Upcoming Japanese dungeon-crawler MeiQ: Labyrinth of Death has been refused classification by the Australian government. In publisher Idea Factory's application on the classification board's website, the organization explains that the game "is likely to cause offense to a reasonable adult."
That's because of its depictions of sex and violence, according to the classification's rejection notice. The government cited the game as belonging to a group of other offensive, banned titles, which "depict, express or otherwise deal with matters of sex, drug misuse or addiction, crime, cruelty, violence or revolting or abhorrent phenomena in such a way that they offend against the standards of morality, decency and propriety generally accepted by reasonable adults to the extent that they should not be classified."
MeiQ for PlayStation Vita stars a group of women who must save the world from peril with help from some fighting robots. The trailer above shows off some of the role-playing game-style battles and the dungeon-crawling elements, as well as the characters' slightly revealing designs.
Based on the teaser, though, MeiQ doesn't quite appear to match the Australian government's description of it. The Vita game is set to come out in North America later this year, although the ESRB has yet to rate the title. Australian fans are out of luck, Idea Factory told Polygon.
"We will not release MeiQ: Labyrinth of Death for the PS Vita in the Australia region because the AGCB has chosen not to rate the title," a representative told us. "We do not have plans to reclassify the title."
MeiQ joins more than 200 other games, like Hotline Miami 2, among the titles that have been effectively banned, as games must have ratings to be sold at most retailers in the country. A recent uptick occurred last year, when the Australian government denied classification to 220 games in just four months.
