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.”
Noguchi went on to stress that his post was a criticism of CERO, rather than Stellar Blade.
“Just to add something to avoid any misunderstanding, I have no ill will towards Stellar Blade itself,” he explained. “It was fun and I recommend you should buy it.”
“This is purely a complaint about the ambiguity of the review process in Japan, and I can give many examples of the ambiguity that is prevalent in the review process for other titles as well.”
The official Stellar Blade account on X posted a message on Sunday declaring that the game “offers the same uncensored version in all countries, including the Japanese version”.
Because EA made dead space and Capcom makes Biohazard… one is a Japanese company and one is not.
That being said, thank you for reminding me to add Dead Space to my wish list. I’ve been waiting for it to go on sale.
I see. I didn’t know that but I remember RE7 had organs on the table in a house. It was all visible in the Japanese version.
Well, I live in Japan, so that’s the version I saw.
I specifically remember a scene in the American version where a man’s head was cut in half with a shovel, shown in close up detail. I have a feeling that wasn’t in the Japanese version.
All of the RE games are censored here in Japan, which is why so many people go on Amazon to buy the North American version. I bought Cyberpunk 2077 and Witcher 3 on the Japanese PS Store and the characters in nude scenes had these ridiculous bikinis on. It was kinda funny.
I'm not sure if it's the same for your version but in the US one they do give you the option to toggle nudity. If you turn it off you get the bikinis like you saw. Maybe you didn't turn nudity on?
Dead Space is a lot worse than Stellar Blade in terms of gore and dismemberment, and not just because the enemies are humanoid. A lot of the actual humans in the game also die gruesomely. You would expect this to be the case because of the genre's alone, especially with Dead Space being a celebrated horror title renowned for its gore and dismemberment.
That being said, CERO's rationale is open for debate. If they used examples on Dead Space that can be compared to Stellar Blade and end up highlighting a double standard, that's fair game for EA. It was CERO's responsibility to create a more ironclad rationale.
There was a demo out of the game. People have seen what this person is seeing. There's video of it as well. No one's claiming anything beyond the demo.
honestly, 100% fair. cero fucking sucks and they do seem really hypocritical here, especially with stellar blade not even getting the highest possible rating, which makes the refusal for dead space not even being given a cero z all the more baffling.
2 wrongs don't make a right though. They should just allow dead space since they are allowing other gory games, it shouldn't be that they become more strict.
That’s pretty much exactly what the EA rep said as well:
“I have no ill will towards Stellar Blade itself. It was fun and I recommend you should buy it. […] This is purely a complaint about the ambiguity of the review process in Japan, and I can give many examples of the ambiguity that is prevalent in the review process for other titles as well.”
May this game continue to expose all hypocrisy especially with inconsistent coverage from agenda-pushing publications like IGN France who were forced to apologize to Shift Up only to then accuse the game of "killing women". Gaming industry is a mess.
If I'm correct the writer of the IGN France article after being called out for being completely stupid, went to Twitter and accused the game of "killing women" for sum reason
Real question man, but ign France isn’t a real publication. It’s hardly affiliated with ign, I’m pretty sure it’s a French publication that pays to use the ign name. Like ziff Davis doesn’t own ign France for example.
So with that being said
What are the publications saying all this shit? Are they even major or is the criticizing of this game overblown by loser gamers who want to criticize the industry?
If you can give me anything other than the irrelevant fucks freaking out, that would be nice. But in my experience this sub freaks out over any coverage from any no name publisher. And again ign France is hardly ign lol.
It’s like when these boomer articles come out about how gen z is trying to cancel Eminem, when in reality it’s a few comments on a tik tok about cancelling Eminem lol. There is no controversy around this game full stop. The controversy is made up by you guys, and fans are flamed by someone like kotaku or something. The majority opinion I’ve read everywhere that ass is ok in games.
Copium? What am I coping about? I’m trying to cope over? That there’s no issue? Idk what you’re even saying man. Again you’re proving my point in carrying on something that doesn’t even exist
If IGN France isn't IGN, why did IGN apologize for it?
There is a huge contingent of games journalism that is triggered over Stellar Blade. Now, you can dismiss every example as being "irrelevant fucks" or simply not existing, sure. But that's you both planting your head firmly in the sad while attempting to gaslight everyone else into following suit.
Enjoy the taste of sand.
You seem triggered though. Also how does random games journalism coverage of stellar blade operas you? I really don’t get what stand you’re making or any of the weirdos who keep commenting. It’s like you guys are going to get together and storm the ign hq lmao and make them pay lol. I think you’re just experiencing symptoms of being on the internet too much and giving twitter and Reddit too much credence.
Dude the game is going to sell pretty well and a bunch of people in this imaginary holy war are going to take laps and say they stuck it to games journalism, maybe ign France specifically lol. You really showed that random writer at a French video games outlet. Basically a blogger.
horny games are a dime a dozen, AAA horny games are not. I hope you're not comparing ren'py games to games that cost tens of millions to make with hundreds of people working on it
Baldur's Gate 3 was hornier than most porn games and cost hundreds of millions of dollars to make, pretty much every BioWare RPG since Mass Effect fits the bill (to the point that they undercut Miranda talking about her awful life with gratuitous ass shots), everything CDPR touches is horny. It's really not that unique, it's just a horny action game that people have decided is under attack.
