Stellar Blade ‘uncensored for all countries’ despite usual strict Japanese rules

Stellar Blade developers Shift Up have today confirmed its action-adventure title will be ‘uncensored [in] all countries’, including Japan, where the rules around gore and dismemberment in video games laws are usually quite rigid.

In a surprising move, the devs confirmed the news in an official post on the Stellar Blade X (formerly Twitter) account on April 21, writing that: “Stellar Blade offers the same uncensored version in all countries, including the Japanese version.” This is surprising considering Japan’s regulatory system in video games, CERO, is quite strict about blood, gore, violence, and dismemberment animations.

In Stellar Blade, EVE must save the last of humanity from the Naytiba, an alien species. The title has considerable blood, gore, and dismemberment, even in the game’s first five to 10 minutes. If you’re like me and have played the demo, you would have seen some initial cutscenes are particularly horrific and bloody, and many have been left wondering what we can expect from later cutscenes and gameplay if it’s already this graphic.

In particular, it’s very interesting to see that Japan, even with its strict guidelines, will get the same uncensored version as the rest of the world, and some fans are already calling this move a “massive W,” while others, declared they will now be “pre-ordering.”

Not everyone is quite on board though, with some early players on Reddit questioning whether “this in regard to violence or sexual content“—and others still are already predicting more controversy for the Shift Up release.

If you didn’t know, Stellar Blade has been in several metres of hot water because of the female characters’ jiggle physics, especially how it’s said to be tailored to the male demographic. While that could be true, Shift Up’s mobile game, Project NIKKE: The Goddess of Victory, has a player base that is over 40 percent female, according to an article by Famitsu, even though the title has robust jiggle physics and an all-female character cast. Stellar Blade could also appeal to the female demographic similarly if it has excellent gameplay, fun mechanics, and appealing characters. So, it shouldn’t be ruled out just yet.

Controversies aside, the devs’ reference to including Japan in their post about uncensored versions suggests the content warnings are most likely due to the violence and gore in Stellar Blade rather than the oversexualized content.

So, if you prefer Japanese VOs in games, you’ll be able to enjoy that and an uncensored Stellar Blade when it launches on April 26, despite Japan’s strict laws.