The visual novel The Hungry Lamb: Traveling in the Late Ming Dynasty launched on Steam last April, and it was a hit — like, one million copies sold, 40,000+ ‘Overwhelmingly Positive’ reviews kind of a hit. Those who had been waiting for the title to come to Switch had their wishes answered last week when it finally launched globally on the eShop, but, after just four days, the game was removed from the Japanese storefront pending an age rating review.
As reported by Automaton, The Hungry Lamb initially launched in Japan with a 16+ IARC rating last week, putting it at the lower end of the international range (it received ESRB Teen in North America, Mature in Australia and PEGI 18 in the UK), though that is expected to be bumped up a level following review.
Taking a look at the game’s long ‘Mature Content Description’ on Steam, a post-launch revision makes quite a lot of sense. Developer ZerocreationGames lists a whole bunch of “adult” topics in this section, including “excruciating pain”, “bodily injury”, “depictions of sexual violence”, and more.
A publisher can tweak a game’s age rating without having to pull it from the storefront, though an increase by two or more levels or a change to 18+ means that the title needs to be yanked from public sale during the revision period.
In a statement shared on Twitter, publisher 2P Games said (via Google Translate) that it was “working hard to resume sales of the game as soon as possible” and reaffirmed that those who have already purchased it can still play without issue.
The rating review has only affected The Hungry Lamb listings on the Japanese and Hong Kong eShop, with the visual novel still live on other regional storefronts.
While nothing like as dark, you might remember a similar eShop disappearance for Balatro shortly after the game’s launch as its approach to gambling was brought into question. The poker roguelike was later reinstated with an 18+ age rating before months of appeals finally dropped things down to 12+ earlier this year.
