Square Enix: “Americans Need Believable (Macho) Heroes”

Why can't we all just GET THE FUCK ALONG? Japan, please start bringing the games we want to America. Like the Tales series. America, stop bashing on "feminine" male characters, and "linear" RPG gameplay. Don't like it, don't fucking play it, don't look at it, whatever. People like different things, and until you all realize that, you're just going to be pumping out crap releases that no one cares about.

Also, if America likes "manly men," and "realistic" games, why isn't Monster Hunter more popular?

Japanese heroes are the best, like Kamen Riders!

Why is Japan so bothered with our heroes?
They're probably jealous because they can't grow facial hair.

Hell when im playing a game about the best soldiers fighting aliens like on Crisis I do expect the guys to be strong and "macho", what's the problem with that? Check out some elite forces around the world and see how many metrosexuals you can find on them.
I have no problem with female characters but stop trying to shove down our throats your faggy characters Japan.

Refer to me as "Devil" if you respopnd to this.

Listen, the JRPG as we know it has been on life support for a decade now. Final Fantasy XII was a step in the right direction, at appealing to both sides, but Square backtracked and did the wrong thing with XIII.

I'm not saying everygame needs a bald hero, but we need less JRPGS with the following

- Childhood friend MOE looking love interests
- Guys with gigantic swords who look weak and feeble
- Turn-based battles in the traditional sense
- Talking animals that are meant to be "cute"
- Teens saving the world against some stupid threat
- Relationships that are actually handled like real relationships. Sex, actually saying "i love you", stuff like that. Too many JRPGs have implied love.

- More choices that effect the game world. Japanese storytelling has been pretty awful as of late.

I grewup with Japanese games, and much prefer Japanese art to Western art, but I'll be lying if I didn't say the genre has become incredibly stale and hasn't advanced with the rest of the industry.

"In other remarks, they were heard to tell the audience that any joint development with foreign developers “is best avoided” because of the potential for communication problems – it appears Square Enix did not have a happy time attempting to work with non-Japanese developers."

In other words, "waaaah western developers won't bow to our every whim and word because we are great Square Enix, maker of the same game 14 times."

Funny how two of their most popular games don't have macho protagonists
Kingdom Hearts has kids and Final Fantasy X has a scrawny boy and girl
It's about personality and correct choice in vocals, I don't care if they're "macho" in fact I'd rather they not be if it's gonna end up like NIER

This kinda reminds me the comparison between American football and European football, One favors brute force while other is about agility etc. Also american music is trying to be so aggressive and manly, I think its laughable at times, this is seriously an interesting cultural thing even though Squares comment sounds rather rasict but I really dont care.

LIES!! Shepard is a Hot Lesbian Woman!

Seriously, these comments make me want to kill myself.
Japan, just keep making the games I love, fuck everybody else.

More lolis, womens, handsome main characters, interesting stories, worlds where I can escape reality, and great gameplay, instead of the most crap we get here in West/Europe.

That way, I can still play those games I like.

Gee...... I didn't know Americans were so gay...... well...it explains why football is so popular.....

Do American's need Macho Muscle bound hero's? Not really. Who is one of the best fictional hero's of all time in American Entertainment? Luke Skywalker. This character is not muscle bound or anything but a young man. It has only been in recent films that they use more muscle bound hero's. But people like Captain Jake sparrow and Neo are not muscle bound. Harry potter anyone? Where is the age and muscles on that guy. I think that Square Enix has a hard time relating a story arc to Americans because of the Cultural differences in society. Every Society has a different set of cultural inflections making it difficult for other cultures to understand if they don't know the meaning behind the reference. A simplistic reference would be language and its many accents and slangs. A person in Texas talks different then a person in New York or in England just as the English Language would have different slangs in it from those from India and the Asian Countries who speak it. Just because people live in a different area of the world and are affected by different influences.

Agree with Square, as 30yrs old gamer I absolutely HATE and want to Puke when I see teenage or kiddie like character.
Im not a pedophile and I want to play with character that close to my age or at least 20yrs old, it makes the game much more be livable for me.
Kids and children are not heroes, they pedo traps and have to be totally erased from every game.

