Japan seems to have come down hard with regards to moral policing of video games. It has been recently reported by the games centric news-site Kotaku that the copies of GTA 5 that are sold in Japan do not include the playable torture scene.
In a video posted on YouTube by Kotaku, they compare the both the English and Japanese versions of the game side-by-side and it can be clearly seen that various sex-related scenes have been changed or edited to make them less offensive to players. The game has already been rated Z in Japan which means you can only play the game if you are 18 or older.
You may check out this video posted by Kotaku here
Grand Theft Auto V may have earned the title of the most expensive video game ever made and also the largest selling entertainment product, but it hasn’t stopped various human rights groups from causing outrage over the many controversial aspects of the game.
The most notable among these is the infamous torture scene in which the player must pull off the teeth and electrocute an unarmed man in the game. The scene takes place in a mission called ‘By the Book’ when players playing as the character of Trevor Phillips, a criminal psychopath, are ordered by the FBI to torture a fictional CIA informant to get valuable information from him about another informant.
Trevor Phillips is asked to torture a man by the Feds
Here as the player is told to torture the kidnapped informant, the player can’t make a choice of not going ahead with the scene. Instead the only freedom the player gets is in choosing the instrument for his work. The ‘torturing’ is done by pressing the designated buttons and the informant’s pulse rate reverberates through the controller’s vibrations.
The informant can be heard screaming and begging for mercy; all the while claiming that he has no idea of the questions posed to him. The players can even hear the sounds of his bones breaking from the heavy swings of the torture instruments inflicted by Trevor even as the man’s heart beats are emitted from a nearby machine.
Players have to complete this scene in order to progress in the game. After finishing up with this though, the player then drives the witness to the airport lecturing him on how power can be exerted through torture. The problem with the whole scenario, say many, is that Rockstar North has made it totally unacceptable by forcing the player to go through with this act.
It probably may not have made such a big news if this particular mission might have come with the option of skipping it totally if the player is uncomfortable in performing the said acts in the game. Freedom from Torture chief executive Keith Best has said that “Rockstar North has crossed a line by effectively forcing people to take on the role of a torturer and perform a series of unspeakable acts if they want to achieve success in the game” as reported by The Guardian.
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