Diablo 4’s Chinese Servers Will Have Some Cosmetic Differences for Players

Diablo 4 appears quite different in the Chinese release, with blood, skeletons, and supernatural spirits often omitted from media, including video games. While there is no law in China that censors these elements, releasing a Western game such as Diablo with these features is often a challenging task. Diablo 4 itself underwent a grueling years-long process to get approval for release. With the pre-release now available, players are diving into the game, and it looks quite different!

From the start, blood is instead depicted as dust, even on animals
Even the non-spiritual things are looking different, with blood being turned into dust starting with the first monster the player encounters. This is also true for the player itself and any skill effects, regardless of what is being targeted.

In some ways, Penetrating Shot looks way scarier without the skulls
Penetrating shot has very clear skulls on the icon, and skeletons are another no-go for Diablo's China release. These are instead replaced with creepy masks or discolored faces, but the outcome is unsettling in and of itself.

Wandering Death is looking a lot less ethereal these days
Wandering Death is a spiritual being made of damned souls and more bones. The solution to a being made entirely of bones, apparently, is to turn it into... solid stone? This reworked version of Wandering Death is by far the most interesting change Blizzard has made for this regional edit.