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at checkout to get 68% off and 4 months free. The past few weeks have seen a few high profile
games having quite a lot of censorship made in the Japanese versions - including
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla and Cyberpunk 2077. The channel has taken a look at both of these
games in detail in previous videos. But one thing that comes up a lot
when covering censorship of games in Japan, is questions on why this censorship happens
and also questions about whether it mainly affect games from western developers,
which at times, like with the games affected the past few weeks, may appear to be the case.
This censorship in Japan is applied fairly consistently however and is in line with the
policies set out by the Computer Entertainment Rating Organization, Japan’s rating system.
Ever since its creation in 2002, certain levels of expression have not been allowed in games rated
by the organization. And the rating system is responsible for all games released on consoles.
PC gaming on the other hand is often not rated by organization
and so more extreme and uncensored content can be found when it comes to some PC releases.
The organization has a variety of restrictions on what is allowed to
be depicted in games and some of these are stricter than most other parts of the world.
Also, these policies forbid content even when assigned the highest age rating possible,
which is 18 years and over. The two main areas are
risqué content, as well as violence. Unlike over in the west, risqué content
is not allowed to ever be anything more than suggestive in nature and this has been the case
ever since the rating system’s creation in 2002. Any explicit depictions of being without clothes
or actual graphic acts are not allowed, and thus you will not be able to find
any of this in any Japanese console releases of games ever since 2002.
Violence on the other hand is a bit harder to qualify as for what is and isn’t allowed.
But any more extreme depictions of violence in games are also not allowed by the rating system.
And so, considering these policies have existed for nearly 20 years now and are
applied fairly consistently, these are things that Japanese developers
will tend to keep in mind when creating games. And so this is a reason why you generally don’t
see anything more than suggestive content in Japanese games released in the West.
Actual explicit depictions and acts wouldn’t be allowed in Japanese consoles releases
and so are normally designed from the ground up without these themes present, and this is also
the case for certain violent content too. This isn’t always the case however and
sometimes Japanese games will either be designed with the Western markets in mind
or will unintentionally brush too close to the limits of the Japanese rating system.
And thus, in these cases you can then get Japanese games that are censored in Japan but
uncensored in other regions. And that’s what we’ll be taking
a look at today - with 10 Japanese Games That Are Censored In Japan.
Number 1. Metal Gear Prior to series creator Hideo Kojima’s departure
from Konami, the Metal Gear series was commonly compared to the work of an auteur, with Kojima’s
influence and passion at the helm of the series. With works such as this, it’s much easier for a
creator to want to push the envelope or go past the limits set forth by rating systems. And so
many of the Metal Gear games have had to face cuts in its home country of Japan.
Peace Walker for instance had to remove a scene in order to secure a 15+ rating. Kojima explained,
had this scene not been removed, the game would have been rated for 17 years and over.
And this is something he was very unhappy about, saying: “There’s a tolerance for fantasy games,
but for games where you show war or real violence against real people, you apparently can’t complain
about anything. With this, it seems impossible to communicate something through games.”
The scene affected was a scene which shows Big Boss being tortured by electricity rods.
In the Japanese version of the game, these where then changed to ‘tickling rods’ instead.
Other Metal Gear games that have had to face cuts in Japan include Metal Gear Rising.
Whilst in the Western version of the game there will be plenty of red blood, for the Japanese
version this was changed to white blood instead. White blood is something that veterans of
the series will be familiar with - with previous games in the series using white
blood for its cyborg characters. However, in the Metal Gear canon,
by the time that Rising takes place white blood is now out of date and this is something that is
spoken about in the game’s codec conversations. This is why in the Western versions all of
the blood is red instead. However in the Japanese version, despite this,
this had to be changed back to the white blood. For both parts of Metal Gear Solid V, Ground
Zeros and The Phantom Pain, changes had to be made to the game again.
For Ground Zeroes this affected a scene depicting a bomb being surgically removed from somebody’s
stomach. And then a similar change was also made to one of the scenes in The Phantom Pain.