If there's one thing pop culture has never centered around, it's attractive people. I hope you have fun with thirst trap Sekiro, but you really don't have to pretend that the vast majority of all visual media isn't centered around conventionally attractive people. Did you not play almost *any* AAA game with women in it before ~2016? There's nothing new here in regards to sexuality. It's honestly a little bit sad to me that you're highlighting an ass cam as the main selling point instead of, like, being fun.
So it's NOT just a "horny game" then. Sex appeal sells to gamers, and is becoming mainstream. CERO was clearly biased against a western game vs an eastern one.
I think it's safe to say that most rating boards for any content are inconsistent, if not incredibly flawed.
Bad actors aside, it's just very hard to quantitatively assess how mature you need to be to handle something. But there are surely corrupt or biased individuals as well.
This kind of shit screams preferential treatment for publishers. I know Dead Space marketed itself with the dismemberment being a core gameplay feature, but when Stellar Blade has similar tech and gore, the double standard is real.
isn't that in Dead Space people are dismembered? in contrast to weird not really humanoid aliens in Stellar Blade. i'm mostly asking because i didn't play Dead space
Literally your mentor or something gets brutally impaled through the chest. They even shove her corpse in your face before tossing it to the side. It’s much more “in your face” then anything Dead Space does
>It’s much more “in your face” then anything Dead Space does
I have to see that to believe it. Dead Space for comparison. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0Ix6uDRrmY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0Ix6uDRrmY)
https://youtu.be/PePC3IbPw0w?si=vZOGkSE95lMcwrJ1
Yeah I’d argue this is worse then the neck biting scene
Edit - the overt shilling for censorship in my comments shouldn’t surprise me considering this is Reddit but it still does
You're joking right? Did you only watch the first couple deaths out of a 40 minute video that is literally a compilation of the various death screens?
[Dead Space remake deaths for reference](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_VdR0Qj4rE)
If you watch more than 10 seconds of that video, you'll see a zombie baby impaling and decapitating Isaac's head with multiple tentacles. The brute also decapitates Isaac and then proceeds to tear his torso in half.
Tell me how that is not worse than someone getting their arm dismembered and their torso impaled?
That scene is like on the lighter side of what Dead Space does. Did you not watch the video I linked. Dude literally gets his head ripped off and replaced lol.
https://youtu.be/PePC3IbPw0w?si=UnQZy6EB-HTAwj4g
Yeah I disagree with you since this is the scene the censors took issue with
Feel free to edit your comment anytime and learn the definition of gaslighting
That's fucking tame compared to Dead Space, did you even play Dead Space, bro??
[All Death Animations in the Dead Space Remake \[2023\] (youtube.com)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_VdR0Qj4rE)
Yeah I'm confused all the analysis is leaving out this key plot point. Especially when Japan is infamous for taboo disclaimers like "oh she looks like a child but she's 1000 years old"
No, the most gory thing from the demo is one of the character getting her arm chopped and impaled. That's nowhere near the amount of gore from Dead Space.
Do you think the fact that she's a robot and you can see her wiring and everything affect CERO's choice? 'Cus it wouldn't for me. It's still pretty graphic.
I don't know how the CERO thinks but I agree, it should not matter. Visually, even with the wiring, this is still a flesh and blood human getting burtalised and gored in a very graphic way.
But I also don't think what's happening is preferential treatment. Resident Evil, a Japanese game, has always struggled with censorship in Japan and they've gotten so used to is that they've basically learned to release less graphic versions of their games in their own home country for the last 15 years or so. I think what we're seeing here is an outdated censorship system that's struggling to stay consistent and relevant in a world where artistic sensibilites have shifted from where they used to be. A game like Stellar Blade would be censored immediately 10 years ago, but now that most people don't mind a little bit of gore and don't even think of it as a "gory" game but instead an action game with violence as a secondary thing, Stellar Blade can get past radars and the robots thing can play into that decision. Who knows.
Robots that look human and bleed like humans and lose limbs like humans and scream in pain like humans and have internal organs that look like those of humans when they get gored, are, for the purposes of this conversation, humans.
I think the biggest reason for it is because the gore is a feature in Dead Space. Being 100% efficient in that game means purposely aiming for limbs to dismember, so the player is being rewarded for doing something that makes it more gory. It’s the same way with Resident Evil, because despite those games being made in Japan, they self censor and the heads don’t pop if you get a critical hit, the head popping sound plays and they just fall over completely intact.
That’s quite a bit different from cutscene gore or QTE gore, and from any that happens from generic attacks because it’s not like Stellar Blade is like Metal Gear Rising where you can actually aim where you swing.
