Many Western gamers don’t play Japanese games

A brief opinion piece on the lamentations of Japanese game developers and the decreasing relevance of their side of the games industry.

[zerocrossing]

"can you imagine what the Japanese equivalent of Call of Duty would be? Some kind of free for all anime mayhem with players running around on walls and gutting each other with giant swords with perks and leveling mechanics is what I picture."

^ This

Please make this Japan, it'd be awesome!

[ronin4life]

The Japanese equivalents are:
Monster hunter
Dragon quest
Pokemon
They already have COD equivalents, and they are all better designed games as well.

Furthermore, Alot of the "western advancements" in gaming have little to nothing to do with actual game design, and more to do with wringing out more and more cash from consumers.

[Yi-Long]

... if they would just stop screwing up the western releases of those games where they're not including the option to play it in the original language, but instead just dump a horrible english dub on there!

There have been alot of Japanese games I refused to buy, simply cause it didn't have the original language.

[Tigerfist]

"They already have COD equivalents"

I suppose you mean by popularity. I honestly can't recall a single Japanese FPS I've played. In fact I think they have only recently made one.

[ronin4life]

@zerocrossing
I just realized Devils Third is kind of similar to the description in tha article you quoted.
It is being made by Itadaki, the creator of DOA.
@tiger why dose it have to be a fps? A good game is a good game.
Edit damn bubble limit.
@guy down there...huda whatever...
Mortal kombat has always been crap.
Ninja gaiden is better than GoW (the xbox original, not 2)
Demon souls is way better than oblivion. (Western design my ass)
I never liked batman or gta, and maybe that japan has no actual equivalent says something. Although I think way of the samurai is better than gta, and I enjoy samurai warriors too.

And then there are, you know, other games, like
Mario is objectively better than little big planet.
Monster hunter is objectively better than... oh, yeah... there isn't a western equivalent.
Pokemon is objectively better than... oh, yeah... there isn't a western equivalent, outside of WoW, which is crap compared to phantasy star online.
I personally think Japanese games are better, but the real truth is, both regions make good games, and have their own specialities/preferences. Get over the fact that your wrong.
And, no, a don't like final fantasy (which is how it is supposed to be spelled)

[zerocrossing]

I haven't seen much of Devils Third other than the early pics and game type/description, I'll have to check out how its coming along.

[TBM]

i know i play my fair share of japanese games.

[jacksonmichael]

I play them almost exclusively. If only I were the majority, localization wouldn't be such a spotty practice.

[zerocrossing]

Same here.

What I hate about all of this the most is that now many of the Japanese devs try to "Westernise" their games, but for me the fact that their games had that unique Japanese style was the reason I enjoyed them to begin with.

[ronin4life]

Yep.

[_Aarix_]

its just times like that im glad I have a xbox to play lost odyssey. Thats my 2nd favorite jrpg next to legend of dragoon and ff7. I havent really seen any jrpgs this gen that have what I loved in lost odyssey but alot of western rpgs are awesome as well such as mass effect but its always nice to have choicess.

[Tommykrem]

"If only I were the majority"
I like your tone ;)

There is a notable difference in the way Japanese developers and Western studios deliver product. Western development seems more efficient, and are typically able to release more quality product than eastern studios. For instance, Several western franchises established this generation see annual or biennial instalments that manage to not only sell, but to please journalists and gamers alike. The best games from Japan are as fantastic as ever (at least not far from it), but there can be quite a wait between them.

[ronin4life]

I agree with most of what you are saying,but the reason for the disparity isn't just a difference in efficiency, but also the fact that most western companies release the exact same game over and over (dragon age is the same as mass efect, just as fallout is the same as elder scrolls) and leave bugs in to patch out later.

[Tommykrem]

I agree, and I only meant to say that they are more efficient in terms of pushing out quality product that sells well. It's not that Japanese studios work slower, something I don't think they do, it's more about western studios giving themselves less work by delivering several similar games with similar technology.

[Tommykrem]

Hmpf... Double post, sorry.

[zerocrossing]

double post.

[Focus]

Their time came and it went, let other people and genres shine this gen. Also lots of Japanese gamers don't play western games so. . .

[ShaunCameron]

True. Even the PS3 exclusives don't sell too well over there unless it's a JRPG.

[Ezetta]

LOL at the picture!

[dc1]

Thats Fuzzy Brows! The baddest non ninjutsu ninja around!

[Brasi82]

I enjoy many Japanese games, the problem is few of them tend to make it over to The States. Please Nintendo bring us Xenoblade, The Last Story, and others.

[gillri]

when I was a kid duirng the golden age of gaming during the SNES, N64, PS1 era I played almost exlcusively japanese games, they were just soo much better. But as the PC gaming got big in the mid/late 90's I started to play more and more western games and then the Xbox came out. Of course I was still playing amazing japaneses games on the PS2

but nowadays while I still play them occasionally like Xenoblade chronicles, Vanquish, Bayonetta, Dark souls and very much looking forward to Zelda,it is mostly Western games these days

not sure why really

[Hudahudahuda]

Because western games are better. With the exception of Demons soul series every western game is superior. That's why they get higher reviews bigger sales etc.

[ronin4life]

I completely disagree.
If that were the case, then Japanese gamers and companies would simply adopt all of the western made games and drop every domestic made game in the garbage. Which they haven't.
You may not like Japan made games yourself, but that dosen't make them inferior. And if Demon souls is the only Japanese made game you can think of, you are either blind or not paying much attention. Monster hunter, every good fighting game, and Nintendo made games must not exist apparently.
And here's another thing: Japanese games are more finished and polished upon shipment, rather than requiring day one patches and goty editions to be complete.

[Ulf]

I would have disagreed with Hudahudahuda's comment if this was 2005 or earlier.

