Capcom Further Censors ‘Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster’, Removes Erotica Category From Photography Mechanic
The upcoming Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster has suffered yet more censorship as Capcom has reportedly removed the ‘erotica’ category from the game’s photography mechanic.
In Dead Rising, ‘Prestige Points’ serve as the game’s form of experience points, which after being acquired can be spent to upgrade protagonist Frank West in order to make him a more formidable zombie-chopping machine
There are a number of ways players can earn said Prestige Points, including rescuing fellow survivors, completing missions, and, in service of Frank’s job as a photojournalist, taking photographs.
Upon snapping a photo, the image will then be categorized by how well the subjects in the photo represents a certain theme, with more points being awarded for each additional instance of said theme.
For example, a photo of a zombie would be assigned as “horror,” and more horror elements in the same photo would result in the player being awarded more more points.
The other categories include Brutality (something violent or bloody), Drama (people in suspenseful moments), Outtake (something amusing), and Erotica (photos of attractive female characters, particularly their breasts, buttocks, or crotch, or lingerie and sex-toys being sold in the mall).
To this end, in discussing the new and returning features for Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster in a new report, Japanese video game news outlet Famitsu (machine translation via DeepL) revealed that the erotica photo category won’t be returning.
Explaining “You can now take a wider variety of pictures than in the original version. Various filters can be applied to the photos you take,” the outlet then notes “The ‘EROTICA’ point of evaluation, which existed in the original version, is not available in this title.”
While on the surface it may seem illogical to have Frank taking pictures of cleavage while in a life-or-death situation abound with conspiracy, the Dead Rising series usually doesn’t take itself seriously.
Though there are somber moments, the series also allows for players to dress its protagonists in silly costumes, gain unrealistic abilities, and even fight larger-than-life psychopaths who trip the line between horrific and hilarious.
Notably, this is not the first major modification confirmed to have been made by Capcom to Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster.
As previously reported, the remaster has also censored the appearance of psychopath boss Larry Chiang, changing him from a clearly Chinese character into one looking more obviously Caucasian.
Though the official reasons behind this change are currently unknown, it’s assumed that it was made in order to avoid depicting the obese and heavily-accented Chinese man as anything that could be considered an Asian stereotype.
Curiously, the censorship in Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster appears to be rather inconsistent.
Case in point, in a prior trailer and press release screenshots, we can see that the psychopath Jo Slade has returned for the Remaster.
Slade is a security guard who has taken several young women hostage. In the original Dead Rising, she claims one of her hostages is a “whore” who lured Frank in. She then says “Lets see how shameless you are you dirty little skank…” before suggestively rubbing her nightstick around her body while leering at her.
In turn, the hostage pleads “not again”, suggesting that this isn’t the first time she’s done this. And then when Slade eventually dies, she convulses in a suggestive manner before collapsing from her injuries.
Though the scenes are intended to be mortifying rather than titillating, it’s nonetheless surprising to see the boss return seemingly intact amid other censorship. Capcom may have considered awarding exp for taking pictures of women to be offensive, but it seems they don’t have the same outlook towards a morbidly obese sadistic lesbian who sexually assaults her victims.
Notably, Dead Rising Remaster is but the latest Capcom game to have its material censored during the remastering process.
Resident Evil 4 VR removed sexually suggestive dialogue, including flirtatious comments and jokes.
Facebook, now Meta, claimed at the time it was done to update the game for a “modern audience.” An executive producer for developer Armature Studio later stated “It’s the year 2022 and some of this stuff doesn’t age well.”
Likewise, the 2023 Resident Evil 4 Remake not only gave supporting lead Ashley Graham a more modest outfit, but also removed the game’s ‘up-skirt Easter Egg’.
Some gaming news outlets even praised the censorship, claiming the latter could have encouraged real life misogynistic behavior.
(And to the surprise of no one, both RE4VR and RE4R removed the iconic ‘ballistics’ line).
Sadly, this is but the latest instance of Capcom becoming more ‘open’ to such anti-consumer practices.
In recent months, Capcom have also praised their localizers for keeping games sensitive and inclusive, taken aim at mods that are “offensive to public order and morals,” and added DRM to prevent such mods from being added to their games.
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