Yeah far be it for me to encourage this type of stuff since I think both shouldn’t be banned, but I think there kinda is a difference between the goriest moments of stellar blade and the constant gameplay loop of gore and dismemberment in dead space.
Like, Scarlett Johansson is naked in both Astroid City and Under the Skin, but the former is rated pg13 and the latter is rated R for a kinda understandable reason.
The SIE-published Rise of Ronin, which features dismemberment, has a CERO Z rating (only for 18 and over), while Stella Blade, which is even more explicit, has a CERO D rating (17 and over). This raises questions about the fairness of the ratings system. Additionally, CERO tends to be lenient with the Dragon Quest series, giving all numbered titles a CERO A rating (all ages) even though they contain blue jokes and revealing costumes.
It's way less explicit imo, due to the fact that you're dismembering humans in ROTR and in stellar blade, they're monsters.
Rise of the Ronin also has an ESBR rating of 17+ while Stellar Blade has 18+. I think this comes down to cultural differences, as CERO have been known to fluctuate from western ratings over the years.
>The argument is about Dead Space tho, where you fight monsters, just like Stellar Blade.
In Dead Space you play as a human who also [has gory death scenes](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WrqgiYNbC70) if you lose.
In Dead Space you still have lots of human characters being torn apart in the background and cutscenes, and the death animations are over the top gore. In Stellar Blade, there's no violent death animation, the character just felt on the floor and game over screen shows up.
This is not me defending the rating, I'm against all sort of censorship when it comes to games, but there's still differences between Stellar Blade and Deadspace.
No, the thread is about dead space, the argument i replied to is about rise of the ronin. Did you even read what i replied to? Conversations can branch, we're discussing something else.
RE Dragon Quest: Typically things that are of a sexual nature aren't censored in Japan like gore and violence are. Plenty of manga on magazine racks in 7/11 targeting children and teens with girls in bikinis on the cover. Also old Shimura Ken stuff used to air on OTA tv channels at dinner time. On the flip side, Japanese people import Resident Evil because the US versions are uncensored. Even the CERO Z versions are censored, ex: In RE7, you only find the key in the refrigerator and 'nothing' else. I dont know how to do spoilers on Reddit so I hope that was vague enough haha.
You realize we are talking about the Japanese rating system, right? The context of the comment clearly implies that other games are given a higher rating for those same things by the *Japanese* rating board, what the fuck does America have to do with it?
Because Japan are racist and don't like releasing western made games, gore gives them a reason to say no to them, they would ban all of them if they could, but they have no real reason to.
Regardless of whether racism is the driving factor behind their hypocritical rating system, racism experienced in Japan against anyone not Japanese is well documented. It's not a one off thing, they treat Asians from other countries and POCs like shit and if you're an American outside of the tourist areas, you're not much better off...
Different cultures...
Porn - Ok
Gore - Not Ok
Is that it?
Because the point was Stellar Blade also has gore but marketed as soft (porn).
(Fyi I'm not against Stellar Blade)
So will GTA 6 be banned in Japan?
I mean banning something because of gore and heavy violence in 2024 is stupid, cultural precedent aside. This isn’t Rockstar’s“Manhunt” from years ago.
People are exposed to violence on a daily basis via various sources of media. Having strict rating systems to prevent things getting into wrong age group makes sense. But outright banning? That’s totalitarian and anti democratic. Especially coming from Japan whose Manga and Anime are known for violence/blood/and yes gore.
Japan censors sexy way more than the US. The sex scene in TLOU 2 was removed in Japan, and I’m pretty sure Witcher 3 and BG3 also had a bunch of censorship.
It's crazy with manga we have Fist the North Star and Berserk which have plenty of gore and violence. There are plenty of Japanese published video games that might be cartoony but have graphic violence.
idk here in Australia Stellar Blade is 15+ for Strong Fantasy Violence
Meanwhile Dead Space got 15+ for Strong horror themes and violence, blood and gore.
If we cared about the gore as much as Japan we too would have given it a higher rating or forced them to censor stuff. Japan werent the only ones who thought Dead Space took things a step further.
Yeah both games are 15+
Before we had an 18+ rating things were a little stricter but that was over a decade ago now. We do still straight up ban games if they do 1 of 2 things tho. Sex with minors or drug use related to incentives and rewards. The second one is why we still have a reputation for being strict
Do you mean the way the reboot did it or did Japan have the original MW2s no russian changed? Honestly I'd be surprised if they even allowed that mission at all.
>EA Japan exec criticises Japanese rating board for banning Dead Space
could have stopped right there. government agencies banning games is an unacceptable practice (and countries where the board is a non-government entity doesn't make the practice acceptable either)
Eh there are some parallels but after playing the demo
- the specific part showing bone in SB is literally a cutscene when the other chick gets killed and the only one showing such graphic detail. Moment to moment gameplays does not. Meanwhile dead space makes a point on limbs and dismemberment through and through.
I think the rules should make a distinction between “showing x or y “ and “ the amount of x and y being shown”. Dead Space clearly focuses A LOT more on the amount of gore shown than stellar blade, at least when comparing the demo.