Number 2. Resident Evil Resident Evil, or as it’s
known in Japan Biohazard, is an interesting case of Japanese censorship as when the first game
was released back in 1996, it was actually the Western versions that had to receive
numerous cuts to tone down the game’s violence. When it came time for the sequel however in 1998,
this time it was the Japanese version that had to receive changes.
In the Japanese version of Resident Evil 2, all of the death scenes were removed
so that you can’t see the character being killed. And instead you will just see text
popping up on the screen saying you died. Following this the majority of the Resident
Evil games released over in Japan have had to receive changes to tone down the game’s violence.
And this is something that’s still goes on to this very day, and this is also despite
the versions released over in Japan normally coming in two versions. This being a CERO D
version which is for 17 years and over, as well as a CERO Z version which is for 18 years and up.
The CERO Z version is more violent in nature however, despite this,
it’s still not the same as the Western versions and various changes can be found for the
gameplay’s violence toning things down. Number 3. Silent Hill
And going along nicely with Resident Evil is another popular horror game series - this being
Silent Hill. Interestingly for the series debut title an enemy was redesigned in all
versions except for the North American version. This enemy is the grey child enemies who were
changed in all versions except for the US due to them closely resembling children.
Thus in the Japanese and European versions these enemies were replaced by a new enemy called the
Mumblers instead. Another interesting point to bring up here is that for both Resident Evil 2
and Silent Hill 1 both of these games came before the CERO rating system’s creation.
However it is thought that during this time period of the Japanese video game industry concern had
started to grow over the violent content in games - largely spurred on by a series of
real-life violent murders that had been going on in Japan around this time, which are also thought
to be a big part of the reason for the creation of the rating system in the early 2000s. and so
this is perhaps why games started to see changes even prior to the creation of the rating system.
But moving on from that and on to Number 4. No More Heroes
For this entry we won't be just talking about No More Heroes but also Lollipop Chainsaw and Shadow
Of The Damned. All these titles are the work of Suda51 and unfortunately for Suda a variety of
his games have been released in censored versions over in Japan. Comparable to Resident Evil both
the original No More Heroes as well as Lollipop Chainsaw were released in two versions over in
Japan - one of these came with an CERO D rating and was heavily censored the other a CERO Z rating
and was uncensored. Aside from CERO Z games being 18 years and over instead of CERO D’s 17 years and
over the CERO Z rating also comes with some other restrictions on how the games can be sold. Unlike
lower ratings CERO Z games are applicable by law and which means you'll be breaking the law if you
sell them to anyone under this age. As well as this for CERO Z games you have to have a verified
payment method for purchasing games with this rating. This means for instance that you can't
use store credit or gift cards for platforms like the PlayStation Store and so due to these steeper
restrictions for CERO Z titles this is one of the reasons why publishers will sometimes choose
to try and avoid getting this rating. Shadow Of The Damned on the other hand was only released in
Japan with the Z rating. However despite that numerous parts of the game pushed things too
far for what the rating permits. This means that some of the blood during scenes was changed to a
blue-ish purple color instead, as well as numerous other changes being made to the game's violence
in places. Alongside these edits there was also changes to any bare female chests. This means that
in the Japanese version of Shadow Of The Damned there will no longer be any explicit depictions
of characters being without clothes. Number 5. the Dept. Heaven series
Dept. Heaven is a series of RPGs created by Sting Entertainment. The first entry in the series was
Riviera: The Promised Land for the Game boy Advance in 2002 and curiously both episode
one and two of the series had to have some changes made for the Japanese version whilst
over in the West the games were uncensored. In episode 1 Riviera and episode 2 Yggdra Union
changes had to be made to bathing scenes in both of the games. Alongside this when the games were
remade for the PSP changes had to be made for the Japanese versions again. It's possible that these
changes were made in order to secure the game a lower age rating for the Japanese versions.
And linking well with that point is number 6. Super Smash Bros. 4
Series creator Masahiro Sakurai has gone on to explain that changes had to be made to Super
Smash Bros. 4 so that the game wasn't given a higher age rating in Japan. These changes were
only made for the Japanese version of the game and so changes made to Wonder Pink’s,
Palutena’s and Lyn’s trophies in the Japanese version. These trophies had changes made to
tone down the suggestive nature a little. Also whilst for Wonder Pink and Lyn changes
were only made to the trophies, for Palutena changes were also made to her in-game model.
