Another day, another discovered instance of censorship in Capcom’s upcoming Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster, this time as a new trailer has confirmed the removal of an anti-communist dialogue line from the player’s pre-fight conversation with Psychopath boss enemy Cliff Hudson.
Having survived the initial outbreak with their humanity intact but their minds completely shattered due to the sheer madness surrounding them, the various Psychopaths in Dead Rising spend their days stalking the Willamette Mall unleashing mindless violence against any and everything that moves, regardless of their undead status.
One such broken survivor is the aforementioned Cliff Hudson, a Vietnam veteran whose particular break from reality sees him falling into a war flashback that causes him to falsely believe he’s back on the battlefield.
As a result, upon his first meeting with protagonist Frank West during The Hatchet Man mission, Cliff, standing underneath a collection of freshly decapitated zombie corpses he’s strung up as warnings to his enemies, demands that the war photographer provide him with his “Name and rank, soldier!”
However, before the confused Frank can even process Cliff’s request, the soldier immediately concludes that he’s Viet Cong, in turn taunting, “You can’t tell me, can you, fella? Oh, yeah… I know why… It’s because you’re Viet Cong. I’m right, aren’t I? You are nothin’ but a filthy communist!”
“You, son, are gonna tell me where the guerillas’ hideout is,” he then yells before lunging at Frank. “By the time I’m done beatin’ information outta you, you are gonna be beggin’ for death to come take you away!”
At least, that’s how the interaction played out in the original release of the game.
As seen an August 12th trailer for Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster‘s ‘Creepy Rabbit’ DLC pack – which, if purchased, grants players access to the eponymous outfit as well as a new background music track – in the updated version of this fight, rather than accusing Frank of being a “filthy communist”, Cliff instead decries him as a “a filthy animal”.
At current, Capcom has not publicly explained the reasoning behind their decision to censor this specific dialogue line.
Notably, Cliff expressing more ‘generic’ outrage towards Frank is but the latest change made to Dead Rising during its leap to current gen hardware.
Per previous reports, Capcom has also apparently race-swapped fellow Psychopath Cliff Chiang (ostensibly in an attempt to avoid accusations of anti-Asian stereotyping) and wholesale removed the ‘Erotica‘ qualifier from the game’s photography mechanic.
To this end, given the sheer amount of ‘modern audience’ edits discovered thus far, it’s likely that there’s far more waiting to blindside players who choose to pick up the game.
Frank West and the Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster are currently on track to ride again beginning on September 19th.