Assassin's Creed Shadows' Japanese Release Will Censor Graphic Content, Makes Changes To Language Dialogue

Ubisoft is moving forward with Assassin's Creed Shadows' release for consoles and PC on 20th March 2025 in which the publisher held a special livestream event this month to reveal new gameplay footage and debut the game's story trailer. With pre-orders now available across all launch day platforms, players can receive the Claws of Awaji expansion for free, adding more content to the game on top of what players can explore with the Animus Hub.

However, a recent development revealed that certain gameplay content would be censored at launch due to its graphical nature. It was detailed which gameplay content would be removed, but this is only specifically for the game's release in Japan, as it was confirmed on social media, which explained the censorship of the game's graphical content.

The Ubisoft Japan Twitter account posted an announcement on 24th January 2025, in which the contents revealed that the game's Japanese version will differ from its North American and European releases at launch. This is due to the game's CERO rating, which its Z rating means Shadows features strong adult or graphic material, making the game illegal to be sold to persons 18 years and younger, in this case, the game's gore and blood content.

"Regarding Assassin’s Creed: Shadows (CERO: Z), there are some differences in the in-game content of the version sold in Japan in order to comply with the regulations of the reviewing organization,” the official statement from Ubisoft Japan reads (h/t VGC for the translation). Additionally, the dismemberment option will be removed from the game's Japanese release, making dismembering body parts permanently turned off, and how they're being depicted has been altered as such.

Finally, according to the statement, there will be some dialogue language differences between Shadows' North American and European releases and its Japanese releases. There will be some considerable differences between them; however, Ubisoft did not reveal which dialogue was changed for the game's Japanese release.