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Forums - Gaming Discussion - Suspension of Disbelief(Why western fans dislike JRPG's)

 

What is the main reason Westerns dislike JRPGs?

Aesthetics 66 26.83%
 
Suspension of Disbelief 16 6.50%
 
Convoluted Stories 43 17.48%
 
Linearity 24 9.76%
 
They are simple not open minded.... 97 39.43%
 
Total:246

Hey everyone-thank's for you replies so far. Here are a couple of extra thoughts:

A couple of thoughts here:

Definitiveness
Definitiveness rests on the idea of binaries. I think that Westerners prefer definitive products like men or women over androgynous character- a man looking like a woman dressed like a man. For Japanese people this would be fine but for Westerners it would be better for it to be a woman or a men altogether. I don’t know where this preference comes from. But I see it everywhere if a concept is very similar to another then it’s the same but with an added adjective. Like saying effeminate(adjective) man(type) as opposed to creating a new word. I heard that many androgynous characters in Sailor moon where changed to women when they were localized. I think that that’s tipping the bar towards a more defined product than to one more ambiguous.

Dialogue and emotions
I have problem here. I am not a Westerner but from Latin America(indigenous mix with west)-so I find the dialogue appealing. The pauses add dramatic weight to the exchange between characters. But I guess you would have to have a degree of cultural background to understand.Going deeper into the pauses I think that at the core of western culture there is a rejection of emotions. “Grace” coming from Christianity or Stoicism seems primordial in the west. Where display of emotions make people uncomfortable. Therefore, in a lot of anime where the main protagonist goes to fight a battle like in Reborn(Kyoko tells Tsuna “ Don’t go!” I bet it sounds melodramatic to most people. However, I read a lot of Ultimate Spiderman and I find the display of emotions there ‘vulgar’ What I mean is that when Kitty pride gets angry she would just say “OMG you are racist’ or ‘OMG you are a misogynist’ to another character. The realistic visuals mixed with the blunt stating makes for a ‘vulgar’ display. I think that because Westerners are not used to expressing emotions when they do it just comes off as crass.

Causality
I think that generally most western gamers need to have a strong correlation of causality. Everything needs to have a purpose Neku’s haircut has no purpose, or Tetsuya Nomura’s belt’s have no purpose. Western culture highly values design with a purpose- as opposed to fashionable but impractical choices.



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ctk495 said:

Hey everyone-thank's for you replies so far. Here are a couple of extra thoughts:

A couple of thoughts here:

Definitiveness
Definitiveness rests on the idea of binaries. I think that Westerners prefer definitive products like men or women over androgynous character- a man looking like a woman dressed like a man. For Japanese people this would be fine but for Westerners it would be better for it to be a woman or a men altogether. I don’t know where this preference comes from. But I see it everywhere if a concept is very similar to another then it’s the same but with an added adjective. Like saying effeminate(adjective) man(type) as opposed to creating a new word. I heard that many androgynous characters in Sailor moon where changed to women when they were localized. I think that that’s tipping the bar towards a more defined product than to one more ambiguous.

Dialogue and emotions
I have problem here. I am not a Westerner but from Latin America(indigenous mix with west)-so I find the dialogue appealing. The pauses add dramatic weight to the exchange between characters. But I guess you would have to have a degree of cultural background to understand.Going deeper into the pauses I think that at the core of western culture there is a rejection of emotions. “Grace” coming from Christianity or Stoicism seems primordial in the west. Where display of emotions make people uncomfortable. Therefore, in a lot of anime where the main protagonist goes to fight a battle like in Reborn(Kyoko tells Tsuna “ Don’t go!” I bet it sounds melodramatic to most people. However, I read a lot of Ultimate Spiderman and I find the display of emotions there ‘vulgar’ What I mean is that when Kitty pride gets angry she would just say “OMG you are racist’ or ‘OMG you are a misogynist’ to another character. The realistic visuals mixed with the blunt stating makes for a ‘vulgar’ display. I think that because Westerners are not used to expressing emotions when they do it just comes off as crass.

Causality
I think that generally most western gamers need to have a strong correlation of causality. Everything needs to have a purpose Neku’s haircut has no purpose, or Tetsuya Nomura’s belt’s have no purpose. Western culture highly values design with a purpose- as opposed to fashionable but impractical choices.

You might be onto something with the definitive gender issue. Don't agree with the other two though.