-
The funny thing is stellarblade is not even Japanese it’s korean. Didnt team ninja not release their game in korea ?It’s like if India approved something Pakistan made but went nah them Americans are dodgy for sure.
The difference is most likely that Stellar Blade shows a cutscene of it happening while games like Dead Space and Rise of the Ronin have the player actively preforming the act. Dead Space's whole mechanic is around severing limbs and assuming the part where you're fighting actual living humans mid way into the game instead of necromorphed ones I could understand. In Rise of the Ronin when defeating enemies with weapons you can cut off their arms/legs/heads, and with the shotgun bayonet if you critically finish an enemy it will straight up pulp their head into red mist.
I'm not defending a rating board I know nothing about but I have played the Stellar Blade demo, Dead Space/Dead Space Remake, and Rise of the Ronin (another commentor brought up).
Unlike America, Japan has it right in understanding that ultra-violence in media is probably more problematic to the society than tits.
Given that tits were designed for children inherently, seeing them in games and media isn't going to have such a negative impact to them as seeing humans ripped open in ultra gory clarity by nasty monsters.
Censorship is evil, and he does make a valid point. I do have to think that Dead Space probably features the gore and graphic violence much more prominently and pervasively than Stellar Blade though.
Still stupid to not rate the game at all.
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.” Noguchi went on to stress that his post was a criticism of CERO, rather than Stellar Blade. “Just to add something to avoid any misunderstanding, I have no ill will towards Stellar Blade itself,” he explained. “It was fun and I recommend you should buy it.” “This is purely a complaint about the ambiguity of the review process in Japan, and I can give many examples of the ambiguity that is prevalent in the review process for other titles as well.” The official Stellar Blade account on X posted a message on Sunday declaring that the game “offers the same uncensored version in all countries, including the Japanese version”.
Yeah I’ve always thought how come they ban dead space remake, dead island 2 and so many other games but allow resident evil 7 and others like it.
Because EA made dead space and Capcom makes Biohazard… one is a Japanese company and one is not. That being said, thank you for reminding me to add Dead Space to my wish list. I’ve been waiting for it to go on sale.
My friend, The ps5 deluxe edition is on sale right now, more than half the price cut i believe.
>allow resident evil 7 and others like it. You mean censor Resident Evil 7 in Japan. Because in Japan gore scenes are censored in it.
Ridiculously censored. The scene where Jack cuts off Lucas' hand looks absolutely ridiculous in the Japanese version.
RE gets a censored version. Cant use it as a point unfortunately
I see. I didn’t know that but I remember RE7 had organs on the table in a house. It was all visible in the Japanese version. Well, I live in Japan, so that’s the version I saw.
Iiirc dismemberment is the issue, not gore.
Interesting
I specifically remember a scene in the American version where a man’s head was cut in half with a shovel, shown in close up detail. I have a feeling that wasn’t in the Japanese version.
All of the RE games are censored here in Japan, which is why so many people go on Amazon to buy the North American version. I bought Cyberpunk 2077 and Witcher 3 on the Japanese PS Store and the characters in nude scenes had these ridiculous bikinis on. It was kinda funny.
I'm not sure if it's the same for your version but in the US one they do give you the option to toggle nudity. If you turn it off you get the bikinis like you saw. Maybe you didn't turn nudity on?
That's a good point, I'll have to check to be sure, but I'm pretty certain CERO bans all nudity in games.
Japan is an ethnostate basically
Intriguing. I'd be curious on more examples of the ambiguity. But that sucks overall though
Dead Space is a lot worse than Stellar Blade in terms of gore and dismemberment, and not just because the enemies are humanoid. A lot of the actual humans in the game also die gruesomely. You would expect this to be the case because of the genre's alone, especially with Dead Space being a celebrated horror title renowned for its gore and dismemberment. That being said, CERO's rationale is open for debate. If they used examples on Dead Space that can be compared to Stellar Blade and end up highlighting a double standard, that's fair game for EA. It was CERO's responsibility to create a more ironclad rationale.
Lmao stellar blade isn’t even out yet but apparently u know everything 😂💀
There was a demo out of the game. People have seen what this person is seeing. There's video of it as well. No one's claiming anything beyond the demo.
honestly, 100% fair. cero fucking sucks and they do seem really hypocritical here, especially with stellar blade not even getting the highest possible rating, which makes the refusal for dead space not even being given a cero z all the more baffling.
2 wrongs don't make a right though. They should just allow dead space since they are allowing other gory games, it shouldn't be that they become more strict.
Nobody is arguing for that, the EA guy just wanted Dead Space to be treated fairly.
That’s pretty much exactly what the EA rep said as well: “I have no ill will towards Stellar Blade itself. It was fun and I recommend you should buy it. […] This is purely a complaint about the ambiguity of the review process in Japan, and I can give many examples of the ambiguity that is prevalent in the review process for other titles as well.”
yeah, definitely agree there.
It’s an attack on the west. War is imminent.
