Assassin’s Creed Shadows might be set in Japan, but Japan itself won’t get to see how violent the game actually is

Assassin’s Creed Shadows is finally bringing the series to Japan, but the Japanese release of the game won’t be the same one the rest of us are getting.

The Assassin’s Creed series has obviously long been a violent one given all the, you know, assassinating you get up to, so Shadows of course continues that lineage. It’s also the first game to be set in Japan, a setting long requested by fans, and the game is being released in Japan too, but due to its age rating the violence won’t be quite as intense as it will be in the west. The Japanese version of the game has received a Z rating from the ratings organisation CERO, which means that nobody under the age of 18 is allowed to buy it. Except, CERO apparently found that gore so extreme that Ubisoft has been led to tone it down in the final release.

“Regarding Assassin’s Creed: Shadows (CERO: Z), there are some differences in the in-game content of the version sold in Japan in order to comply with the regulations of the reviewing organization,” Ubisoft Japan said in a statement on Twitter (translations via VGC). “The option to switch dismemberment on and off has been removed from the game settings, and now dismembering the heads and limbs of enemies while playing is permanently disabled. The way severed body parts are depicted has also been changed.”

It’s a decision that was obviously made so that the game could be released in Japan, even with the high age rating, but it is obviously a bit ironic that Japanese players won’t be getting the intended experience, despite the game being set there. What can you do!

Our own Dom got to go hands-on with the game recently, coming away thinking the dual protagonists might be the refresh the series has needed for a while, and that its new Immersive Mode will be one to play for fans of Shogun.

Assassin’s Creed Shadows is due out March 20 on Xbox Series, PS5 and PC.