The problem with dialogue is that the translations are generally done quite badly. Playing in Japanese with subtitles often works better than in English and does a far better job of conveying emotions and cultural nuances. When translated into English the dialogue is often translated too literally. That combined with the long dramatic pauses (which culturally don't occur so much in modern English) come off as over the top and cheesy.

I don't agree with the causality either. Plenty of Western developed characters have pointless clothing that simply appeal to Western audiences. The original Deus Ex had characters with over-sized coats and flashy sunglasses when the entire game was set at night. Female characters in both wRPGs and jRPGs have the most impractical (non-protective ) armour ever conceived.



Scoobes said:
ctk495 said:

Hey everyone-thank's for you replies so far. Here are a couple of extra thoughts:

A couple of thoughts here:

Definitiveness
Definitiveness rests on the idea of binaries. I think that Westerners prefer definitive products like men or women over androgynous character- a man looking like a woman dressed like a man. For Japanese people this would be fine but for Westerners it would be better for it to be a woman or a men altogether. I don’t know where this preference comes from. But I see it everywhere if a concept is very similar to another then it’s the same but with an added adjective. Like saying effeminate(adjective) man(type) as opposed to creating a new word. I heard that many androgynous characters in Sailor moon where changed to women when they were localized. I think that that’s tipping the bar towards a more defined product than to one more ambiguous.

Dialogue and emotions
I have problem here. I am not a Westerner but from Latin America(indigenous mix with west)-so I find the dialogue appealing. The pauses add dramatic weight to the exchange between characters. But I guess you would have to have a degree of cultural background to understand.Going deeper into the pauses I think that at the core of western culture there is a rejection of emotions. “Grace” coming from Christianity or Stoicism seems primordial in the west. Where display of emotions make people uncomfortable. Therefore, in a lot of anime where the main protagonist goes to fight a battle like in Reborn(Kyoko tells Tsuna “ Don’t go!” I bet it sounds melodramatic to most people. However, I read a lot of Ultimate Spiderman and I find the display of emotions there ‘vulgar’ What I mean is that when Kitty pride gets angry she would just say “OMG you are racist’ or ‘OMG you are a misogynist’ to another character. The realistic visuals mixed with the blunt stating makes for a ‘vulgar’ display. I think that because Westerners are not used to expressing emotions when they do it just comes off as crass.

Causality
I think that generally most western gamers need to have a strong correlation of causality. Everything needs to have a purpose Neku’s haircut has no purpose, or Tetsuya Nomura’s belt’s have no purpose. Western culture highly values design with a purpose- as opposed to fashionable but impractical choices.

You might be onto something with the definitive gender issue. Don't agree with the other two though.

The problem with dialogue is that the translations are generally done quite badly. Playing in Japanese with subtitles often works better than in English and does a far better job of conveying emotions and cultural nuances. When translated into English the dialogue is often translated too literally. That combined with the long dramatic pauses (which culturally don't occur so much in modern English) come off as over the top and cheesy.

I don't agree with the causality either. Plenty of Western developed characters have pointless clothing that simply appeal to Western audiences. The original Deus Ex had characters with over-sized coats and flashy sunglasses when the entire game was set at night. Female characters in both wRPGs and jRPGs have the most impractical (non-protective ) armour ever conceived.


There is either  cultural misunderstanding or poor localization. First, people might find the pauses annoying since they have expectations of how emotions should be conveyed-therefore, if the chararacters  don't act display emotions that way they want to they find it cringe worthy. Or like you suggest, the localizators do a poor job of capturing the essence of the game and instead do a cheap translation. Although I've  played Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy XII and found the dialogue just fine. Is this problem mainly with indie JRPG's developers that lack the budget for a proper localization?

Could it be about customization(player freedom) trumping practicality? Maybe the staple characters have a more pratical wardrobe like the main male characters in most games having short hair and being buffed-Mass effect. This are pratically is inherited in context of the adventure- fighting aliens. In the case of the female characters, the developers might want to give the player agency- thereby it becomes the player's vision and not the developer's. The player breaks the rules and throws out the window the praticality aspect. In  "The World Ends with You" its Tetsuya's complete vision, therefore, he adds lots of belts and spiky hair and the player can only accept this as it is not customizable. In IGN a lot of people are constatly complaining about this. Finally, maybe Deus Ex is a exception to the western norm given that Square Enix now publishes the game maybe they found the work appealing because it have a similar aesthetic to their game.



ctk495 said:
Scoobes said:

You might be onto something with the definitive gender issue. Don't agree with the other two though.