Speaking about these changes Sakurai has said: Super Smash Bros. for Wii U almost didn't make it
schedule release date because of rating issues. We had to revise Palutena’s and Wonder Pink's models
over and over again. We had Palutena wearing shorts and made the inside of Wonder Pink's
skirt too dark to see anything. Nevertheless CERO told us the designs were sexually provocative.
They were being ridiculous and frankly quite juvenile. Underwear is just a piece of fabric.
If you're more worried about seeing something trivial like whether you can see some cloth
then whether a game includes firearms, you clearly ought to get your priorities in order
For future games in the series it appears that the games were designed with these
requirements in mind rather than having to make changes just for the Japanese version.
But then number 7. Final Fantasy XII Again due to age rating issues Final
Fantasy XII had to have some changes made for the Japanese version, whilst the West
was left uncensored. Final Fantasy XII is also a particularly interesting case as the changes
were made due to some real life incidents that were going on around this time. In the game is
a scene where one of the main female characters is held hostage and tied up. The game's producer
has gone on to explain that at the time right before the Japanese release there were various
incidents in the real world which would have made it hard to secure the game getting a lower rating.
Due to this the scene was completely removed from the Japanese version and wouldn’t be
included until later on when it came time for the improved International Version release.
It's not known what the real life incidents that the producer is talking about - however it's very
likely that he's referring to a Japanese serial killer from the late 80s. Right before the time
of Final Fantasy XII scheduled release, his death sentence was upheld by the Japanese supreme court
two months before the game was scheduled to come out and so this may be the real life incident that
caused the game to run into issues. Number 8. The Evil Within
The Evil Within is quite an interesting case of Japanese censorship as for the first game the
game was released with a CERO D rating in Japan meaning 17 years and over. However it was possible
to purchase an optional gore mode DLC that would push the game to a Z rating instead. However
even with the gore mode DLC the game was still censored in places unlike the Western release.
For The Evil Within 2 the game was only released with a CERO Z rating version. However like the
first game, even with the increased limits of the max Z rating, the game still had to have
numerous changes to tone down the violence. Number 9. Berserk And The Band Of The Hawk
The Berserk manga is known for being especially gory at times and so, when it came time for the
video game in 2016, the game ran into some issues with the Japanese rating system.
This is something the game's producer spoke about prior to release saying:
Due to the high quality visuals of the PS4 we had to hold back with the depiction of the violence in
the Japanese version to meet rating standard. The game's producer also spoke about the
possibility of reintroducing the cut violence for the Western version saying:
So initially we thought that maybe we could introduce in the West what we took out
but we're finding that we have really hit the levels of violence that
are on the borderline. We don't really know if we can put that back in and if
it would be okay for an overseas release. It's something that we're looking into right now.
When it came time for the Western release, Western gamers did indeed find that the Western version
was more gory in places than the Japanese - as in the Western version it is now possible
to dismember human opponents, whilst in the Japanese version dismemberment isn't possible
And number 10. Nioh Berserk's Japanese censorship
is also similar to another Koei Tecmo game series - this being Nioh 1 and 2. For both
Nioh games all human dismemberments was removed from the Japanese version but was then put back
in for the Western releases. The Nioh games are also a rather notable case as it wasn't
just the Japanese version affected. What you sometimes see when Japanese games are censored
is that the censorship will also be made to some other Asian region versions and that is also the
case with both of the Nioh games. For both Nioh 1 and Nioh 2 it wasn't just the Japanese version
affected but also all Southeast Asian region versions. And so this means that regions such as
Taiwan and Hong Kong had the Japanese changes as well and it's likely the result of the publishers
trying to simplify the process of having multiple different versions for different regions.
What are your thoughts on these changes? As always let us know your thoughts below and a big thanks
once again to NordVPN for sponsoring today's video. Until next time, thank you for watching.