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Forums - Gaming - Japan going 'back to roots,' avoiding 'westernization' of games

runqvist on 24 January 2013

Japan is going to be even more irrelevant. I hope MS does not bother with them at all anymore.



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darkknightkryta on 24 January 2013
Boutros said:
Tell that to Capcom.

We did, Resident Evil 6 is the best CG anime I've ever watched.



enditall727 on 24 January 2013
runqvist said:
Japan is going to be even more irrelevant. I hope MS does not bother with them at all anymore.


Japan will only be irrelevant if Sony allows that to happen again

 

and yea, hopefully Mistwalker will support Sony instead in Japan



HoloDust on 24 January 2013

Funny they mention Dark Souls in that article - game that, for an untrained eye, looks and plays very much like western developed title. Instead of them going back to their roots, they should take lessons from developers like From Software.



Claymore on 24 January 2013

Good western games frankly bore me to death.



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Turkish on 24 January 2013

In your face SquareEnix. The more your Japanese games westernize, the more they'll get hated by both western and japanese audiences.



forevercloud3000 on 25 January 2013
Turkish said:
In your face SquareEnix. The more your Japanese games westernize, the more they'll get hated by both western and japanese audiences.

fact^



      

      

      

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Immortal on 25 January 2013
kain_kusanagi said:
If you only publish games that appeal to a tiny island then you will only sell games to the people that fit on that tiny island. This is only good if you are Japanese or a part of the niche that loves Japanese gameplay. The rest of the world would love to play games with that Japanese style, but they want the gameplay that the West polished. That means RPGs with action and shooting instead of random battles and turned based fighting. The rest of the world likes spiky haired teenagers saving the world from crystal wielding clowns as much as the Japanese, but unlike the Japanese the rest of the world doesn't want to grind for hours and days and weeks. The times have changed and the Japanese gameplay has competition that it didn't have during the rise of Final Fantasy and Dragon Warrior. The limitation of those early systems didn't allow for anything better, but now they are tropes and cliches and we deserve better.

Japanese developers should most definitely give their games the style that makes them Japanese, but they need to learn how to make complex gameplay without relying on the 30+ year old turn based combat system.


Not how it works. The West loves Japanese games for their Japanese-ness, which includes all the grinding and turn-based things that you seem to hate.

Just look at the numbers; the best-selling Japanese game in the West is Mario, which is basically simplistic, uncomplex gameplay, not the kind of game you're suggesting. If you want to limit yourself to RPGs, then we can look at Pokemon, with its lovable grinding and turn-based battles, being the most popular of JRPGs in the West.

Fact of the matter is, Japanese games sell for their Japanese gameplay, even out of Japan. If you want to argue that Japanese games have declined in prominence lately in the West, proving that the Western market is rejecting them because of gameplay, you may want to consider the fact that all major Japanese franchises that have declined in the West have also declined in Japan itself. This means not that these games are too tailored for Japan, but that they're simply not appealing to anyone. To become more appealing, they don't have to become more Western, but rather more like the games that are known to be very appealing.

For Japanese games, that means we're pretty much circling back to Mario and Pokemon.



 

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outlawauron on 25 January 2013
Otakumegane said:
kain_kusanagi said:
If you only publish games that appeal to a tiny island then you will only sell games to the people that fit on that tiny island. This is only good if you are Japanese or a part of the niche that loves Japanese gameplay. The rest of the world would love to play games with that Japanese style, but they want the gameplay that the West polished. That means RPGs with action and shooting instead of random battles and turned based fighting. The rest of the world likes spiky haired teenagers saving the world from crystal wielding clowns as much as the Japanese, but unlike the Japanese the rest of the world doesn't want to grind for hours and days and weeks. The times have changed and the Japanese gameplay has competition that it didn't have during the rise of Final Fantasy and Dragon Warrior. The limitation of those early systems didn't allow for anything better, but now they are tropes and cliches and we deserve better.

Japanese developers should most definitely give their games the style that makes them Japanese, but they need to learn how to make complex gameplay without relying on the 30+ year old turn based combat system.

You mean like The Last Story or Xenoblade? 

I wouldn't put too much into Last Story's combat system. It's fun, but there's not a whole lot to it. It's very shallow and limited for an action RPG.

That said, I'm very excited that Baba is taking this to heart and I can only hope other developers do as well.



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outlawauron on 25 January 2013
Turkish said:
In your face SquareEnix. The more your Japanese games westernize, the more they'll get hated by both western and japanese audiences.

I'd say this is true (despite loving FF13 and FF13-2). If you try to please too many people, you'll end up pissing off a whole lot  more.



"We'll toss the dice however they fall,
And snuggle the girls be they short or tall,
Then follow young Mat whenever he calls,
To dance with Jak o' the Shadows."

Check out MyAnimeList and my Game Collection. Owner of the 5 millionth post.