The problem with dialogue is that the translations are generally done quite badly. Playing in Japanese with subtitles often works better than in English and does a far better job of conveying emotions and cultural nuances. When translated into English the dialogue is often translated too literally. That combined with the long dramatic pauses (which culturally don't occur so much in modern English) come off as over the top and cheesy.

I don't agree with the causality either. Plenty of Western developed characters have pointless clothing that simply appeal to Western audiences. The original Deus Ex had characters with over-sized coats and flashy sunglasses when the entire game was set at night. Female characters in both wRPGs and jRPGs have the most impractical (non-protective ) armour ever conceived.


There is either  cultural misunderstanding or poor localization. First, people might find the pauses annoying since they have expectations of how emotions should be conveyed-therefore, if the chararacters  don't act display emotions that way they want to they find it cringe worthy. Or like you suggest, the localizators do a poor job of capturing the essence of the game and instead do a cheap translation. Although I've  played Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy XII and found the dialogue just fine. Is this problem mainly with indie JRPG's developers that lack the budget for a proper localization?

Could it be about customization(player freedom) trumping practicality? Maybe the staple characters have a more pratical wardrobe like the main male characters in most games having short hair and being buffed-Mass effect. This are pratically is inherited in context of the adventure- fighting aliens. In the case of the female characters, the developers might want to give the player agency- thereby it becomes the player's vision and not the developer's. The player breaks the rules and throws out the window the praticality aspect. In  "The World Ends with You" its Tetsuya's complete vision, therefore, he adds lots of belts and spiky hair and the player can only accept this as it is not customizable. In IGN a lot of people are constatly complaining about this. Finally, maybe Deus Ex is a exception to the western norm given that Square Enix now publishes the game maybe they found the work appealing because it have a similar aesthetic to their game.

I think its a mixture of both misunderstanding and localization. Dialogue that often sounds perfectly natural in its native language (including mannersims), often sound very odd in English. Part of this is to do with the localization as they often have a quick translation with little thought put to the English equivalent. The question of "How would this be said in an English way that incorporates the mannersisms of the character?" doesn't seem to come up often enough. 

You might be onto something with the customisation point. In a lot of wRPGs I give my main characters blue hair, violet eyes and weird facial tatoos so the player gets a higher degree of input. That said, I still think wRPG devs don't necessarily think of practicality when designing their characters. That may be part of their design process but it certainly isn't the only thing they think of. I also wouldn't be surprised if many of the Japanese character designs are simply there to cater to younger Japanese audiences (the core jRPG consumers). FFXII for instance had two younger characters added into the game so it would appeal more to the younger Japanese demographic, even though they had little relevance to the overall story.

As for Deus Ex, I was actually talking about the original that came out in 2000 when Eidos were still a publisher and Ion Storm were still a developer. I think the point still stands for Human Revolution though as it was in development for a long time before the SE takeover, and the art-style and character profiles were already well established.



Could it also be a case of overuse? A lot of times people complain about spiky hair or dumb dialog. Because it's be used over and over again. In everything they see. The same thing happens in Western stuff. The generic bald space marine complaint is an example.



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archer9234 said:
Could it also be a case of overuse? A lot of times people complain about spiky hair or dumb dialog. Because it's be used over and over again. In everything they see. The same thing happens in Western stuff. The generic bald space marine complaint is an example.

In what games did you see a bald space marines in excess ?

Generic: characteristic of or relating to a class or group of things; not specific:


Goatseye said:
archer9234 said:
Could it also be a case of overuse? A lot of times people complain about spiky hair or dumb dialog. Because it's be used over and over again. In everything they see. The same thing happens in Western stuff. The generic bald space marine complaint is an example.

In what games did you see a bald space marines in excess ?

Generic: characteristic of or relating to a class or group of things; not specific:

Do I have to be literal and say this means majority of the FPS shooter characters. Do very similair things all the time.



archer9234 said:
Goatseye said:
archer9234 said:
Could it also be a case of overuse? A lot of times people complain about spiky hair or dumb dialog. Because it's be used over and over again. In everything they see. The same thing happens in Western stuff. The generic bald space marine complaint is an example.

In what games did you see a bald space marines in excess ?

Generic: characteristic of or relating to a class or group of things; not specific:

Do I have to be literal and say this means majority of the FPS shooter characters. Do very similair things all the time.

