Season 2 to be released on consoles in Japan on June 30th, Censored.
This came up on tumblr and I thought it was interesting. I knew about Japan censoring game for gore in the past with Until Dawn, although on that occassion I heard it was pretty bad censorship in that they just made the screen go black. Hopefully Season 2 won't suffer with such crappy censorship:
Whilst most of us will have been able to play Season Two of The Walking Dead for almost two years now, Japanese players haven’t been so lucky. The title was released on PC in Japan, but, the console versions have, up until now, been completely missing. Again, the game was released in the West nearly two years ago but, for players in Japan, the release date for the PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita versions will, in fact, be June 30th later this year.
Not only has the release taken a very long time but Square Enix, the Japanese publisher for the game, has announced that the game will be censored. The announcement is only available in Japanese but explains that certain depictions of violence were too extreme, even for the game’s Z rating, which is the highest rating possible.
We do not currently know which specific scenes of violence will be censored, although, gruesome deaths and bloodshed are commonplace in the zombie-infested world of The Walking Dead. Make sure you check out our video report above, to get a gist of how violent things can get. Those of you unfamiliar with Japan’s CERO rating system may be surprised to hear that, despite coming with the highest Z rating, the game will be censored. However, over in Japan, depictions of extreme violence are actually straight-up banned from games by the CERO rating system. Due to these restrictions, many games have been censored in Japan that weren’t in the West. One rather infamous example of this being Until Dawn.
*The Walking Dead Season Two will be released in Japan on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita June 30th. *
It came from here:
http://techraptor.net/content/censored-japan-walking-dead-season-two
And another source:
Comments
It's great that Japan is getting the game, but I feel it's completely unnecessary to censor any part of TWD. As long as the game is sold towards the mature (18+) audience, there shouldn't be a problem. Also informed on what the game entails. I know the game can be quite explicit with the gore and language, but really that's most of the fun. It might lose some impact as Japanese players play through it.
i dont knkw why japan censor gore ive played a lot of japanese games even imports and the mkst violent i can find is the yakuza series but the japanese games seems to have things that we wouldnt see in a normal game (check akibas trip undead and undressed) and more things that are only in japan like hostess clubs and maid cafes so i dont really know why they censor stuff that dosent really need it
Awesome, I'll keep an eye out on this and the JP Life is Strange release.
I can't wait to see what the censored Carver scene looks like
I wish they spoke Japanese too, like Life is Strange has.
Kenny: (Raises crowbar) ROAR!
[Lots of cut aways to Clementine as bone crushing sounds from an asshole's skull getting smashed in are heard]
[Cuts back to Carver's face completely untouched]
Japan Censorship: Nailed it!
I seriously want to see a playthrough of this game when it comes out, just to spot where all the censorship edits happen. Clem sews up her arm you say? Nope just cut away every time she puts the needle to her arm. Impaled dog? Nah, he just fell funny. Characters dying from being eatten by zombies? They were just tickled to death XD
Every hit will be replaced with squeaky toy sounds and his face will be covered with sparkles.
What? What's wrong with the gore to the Japanesse? This game is made for 18+ audience, they can't handle the gore and violent moments in video games? They don't even play any Mortal Kombat games? I don't understand.
It sucks it's going to be censored, but neat that it's being released in Japan. It'll be certainly interesting seeing all the changes once it's available.
LIS still isn't out in Japan? The trailer for it there was released almost a year ago.
Whoever wrote this article shares my comma fetish, @Crips.
Wait, what? Telltale Games is doing a special Japanese edition, or something? I totally thought that some shots were going to be cut to black, but giving it another though…
yeah, keep reading.
Japan makes gory games all the time, so it seems odd they would censor because of it.
You have to consider that material involving the death of kids, teenagers, ect. is heavily censored in Japan. Such as the replacement of blood color or completely cut scenes.