Last week, when Assassin’s Creed Valhalla was released, players in Japan noticed that the game didn’t show blood effects during combat. Some wondered if there was a glitch preventing the optional bloodshed.
Ubisoft Japan did announce that there were differences between the North American and Japanese versions, such as a topless woman character who’s covered in the localized release. However, bloodless combat was not mentioned.
Moreover, the Japanese version of the game does have a blood effect option that can be turned on.
But when it’s on, the game still does not show any blood, and there does not appear to be any difference between the On and Off option. This is especially odd because Assassin’s Creed Odyssey’s Japanese version does have blood effects.
Some players wondered if this was a glitch, while others took to Amazon to one-star review Valhalla, saying it was a 詐欺 (sagi), meaning “scam,” “fraud” or “cheat.”
“If there had been an official announcement about this, players would understand that before making their purchase,” YouTuber Pokaosu explained.
Yesterday, Ubisoft Japan issued a statement on the UbiBlog, addressing the issue. According to Ubisoft Japan, it was decided that it was necessary to remove the blood effect to get the game rated and thus make the Japanese release possible. The statement specifically stated that this decision was made “in consultation with the related organization.”
But CERO, Japan’s Computer Entertainment Rating Organization, objected to this claim. “This is a notice that we had nothing to do with this and that we have absolutely not been contacted whatsoever or received a request for a meeting regarding this issue,” CERO wrote in an official statement.
Ubisoft then issued a “heartfelt apology” as an update to yesterday’s blog post. According to the game maker, it established that this was “a problem within the company.” Ubisoft added that it was urgently investigating the issue internally and would make another announcement based on the findings.