Kojima: 'Japan's curse is its focus on Japan'

[Mr Khan]

Slimebeast said:

Mr Khan said:

Slimebeast said:
I agree with Kojima. When the Japanese take influence of the West (but keep some of their unique stuff) miracles happen. Miracles such as Dark Souls, Dragon's Dogma and Vanquish, who all are East meets West games and masterpieces.

Rather than thinking of the two groups as distinct, one has to think transculturally. The issue for western developers is that Japan is a small enough market as to be negligible, whereas Japan needs Western sales, but the best-remembered Japanese games, past and present, are not identifiably "Japanese" and that includes many JRPGs. What's happening in j-development is a stagnation of ideas that has little to do with culture problems, because the West is going through this too (how many blockbusters don't involve Colonel Steroids shooting up terrorists or zombies in some sort of gritty urban center or wasteland or something?)

Hmm... I understand your point about not being identifiably Japanese (all games in the 80's were like that) but how can you say thatdo you really think that about JRPGs? I haven't seen any JRPG of which I think anything other than "this is very Japanese". (I don't count Dragon's Dogma and Dark Souls as JRPGs)

Really i was thinking of every Final Fantasy up through possibly 8 or 9, i mean, yes, all the Japanese elements are there, but the root of it is as much Dungeons and Dragons as anything identifiably Japanese. It used to be JRPGs and WRPGs were just RPGs, and frankly, i want that era back. Or look at Xenoblade, vaguely MMO-ish in its combat structure and with as much emphasis on loot as on leveling up, with the anime aesthetics dialed back a bit.

Badgenome expressed my sentiment well enough too. It's a problem in Japan that isn't limited to video games, but to all "enthusiast" media, everything there is getting sucked into a "moe" black hole. A small, vocal segment of the market demands moe, so anime producers and game producers moe-up their content, pleasing the vocal base (who goes to unhealthy lengths to be able to buy lots of their product) and alienating the mainstream, which becomes a self-fulfilling cycle pulling things inward (and, simultaneously, away from foreign marketability).