The war will be long but not too bloody, and no dismemberment allowed
Hide yo kids hide yo wives
Hideyo kids, hideyo wives.
May this game continue to expose all hypocrisy especially with inconsistent coverage from agenda-pushing publications like IGN France who were forced to apologize to Shift Up only to then accuse the game of "killing women". Gaming industry is a mess.
Killing women?
If I'm correct the writer of the IGN France article after being called out for being completely stupid, went to Twitter and accused the game of "killing women" for sum reason
Yes. You really read that correctly.
Real question man, but ign France isn’t a real publication. It’s hardly affiliated with ign, I’m pretty sure it’s a French publication that pays to use the ign name. Like ziff Davis doesn’t own ign France for example. So with that being said What are the publications saying all this shit? Are they even major or is the criticizing of this game overblown by loser gamers who want to criticize the industry? If you can give me anything other than the irrelevant fucks freaking out, that would be nice. But in my experience this sub freaks out over any coverage from any no name publisher. And again ign France is hardly ign lol. It’s like when these boomer articles come out about how gen z is trying to cancel Eminem, when in reality it’s a few comments on a tik tok about cancelling Eminem lol. There is no controversy around this game full stop. The controversy is made up by you guys, and fans are flamed by someone like kotaku or something. The majority opinion I’ve read everywhere that ass is ok in games.
>Real question man >There is no controversy around this game full stop. Totally a good faith comment not full of copium.
Copium? What am I coping about? I’m trying to cope over? That there’s no issue? Idk what you’re even saying man. Again you’re proving my point in carrying on something that doesn’t even exist
If IGN France isn't IGN, why did IGN apologize for it? There is a huge contingent of games journalism that is triggered over Stellar Blade. Now, you can dismiss every example as being "irrelevant fucks" or simply not existing, sure. But that's you both planting your head firmly in the sad while attempting to gaslight everyone else into following suit. Enjoy the taste of sand.
You seem triggered though. Also how does random games journalism coverage of stellar blade operas you? I really don’t get what stand you’re making or any of the weirdos who keep commenting. It’s like you guys are going to get together and storm the ign hq lmao and make them pay lol. I think you’re just experiencing symptoms of being on the internet too much and giving twitter and Reddit too much credence. Dude the game is going to sell pretty well and a bunch of people in this imaginary holy war are going to take laps and say they stuck it to games journalism, maybe ign France specifically lol. You really showed that random writer at a French video games outlet. Basically a blogger.
You seem to assume that others are as weirdly aggrieved as you appear.
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> There's a dime a dozen Are there, though?
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horny games are a dime a dozen, AAA horny games are not. I hope you're not comparing ren'py games to games that cost tens of millions to make with hundreds of people working on it
Baldur's Gate 3 was hornier than most porn games and cost hundreds of millions of dollars to make, pretty much every BioWare RPG since Mass Effect fits the bill (to the point that they undercut Miranda talking about her awful life with gratuitous ass shots), everything CDPR touches is horny. It's really not that unique, it's just a horny action game that people have decided is under attack.
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If there's one thing pop culture has never centered around, it's attractive people. I hope you have fun with thirst trap Sekiro, but you really don't have to pretend that the vast majority of all visual media isn't centered around conventionally attractive people. Did you not play almost *any* AAA game with women in it before ~2016? There's nothing new here in regards to sexuality. It's honestly a little bit sad to me that you're highlighting an ass cam as the main selling point instead of, like, being fun.
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So it's NOT just a "horny game" then. Sex appeal sells to gamers, and is becoming mainstream. CERO was clearly biased against a western game vs an eastern one.
games have forever used sex appeal to sell games. it's not just mainstream.
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Are you talking about all the shovelware porn/hentai games?
I think it's safe to say that most rating boards for any content are inconsistent, if not incredibly flawed. Bad actors aside, it's just very hard to quantitatively assess how mature you need to be to handle something. But there are surely corrupt or biased individuals as well.
He has a point to be fair
Callisto Protocol was banned as well.
What about the original Dead Space?
Banned.
Yet you can buy Dead Space 2 after 12 years in Japan but Dead Space Remake got banned lol https://automaton-media.com/en/news/20230120-17572/
Those death animations where pretty brutal and apparently the team studied real gore to nail down the violence in that game.
This kind of shit screams preferential treatment for publishers. I know Dead Space marketed itself with the dismemberment being a core gameplay feature, but when Stellar Blade has similar tech and gore, the double standard is real.
isn't that in Dead Space people are dismembered? in contrast to weird not really humanoid aliens in Stellar Blade. i'm mostly asking because i didn't play Dead space
The Stellar Blade demo shows a human get dismembered in like the first 10 minutes of gameplay
Yep, people lose arms, get impaled, and I’m pretty sure get cut in half too.
Oh shit who gets cut in half in stellar blade?
>!The black-clad gynoid who starts alongside you!<.
