Assassin's Creed Shadows censored in Japan to remove beheadings and limb amputationCut.Image credit: Ubisoft / Eurogamer News by Tom Phillips Editor-in-Chief Published on Jan. 27, 2025 The Japanese version of Assassin's Creed Shadows has been hit by censorship restrictions from the country's ratings board. In Japan, Ubisoft will now release a version of the game without the ability to behead your enemies or slice off their limbs.These changes - and others listed below - will now mean the game will be granted a Z rating, which is the equivalent of an 18, by Japan's Computer Entertainment Rating Organisation (CERO).Assassin's Creed Shadows' story trailer.Watch on YouTube"Regarding differences in content between the overseas (North America, Europe) and Japanese versions of Assassin's Creed: Shadows, the version sold in Japan of Assassin's Creed: Shadows (CERO: Z) will have some differences in in-game content in order to comply with the regulations of the certification organisation," Ubisoft revealed in a statement posted to its Japanese social media account."The option to switch amputation on/off from the game settings has been removed, and amputating the neck and limbs of enemies during gameplay is now always impossible."In other words, all versions of the game have the ability to turn off more graphic violence. But, in Japan, these options will be locked down, and limbs will always remain attached.There are other changes, too. Ubisoft has altered the "amputated surface of the body", presumably to make it less graphic. "The representation of some Japanese voices played in the overseas version (North America and Europe) has been changed," Ubisoft added, without further explanation.Japan's rating board has long been squeamish around the issue of violence in video games, with limb removal an issue in other games previously such as Call of Duty: Black Ops (which was censored) and the recent Dead Space Remake (which was denied a release altogether).The issue sparked a notable response last year from a Japanese EA executive, after the Japanese version of Stellar Blade was allowed a rating despite showing severed limbs. "What's going on CERO?" EA's Japanese boss Shaun Noguchi wrote at the time. "You denied our Dead Space a rating because it included cross-sections of severed body parts and internal organs, but here we have both cross-sections and insides on display passed off with a CERO D [17+] rating. I find this hard to accept..."Eurogamer recently went hands-on with Assassin's Creed Shadows, which our Katharine described as the series' "biggest shake-up of the series in years".