I can probably agree that we have a more need for realism in the background. As in some of those games, Fisher is an former soldier and now a spy. Shepard from ME could be quite young but still in his 30's. Most of these heroes have a more real-life realistic background with education and such. Not like Gundam series where they give out top secret, super advanced, top notch military equipment to boys who just had their sweet 16. But i still watch and play those things if i find them good enough. Hell, if I can i will always play as a female char in a game.

But one thing that the most of you is missing is that SE in this says to avoid working with "foreign" (at least in their case) developers. Probably they have a real problem with understanding "our" developers work-process. So if more game developers in Japan heeds SE suggestion the games from japanese developers will probably get even more bad, due to not looking for new influence and try and develop new cool games.

In my own humble opinion i think that most japanese developers try and talk to non-japanese developers, steal their ideas and remake them to something more japanese, instead of catering to an ultra-coservative market that only want to play the same game in different itterations.

wtf thay have franches from left for dead but thay forget that there are seven other sevivers none of which look that macho rilly. (exepition maby for bill but hes old)

Hmm... I guess it comes down to personal preference. Play as an aged, buff, bald man or a whiney 15 year old boy.

The reason y americans have macho looking men is cause of the idea of heroic epic poems. The idea of having big, strong men dates back to the Anglo-Saxons.
so to say that it is only an american thing is false cause the idea has been used in literature for years.

As long as the characters are interesting and likable, I don't really care about their age, sex, or race.

Square-Enix just isn't very good at creating likable characters in their recent titles.

The title should have been "Bad developers make up creative excuses." Notice that Nintendo doesn't seem to have problem selling their games in the US, and they do it without an abundance of burly men.

Ayayaya! The Japs are making stupid comments again and america is too jock to deny it!

All hail the idiots!

"I wanna be a macho macho man."

ok, so what about nier? was that a joke or what?

Obviously Americans need believable things, like an Italian plumber that gets high on mushrooms, and a mute elf in a green tunic with a sword and shield killing monsters all the time, and enormous badass monsters that evolve when you force them to slaughter other monsters that twelve year olds capture in balls which defy physics all the time. Square Enix should stop blaming whatever they feel they're failing at on their audience and just start making good games.

Ha! "Communication problems"!
That's just your typical xenophobic drivel. Whenever there's a situation that goes beyond the boundaries set by the restrictive japanese society, the working ants begin to lose their mental integrity.

Of course, it's not like all japanese are xenophobic by nature but there's a definite underlying tendency to reject almost anything from the "outside" at first. Japanese people who have lived a certain time abroad are usually WAY more friendly (and i mean really friendly, not the fake politeness in Japan itself).
Of course, japanese who have lived in foreign countries are no longer considered countrymen and women by their own people. Talk about being morons, eh?

This whole stereotype business is also the reason why it's such a butthurt to get certain games published in other countries. In case of Squenix, they were even surprised that fans wanted their games with an option for the japanese voice track. Yet another display of how uninformed they truly are about their fans. That includes their japanese fans as well.

I wonder where they're getting their information. I wonder if this has anything to do with younger gamers. The ones that grew up with the PSX and X-Box. I find they're usually the ones with narrower views of what a video game hero should look like.

I'd like to point something out.

Why the hell is the idiot from Too Human on there, but Snake isn't?

I don't care if Snake is from a Japanese company, he screams American hero so freaking much he should be on this list anyways.

Also, no old school Turok male? Sigh

Most of Them Baldie.

Look at all these limp dick weeaboos bitching about masculine characters. What's the matter, is the brainwashing you received in public school setting off red flags in your stupid little head?

Fuck your participation trophy generation.

We prefer our anime to be more believable too.
Eg: Cowboy Bebop, Berserk

Oh but they sure are happy to slap their brand on anything Eidos makes now, aren't they?

Maybe if JRPG characters were more than shallow archetypes they'd be believable too.

they should've just tried making a 'macho character' game themselves instead of whining about it in front of the projector. i thought the japs were good at innovating stuff not originally their own?

If the game is good, it doesn't matter. Mario and Link have been getting away with being unmuscular for years. All of this is just a flimsy excuse from panels that have nothing better than to do than exploit racism for a buck.

Weak, Japan. Weak.