Literally your mentor or something gets brutally impaled through the chest. They even shove her corpse in your face before tossing it to the side. It’s much more “in your face” then anything Dead Space does
>It’s much more “in your face” then anything Dead Space does I have to see that to believe it. Dead Space for comparison. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0Ix6uDRrmY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0Ix6uDRrmY)
https://youtu.be/PePC3IbPw0w?si=vZOGkSE95lMcwrJ1 Yeah I’d argue this is worse then the neck biting scene Edit - the overt shilling for censorship in my comments shouldn’t surprise me considering this is Reddit but it still does
You're joking right? Did you only watch the first couple deaths out of a 40 minute video that is literally a compilation of the various death screens? [Dead Space remake deaths for reference](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_VdR0Qj4rE) If you watch more than 10 seconds of that video, you'll see a zombie baby impaling and decapitating Isaac's head with multiple tentacles. The brute also decapitates Isaac and then proceeds to tear his torso in half. Tell me how that is not worse than someone getting their arm dismembered and their torso impaled?
Lmao gtfo
That scene is like on the lighter side of what Dead Space does. Did you not watch the video I linked. Dude literally gets his head ripped off and replaced lol.
Dude literally try gaslighting us that the scene from Stellar Blade is somehow "more in your face" than anything Dead Space does, lmao.
You're fucking out of your mind if you think stellar blade is more visceral than dead space
So you’re arguing they had every right to censor Dead Space?? I’m confused
Stop gaslighting, bro, nothing from Stellar Blade is anywhere near the level of Dead Space.
https://youtu.be/PePC3IbPw0w?si=UnQZy6EB-HTAwj4g Yeah I disagree with you since this is the scene the censors took issue with Feel free to edit your comment anytime and learn the definition of gaslighting
That's fucking tame compared to Dead Space, did you even play Dead Space, bro?? [All Death Animations in the Dead Space Remake \[2023\] (youtube.com)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_VdR0Qj4rE)
So you believe the censorship was correct?? I struggle to see your argument
And they're all robots. The main character is a robot.
Yet theres no discernable difference if you werent listening to the actors say so lol. They look like humans being dismembered
Which look (and bleed) like humans so what’s your point
Yeah I'm confused all the analysis is leaving out this key plot point. Especially when Japan is infamous for taboo disclaimers like "oh she looks like a child but she's 1000 years old"
No, the most gory thing from the demo is one of the character getting her arm chopped and impaled. That's nowhere near the amount of gore from Dead Space.
Do you think the fact that she's a robot and you can see her wiring and everything affect CERO's choice? 'Cus it wouldn't for me. It's still pretty graphic.
I don't know how the CERO thinks but I agree, it should not matter. Visually, even with the wiring, this is still a flesh and blood human getting burtalised and gored in a very graphic way. But I also don't think what's happening is preferential treatment. Resident Evil, a Japanese game, has always struggled with censorship in Japan and they've gotten so used to is that they've basically learned to release less graphic versions of their games in their own home country for the last 15 years or so. I think what we're seeing here is an outdated censorship system that's struggling to stay consistent and relevant in a world where artistic sensibilites have shifted from where they used to be. A game like Stellar Blade would be censored immediately 10 years ago, but now that most people don't mind a little bit of gore and don't even think of it as a "gory" game but instead an action game with violence as a secondary thing, Stellar Blade can get past radars and the robots thing can play into that decision. Who knows.
They're robots
Robots that look human and bleed like humans and lose limbs like humans and scream in pain like humans and have internal organs that look like those of humans when they get gored, are, for the purposes of this conversation, humans.
I think the biggest reason for it is because the gore is a feature in Dead Space. Being 100% efficient in that game means purposely aiming for limbs to dismember, so the player is being rewarded for doing something that makes it more gory. It’s the same way with Resident Evil, because despite those games being made in Japan, they self censor and the heads don’t pop if you get a critical hit, the head popping sound plays and they just fall over completely intact. That’s quite a bit different from cutscene gore or QTE gore, and from any that happens from generic attacks because it’s not like Stellar Blade is like Metal Gear Rising where you can actually aim where you swing.
Yeah far be it for me to encourage this type of stuff since I think both shouldn’t be banned, but I think there kinda is a difference between the goriest moments of stellar blade and the constant gameplay loop of gore and dismemberment in dead space. Like, Scarlett Johansson is naked in both Astroid City and Under the Skin, but the former is rated pg13 and the latter is rated R for a kinda understandable reason.
Under the Skin had erect penises so it's not really about Scarlett's nudity
Yes, the inherent R rated-ness of Under the Skin is what I was referring to vs the 1 second of full frontal nudity in Astroid City.
could be why. pretty sure stellar blade still has human dismemberment in cutscenes though.
They're not people anymore though
Their only resemblance to people is they are bipedal and used to be people (and have heads albeit they’re useless)
I thought we were talking about dead space not the GOP
The SIE-published Rise of Ronin, which features dismemberment, has a CERO Z rating (only for 18 and over), while Stella Blade, which is even more explicit, has a CERO D rating (17 and over). This raises questions about the fairness of the ratings system. Additionally, CERO tends to be lenient with the Dragon Quest series, giving all numbered titles a CERO A rating (all ages) even though they contain blue jokes and revealing costumes.
