The Westernization of Japanese Games

IGN: Worlds collide, etc.

"It's very...Japanese." This used to be a lazy way of saying something was weird. Now it speaks volumes about what to expect from an experience, whether you're American, European, Antarctican, whatever. To the gaming literate, each game carries a distinct cultural stamp that identifies it in numerous ways; as time goes on the line differentiating what's "western" and what's "Japanese" is getting blurrier.

[Venoxn4g]

actually I'm bit angry that this is happening that jap devs are being forced to appeal to the west or in many ways they (now) aren't getting good sales (mostly).. , while many games in west are like hollywood blockbusters with explosions and guns, fitness pumped mans and curse words... and those games are getting bigger and bigger audience, sometines I think that new generation of players will be CODers and HALOers...those type of games don't force to think and use brain very much and that online things...

I hope that I'll never see a day when Okami wolf or Katamari ball will be with machinegun or something like that, I hope you understand what I want to say... I love good weird and quirky games

[NYC_Gamer]

well,western culture is way different from the east.and many western studios have advanced with the tech/brought along new types of gameplay/ more mature type of story telling along with characters that western players can relate to.

[IAmNotAMonster]

I think now more than ever you're going to have to start looking at indie developers to bring the kind of quirky change you're referring to.

Big games today have a gravitational effect, meaning the bigger they get the more they attract, which tends to eclipse smaller content. Despite the quality.

At the end of the day, it's a business and with large publishers/developers getting more of the attention other studios will have to follow suit in order to have any hope of getting some spotlight. So you get the same game over and over and over.

Also, there is a world of difference between Call of Duty and Halo.

[baboom223]

I agree, Halo is SOOO different from call of duty....

[NukaCola]

I really feel sick knowing that Reggie and Nintendo of America is ruining the ingretity of the company and it's so shameful looking at Square Enix's console performance this gen with the thought in my head "Why are you the publisher of COD in JP?"

[Foxgod]

I find it strange to mention Metal Gear in this article, ive played the series since the first one on the MSX, and Metal gear actually became less western since then.

The first two had barely any japanese influence in it, and since MGS it started to contain more quirky things, which is typically Japanese.

I enjoyed most of the Metal gear games, but to claim that it westernised is a bit strange, it always been western, and got less western from MGS and up.

[NYC_Gamer]

part 4 did have western gameplay features

[Foxgod]

Features yes, but everything else, especially the story was heavily influenced by japanese culture.

Imho the influence was the heaviest in MGS4, out of all the metal gears, and the least in the first 3.

I could give a lot of examples, one of them is that Psycho mantis was a typical western style villain, while his daughter in MGS4 was more of a cyber version of a japanese ghost, that can be found in old japanese lore, most of the bosses in MGS4 are based on japanese lore.

And 90 % of the cutscenes are japanese styled action and drama, i could go on, but dont want to create a wall of text :)

[yokokoroma]

Every time I read an "OFFICIAL" article from one of these gaming sites, in relation to the westernization of Japanese games, it's never objective! The writer's states that you can tell a western game from a Japanese game, which couldn't be futher from the truth, if you really pay attention! It's apparent the writer is one of those people who thinks the westernization of Japanese games, is a good thing. The only thing I'll give him credit for is noting that Dragon's Dogma is a westernized style game. The rest of this article is irrelevant, there is NOTHING good or "ambitous" (as so many of these "so called professionals, keep repeating) about Japan making westernized style games! If all the games, released are of a similar type, in either gameplay or look. The game industry is finished! There is a reason Japanese games, dominated the PS2 era because they were diverse, no 2 games, were the same! That's what Japan, needs to stick to, as it's needed more now, than ever!

[baboom223]

From Software <3

[Lord_Sloth]

I miss Game Republic...I wanted Folklore 2 and I want a TRUE DMC5!!!