The Japanese players got no blood, which brings up the necessity of the Z version.

Ubisoft‘s new game was released in Japan. Over there, it’s common to see the base version of a game getting a bit of censorship so that Japan’s age rating board (called CERO – Computer Entertainment Rating Organization) can provide a rating for a Z version, which is slightly more adult-themed, but it isn’t necessarily the same version of the game that was released in the West. However, the game WAS rated Z by default.

Until now, the French company blamed CERO with the censorship, but the age rating board retaliated saying that they had nothing to do with the removal of a graphical feature, making Ubisoft issue an apology. Kotaku reported that the issue was brought up when Japanese players noticed a lack of blood, without any option to turn it on.

Was it a glitch? Ubisoft claims that it was forced to remove the blood to get a rating in Japan, and they have done so „in consultation with the related organization.” Here’s CERO’s response: „we had nothing to do with this and that we have not been contacted whatsoever or received a request for a meeting regarding this issue.” Thus, both Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla and Ubisoft have been criticised, with some players calling the game a scam. This is why Ubisoft had to apologize.

The French company’s reasoning behind the missing blood was „a problem within the company.” We can’t make this up. Ubisoft has promised to investigate the issue and report back in due course. Then what was this consultation comment about? Was Yves Guillemot’s company lying about it altogether?

They probably were afraid that Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla wasn’t getting rated in time, as the new console’s launch in Japan now wasn’t months behind the Western debut, and they didn’t want to risk it all. Still, they screwed themselves in this situation: they censored for money.

Source: PSL

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