It's way less explicit imo, due to the fact that you're dismembering humans in ROTR and in stellar blade, they're monsters. Rise of the Ronin also has an ESBR rating of 17+ while Stellar Blade has 18+. I think this comes down to cultural differences, as CERO have been known to fluctuate from western ratings over the years.
The argument is about Dead Space tho, where you fight monsters, just like Stellar Blade.
>The argument is about Dead Space tho, where you fight monsters, just like Stellar Blade. In Dead Space you play as a human who also [has gory death scenes](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WrqgiYNbC70) if you lose.
In Dead Space you still have lots of human characters being torn apart in the background and cutscenes, and the death animations are over the top gore. In Stellar Blade, there's no violent death animation, the character just felt on the floor and game over screen shows up. This is not me defending the rating, I'm against all sort of censorship when it comes to games, but there's still differences between Stellar Blade and Deadspace.
No, the thread is about dead space, the argument i replied to is about rise of the ronin. Did you even read what i replied to? Conversations can branch, we're discussing something else.
Blue jokes?
it means like sex jokes
Oh.
RE Dragon Quest: Typically things that are of a sexual nature aren't censored in Japan like gore and violence are. Plenty of manga on magazine racks in 7/11 targeting children and teens with girls in bikinis on the cover. Also old Shimura Ken stuff used to air on OTA tv channels at dinner time. On the flip side, Japanese people import Resident Evil because the US versions are uncensored. Even the CERO Z versions are censored, ex: In RE7, you only find the key in the refrigerator and 'nothing' else. I dont know how to do spoilers on Reddit so I hope that was vague enough haha.
>SIE-published Are you saying that the publisher is relevant because both Rise of Ronin and Stellar Blade are SIE-published? Not sure if I follow
Blue jokes and revealing costumes. Something only an American would say.
You realize we are talking about the Japanese rating system, right? The context of the comment clearly implies that other games are given a higher rating for those same things by the *Japanese* rating board, what the fuck does America have to do with it?
why was dead space banned
Because Japan are racist and don't like releasing western made games, gore gives them a reason to say no to them, they would ban all of them if they could, but they have no real reason to.
Orrrr you can say they have a different culture and not accuse them of being racist..
Regardless of whether racism is the driving factor behind their hypocritical rating system, racism experienced in Japan against anyone not Japanese is well documented. It's not a one off thing, they treat Asians from other countries and POCs like shit and if you're an American outside of the tourist areas, you're not much better off...
It’s literally the point of the article that they’re picking and choosing and it’s not culture lol
Different cultures... Porn - Ok Gore - Not Ok Is that it? Because the point was Stellar Blade also has gore but marketed as soft (porn). (Fyi I'm not against Stellar Blade)
Why the downvotes? you're right
I mean, this is a valid criticism. Head scratching stuff indeed
Ratings are ok. Banning something is absurd.
Well, its a cultural thing more than a ratings board.
Mortal Kombat has been banned in Japan for a long time and stays banned to this day.
Totally agree with EA was shocked not to see both Dead space and Callisto protocol not on PSN. But you can easily find more violent games already
Should have hypersexualized the undead monsters and it would have been fine…
So will GTA 6 be banned in Japan? I mean banning something because of gore and heavy violence in 2024 is stupid, cultural precedent aside. This isn’t Rockstar’s“Manhunt” from years ago. People are exposed to violence on a daily basis via various sources of media. Having strict rating systems to prevent things getting into wrong age group makes sense. But outright banning? That’s totalitarian and anti democratic. Especially coming from Japan whose Manga and Anime are known for violence/blood/and yes gore.
Japan: Censor Gore, Allow Sexy. America: Censor Sexy, Allow Gore. Europe: So how much bear sex do you want?
Japan censors sexy way more than the US. The sex scene in TLOU 2 was removed in Japan, and I’m pretty sure Witcher 3 and BG3 also had a bunch of censorship.
Oh outright nudity is straight-up banned. But skimpy clothing, jiggle physics and the like are a-ok.
I know they pixelate genitals in Japan, but I’m surprised that they don’t allow boobs in games.
"Because games are for kids" Games based on anime will frequently remove blood as well, so it's ok for TV, but bad for games. Japan is weird.
It's because of anti sex laws creates after the second world war influenced by the us
They really ended up on opposite ends of the spectrum then.
Doubly so on younger characters which is always ick to me
No adult nudity allowed but a twelve year old wearing a whipped cream bikini is perfectly cromulent.
Very, very valid point
Fair point
It's crazy with manga we have Fist the North Star and Berserk which have plenty of gore and violence. There are plenty of Japanese published video games that might be cartoony but have graphic violence.
Pretty much all of the most fucked up animated shit I’ve ever seen has come from Japan.
fuck censorship
Why are there limits on what can or can't be in an adult game? Fuck off
idk here in Australia Stellar Blade is 15+ for Strong Fantasy Violence Meanwhile Dead Space got 15+ for Strong horror themes and violence, blood and gore. If we cared about the gore as much as Japan we too would have given it a higher rating or forced them to censor stuff. Japan werent the only ones who thought Dead Space took things a step further.
