Keiji Inafune says Japanese developers need to learn from overseas devs

[S.T.A.G.E.]

Esquoret said:

LilChicken22 said:
He's only saying that because he knows we want to hear that and earn our respect. I don't want to play interactive movies and glitchfests every day. Japanese games are the only games I play (Dark Souls, Bayonetta, Ni no Kuni, Monster Hunter, Nintendo games). His lastest game Soul Sacrifice doesn't look like any western title out there. It looks like a good polished game focussed on gameplay and I would like to play it more than any western title I can think of. Unfortunately I'm not going to buy a PSVita.

I agree on the technical finess of Japanese titles. After all, I'm Asian too and very meticulous in my work.

However, in terms of storytelling, you are missing out if you avoid western titles. And I'm not talking about those that simply want to imitate film (such as David Cage). There are those that understand that games and films are very different mediums. For example, Jonathan Blow makes this observation:

"One reason may be that the video-game form is incompatible with traditional concepts of narrative. Stories are essentially about time passing and narrative progression. Games are about challenge, which frustrates the passing of time and impedes narrative progression. The story force wants to go forward and the “friction force” of challenge tries to hold story back. This is the conflict at heart of the narrative game, one that game designers have thus far imperfectly addressed by making story the reward of a successfully met challenge."

So the exploration of how to narrate better in games is best done when developers think of ways to let story flow naturally along with gameplay, while not hindering player progress, but to create freedom of setting their own pace in the experience. Ken Levine's BioShock series is, of course, an excellent example of the immersion that comes from implementing this philosophy.

Now, you may not care about all this. Maybe you just play games to have fun, kick back after a long day, enjoy some refined gameplay wrapped in a straight-forward story that you don't need to think much about. And that's fine too. You actually don't require gaming to grow, because they are already doing what you want them to do for ages now. Nintendo's got all the proven formula, indeed. All that's left for progression is graphics - and if the gameplay ain't broken, then there's no need to change that too.

But for those of us seeing that our beloved medium has got a long way to go in some areas, this discussion is much needed. Inafune has some understanding of the problem, but I don't think he's really the type to be able to lead by example. Meanwhile, a growing portion of western developers continue to break new ground, and we can only hope that the Japanese industry can figure it out one day.

P.S. I just finished Ni No Kuni. I'm not gonna compare it to western titles, but all I can say for the story is that it's nowhere near as good Studio Ghibli's animations. They can definitely do better. The art is beautiful, but the gameplay isn't that good as well. But technically there were no bugs, as expected of a Japanese game.

Johnathan Blow needs to pay attention to Bioware and Naughty Dog whom are story heavy gaming companies. One is into story driven RPG's and the other is into story driven action adventure and both with their own style of implementing it. Not everyone needs to be a david cage but we're glad he's here as he gives an experience more akin to tell tale games. Games like Uncharted are the types of games make fans beg for episodic content because after the episode and story is complete you just want to see what trouble Natahn runs into next.