Something's Missing from the Japanese Version of Peace Walker

Hideo Kojima had to cut a "certain scene" from the game, and he doesn't like it!

2010-04-16 08:44 / Anoop Gantayat / 1 Comment

Packaging for the European version of Peace Walker.

Hideo Kojima's latest posts at his extremely frequently updated Twitter are about how Peace Walker has been rated throughout the world.

Kojima posted yesterday night that Peace Walker has been given a T rating in America. This would correspond to 13 years in Japan and 15 years in Europe. In Japan, however, the game's rating is actually C, or 15 years.

To keep the Japanese rating from a D, it seems Kojima Productions had to remove something from the game. Wrote Kojima, the PSP is supported by younger people, and so during Peace Walker's production the staff made the effort to avoid grotesque scenes. However, there's "a certain scene," a "standard element that's "absolutely necessary for MGS," that apparently could not make it under the C rating. They had to remove this scene from the Japanese version of the game.

The European and North American versions of the game are the original version without the adjustments made for the Japanese version. Kojima suggests that people try to compare the versions if they get the chance. Although for those who will be playing the Japanese version, he assures that it's just fine -- the game's feel hasn't changed.

Kojima seems to be concerned about the need to remove the content for the rating. "There's tolerance for fantasy games, but for games where you show war or real violence between people, you apparently can't complain about anything. With this, it seems impossible to communicate something through games."

The Metal Gear master's Tweets aren't all so serious. Yestrday, he also shared this image: