What is a CERO Z rating?

Rated Z for Zero Escape.

Basically Japan's version of the M rating from the ESRB.

CERO is the rating board in Japan. "A" is for All Ages, "B" is for ages 12 and up, "C" is for ages 15 and up, "D" is for ages 17 and up, "Z" is for ages 18 and up.

Isn't D the equivalent of M? Besides, there's been lots of M games for the 3DS; hell, Virtue's Last Reward was one of them. Z is defined as "Content is clearly adult. No one under 18 is allowed to buy video games with this rating. May contain prolonged scenes of intense violence with blood and gore, sexual content or nudity, or very strong profanity." which would make it be an ESRB AO.

Now I'm more curious as to what content Japan considers suitable for 12, 15, 17 and 18 year olds to handle. I'd like to know what that progress chart is.

I'd rather not see that chart as I'm sure it involves tentacles.

While 18+ is obviously adult only, I wouldn't equate it to the esrb adult only. AO esrb games would be something intensely violent like uncensored Man Hunt 2 or something erotic in nature, whereas I'd say Cero Z is more like a slightly harder M in the same way you have Pegi 16 and 18.


12 Year Olds - Twilight Princess HD, Genei Ibun Roku #FE, Project X Zone 2
15 Year Olds - Fire Emblem If, Xenoblade Chronicles X, Bravely Default
17 Year Olds - Devil's Third, Bayonetta 2, Attack on Titan
18 Year Olds - Zombie U, GTA, Skyrim

Well and that whole no-retailers-in-NA-carry-AO-games thing would be marketing suicide anyways. I fully expect it to be rated M over here.

Zero Time Dilemma sounds like a fatal hardware or software bug. Like Red Ring of Death.

Class D seems rather idiotic.  If you're narrowing a rating down to one year you're being pretty nit picky.  So I look a the ESRB rating and, holy shit, it's the same stupid nonsense.  M is 17 and AO is 18.  What the hell arbitrary nonsense is this?  I just never noticed with the ESRB since AO is like the magical leprechaun rating that never exists.  I imagine if you get AO the ESRB probably gives you fair warning so you can retool your game before release.

I seriously think there only needs to be three ratings: E,T & M.  E has nothing unsuitable for kids, T has stuff that kids might find scary or parents might not want young kids to see, M is for grown ups.  The ESRB has EC which I have NEVER seen and they introduced E10 years ago and that seems to get unnecessarily specific.  If I have kids I figure all I'll really give a shit about is if the game is M or not.  The whole outrage that created the ESRB were over games that would have gotten M ratings in the first place.

A Wii game once got an AO rating on first blush from the ESRB, and it got the game delayed a few months. But yes, the ESRB will warn you if you go over the line.

It looks like the biggest differentiation between CERO D and Z is sex v violence. Sex is a D (Senran Kagura games, DOAX3) while violence is a Z (Zangeki no Reginlev and probably Zero Time Dilemma).

I've seen EC (Early Childhood) on some edutainment games, such as Sesame Street ones, though those are old games. Not sure if edutainment stuff is still made, but I haven't looked.

I feel like the AO rating would be used for pornography and such, it seems similar to the X rating for movies (or maybe NC-17, not sure), especially since all three console manufacturers won't allow games with that rating to exist on their platforms. I don't know if I've ever seen the rating actually be used, and I probably don't want to see the kind of game that would get slapped with that rating...