Kamiya: West/Japan Gap Is Enormous; Horizon, Forza Horizon 3, Days Gone & God of War Caught My Eye

Hideki Kamiya honestly admitted that there's a huge cap between Western and Japanese games now. He also named the titles that impressed him the most at E3 2016.

[VER1ON]

The guy is spot on

[WelkinCole]

Yes but we still have massively talented Japanese devs still.

I mean Form Software with Bloodborne and the souls series. Kojima with MGS5 while not the best in the series is still one of the highest rated this gen. Then there is Zelda which I am sure is going to be one of the highest rated game this gen.

Platinum with Byonetta 2 is no slouch either this gen. TLG with Team Ico looks like another once in a generation game.

Its just sad Capcom, Square and the rest have done pretty bad since the PS2 days.

[UltimateMaster]

A lot of them tough are too concentrated on anime-like characters.
Not saying it's bad but here in the US we tend to like more realistic games.

[starchild]

I think most of us realize that Japanese developers don't hold the same place they did in gaming's past, but there are still some great developers from Japan. One of the best games I played this year is Dark Souls 3 and two of my most anticipated upcoming games, Nioh and The Last Guardian, are also Japanese-made. So there are definitely still some great games coming out of Japan.

[DragonKnight]

The gap depends on how you view success. Japan is mostly only concerned with pleasing Japan, that's why most of their games are full of fan service and are niche titles. The fanbase has no problem with that and neither do the devs, as it means spending less money on development.

The culture of Western devs can be summed up with Call of Duty as one extreme and Fallout 4 as another. They are always looking for that massive selling hit they can resell over and over, or a huge and highly rated game they can coast on for 4 years.

To say there is a gap really only depends on your point of view and what you want out of the industry. Both as a gamer and as a dev. Kamiya talks too much because he's very insecure.

[Imp0ssibl3]

Three out of four games are PS4 exclusives. A coincidence? I think not

[Mystogan]

but the one he wants to play the most is Forza Horizon 3, Coincedence? I think not!

@Below
He doesn't play western or modern Games but he wants to pre-order Forza Horizon 3, read the original article.

"
HK: But I actually feel bad looking at E3 this year. It’s like, ‘Oh my god, I need to start playing this stuff!’ It’s time for me to get behind this!

JPK: [to Kamiya] Really, you’re actually gonna play modern games?

HK: I’ll play that! [points to Forza Horizon 3 display on the television in the room]

JPK: [laughs] I got him hooked on Forza Horizon 2.

HK: I’m pre-ordering that.
"

@hells_supernova

So? xD

[DragonDDark]

Probably because the release is closer than the others.

[Roronoa0411]

…does it say that in the article or am I missing something lol

[hells_supernova]

He probably has a capable PC to play it ;)

[MyDietEqualsGames]

Virtual boy in da house. You wont be find anything like it!

[UnHoly_One]

So we have PC, Xbox, and PS fanboys all covered already, right?

I'll complete the cycle then. I'm a multi-plat fanboy.

The vast majority (probably 95% or more) of the games that I play and love are available on 2-3 of those platforms.

I don't care that everyone else gets to play the same games, I don't even care if they get to play a "better" version of the game.

[Haru]

Even Kamiya knows that Playstation has the best exclusives and best games, only blind fanboys deny it xD

[FreeSpeech69]

PC has the best exclusives and best games :). Playstation can hardly run at 1080P 60fps, I'm running at 4k 90FPS.

[DarthZoolu]

I don't like single player games. Xbox exclusives, like Halo, Titanfall, and Gears are more to my liking. I also like Moba s and RTS games.

[donthate]

lol... we got all 3 fanboys here, Playstation, PC, and Xbox.

The likes and dislikes clearly shows the users of this site bias!

I will add the 4th one, Wii U has the best exclusives. Nobody can beat Zelda!

[TheColbertinator]

You're all chumps. Dreamcast games were all golden. These modern games are generic trash and you people know it.

[BrandanT]

Dude, I'm going to be the sarcastic one and say that the CDi has the best games ever!

