Is Japan Behind?

[JC48573]

Japan need to keep making games that feel like Japanese games because there version of Western games tend to fall short compared to 'real' Western games.

Ganbare Goemon for the win!

If we do look at it that way, then they are only making money from dedicated buyers who enjoy their games as opposed to million of people that only buy games like Call of Duty or Halo.

[Red_Skies]

Japan need to keep making games that feel like Japanese games because there version of Western games tend to fall short compared to 'real' Western games.

Ganbare Goemon for the win!

I love that series. It's a shame Konami has all but abandoned it. I remember playing co-op sessions of the Legend of the Mystical Ninja with friends back in the day. So fun.

[Mod_Man_Extreme]

I agree. Lots of Japanese games are waaaay too cheesy in their storytelling. Maybe there are just some cultural walls that are too hard to break, and they just can't get some things right. Metroid: Other M was particularly painful to me in its storytelling. The developers were clearly trying to have a western military feel, but they just don't understand military culture at all. I cringed every time Samus called Adam by his first name in one of the flashbacks to her military days. I also don't like being spoon-fed character analysis. Here in the west we like to analyze characters on our own, not have three minute soliloquies from Samus about Adam's motivations.

This.

Japan is a sheltered nation when it comes to real violence nowadays. Anyone born after WWII never knew about armies, guns, war or true violence from a first hand perspective. Therefore you get a lot of half-assed stuff from people who simply assume that's what it's actually like based on movies and the media instead of actual research.

[the7k]

If we do look at it that way, then they are only making money from dedicated buyers who enjoy their games as opposed to million of people that only buy games like Call of Duty or Halo.

And the problem with this is...?

[Mod_Man_Extreme]

Personally I don't want to see Japan try to mimic western developers. Each side creates games that are a product of their culture, and they have a different feel. One isn't better than the other. I'd hate to see that Japanese charm go away.

Thank you, those were the words I couldn't find. I feel some games like RE5 weren't as good as they could've been because they were more westernized than their predecessors. This is why I think they're doing this for the more general profits.

Ditto.

Most people don't realize just how great the numbers of Japanophiles and western otaku are out there. We're not on the level of 20million plus COD type people but with the right marketing there could be a very much so viable market for true Japanese games in the Western hemisphere.

[Veno]

Guys I really want to know how you guys feel about the upcoming release of Dead Rising 2. Do you guys think that Capcom let a Canadian company to work on it just for the sake of making profit? The game is looking pretty good to me and it seems to carry a little bit of Capcom DNA.

Haven't really been following DR2, but from what I've seen, it looks like there's more than a few ways to get creative with killing zombies. I don't think it'll be groundbreaking, but it's a fun game I can just get friends over to take turns getting creative, trying to top each other each time. I don't think they're just trying to just cash in, because building on the first game's formula seems like something that can lead to alot of fun.

[hashiriya1]

Depends on how you look at it. I prefer JRPGs and Japanese-developed games more than I do Western games. There is still a steady stream of J-games coming out and I don't notice any difference in quality or craftsmanship behind them. Ryu ga Gotoku 4, Super Street Fighter IV, Peace Walker and Valkyria Chronicles 2 are 4 of my most recently-purchased new games and they are all great games. By the time I am done with them, Gran Turismo 5 and DoDonPachi Daifukkatsu will be out and that is more J-gamage to be had. They just keep on comin'.

I just think that the landscape changed and it has become a little more crowded, but that doesn't mean they are lagging behind. It just means they are harder to see. It's not 1995 anymore.

[Jrecee]

I'll throw out my analysis.

The games industry has grown since the early days. During the mid to late 80s when nintendo reigned, it seemed like almost all the games came from Japan. Most of them did. In those days you could americanize a game by changing the box art and in game text. As technology grew and storytelling and graphics became more complex, Japanese games became "more japanese". As the 90s went on, and gaming became bigger, the American and European markets started becoming the majority. As that happened, more and more western developers began making games catering to those markets. As this happened, even more westerners got into gaming. So there was a shift in who gamers were and what they wanted to play. Japanese games didn't necessarily lose their fans, their fans became overshadowed by the majority of gamers. As technology has progressed, and developing games has become more and more expensive, developers are having to sell more copies to make money. Japan is a relatively small market. Most of the gaming world is into western style games. So Japan has gamers in its country, and then the relatively small fanbase in other countries. They're having to adapt in order to sell games at the level that stuff like call of duty sells.

Basically, most the growth we see in the gaming industry, which in turn fuels the increase in technology and cost of making games, comes from Americans and Europeans.

[BakaTanuki]

Looking at numbers, then yes Japan isn't doing nearly as well here as the really high-profile Western developers. Financially, they may not being as well but that doesn't mean the quality is down. All this mostly says is that the mainstream prefer dudebro FPSs. But isn't that how it always is? Look at movies: the "best selling" and "most critically acclaimed" rarely overlap. Literature? I hear that series of vampire books did pretty good. Its even the same in more niche media such as manga where mainstream action titles are drawn-out romances are the top sellers while publishers focusing on critic-favourites are struggling make a sell. How is it surprising that there would be games that rope in the millions, while great Japanese games are overlooked. Like the7k said, "I'll take a Katamari or Street Fighter over a Call of Duty or Grand Theft Auto any day of the week."

I am not saying that there are not great Western games deserving their success and extremely derivative Japanese games, but that sales don't necessarily have anything to do with quality. Japanese games have a charm and flavour that I do not want to see replaced by attempts at emulating the Western market.

[Pulsar_t]

Japan got caught up in Sequel Hell, fan servicing (JRPGs) and the fact that console gaming is becoming increasingly niche on their home turf, plus a genuine failure to understand the hardware changes the original Xbox heralded to the market..

As long as the likes of PlatinumGames and Team ICO continued to churn out the goods I wouldn't worry too much.

Jrecee's post sums it up nicely.