“Judge Eyes” to be re-released in Japan with new cover and Pierre Taki’s voice and character model removed

It was announced by Sega that “Judge Eyes” will be back on shelves and online stores on July 18th.  And the game will be re-released without the voice of Pierre Taki and his character’s image has now been deleted on the cover and his character model was also replaced (the western release will also replace his character).  Also, the release will be much cheaper at Y4540+tax.

弊社製品『JUDGE EYES：死神の遺言』の販売自粛について（5/21更新） https://t.co/0C3bp2b62P

— セガ公式アカウント (@SEGA_OFFICIAL) May 21, 2019

Also, if you bought the original game, your save content will not work on the new game.  Also, a balance adjustment update will feature an “EXTRA EASY” level and DLC contents with “New American Detective Pack” and previous detective packs will be included immediately at the start of the game.

If you bought the DLC before, you don’t have to buy it again.

This was the original cover:

The game was removed off of shelves back in March after the arrest of actor, musician and Denki Groove frontman Pierre Taki for the suspicion of cocaine use, there had been a major backlash with shows canceling appearances or deleting any mention of Taki on their website and also removing Denki Groove music off the shelves.

And that included the video game “Judge Eyes”.

We knew this was going to happen right after the arrest that we had to go out and purchase the game (which we hadn’t done yet) and not only was the game not available anywhere, if you wanted the original game, other games were selling it on online auctions in Japan for a lot of money.

We actually were fortunate to find one game in Tokyo the week it was pulled off of shelves  (and haven’t seen any other copies since).

With that being said, it’s cool that Sega is releasing it at a lower price and with the DLC content but also a bit sad that Pierre Taki, who has been a popular actor/singer prior to his arrest, is being removed from everything including his voice role as Olaf the Snowman in “Anna the Snow Queen” (known as “Frozen” in the US).  But that’s how Japan rolls…

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