Assassin’s Creed Shadows Will be Censored in Japan

Ubisoft has announced that Assassin’s Creed Shadows will be censored in Japan to comply with the local ratings board CERO and their concerns over gore.

The Censorship for Assassin’s Creed Shadows

Recently, Ubisoft has started to share more details about the upcoming game, including that Assassin’s Creed Shadows will be getting free DLC for those who decide to preorder any version of the title. Claws of Awaji is set to add around 10 hours of additional content, including a new region to explore and a unique storyline with an enemy faction known as the Sanzoku Ippa. Even with momentum starting to build again for Assassin’s Creed Shadows, Ubisoft has once again run into trouble with the Japanese version of the game.

In a new statement on Twitter, Ubisoft revealed that it is making changes and censoring certain parts of Assassin’s Creed Shadows to comply with CERO, Japan’s local game rating organization. Currently, Assassin’s Creed Shadows is rated CERO Z, which essentially prevents anyone under the age of 18 from purchasing the title. However, even with such a rating, the organization still felt as though the violence was too much for a CERO Z rating and has asked that Ubisoft continue to make adjustments, similar to what Capcom had to change for Resident Evil Village.

In order to comply with CERO’s guidelines, Ubisoft has announced that some of its graphic content and gore present within Assassin’s Creed Shadows combat will be removed entirely. While players have a toggle for dismemberment in the game’s options, the Japanese version will have this option removed entirely and dismemberment will be disabled entirely. In addition, Ubisoft is also changing the way severed limbs and body parts are depicted, as well as outright changing some of the Japanese language dialogue, but didn’t dive into specifics.

This isn’t the first bit of controversy CERO has faced over dismemberment in games. In fact, in 2024, EA Japan General Manager Shaun Noguchi took issue with CERO’s rating for Stellar Blade, which received a rating of 17 and up. Noguchi’s issue was that CERO refused to rate the Dead Space remake due to its inclusion of severed body parts and internal organs, while Stellar Blade included similar violent elements and was able to earn a CERO D rating.

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