American opinions on just why it is Japanese games are so inferior to the fruits of American ingenuity – ranging from a lack of muscle and creepy anime eyes to insufficiently casual-friendly design and stories too long for their limited attention spans – and presented as the way forward for the Japanese industry, have been proving unsurprisingly incendiary amongst Japanese and others…
The reasons, based on a Japanese developer’s quizzing of “100” American developers at CEDEC 2013:
1. Market shift
The western markets have grown and so the focus has shifted onto them, particularly with the Xbox’s provision of games catering to American tastes, whereas previously there were only Japanese games around.
Japanese games also try too hard to appeal to western consumers and are losing their identity.
2. The cultural gap
Fantasy is perceived differently.
Stories are long: Americans typically finish their lunch in 12 minutes. They want quick gratification.
Nobody can get into the stories – they are too random, superficial and take too long to get into before you can play.
3. They have no good anime eyes
4. Westerners want “Roman proportion” beefcakes rather than effete Asian weaklings
5. The acting tends to be more “theatric” than “cinematic”
6. They have inferior “usability”
Poor pacing, no focus testing, packages which can’t be read from 7m away like American games
7. Japanese games (and anime) are too hardcore
Casuals can’t take them, hardcore gamers are declining
CoD is for casuals
It makes lots of money so it can keep up its “progress”
Japanese games don’t target casuals enough
8. They aren’t making the genres which sell well in North America
Not all genres sell well in the west, although console game sales have been decreasing even outside Japan
9. Japanese games are too old-fashioned
Did they completely stop progressing?
The end result is everyone got bored of them
Their smaller budgets also contributed to technological decline
10. Differences in their racial roots
Americans love guns and blood
Americans hate sex
Whether such helpful American admonitions to emulate the world-renowned greatness of EA are actually intended to help the Japanese gaming industry or instead finish them off for good have been the subject of no small debate amongst Japanese gamers themselves:
“Just which developers did they ask…”
“What do you expect from a society obsessed with murder games.”
“The west just treats any 2D game as retro though.”
“They basically seem to be talking about Final Fantasy, don’t they?”
“They say this stuff like western games are actually any good.”
“Skyrim.”
“I hear FF14 surpassed Skyrim!”
“No western game has surpassed Puzzle Dragon.”
“But gaijin love Final Fantasy! 13 got totally panned in Japan but they lapped it up and Square Enix made a fortune off it. Even an interactive movie like MGS4 did fantastically overseas.”
“And don’t forget FF7…”
“We need an open world samurai game!”
“Japanese games used to have the upper hand when it was package based, US games have it when they can be updated. I guess in a market which rewards developers who shipp half-finished games and patch them up this is the result…”
“Japanese developers really need to stop trying to knock off western hits…”
“The Japanese market is totally centred on producing games for kids. I suspect that explains most of this.”
“The adult market is smaller because Japanese adults just don’t game as much.”
“The story in some games is just so bad you have to stop playing – Dead Space 3 and Yakuza 5 being cases in point.”
“Saying that Japanese games target hardcore gamers – what? Isn’t it the other way around?”
“I think the real difference is that Japanese games are a direct extension of anime and manga whilst those of America are an extension of movies and drama. As such they are less dependent on 3D graphics, whereas these are essential for the realism of film-based games.”
“That seems to be exactly it…”
“What exactly is so advanced about western games? They just churn out endless sequels for the same big franchises. And somehow total linearity is OK if it is western, but if it is Japanese it is a problem. I think it is just simple racism at play.”
Japanese games are dreadful. They haven’t been relevant since the early 90s.
The comparison to American games is also false, as it should be compared to western games.
My problem with Japanese games is two-fold; extremely shallow gameplay and stories aimed at teens and children. It’s like they only make jRPGs with horribly generic, childish stories that are almost completely linear, or twitch based games that require nothing but repetition. Of course, when you only make games for consoles, that’s what you get. Western console games are usually just as bad, even if there is more variety.
There are no intelligent games in Japan.
Where are the strategy games and RTS? Where are the combat flight simulators? Where are the tactical FPS games, ala Arma 3? Where are the grand, open world RPGs? Where is the innovation and technical progress? They barely even have an indie scene.
Japan is stuck in a world where they only appeal to young people, who are obsessed with living in childish fantasy worlds.
westard who has never played a game
Well, time to play some Drag on Dragoon before the new one comes out on release date on Dec. 19.
-Capcom is basically EA now
-Konami has essentially become the official delivery vehicle of all the good stuff Kojima makes after Silent Hill went to s♥♥t
-Square doesn’t know what the f♥♥k it’s doing
-Sega is a joke, removing videos from youtube and recently wiping people’s HDDs
-Nintendo keeps making psychotic decisions such as the 2DS and ignoring IPs like F-Zero and Custom Robo they could use to get the “REHASH ALWAYS MARIO AND ZELDA” people off their backs.
Did everyone forget how Capcom had that huge period where it felt like they released Megaman games every month back in the GBA era? And they complain about western devs rehashing concepts? Or the the fact that Nintendo is rehashing so much gameplay for their money-making New Super Mario Bros? Japanese game developers are just as guilty as western devs in the way the game industry has stagnated.
mainstream games suck s♥♥t from both Japan and America.
for example. halo 1 and 2 were fuckin great then turned to s♥♥t once it became mainstream (the same said for assassinscreed and crysis).
Clearly the Americans and Japanese havent herd of games like:
– Minecraft
– Planetary annihilation
– supreme commanders
– Mount and blade
– Total war
– Crusader Kings II
– Kerbal space program (no blood, gore or killing, amazing >.>)
– Homeworld 2
– Age of empires 2
– portal
– thief
– dishonored
personal preference: I like to play my games, to solve puzzles, maneuver around objects and obstacles. if i wanted extreme story, i would watch anime(maybe this is why some dont consider VN’s as games). Multiplayer to me is key because i am human, a social creature, i like to do things with my peers but gameplay/mechanics shouldint be sacrificed in-order to fit MP mode in a 8gb disc.
my japanese wana-be friend always attacks me for choosing a bulky male character in games. calls me gay for wanting to stare at a guys ass all day. I pick bulky males because i like to perceive my self as the character, not to perv at it(which is why he always chooses female)… emphasis on bulky because i want to pretend that i am strong/dominant rather than the skinny weak s♥♥t i am T.T
like, American games are s♥♥t if the only game you know is CoD. but there are so many others that are out there innovating with evolving technologys, that make use of the power that is available to the consumer(just coz a game is shinny doesint mean is s♥♥t and vice versa)
tbh i havent really played many japanese games. but i must say the new ones are s♥♥t i.e the new FF games and castlevaina lord of shadows(the most scripted liner s♥♥t i know).. but i must add that ive played the old 2D castlevania which i really like. but then again FF is mainstream as f♥♥k like CoD. i dont really know any japanese indie games except for touhou which is pretty alright but gets boring fast.
another personal preference: i like my games to be in a sand-box environment like skyrim, assassinscreed, gta, minecraft, etc…. where you can actually play and do what ever you want rather than scripted games like CoD, FF. some of the post above attack open-world/sand box but i cant agree, all i can say is that i like to do what i want in an environment created by others.
ps western games are short… Dota, LoL 45mins a game… yet ppl manage to play it for years and years.
Japanese games sucks because: JAPANESE COMPANYS THINK TO ONLY EXIST JAPAN IN THE EARTH.
Multiregion stupids companys, learn about MULTIREGION.