Japanese publisher Spike Chunsoft has announced that the first official English translation of visual novel Chaos; Head Noah won’t come to Steam as planned “due to Steam-required changes to the game’s content.” But while the game is apparently too risky for Steam, the family-friendly folks at Nintendo don’t seem to have a problem with a Switch version that Spike Chunsoft says will still launch on October 7 in the US as planned.
“Spike Chunsoft, Inc. believes that this [Steam guideline-required] changes would not allow the game to be released to its standards,” the publisher said in the announcement. “The company is investigating whether it will be possible to ship the title through alternative storefronts, and when the details are established, a new one will be released. formal announcement. Until then, your patience and understanding is appreciated.”
Chaos; Head Noah was initially listed for Steam presale in April, but that page was removed in August, according to tracking site SteamDB. That led to some concern at the time about the ultimate fate of the Steam version, which Spike Chunsoft finally confirmed today.
Valve’s apparent push for content restrictions is coming, even if it’s very similar thematic sequel Chaos;Child has been available in English on Steam since 2019 (after its initial release in 2014 in Japan on the Xbox One). The English PS4 version of Chaos;Child received an M for Mature rating from the ESRB, which described game scenes of strangulation, torture and “exposed brains” alongside sexual content such as “two female characters moaning off-screen while discussing each other’s breasts.”
How bad is it?
Chaos; Head Noah is an improved port of Chaos headthe game that launched the cult classic Science Adventure series of visual novels (also including Steins;Gate and its sequel). The game follows a series of murders and suicides in Tokyo’s Shibuya neighborhood and allows players to alter the progress of the story by indulging in various positive or negative ‘delusions’. Some of those delusions can reportedly become extremely gory and/or suggest (but not directly show) impending sexual assault.
“I don’t think it gets much worse than anything already in the Steam library,” said PQube Games Head of Localization Andrew Hodgson (who contributed to the English translation of Steins;Gate) told Ars Technica about the “exciting and violent content” in the game. “It’s far from mature, even if it can be quite gruesome in certain scenes.”
The original Chaos head was originally released for Japanese PCs in 2008 before the enhanced Noah came on the Xbox 360 in 2009. That console port (and a later re-release of Vita) received CERO Z content ratings in Japan, which “assumes the game may not be sold or distributed to people under the age of 18” and is roughly equivalent to an ESRB “AO for Adults Only” rating in the US. However, CERO’s “content icon” system for that game only included a “crime” warning, and no violence or sexual content.
Subsequent Japanese ports of Chaos; Head Noah for the PS3, PSP, Android and iOS were heavily edited to remove some of the more extreme images and descriptions of violence. Those ports, in turn, were given a lower CERO D rating (roughly equivalent to the ESRB’s “M for Mature” rating) in Japan. A source in the visual novels translation community (who wished to remain anonymous) confirmed that both the Switch and proposed Steam English language versions of the game were based on this edited script.
a Japanese Chaos head port for the Nintendo Switch, released earlier this year, was given the higher CERO Z rating (and “crime” content icon) despite using the edited version of the game that previously received a CERO D rating. The English translation will launch on Switch in the US next month, with an “M for Mature” rating and content descriptions warning of “Blood and Gore, Sexual Themes, Language, [and] Intense violence.”
