The upcoming Shadows of the Damned remaster has been censored on consoles by the Japanese ratings board, co-creators Suda51 and Shinji Mikami have confirmed.
In an interview with Japanese platform GameSpark (with additional reporting by VGC), Suda51, real name Goichi Suda, said that the development team at Grasshopper Manufacture had to "prepare two versions of the game" in order to appease Japanese ratings board CERO.
Suda says that this process "had a tremendous impact on [the team's] workload" and that it "extended the development period", although he doesn't say exactly which elements of Shadows of the Damned: Hella Remastered were censored.
A quick look at the original Shadows of the Damned's ESRB rating reminds us that the game is full of gore, violence, and sexual imagery, as well as copious amounts of swearing, so it's probably one of these elements to which CERO took umbrage.
Speaking in the same interview as Suda, co-creator Shinji Mikami describes CERO as a board that "[doesn't] play games", but that tries to "prevent [players'] enjoyment by restricting...works with regulations".
Suda says it would make him "sad" if many players gravitated exclusively towards the Steam version because they wanted to play it without restrictions, "considering it's available on a variety of platforms". As a reminder, only the console versions have had to undergo censorship in Japan.
He goes on to say that he wonders "who the restrictions are aimed at", speculating that they're not "aimed at the customers who play the game".
Shadows of the Damned: Hella Remastered is, believe it or not, a remastered version of 2011's horror-themed action-adventure game Shadows of the Damned.
Revealed in June last year, the game is a remaster of a project that features something of an all-star lineup; not only was Shadows of the Damned co-created by industry legends Shinji Mikami and Suda51, but it also features music from Silent Hill composer Akira Yamaoka.
Although we can't be sure yet, it's unlikely that the censorship of Shadows of the Damned in Japan will affect the state of the game in the West.
The game is currently set to arrive on PC, PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch on October 31st (which feels very appropriate indeed). Stay tuned for more on this.
