Polygon only stands for minority people are talking about (sexism in video games for example), and will stomp on anything mainstream.

In any case polygon is a troll website that shouldn't be considered relevant, like insiderp

CoD is very american for it representing an American world view (I.E it's an american military propaganda tool)... I don't think he meant it being very American because the enemies respawn during the regular missions, the levels are overly linear, the quest is very short (american being associated with appears to be poor design choices in some aspects of the game)....

What he said was basically that a game feels "japanese" when it's punitive, repetitive, has some sexualization in it (and he seems to notice it more when it's done by Japanese teams)... that shows some bias and a double standard against Japanese devs, by extension Japanese people, which is strange in gaming because most of what's good about this hobby comes from Japan in the first place!

EDIT: are they racist, probably not conscouslusly... however, they certainly should look at the way they see things, they're pretty close to be crossing that line.

They shouldn't be relevant, but I don't think they're a troll website. Trolls behave obnoxiously to get a rise out of people. Polygon behaves obnoxiously because they are genuinely obnoxious people.

I noticed how gaming culture changed how aspects of it are viewed have changed as well. Japanese culture and gaming culture (well, specifically console gaming) were almost synonymous in the 90s and a bit into the 00s. The past decade has witnessed several trends.

1. Westward domination of console gaming in regards to market scale and major developers.
2. PC gamings return to prominence
3. Creation of the mobile gaming sector
4. Japanese going towards handheld/mobile
5. Rise of new blue ocean markets of casuals
6. FPS becomes the dominant genre on consoles

Many people who have entered the culture in this era or embraced the change in culture view the 90s in a negative light. The idea of game first mentality and desire for outrageous and sometimes silly character design is seen as outdated by many. Within console gaming their is often a desire to seek approval from film as a legitimate medium of story telling and putting western ideals on various social issues within games.

Bayonetta for example, feels like a 90s game cranked up with modern technology. It can be hard, demands skill and has an odd story with colorful characters (some good or bad based on taste). This is viewed as juvenile through a current western lens. Make the characters more grounded and human, consider sexual and racial components to character designs they demand.

Grand Theft Auto series has embraced many aspects of this new culture. The games are far less silly from PS1/PS2 days as they try to emulate "Once Upon a Time in America" or "Goodfellows". The games are brutal, often nasty in their portrayal of their world and characters. Personally, big part of why I fell out with the series, but reviewers sing its praises and they sell millions so I don't blame them.

We struggle often to make allowances for other cultures demanding them to conform to our norms. We understand a western game that is satire and uses western humor and references, but a Japanese game is often derided as "weird" for using references that to us come across as non sequitors.

I don't think it is racist, but it is a bit close minded to expect other cultures to simply adopt your norms of story telling, characterization and in gaming's case, design.

Calling something 'very Japanese' in this case is clearly meant to indicate gameplay the reviewer considers typical to Japanese games. It's a rough generalization but the world would be much more boring without them. (And in some cases, better.)

We've seen enough from Polygon to conclude how incompetent they are. No need to pay them any further attention.

Hes just an imbecile.
The japanese style evades him because he's not smart enough to understand it.
japan has become obsessed with a superflat style which is basically the modern equivalent of American pop art.
yes killer7 is misogynistic, but its meant to be..its absurdly perverse..whereas gta is a game that tries to mimic real life. Gta endorses misogyny as commonplace and trivial, killer is dead is a commentary on it.

By that logic since I don't like Chinese food by extension I am racist against the population of China.  Also, the CoD thing was my own example.  What I meant by "very American" was a cinematic graphics driven game in which you shoot at people.  That to me is a "very American" game.  I also am not going to call someone racist if they don't like CoD because it is "too American" for their taste.

It's just one of many biases of the different reviewers of Polygon. Nothing to see here.

yeah but they are bashing different nationality/ethnicity of other games inderictly. Its not like japanese games are the majority here in sales and releases so they are bashing their own agenda. This site doesnt make any sense lol