.
As Censored Gaming has previously reported, Resident Evil 7 was heavily censored in Japan
even for the max rated CERO Z version - which contains extra violence than the lower age
rating D version.
Additionally, like the channel recently covered, Resident Evil 2 Remake will also be released
in 2 versions in Japan - with one having a higher age rating, but it again looks like
the max rated version will still have changes made due to the various rules and limits of
the Japanese CERO rating system.
What do think about the various regional differences found in Resident Evil 2?
And what do think about the censorship that continues to affect the series in Japan?
Please let us know your thoughts in the comments below and consider subscribing to the channel
to see more videos on how video games and other media are changed around the world.
Until next time, thank you for watching!