The Japanese PlayStation blog revealed their PlayStation Plus games for next month, but one game was notably missing. Instead of Death Note: Killer Within, Evil West will be free in Japan. It’s definitely weird, considering Death Note is a Japanese series and Evil West is… well, not.

As of this post, Death Note: Killer Within doesn’t have a Japanese PlayStation Network page, despite having one in other regions. It’s also strange that, despite announcing the game on their North American, European, and Southeast Asian accounts, no mention of the game has been made in Japan. Even if we account for the time difference, we should’ve seen something by now; Bandai Japan already released a new video for Little Nightmares III today, after all.

I pulled the name of the game listed on the Taiwanese rating board that Gematsu posted to search it on Chizai Watch, but neither Shueisha nor Bandai Namco have a trademark for it. The only thing filed is still Shueisha’s trademark for “Death Note Killer Within.” Oddly enough, the trademark is only in English while other games, like Sword Art Online: Fractured Daydream and whatever “Shadow Labyrinth” is, had trademarks registered in Japan in both English and Japanese.

Death Note: Killer Within’s current status in Japan is extremely strange, but I have four theories:

• Questionable scenario: The game will release on the same day as it will the rest of the world, but won’t be a PlayStation Plus game.
• More questionable scenario: Killer Within will release later in Japan than everywhere else.
• Most acceptable scenario: “Shadow Labyrinth” has been the game’s Japanese name the whole time and we have nothing to worry about. Bandai’s recent games have had regional name changes like My Hero Academia dropping “Academia,” “SPY×FAMILY: Operation Diary” becoming “SPY×ANYA: Operation Memories,” and the That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime console game changing its subtitle from “Tempest Stories” to “ISEKAI Chronicles” outside Japan.
• Worst scenario: Killer Within will not see a Japanese release.

DEATH NOTE: Killer Within is scheduled to release outside Japan on November 5 for PlayStation (as a PlayStation Plus bonus game) and Steam, and hopefully the Japanese release won’t be too far behind.

UPDATE (07/29/2025): It was the more questionable scenario.