Games released censored or cut in the East but uncut in the West?

[Az]

I'm sure we all could list hundreds of examples where games released in Japan were released in the Western market with edits of various things censored out due to thinking they would be viewed as offensive, immoral, illegal, or what have you. Naked chicks became clothed, religious imagery removed, blood and violence toned down, race or sex of (mostly) enemy characters changed... the list goes on forever. Sometimes you had licensed characters that were reworked to now have generic non-licensed characters (Black Belt/Last Battle versus Fist of the North Star) or licensed characters removed completely (Pepsiman in Fighting Vipers).

Can you think of any games where the reverse is true? I don't mean alterations just for the markets in Australia or Deutschland that would otherwise prevent it from being rated or sold, but rather changes where the Japanese version was censored while the Western release was not? I can only think of two.

Mortal Kombat II (SNES/SFC) - Japanese release has green blood and when you perform fatalities the screen turns black and white.

The House of the Dead (Saturn) - Japanese release only had green blood while the US version had red or green blood with red by default.

Those are really the only two examples of censorship I can think of. Seems like Zombie Revenge had either a code or a hidden violence setting not found in the Japanese original but I may have just dreamt that.

[Aussie2B]

They removed some of the gorier bits in the Japanese release of Resident Evil 4, which came out slightly later than the US release. IIRC, there's no decapitation or exploding heads.

[TonyTheTiger]

This is actually not all that uncommon. Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee had a much sillier visual of the Mudokon pops in the intro compared to the grisly original. God of War III had all the nudity removed. Same with Heavy Rain. I don't know if it's because of a Sony/Nintendo/MS directive or a quirk of the CERO rating system, but nudity in general seems to immediately get the axe in Japanese localizations.

[Edmond Dantes]

I read somewhere that there's a PS2 horror game called Kuon (no relation to Juon) which is censored in Japan but uncut Stateside.

Also supposedly Flashback: the Quest for Identity changes all the humanoid enemies (or at least the ones on the first level) to green-skinned people, and may have changed the blood colors too, don't remember.

One of the weird cases is that apparently there's minor censorship in the PS2 Fatal Fury Battle Archives version of FF3--if I remember correctly, in the US version a topless shot was censored while in the Japanese version the topless shot is still there, but some blood effects are instead missing. The original Neo-Geo version and earlier console ports, however, are completely intact as far as I know. EDIT: Correction... it was Real Bout Fatal Fury that had these edits, and I also mixed up which country got which set of edits on the PS2 (the Japanese version censors the boobies but keeps the blood, on other words).

[TonyTheTiger]

Apparently the highest CERO rating, Z, corresponds to the ESRB's M, but unlike the ESRB's M, CERO's Z is specifically restricted by law and comes with additional burdens on their sale which could easily negatively impact a game's revenue. This likely results in a lot of publishers going out of their way to avoid getting a Z. The part that confuses me is that games that do get a Z rating will sometimes still have edited content (ex: God of War III), making me think that there is a hard ban on certain content by the console manufacturers themselves.

[Aussie2B]

CERO Z is more akin to the ESRB's AO, which also has so many restrictions/limitations that publishers generally avoid it at all costs. Like AO, Z is 18+. CERO D is more like the ESRB's Mature rating, in that it's 17+, commonly assigned, and to no real detriment.

The US and Japan are similar in that, in the case of games that are truly for adults, they're generally not rated by the big mainstream ratings board. US localizers like JAST, MangaGamer, Sekai Project, who sell lots of adult games, don't even bother with ESRB ratings (and thus their games also can't be bought through mainstream shops like GameStop). Japanese content that's for adults, be it games, comics, whatever, usually just slaps on a label like "R18", "18+", or "For Adults Only" instead of getting a CERO rating.

[TonyTheTiger]

CERO Z is definitely not an AO equivalent in practical terms. AO actually doesn't have any legal restrictions. It's more a public image issue that prevents retailers from openly supporting the rating, which, given that so few games get it in the first place, makes it no loss for them. This causes a feedback loop that makes the rating financially unsound. AO is mostly a technicality, though. There's very little content that isn't covered by the M rating, to the point that AO may as well be abolished completely. I think the only thing that triggers an AO is actual intercourse. CERO Z, on the other hand, is given to a bunch of games that get an M here, meaning that the bar is definitely lower. A censored God of War III got a Z.

[Aussie2B]

I think the difference is just a matter of which content the country considers more objectionable, sex or violence/gore. Americans are pretty uptight about sexual content but barely bat an eye at teens playing games and watching movies that are extremely violent and gory. In Japan, it's more the other way around. It's not surprising that they'd give a higher rating to a violent game than it'd get in the US, but then the reverse happens with games containing sexual content. When it comes to sex, very little pushes it into AO territory. There are news stories all the time about niche localized games needing to tone down or remove suggestive content in order to avoid the AO rating and get mainstream retailers to carry them. And I'm not even talking games with actual sex scenes, just innuendo and skimpy outfits. It's an anomaly that series like GTA and God of War can get away with nudity and sex while still keeping the Mature rating, and it's really solely a product of them being AAA games and carrying a lot of clout.

[TonyTheTiger]

I can't think of any game that was censored during localization specifically to avoid AO. If changes occur it's usually, if not exclusively, for marketing reasons (ex: aiming for a T, or more generally making the game less polarizing to the audience). Like I said, nudity is perfectly within the boundaries of the M rating. It's not an anomaly at all. Few publishers do it though because it's A) stupid and B) polarizing.

Your assessment doesn't match up with what's actually been happening since it's the Japanese industry that's been covering up the naked women lately. My best guess is that it's a combination of an actual law and console manufacturer directives. I just don't see any other reason why they'd cover up the naked women in God of War III if it still got them a Z rating. It means there was no net gain from those edits so there would have to be another reason beyond just business interests.

[SparTonberry]

AO actually doesn't have any legal restrictions.

Weren't nearly all of the 20 or so games to have ever gotten an AO rating, because of pornographic content, which is legally restricted?
My guess is that's why stores are like "we're not even going to deal with it".

[TonyTheTiger]

Pornography itself is protected speech. I suppose it's possible for a game to run afoul of obscenity laws but I don't think that's happened yet. Different states will regulate things differently but I think the reason none of this has really been an issue is because retailers don't want to stock products that will trigger a protest, and as such publishers aren't likely to produce something that won't be sold in stores. I know that when GTA San Andreas had that Hot Coffee nonsense different stores handled things in their own way. I think some, like GameStop, pulled it until it got reissued while others, like FYE, just slapped an AO sticker on the case and continued to sell it as normal. I'm sure that if GTAVI comes out with an AO everyone will be selling it no problem. But niche AO game nobody has heard of? Why take the gamble on it?

[BlastProcessing402]

It's not legally restricted but none of the console makers will allow third parties to release AO games on their systems. On PC it's not locked down so you can release whatever you want, which is why there are a few AO games there. If a state tried to legally restrict it would violate the 1st amendment in the US and be struck down by the courts just like all the attempts at making it illegal to sell M rated or the nebulous "violent" games to kids. Stores can have policies against selling them to minors, just like how console makers can refuse licenses, but the gov't can't restrict them that way.