Publisher Rideon Japan recently announced that the Steam port of Brave x Junction has been banned in Germany, China and Saudi Arabia. As reported by Game*Spark, the ban came due to Valve refusing to remove the “frequent nudity and sexual content” tag from the game’s store page.
Brave x Junction is a fantasy RPG in which you defeat monsters through one-on-one turn-based card battles with blackjack inspired mechanics. The game was rated for ages 15 and up by CERO, as it doesn’t depict any explicit content. However, it does feature characters in revealing costumes and some suggestive defeat illustrations, which could be the reason why the game ended up flagged for “frequent nudity and sexual content” on Steam, resulting in it getting banned in China, Germany and Saudi Arabia.
Rideon Japan reportedly contacted Valve regarding the issue, claiming that the tag does not appropriately describe the game’s actual content, and asking for an additional review. However, after the additional review, Valve judged that there was no issue with the initial judgement, leaving the tag unchanged. As explained by the publishers, this means that the game will stay permanently banned in the three regions, without any possibility of a future release.
On a lighter note, alongside the announcement, the publisher also shared a satirical image of their “fighter” character behind bars, being arrested for “bikini armor crimes,” crying out “But this game is so wholesome~!”
Ever since its release in October 2025, Brave x Junction has been facing issues regarding its suggestive content and “provocative” character designs. In November, it was announced that the game’s Switch release would be cancelled for the EU and NA regions due to the game being flagged as containing “legally problematic sexual content involving children.” At the time, the game had been released on the PlayStation store, Steam and Japanese Switch store without any issue, though it seems that it wasn’t immune to Valve’s increasingly stricter content regulations. While a barrage of issues mainly concerning Western releases must be disappointing for overseas fans, hopefully, the game won’t end up suffering any further restrictions.
Brave × Junction is available in English on PC (Steam) and PS5/PS4.