Well let's say then that all games within their genres do the same thing.



Goatseye said:
archer9234 said:
Goatseye said:
archer9234 said:
Could it also be a case of overuse? A lot of times people complain about spiky hair or dumb dialog. Because it's be used over and over again. In everything they see. The same thing happens in Western stuff. The generic bald space marine complaint is an example.

In what games did you see a bald space marines in excess ?

Generic: characteristic of or relating to a class or group of things; not specific:

Do I have to be literal and say this means majority of the FPS shooter characters. Do very similair things all the time.

Well let's say then that all games within their genres do the same thing.

Yes. And that could be one focal point why people hate JRPG's. They see the astetics all the time. They become a thing people qoute/talk about all the time. Then people just hate it under that basis. Like take Avatar. It's always hated on for the same reason. It rips off a lot of overused tropes.



Scoobes said:
ctk495 said:
Scoobes said:

You might be onto something with the definitive gender issue. Don't agree with the other two though.

The problem with dialogue is that the translations are generally done quite badly. Playing in Japanese with subtitles often works better than in English and does a far better job of conveying emotions and cultural nuances. When translated into English the dialogue is often translated too literally. That combined with the long dramatic pauses (which culturally don't occur so much in modern English) come off as over the top and cheesy.

I don't agree with the causality either. Plenty of Western developed characters have pointless clothing that simply appeal to Western audiences. The original Deus Ex had characters with over-sized coats and flashy sunglasses when the entire game was set at night. Female characters in both wRPGs and jRPGs have the most impractical (non-protective ) armour ever conceived.


There is either  cultural misunderstanding or poor localization. First, people might find the pauses annoying since they have expectations of how emotions should be conveyed-therefore, if the chararacters  don't act display emotions that way they want to they find it cringe worthy. Or like you suggest, the localizators do a poor job of capturing the essence of the game and instead do a cheap translation. Although I've  played Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy XII and found the dialogue just fine. Is this problem mainly with indie JRPG's developers that lack the budget for a proper localization?

Could it be about customization(player freedom) trumping practicality? Maybe the staple characters have a more pratical wardrobe like the main male characters in most games having short hair and being buffed-Mass effect. This are pratically is inherited in context of the adventure- fighting aliens. In the case of the female characters, the developers might want to give the player agency- thereby it becomes the player's vision and not the developer's. The player breaks the rules and throws out the window the praticality aspect. In  "The World Ends with You" its Tetsuya's complete vision, therefore, he adds lots of belts and spiky hair and the player can only accept this as it is not customizable. In IGN a lot of people are constatly complaining about this. Finally, maybe Deus Ex is a exception to the western norm given that Square Enix now publishes the game maybe they found the work appealing because it have a similar aesthetic to their game.

I think its a mixture of both misunderstanding and localization. Dialogue that often sounds perfectly natural in its native language (including mannersims), often sound very odd in English. Part of this is to do with the localization as they often have a quick translation with little thought put to the English equivalent. The question of "How would this be said in an English way that incorporates the mannersisms of the character?" doesn't seem to come up often enough. 

You might be onto something with the customisation point. In a lot of wRPGs I give my main characters blue hair, violet eyes and weird facial tatoos so the player gets a higher degree of input. That said, I still think wRPG devs don't necessarily think of practicality when designing their characters. That may be part of their design process but it certainly isn't the only thing they think of. I also wouldn't be surprised if many of the Japanese character designs are simply there to cater to younger Japanese audiences (the core jRPG consumers). FFXII for instance had two younger characters added into the game so it would appeal more to the younger Japanese demographic, even though they had little relevance to the overall story.

As for Deus Ex, I was actually talking about the original that came out in 2000 when Eidos were still a publisher and Ion Storm were still a developer. I think the point still stands for Human Revolution though as it was in development for a long time before the SE takeover, and the art-style and character profiles were already well established.


Japanese gamers are mostly young otaku's and women. I read on an article that young men no longer game at the ages of 17+ because they need to prepare for college entrance exams. Could this be the answer for the aesthetics? Gundam Wing(anime) featured an extensive cast of pretty boys to cater the female audience. 

I knew you were talking about the first game before SE bought Eidos. However, don't you think one of the reason SE bought Eidos- in the first place- because they use an art style that they like? I heard many french people like manga and that Naruto is very big over there. Maybe, they Eidos have adopted some Eastern sensibilities to their work.