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.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdbLtM_GkJM 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.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ng-38rZSVj8 You can learn much more about CERO and their censorship process in this translated interview with one of the organization's higher-ups.
Again, The Walking Dead Season Two will be released in Japan on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita June 30th. When more information is known about the censorship, you will be able to find it reported right here, as soon as it is known.