Dying Light: The Beast is the latest game to be censored in Japan
Techland’s zombie horror game has had its nudity and dismemberment removed
Dying Light: The Beast has become the latest video game to be censored by the Japanese ratings board CERO.
As noted by Game Spark, the game’s official Japanese website points out that the Japanese version differs from that released in other countries, in order to achieve a Z-rating (CERO’s highest rating, which makes it illegal for anyone under 18 to buy it).
“The Japanese version of Dying Light: The Beast has received a CERO Z rating after making the following changes from the overseas version,” the website’s description reads (via machine translation).
“These changes have resulted in an overall tone down on violent scenes, while still allowing Japanese players to enjoy seamless co-op play with friends playing the overseas version.”
Changes include the removal of visible internal organs in zombie models and map objects, changes to the character models of several female zombies, the removal of facial and torso dismemberment models and the removal of all nudity.
Unusually in this instance, the changes also apply to the Steam version of the game in Japan, even though PC games don’t usually have to pass through CERO.
This is the latest example of games that have been censored in Japan, often due to dismemberment. Earlier this year it was confirmed that the Japanese release of Assassin’s Creed Shadows had been censored, with Ubisoft removing the ability to dismember the heads and limbs of enemies, and changing the way severed body parts were depicted.
Last year Suda51 and Shinji Mikami criticised CERO after Shadows of the Damned: Hella Remastered was also censored (as was the original version of the game in 2011).
“We had to prepare two versions of the game, which is a real challenge,” Suda explained. “In remastering the game, we had to develop two versions at the same time, which had a tremendous impact on our workload and extended the development period.”
“I think it’s a strange situation that there are people who want to play edgy games, and there are those who don’t play games who try to prevent their enjoyment by restricting those works with regulations,” Mikami added.
Criticism has also been levelled at CERO for alleged double standards, with EA Japan general manager Shaun Noguchi accusing the board of discrepancies between the way EA’s Dead Space was ‘banned’ for its content but Sony’s Stellar Blade passed uncut.
Noguchi complained that CERO had refused to give the Dead Space remake a rating, effectively banning the console version in Japan, over gore that he believes is similar to that in Stellar Blade, which passed uncut with a CERO D rating (suitable for anyone 17 or over).
Posting a selection of screenshots from the Stellar Blade demo showing severed limbs with visible bones, and guts splattered on the floor, Noguchi claimed that CERO’s decision not to rate Dead Space was based on similarly graphic content.
“What do you mean, CERO?”, Noguchi wrote, before saying he felt the Stellar Blade demo was “a lot of fun” and “full of action”. “CERO, you said that our Dead Space was no good because the cross-section of damaged parts and internal organs were visible. But here you can see both the cross-sections and insides, so I’m not convinced you are using CERO D.”
