{"id":45721,"date":"2025-03-18T11:49:36","date_gmt":"2025-03-18T02:49:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=45721"},"modified":"2025-03-18T11:49:39","modified_gmt":"2025-03-18T02:49:39","slug":"hit-visual-novel-pulled-from-japanese-nintendo-switch-store-only-four-days-after-launch-as-age-rating-is-brought-into-question","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/hit-visual-novel-pulled-from-japanese-nintendo-switch-store-only-four-days-after-launch-as-age-rating-is-brought-into-question\/","title":{"rendered":"Hit visual novel pulled from Japanese Nintendo Switch store only four days after launch as age rating is brought into question\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The Japanese version of the hit visual novel game <strong>The Hungry Lamb: Traveling in the Late Ming Dynasty<\/strong> was pulled from the Japanese Nintendo Switch store and is no longer available for purchase as of March 17, 2025. The suspension happened only four days after the game\u2019s worldwide Switch release.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Published by 2P Games and developed by ZerocreationGames, The Hungry Lamb is a dark historical visual novel that originally released on Steam in 2024. The game became a hit soon after launch, selling over 1 million copies and earning an Overwhelmingly Positive rating on Steam (96% out of 42,000+ reviews are positive at the time of writing).&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"The Hungry Lamb: Traveling in the Late Ming Dynasty | Nintendo Switch Launch Trailer\" width=\"1160\" height=\"653\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Fxf19yCmOvA?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The Hungry Lamb\u2019s story depicts heavy themes including murder, cannibalism and human trafficking, which earned the game a 16+ IARC rating for distribution in Japan. However, according to publisher 2P Games, this age rating is being reconsidered post-launch, which is what caused The Hungry Lamb\u2019s sudden suspension. The revised rating has not been announced yet, but judging by the fact that the game was pulled from the store, it\u2019s highly likely that it will be bumped up to an 18+ rating.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Nintendo eShop allows publishers to simply correct the rating of a game without interrupting sales, but not in cases where the rating needs to be raised by two or more levels, or when the new rating is expected to be 18+. It seems that following its release, The Hungry Lamb was re-examined for sensitive content, and it was determined that it did not fit into an IARC 16+ rating. For comparison, the game is rated ESRB Teen in the US, PEGI 18 in the UK and Mature (15+) in Australia.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1280\" height=\"720\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1280px) 100vw, 1280px\" src=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/nintendo-switch-20250317-331901-header.webp\" alt=\"The Hungry Wolf\" class=\"wp-image-45724\" srcset=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/nintendo-switch-20250317-331901-header.webp 1280w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/nintendo-switch-20250317-331901-header-380x214.webp 380w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/nintendo-switch-20250317-331901-header-768x432.webp 768w\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The Steam store page warns players of the following:&nbsp;<br><em>Combat, weapon imagery, bones\/bones, derogatory language, excruciating pain, criminal behavior, bleeding, violent behavior, accidental death, bodily injury, corpses, violent depictions, suicide, including partial nudity, depiction of sexual violence (rape, abuse), and alcohol consumption without any bloody or bloody scenes.<\/em>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>2P Games is currently working to get The Hungry Lamb listed on the Japanese Switch store again, but the game is still available for PC (<a href=\"https:\/\/store.steampowered.com\/app\/2593370\/The_Hungry_Lamb_Traveling_in_the_Late_Ming_Dynasty\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Steam<\/a>) and the Nintendo Switch in other regions.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The dark visual novel game The Hungry Lamb: Traveling in the Late Ming Dynasty was suddenly suspended from the Japanese Switch store due to a revision of its age rating.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":45723,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[18],"class_list":["post-45721","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-global-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - 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