Omega Labyrinth Z becomes the first game to be banned in the UK since 2007
Back in November, D3 Publisher and Pqube announced that they'd be localizing a Japanese dungeon-crawler RPG called Omega Labyrinth Z and releasing it in the west in Spring 2018. However, while Europe and North America didn't seem to have any issue with classifying the game, the United Kingdom did. The UK's Video Standards Council Rating Board (VSC) refused to give the game a PEGI rating, citing that there's a likelihood of the game causing harm to the user, due to overly graphic content.
When a game is refused a classification, then that means it's illegal to sell it in that respective region. This is the first time the UK has outright banned a game to be on the market since 2007's Manhunt, a game that was also refused classification due to the violent nature of "overly visceral killings, with a focus on stalking and brutalizing".
Following the UK's decision, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, and Ireland had come to the same conclusion, also denying the game a release in those countries. Now, the question is, what content did this RPG offer that was appalling enough to make it fail multiple country's ratings boards? Well, let's take a more detailed look at the VSC's claims.
Laughs aside, in regards to the last bullet point, according to them, the game has multiple instances where the player must indulge in heavily sexual gameplay. Now usually, this is fine. We've seen western releases of games like Senran Kagura, Criminal Girls, and Monster Monopiece, which all relied on gameplay elements that overstepped the normal level of "fanservice". Even Gal Gun--a game about shooting girls with a pleasure gun--managed to release in the United Kingdom, (although it was still banned in New Zealand and Germany) alongside its $90 DLC pack that let you see through schoolgirls' clothes. But if Gal Gun was "fine", what sets Omega Labyrinth Z apart? Well, taking a look at the trailer might be explanation enough. I'll link this in the spoiler tag below in case you don't want to see it.
So, as you can see, there's some questionable content. But you might still be asking that while it's over-the-top, worse games have still released. The most significant crux to the VSC's argument is that the characters are "young girls", having voice acting that sounds as such, and at least one of them is described as a "first-year/freshman", which would mean an age under 16, even. Therefore, this oversteps a moral boundary, and could be considered a danger to UK residents, especially children playing the game and finding the behavior on display as normal, as stated by VSC.
Again, though, going back to Gal Gun, the game's main cast are all highschool girls, with many of them being "first-years" as well. Yet, despite the games having similar fanservice and content that might be "unsafe or unfitting" for children, Gal Gun 2 is releasing in the UK next month, and on the Nintendo Switch, on hardware that a significant amount of children own and play on, no less. It could be argued that Gal Gun is slightly more satirical than Omega Labyrinth, but it leaves one wondering what the exact grounds are for an outright ban in terms of classifications.
With that, Omega Labyrinth Z will still be launching in most of Europe as well as North America sometime in spring of this year. What are your thoughts? Does this game warrant a ban? Should Europe and America follow suit and ban it as well? Or are there any games you think have worse content, or should have been banned, but weren't?
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