Shigeru Minamoto: “I’ve been making action games for some 30 years, and I’ve been thinking about the difference evident in how their popularity has been gradually declining in Japan whilst in America it has been maintained.
The issue is that Japanese who cannot overcome the level of difficulty in an action game no longer want to play them. This perception then spreads to all games as a whole, and people avoid them because they see them as difficult.
In the case of America, there are a lot more people who enjoy a challenge and will stick with it for you and try to overcome the initial hurdle.
"INDIE Live Expo, Japan’s premiere online digital showcase series connecting indie game fans all over the world, highlighted more than 150 games during its Saturday broadcast introducing world premieres, new trailers, and updates during its 10th-ever digital showcase." - INDIE Live Expo.
The Animal Crossing franchise may lean towards casual gaming, but it has laid the foundation for a future title to have a survival mode.
"Following a great event in November of last year, DevGAMM Lisbon is coming back to the beautiful and sunny Cascais region to catch up with old friends, connect with game developers from around the world, hear from seasoned professionals, and have a great time all around." - DevGAMM.
Action ? I would called it Platform.
“It’s because they only know how to make games for children now.”
“Nintendo, the reason you’ve declined is because of your endless remakes, that’s all.”
100% Right.
BULL! Those bullet hell games over there are crazy hard!
I respect you Mr. Miyamoto, as one of my favorite game designers right now, and as the best to ever do it.
BUT, whenever I need a really challenging, deep YET fair game, I often turn to Japanese-made games.
Games like:
-Dark Souls
-Demon's Souls
-Monster Hunter
-Catherine
-Metal Gear Online
-Soul Sacrifice
-God's Eater
-Valkyria Chronicles series
-Mega Man 9 & 10
-Hard Corps: Uprising
-BlazBlue series
-Disgaea series
-Gran Turismo
-Shin Megami Tensei games
-MG Rising Reveangance
-Ninja Gaiden (the modern beat-em-up genre versions)
-Sin & Punishment: Star Successor
-Vanquish
-Resonance of Fate
-Yggdra Union
-Trauma Center/Team series
etc
And these are just games from THIS generation (despite the fact Japan has had a dismally small representation this console gen). So many of these hard games can only be found in Japan: The west has hard games or even hard modes, but all they do is give u less health, ammo, etc,
I look for games that have challenging GAMEPLAY, not just the Western gimmick of giving u limited health/resources in a game.
So if so many of the challenging (yet balanced) games that I like are mostly only found in Japan, than clearly there is a large market for it in their own country. I don't know if Miyamoto plays other companies games, but Japan loves lengthy and tough games. That's why they like portables. So they can find the time for these tougher games while on the go.
Those were provoked readers? Most of them agreed with him.
I like games with a challenge like Super Meat Boy or Dark Souls and not games that are cheap hard like when the make the enemies bullet sponges.