The recently released Nintendo Switch title Sakuna: Of Rice And Ruin is apparently such a convincing farming simulator, the Australian Government's very own Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment couldn't resist taking a look itself.
Australian-based YouTuber Jay RPG recently shared a funny story via Twitter about how this particular department seemingly got "a little confused by the name" of the title.
As you can see in the message above, this local department opened up the box for inspection. Here's why:
Your package has been opened by the air courier/express carrier for biosecurity inspection by the Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment.
No items were of biosecurity concern were identified and no goods were removed. The parcel was repacked and resealed by the air courier/express carrier.
The air courier / express carrier inccurs a fee from the department for these inspections. This fee may be passed on to you by your air courier/express carrier, together with any costs they charge.
Fortunately, Jay RPG isn't expecting any extra costs:
If you still haven't worked out what the problem is, it seems the department thought there was possibly rice in there, as noted by Daniel Vuckovic - who runs Australia's longest running Nintendo website, Vooks.net.
Here's exactly what the Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment looks for in mail articles, according to its webpage:
"We assess all mail articles arriving at Australia’s international mail centres. Our biosecurity officers and detector dogs look for risk goods such as food, plant material (including seeds, cacti and succulents) and animal products (including meat and pet food)."
In our own review of Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin, we said this game was an "incredibly detailed rice farming simulation" and well...we guess this proves it. Have you played this game yet? What do you think so far? Leave a comment below.
[source twitter.com]
Comments 29
Imagine being the worker who opened it. I want to know how they reacted. Confusion? Amusement? Annoyance?
@Heavyarms55 Disappointed! That is a funny story, but I’d be delighted if that was my job and I opened it to find someone ordered a neat new game and I got to see it first.
Is Australia scared of rice or something?
@HotGoomba___Rebrand
Given the deadly spiders, crocs, emus, kangaroos, and other animals--I wouldn't be surprised if they consistently dealt with smugglers that tried to sneak dangerous stuff through the mail.
@JR150 I wouldn't be surprised if this was a normal Australian (or Floridan) day:
"Bob just use the [pew-pew weapon] (censored for the admins), it always works with the emus, kangaroos and overpopulating snakes."
"Ok."
[pew pew noises]
"That's what you get for illegally owning Knack! You know that that game is illegal in Australia (and Florida)!"
This happened to me earlier this year with my copy of Little Busters! No idea why they picked that one out for a biosecurity check.
Good old Oz. Not only are they upside down, but backwards too
@HotGoomba___Rebrand
We have very strict biosecurity laws to protect native flora and fauna from threats such as disease and pests brought in from overseas.
I mean, to be fair... didn't you just have a video on your channel of a special edition, probably exclusively for press, that came with a variety of actual rice? 😜
@HotGoomba___Rebrand
ROFL XD
Maybe they thought they'd find the rice loli herself.
From what I hear about Australia, their real goal was probably to make sure they game wasn't full of naughty anime.
@Tsusasi Zion got an extra special box. If anyone is interested:
https://youtu.be/_GBko9HIByk
In the above story, it was just the Golden Harvest Edition by itself. And as noted: "no items were of biosecurity concern were identified and no goods were removed"
Of course they would try to charge him / the courier.
Australian government bodies and other such related stuff overcharge for any little thing.
We pay dumb prices for stuff like licenses and passports.
Australia recently put a ban on hentai and hentai related products because "child exploitation". I know they mean good, but putting a ban because of trash shows like "Eromanga Sensei" and great shows like "Kobayashi's Dragon Maid" is nuts, considering the mastermind of this ban is a delusional man that reads too much into anime, thinking that kids is the main audience.
They were probably looking, not for rice, but for some smuggled doujins and onaholes.
So random news is not so random.
Well, rice could ruin the entire country, no? I mean, they have entire TV shows dedicated to Australia's strict import regulations...
But in seriousness, Australia doesn't want its deadly flora and fauna to disappear, otherwise living in Australia would feel too safe. Wouldn't want those larger than my face spiders to get decimated, now would we?
I cannot obtain a physical standard copy of this game in the U.S. as it is sold out everywhere even after the first few days of release. Not sure if they just didn't produce enough copies or if the scalpers got to them first.
@Mew2Senshi I doubt the department of agriculture was looking for pornographic content. More likely, as everyone says, Australia has very strict biosecurity laws, to protect it's unique flora and fauna. There are entire TV shows dedicated to this where they quite regularly inspect parcels and luggage and have to confiscate things like bags of rice.
@Ogbert, I'm not saying that's their goal. I'm aware that Australia has its share of invasive species, some introduced as problem solvers that became problems themselves, like the cane toad.
But this is a government agency that made a check for imported food goods. You think that they will let banned products pass through because it's not in their jurisdiction?
People will look for a roundabout to smuggle stuff in.
Dept of Agriculture: let's see here "...of rice AND RUIN"??!!??
Please tell me it was one of the detector dogs that found it.
@Mew2Senshi Nah I'm saying they saw an imported package that had "Rice" in the name of the description so they checked it for rice not porn.
@Menchi dumb
@Bobb I genuinely laughed out loud at that, thanks! 😂
@clvr knowing that brightens my day, thanks for sharing
Have an awesome day!
@Bobb you're more than welcome mate, have a great one! 😃
@Menchi A troll and a bigot, nice combo.
@JR150 : Why would smugglers try to bring Australian animals IN to the country?
But yes, kangaroos are our deadliest indigenous fauna. Their sharp fangs contain enough venom to kill 19 meatheads in half the time that it takes to inject roids.
People trying to bring foreign plants or animals to Australia are a big deal to them, they had a mass problem with rabbits reproducing, eating their crops and having no predators.
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