[dragonknight4]

I didn't know E.T. was superior to Super Mario Brothers.

[Hicken]

Ignorant. Even your comparisons are ignorant.

Most Western games these days are rehashes, the most popular especially so, and they sell so much because of ignorance like your own among the population here in the West.

Quality has become something of a lost art out here- though Naughty Dog, Epic, and a handful of others keep the dream alive- and most consumers are too stupid to even realize it's missing. They've all been blinded by marketing that would have you believe Call of Duty is the best shooter ever, for example.

In the East, they have fewer games, perhaps, but more of them are quality. And unlike the West, the developers aren't afraid to take the risk of changing an old formula (See Call of Duty in the West versus Final Fantasy in the East).

They get higher reviews because of dumb people, I daresay individuals like yourself.

[CLOUD1983]

I dont know what players in US play probably fps or anything it have to do with guns and shooting, but I am from EU and play mostly Japanese games at least I used to but unfortunately my favorite genre JRPG's r non existent in this new generation of consoles.
I can name 10 amazing games I play in the PS1 era between 97-2000 and I cant think even one for the PS3, so it's not my fault JPN I dont play Japanese games anymore but yours that u lost your creativity & imagination and try to westernize your games too much and the end result is some kind of horrible hybrid hack n slash/fps/tps/action rpg that I dont even want to see not play.. bring back the traditional JRPG with turn based battles plz.

[kcuthbertson]

In other news "Many Japanese gamers don't play Western Games"...

[Ulf]

Video games did *not* originate in Japan, like many people seem to believe.

Most JRPGs find their roots in early Western RPGs like Ultima, Bard's Tale, and Wizardry, for example. The Japanese were kings of the console adaptation of western game concepts -- they didn't invent them. The Japanese championed cheap video game accessibility, through console hardware. -- NOT video games themselves.

Japanese-made games eventually became their own thing, through infusion of Japanese culture -- its that infused culture that Western gamers have trouble understanding, not the games themselves.

[PirateThom]

It's funny though, it's always the Japanese who are racists for not buying Western products...

[Ddouble]

I think it's partly to do with the split caused by the HD consoles. RPG's do best on the PS consoles and there are 11 Million more 360's in NA than PS3's so that's one of the problems they face compared to the PS2 days.
Also due to costs a lot of them have moved onto the PSP which is not doing as good in the west as it is in Japan and the quality has not been up to par as before.

I think too many devs have given up though. FFXIII with good marketing has 4 Million plus sales outside of Japan and there is demand for Versus. Even if it's selling on name alone it means many people still like JRPG's outside of Japan. Nintendo didn't even bother try with Xenoblade in NA.

If a lot of Japanese games had high budgets and good marketing then i think they'll do a lot better in the west but they can hardly do well if no one knows about them.

I think Versus will help if it turns out to be good. Also Sony needs its own RPG as well. They've got games in a lot of genre's but hardly any RPG's.

[CanadianTurtle]

Oh really? What about Mario, Metroid, Zelda, FZero, Kirby, DonkeyKong, and all those classic Nintendo games, and even the Capcom games like MvC3 and Street Fighter.

I can agree on the fact that Square Enix is eating lots of shit lately. But the other old game companies still have lots of flare even after all these years.

[9thWonder]

dont worry Rock Lee i got your back dawg cuz in reality the westerners are the ones trying to copy what the japanese do for instance they do RPGs and everyone knows that RPGs wasnt made first by western game companies but would u believe that ppl think so????? retards

[Tigerfist]

I used to mostly play Japanese games back in the day that they didn't suck.

Since I've been earing about this whole "westernization" bullshit the whole thing just went downhill. I honestly don't know what the fuck happened.

[CrescentFang]

Though that sucks, there not much we can do right? I just hope the games I want localized find a way to be English translated. (I'll probably import Xenoblade soon hehe)

[bobrea]

Many westerners don't watch anime, either. It's not really that big of a surprise...

[VampiricDragon]

This is completely retarded. 1 quote from 1 dev = everything? REALLY?

What about bioware saying most western games suck?

The highest selling games in the US are japanese games

The highest rated are all japanese

The highest selling systems are japanese

thats a fact

Anyone who says japanese games are crap are just trolling.

Theres been hundreds of great japanese rpgs this gen. Hundreds. But most gamers are so stupid they know little about anything

[ShaunCameron]

This generation, there hasn't been a whole lot of interesting Japanese-developed games to play.

[Hicken]

If you honestly believe that, it only shows your horizons as far as gaming goes are narrow.

Catherine, Demon's Souls and Dark Souls, Yakuza titles, all of Operation Rainfall (The Last Story, Xenoblade Chronicles, and Pandora's Tower, a slew of JRPGs from Atelier Totori to Valkyria Chronicles, 3D Dot Heroes, Castlevania, Bayonetta, plenty of fighters ranging from newcomers like BlazBlue to staples like Street Fighter, Shadows of the Damned, Dynasty Warriors, and a hell of a lot of others.

You MUST be joking.

[jetlian]

they have mario, pokemon and wii-whatever.

The whole thing is stupid anyway. japan vs NA and EU. No way in hell they could win!! Fighting games they got on lock, same with platforming.

Biggest issue is they aren't as fast in their releases.

[haawaltevi1976]

For everybody who also want's to play the beta of Diablo 3, go here: betacodes[dot]co

[tiffac008]

To anyone who is interested in reading the full Tak Fujii (Konami) interview that Eurogamer sourced from Siliconera:

http://n4g.com/news/881260/...
http://n4g.com/news/881262/...

As for the topic itself, the big corporate big wigs in Japan needs to give their developers a little more freedom like how the western guys are doing. That will make a whole lot of difference when it comes to new content.