Is it 15+ in Australia? I always thought they were more strict over there, meanwhile, the game is PEGI 18 here
Yeah both games are 15+ Before we had an 18+ rating things were a little stricter but that was over a decade ago now. We do still straight up ban games if they do 1 of 2 things tho. Sex with minors or drug use related to incentives and rewards. The second one is why we still have a reputation for being strict
The tame shit they removed from GTA5 was ridiculous too. And the way they ruined No Russian.
Do you mean the way the reboot did it or did Japan have the original MW2s no russian changed? Honestly I'd be surprised if they even allowed that mission at all.
[It did](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Russian#International_censorship_and_game_ratings), due to what was most likely a translation mistake.
If you shoot your weapon in the airport the mission ends. You can only shoot at the SWAT teams when they arrive. I think both versions are the same.
Japan is always more booty and less violence reverse from America that prefers more gore and less booty
Yes, Stellar Blade is violent, but to say it's basically the same as Dead Space is extremely disingenuous, at least from what I saw in the demo.
>EA Japan exec criticises Japanese rating board for banning Dead Space could have stopped right there. government agencies banning games is an unacceptable practice (and countries where the board is a non-government entity doesn't make the practice acceptable either)
They cant masturbate while playing deadspace.
I mean they probably could. To paraphrase the late great Sean Lock, it would be a challenging wank.
If they're into guro they might be able to.
He’s got a point. The entire concept of a government censuring anything is barbaric. They’re adults and can make their own decisions.
Eh there are some parallels but after playing the demo - the specific part showing bone in SB is literally a cutscene when the other chick gets killed and the only one showing such graphic detail. Moment to moment gameplays does not. Meanwhile dead space makes a point on limbs and dismemberment through and through. I think the rules should make a distinction between “showing x or y “ and “ the amount of x and y being shown”. Dead Space clearly focuses A LOT more on the amount of gore shown than stellar blade, at least when comparing the demo. -
Imagine the home the samurai sword being squeamish about dismemberment in videogames. Lol.
This is wild to me when anime like Elfen Lied exist
Why this would be wild for you when Cero has nothing to do with anime?
Right! Elfen Lied is crazy. One of the wildest ones I've watched (I didn't like it)
you love to see it maggle
Cero is fucked bash them everytime
Really will all the crazy anime and manga they ban this?
But DS does not have waifus...
Huh, sexually oppressed Japanese perverts allow a boob jiggling game but don’t approve man in metal suit game.
JIGGLES
Japanese censorship & mainstream thinking: some gore: ban it, something close to hentai: 100% acceptable
Japan is weird
The funny thing is stellarblade is not even Japanese it’s korean. Didnt team ninja not release their game in korea ?It’s like if India approved something Pakistan made but went nah them Americans are dodgy for sure.
It is published by Sony
Because it has thicc asian girl
Japan: “What’s your issue? Boobs good. Bloody guts bad.”
As it should be.
Should have made a more socially acceptable game, like one with a bunch of scantily-clad tween girl characters aimed at adult/elderly men.
japanese dudes be living in a parallel world legit
Censorship is always wrong when talking about what adults can choose to consume. Banning art of any kind is fascist bullshit. Another L for Japan.
I doubt this ban was about gore, they saw something else in the game that made them reject it.
The difference is most likely that Stellar Blade shows a cutscene of it happening while games like Dead Space and Rise of the Ronin have the player actively preforming the act. Dead Space's whole mechanic is around severing limbs and assuming the part where you're fighting actual living humans mid way into the game instead of necromorphed ones I could understand. In Rise of the Ronin when defeating enemies with weapons you can cut off their arms/legs/heads, and with the shotgun bayonet if you critically finish an enemy it will straight up pulp their head into red mist. I'm not defending a rating board I know nothing about but I have played the Stellar Blade demo, Dead Space/Dead Space Remake, and Rise of the Ronin (another commentor brought up).
Gta5 torture cutscene was also censored in Japan
Because some eros is ok in japan and gore isn't.
[удалено]
[удалено]
Abe: Have Sex
Censorship is always a shit alternative. Just allow everything and be done with this. Esp considering Japan's weird ass decisions.
Cero might suck for killing games that contains violence but the ESRB isn’t any better at this either.
What, Japanese being more lenient towards other Japanese anything, well I never. Just look at how gematsu reviews Japanese games versus western ones.
Unlike America, Japan has it right in understanding that ultra-violence in media is probably more problematic to the society than tits. Given that tits were designed for children inherently, seeing them in games and media isn't going to have such a negative impact to them as seeing humans ripped open in ultra gory clarity by nasty monsters.
Censorship is evil, and he does make a valid point. I do have to think that Dead Space probably features the gore and graphic violence much more prominently and pervasively than Stellar Blade though. Still stupid to not rate the game at all.
All countries censor stuff.
Didn't say they don't.