Earlier this month, it was revealed that Shift Up’s M-rated Stellar Blade is heading to all countries uncensored, including Japan, leading to some backlash around CERO’s rating. While Sony’s latest published game gets a free pass, others were denied rating because of stuff also present in the PlayStation exclusive.
As reported by Automation, EA Japan general manager, Shaun Noguchi, took to Twitter to put Japan’s game rating board on blast for allowing cross-sections of severed body parts in Stellar Blade while refusing to rate the Dead Space remake because of the exact same thing, it was even possible to be rated for CERO Z, which is only for 18+ players. This led to Japan only getting a PC release while the rest of the world got physical editions.
誤解を招かないよう一言追加ですが…
ステラーブレイド自体に対して悪意は全くありません
むしろ面白かったので買ったほうがいいです！
これは純粋に日本での審査の曖昧さについて不満を述べたものなので他のタイトルでも審査で蔓延る「曖昧さ」はいっぱい事例はあげられます— 野口ショーン (@SeptillionGames) April 21, 2024
Stellar Blade, meanwhile, got a CERO D rating, which is a step down with its suggested age being 17+. With the game’s release fastly approaching later this week, there’s sure to be some controversy surrounding CERO as this hits a more mainstream audience.
What’s going on CERO? The Stellar Blade’s demo was really fun and absolutely action-packed. However, CERO, you denied our Dead Space a rating because it included cross-sections of severed body parts and internal organs, but here we have both cross-sections and insides on display passed off with a CERO D rating. I find this hard to accept…
What do you think? Do you see CERO’s bias? Let us know below!
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