Man, I wasn't expecting to write a follow-up on my last article about Stellar Blade so quickly, but here we are.

In case you missed it, Shift Up confirmed that there will be no censorship in their highly anticipated action RPG. Naturally, gamers worldwide rejoiced at the thought that for once, a big budget game with asscheeks on display front and center will be released on PS5 without the devs being made to compromise on their original vision. However, as soon as they heard that gamers were happy, a representative of the two-time winner of Consumerist's "Worst Company in America" raised their ugly head.

Shaun Noguchi, general manager of EA Japan, expressed his dissatisfaction on Twitter to Japanese ratings board CERO over how they reviewed Stellar Blade compared to how they handled last year's Dead Space remake:

"What do you mean, CERO-san? The Stellar Blade demo was a lot of fun with the action-packed combat...
CERO-san, you said that our Dead Space is no good because the cross section of damaged parts and internal organs are visible, but here you can see both the cross section and the inside, and I am not convinced that you are using CERO D..."

The Dead Space remake was refused release in Japan by CERO, because as I mentioned in my last article, excessive gore and dismemberment don't really fly in Japan. Resident Evil is often censored in its developers' home country, and games like Mortal Kombat 1 and Dead Space's inferior retarded son Callisto Protocol also never saw the light of day there, while Stellar Blade has the CERO equivalent of an M for Mature or 17+ rating. What Noguchi seems to have forgotten is while Stellar Blade does in fact feature monsters being torn into bloody pieces, Dead Space made that an entire core gameplay mechanic that's much more prominent and consistent than some flashy optional finishing moves. 

However, this doesn't mean Noguchi is criticizing or jealous of Stellar Blade - it seems his beef is purely with CERO. He continued:

"Just to avoid any misunderstandings, I would like to add one thing... I have no ill will towards Stellar Blade itself; in fact, it was fun so you should buy it! This is purely a complaint about the vagueness of the review process in Japan, but there are plenty of examples of the same vagueness that is rampant in the review process for other titles."

What do you guys think of this? Does Noguchi have a point, or does he come across as salty? Leave your thoughts below!