CERO to zero

I have a, some might say rather odd preference for japanese imports when it comes to games, given the fact that i hardly know any japanese at all despite attempting to learn the language twice. I guess it started way back when i got my Gameboy while i was with my dad on assignment in Japan and the japanese games came in cute little boxes (with better cover art too) compared with the rather clumsy US boxes. Even during the 32-bit era, one of my early favourite games Biohazard had the full uncut intro on the japanese release which sadly never made it to western shores after so many iterations including the most recent Deadly Silence on the Nintendo DS. Onimusha also lost a crucial scene and frankly, some of its' atmosphere when it was localised for the Western market. That was then this is now, things has certainly changed since CERO (Computer Entertainment Rating Organization) took charge of the age rating for the video games distributed in Japan. Biohazard 4 was one of the first games to suffer some cuts under CERO as the decapitation scenes were deemed too violent and had to be censored from the japanese version. In a reverse of fortunes, Resident Evil 4 was passed through without any of these cuts in the US, making the japanese version slighty inferior. I also recently had a unpleasant surprise when i played the US version of Dracula X Chronicles on my PSP upon finishing the japanese version earlier and discovered that some footage off the openning CG intro was cut! No doubt the work of CERO again, the shot of blood trickling off the coffin of Dracula onto his forehead was missing from the japanese version.

Play-Asia just had another Easter clearance sale where everything in-stock was going for 20% less and here i was facing the dilemma of whether to order the US, Asian or japanese version of Devil May Cry 4. All three were discounted and only a few dollars set them apart, after much thought i ended up ordering the japanese import as i heard you get a slighty different intro music on the openning cutscene of the japanese version. Some things never change i suppose....