More than 50 million gamers are declaring war on Capcom over the “excessive censorship” of Resident Evil Requiem. Even though Japan’s CERO system shouldn’t, in theory, dictate what happens to digital PC releases, the cuts applied to Resident Evil 9 are reportedly total.

The wait seems to have paid off: Resident Evil Requiem is already shaping up as one of 2026’s biggest releases, and it has kicked the year off with momentum. Capcom’s latest arrives with two playable characters, two campaigns that weave into each other, and plenty of zombies to put down, but it also lands with a censorship controversy that is not being felt equally everywhere – while Western players are enjoying an uncut experience, more than 50 million users (according to Famitsu) are accusing the publisher of “excessive censorship” that they say breaks immersion in survival horror.

Spoiler alert. This article discusses situations in Resident Evil Requiem that could affect your experience.

Violence-related censorship in Japan is nothing new for video games. One of the most widely cited AAA examples is Dead Space: Remake, which was barred from a physical release in Japan and restricted to digital distribution due to its level of gore. In fact, Shaun Noguchi, head of EA in Japan, publicly criticized the local ratings board when Stellar Blade was allowed to release without restrictions a year later, despite what he described as “similar” gore.

Requiem’s Japanese Censorship Is Sparking Serious Backlash

Not even one of the country’s most iconic franchises is spared. According to GamesIndustry, the Japanese version of Resident Evil Requiem obscures a large portion of graphic violence both in cutscenes and during gameplay. A clear example is the hospital sequence involving Grace: when she enters a morgue-like space with a corpse whose chest is open, the image is pushed into heavy contrast in that area to conceal what is inside the body, and something similar happens with the Girl early on, where after her “death” at Leon’s hands, parts of her head are blacked out to avoid showing wounds or blood.

On forums such as Reddit, many players argue that this kind of censorship stands out far more in Requiem because its visuals are more graphic, to the point that it “completely kills immersion”. As users point out, instead of familiar approaches like model tweaks or covering nudity, “black blobs” over enemies and environments end up undermining both the narrative and the moment-to-moment play.

This is not entirely foreign to the series. The Resident Evil 4 remake already used dark shading to hide the inside of bodies while still retaining dismemberment seen in Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 3. Requiem, however, leans into more explicit presentation and more exaggerated violence, which in turn pushes the censorship into even more obvious territory.

That feeds into the broader controversy around the CERO system, which does not apply to digital PC games and would, on paper, allow an uncut version. Even so, Capcom has opted to keep the censorship on PC as well, a choice that clashes with earlier assurances from director Koshi Nakanishi, who said the CERO Z edition would be “quite comparable” to the international release. Japanese players therefore feel abandoned, and many are labeling the situation “excessive censorship” that they consider “absolutely awful.”

Source: 3djuegos