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Anonymous
"The North American release of the game, however, was criticized for a number of obvious cutscene edits that many felt were damaging to either the atmosphere or overall story of the game. The majority of these edits were for scenes of violence and blood that would have elevated the game beyond the "Teen" rating given by the ESRB to the "Mature" level. This official reason from Namco is puzzling, especially when Episode I is taken into consideration. Episode I featured several scenes with heavy blood flow (for instance, during the Gnosis attack at the beginning of the game, a crewmember is literally pounded into paste by a Gnosis) and it received a "Teen" rating from the ESRB. While the storyline remains identical in both the original Japanese release and the North American versions, the exclusion of certain violent scenes is quite noticeable, especially in a scene midway through the story in which a child reacts to the death of another character by "putting [the blood] back" in the dying individual. In the North American version, the child has nothing in her hands and several shots are shown of an area presumably splattered with blood, but that looks immaculate and clean in this version. Another scene where a character is pierced through the shoulder and leg by a weapon is also completely bloodless, whereas the scene is accompanied by a spray of blood in the Japanese version. The scenes are further ruined by the fact that the sounds for the blood spray was not edited out.
Similar edits were made to both Episodes I and II, particularly involving scenes related to the psychologically disturbed character Albedo, though fans generally agree that they were handled more tactfully than Episode IIIs edits."
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