hikaruchan said:
Not soure if seirus |
Eh, as a guy who generally prefers Japanese development and buys more Japanese games than Western games, I'd say Western developers have lately been more on the ball, so to speak, than their Japanese counterparts.
Most of the Japanese games I've played this generation have been held back in some way by outdated game design. White Knight Chronicle's unintuitive menus, tedious gameplay, and reliance on pre-determined save points felt so archaic compared to other recent games. Eternal Sonata and others still kick you back to the start menu just for losing a battle. Then there's Resident Evil 5's tank controls. Or Gran Turismo 5's myriad of menus and submenus.
Square Enix has been pretty good at latching on to good design choices that have become common in the West, like allowing you to immediately replay a battle in Final Fantasy XIII upon defeat, but even they have their problems, like clinging to the idea that a JRPG has to be 60 hours long even if they have very little content to justify that length. XIII also still has that stark divide between playing the game and advancing the story (cutscenes), a line that has been heavily blurred in franchises like Uncharted and God of War, in which everything is made far more seamless.
Demon's Souls and Vanquish are the only Japanese games I've played this generation that offer something comparable to what the best Western developers are offering. I'd actually say they outclassed their Western counterparts in many areas, especially the former. Aside from that, Western developers seem to be creating more polished products (though they often aren't games I'm interested in, like Red Dead Redepmtion or Grand Theft Auto).
And I realize Mirson wasn't being serious with his comment, but I feel it's a point worth discussing.
