No More Heroes violence toned down for Japanese market only

If you’ve been keeping tabs on the updates concerning Marvelous Interactive‘s No More Heroes, you might have noticed something missing from the game’s more recent gameplay videos taken from Tokyo Game Show 2007. Yes, that’s right – the violence has mysteriously vanished into thin air.

Gone are the epic sprays of arterial blood from the gashes you inflict with the lightsaber–er, Beam Katana, and instead are replaced with Killer 7-ish explosions of black pixels and coins. What gives, Suda 51?

Thankfully, the master of cel-shaded insanity cleared things up, in a recent interview with Kotaku. He says that the game version shown in TGS was significantly toned down to comply with Japanese censorship laws. His statement, verbatim:

Oh yes. The version you played is the Japanese version, which won’t be featuring much blood. Besides, he’s using a lightsaber, which burns the wound when you cut someone.

He followed up by reassuring fans who are looking forward to No More Heroes in Europe and North America that the corresponding versions will have the gritty violence intact. Whew!

Although, to be honest, yours truly liked the explosion of pixels and coins more than seeing the over-the-top violence in the game’s earlier trailers. It felt much more Suda 51-ish, and as a neat homage to how Heaven Smiles died in Killer 7. Maybe a compromise of RED pixels instead?

If you’ve been keeping tabs on the updates concerning Marvelous Interactive‘s No More Heroes, you might have noticed something missing from the game’s more recent gameplay videos taken from Tokyo Game Show 2007. Yes, that’s right – the violence has mysteriously vanished into thin air.

Gone are the epic sprays of arterial blood from the gashes you inflict with the lightsaber–er, Beam Katana, and instead are replaced with Killer 7-ish explosions of black pixels and coins. What gives, Suda 51?

Thankfully, the master of cel-shaded insanity cleared things up, in a recent interview with Kotaku. He says that the game version shown in TGS was significantly toned down to comply with Japanese censorship laws. His statement, verbatim:

Oh yes. The version you played is the Japanese version, which won’t be featuring much blood. Besides, he’s using a lightsaber, which burns the wound when you cut someone.

He followed up by reassuring fans who are looking forward to No More Heroes in Europe and North America that the corresponding versions will have the gritty violence intact. Whew!

Although, to be honest, yours truly liked the explosion of pixels and coins more than seeing the over-the-top violence in the game’s earlier trailers. It felt much more Suda 51-ish, and as a neat homage to how Heaven Smiles died in Killer 7. Maybe a compromise of RED pixels instead?