The much-anticipated Japanese game Resident Evil 3 isn’t even out yet, but it’s already angering some patriotic Chinese gamers. Some see a three-digit passcode in the game as a reference to a sensitive date related to Japan’s invasion of China prior to World War II.
The code is seen in a free demo of the Capcom game, which is a remake of the popular 1999 game Resident Evil 3: Nemesis. While most players, even in China, are giving the demo positive reviews, some patriotic Chinese players say they’re offended by the number 918 that’s used to solve a puzzle.
These players argue that 918 is a reference to September 18, the date of the Mukden Incident back in 1931. The incident was a bombing staged by the Japanese military, which then accused Chinese dissidents of carrying it out, using it as a pretext for Japan’s invasion of northeastern China. By some estimates, more than 20 million Chinese people died as a result of the eventual Second Sino-Japanese War.
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The numbers at the corner of this poster tell players how to open a combination lock in the game. (Picture: Capcom)
As both an action and a puzzle game, Resident Evil 3 requires players to look for clues in a given environment to crack various puzzles. One of these puzzles involves figuring out the combination to a safe. The answer is found on a poster on the wall that shows the digits 9, 1 and 8 in a phone number circled with a marker.
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This might seem like a coincidence, but some gamers said Capcom should know better than to use such a number.
“If it were some American or European small studio that wasn’t aware of the meaning of 918, I would understand,” an angry Chinese Steam user wrote in a negative review. “But you are a world-renowned Japanese gaming giant. As a famous company in Japan, where did your political acuity and company culture go?”