[PhucSeeker]

You do know that when people says Xbox have better exclusive, they meant that for themselves right ? Not so much for you and the whole world.

[Nathan_Hale53]

So? Those games look impressive.

[Garethvk]

The new stuff looks great.

[KaiPow]

Japan really has some technical prowess they need to explore more. Final Fantasy XV is absolutely a technical marvel.

[Movefasta1993]

https://www.youtube.com/wat... it looks amazing

[Alexious]

It's too bad they are not using Luminous for Kingdom Hearts 3...

[Movefasta1993]

Unreal engine 4 has kh3 looking like a pixar film though.It looks crazy.

[NapalmSanctuary]

The bigger the better. Getting kind of sick of bumping into the same game mechanics every other game.

[GUTZnPAPERCUTZ]

For me it was GOW (God of War) and Forza Horizon 3 as far as my biggest excitements for E3.

[DragonDDark]

Forza horizon 3 does look great. Hopefully the pc version is not broken. Lots of Windows 10 game ports were disappointing :(

[TXIDarkAvenger]

Lots? no, not really.

QB and GoW were disappointing but on the other hand Killer Instinct and Tomb Raider were actually good.

[FreeSpeech69]

Needs to be released on steam since they refuse to fix Windows Store sadly.

[Alexious]

Forza 6 Apex is really good.

[Servbot41]

Forza Horizon 3 was the best looking Xbox One game shown. I'd get it on PC if it didn't require Windows 10 and the Windows Store.

[Sunny_D]

It's true and I wish it wasn't. We need to see big developed Japanese titles all over again like the good ol' days.

[rigo8582]

The games as a whole coming out of japan don't impress much anymore. I remember a day when all the great games and hardware came out of japan. Sucked having to wait 1 or 2 years before things eventually made their way to the US. Now that is not the case for me. I don't get exciting about Resident Evil and Final Fantasy like I did years ago. Metal Gear Solid 5 is probably the best game I've played to come out of Japan in a long time.

[Imalwaysright]

And yet of the 3 games I want to play the most are 2 are from Japan: Persona 5 and TLG with the other one being Civ 6. Also, the best game I played this year so far is Dark Souls 3.

[ThatGuyDart]

From Software might have a thing to say about that. The Souls series and Bloodborne have some of the best and most rewarding gameplay of any game out right now, Japanese or Western. You also have Persona 5, The Last Guardian, The Legend of Zelda, Gravity Rush 2, any of these games can stand toe to toe with Western games. People think because developers from the west have mastered the art of selling you your yearly GRAND EPIC BIG THE SAME BUT I SWEAR TOTALLY DIFFERENT first person shooter every year that Western devs are somehow superior. L-O-L

[Servbot41]

Been saying this forever. There are very few Japanese devs who "get" it these days, and the rest are still developing what feel like subpar PS2 games, just in 720/1080.

[WelkinCole]

Overall yes. But there are still some exceptional Japanese devs out there. Kojima house, Then there is Nintendo, Level 5 and Team Ico for example.

Its been a steep downward spiral for Japanese dev in general since the PS2 heydays but there are some gems left.

[Deltaguy]

japanse game companies been subpar for a while now..besides platinum, capcom, atlus

[Gecksta]

All Japanese games are garbage with the exception of a few. Maybe it's the difference in pop culture ie: the sexualisation of children , . Even their good games have complete nonsense elements. Dark souls is great , but the lore and explanations are pure shit. And konami is the most overrated devoper.!!!

[ShaunCameron]

Too bad there are a lot of people here who would say the same about Western games.

[gangsta_red]

I agree, the west has definitely carried the video game market forward with some of the most memorable games these past few generations.

Japan had a very tough time til this day adjusting to the HD era of new game consoles and even pushing their games forward in design and gameplay (with some exceptions of course).

This is why we see a lot of Japanese devs getting into the mobile market and leaving the console space. They can make the same type of games they are accustomed to from the 16 bit era with low cost and fairly small development time.

[OtakuDJK1NG-Rory]

Western devs only care about visuals.
Japanese devs love gameplay

[ShaunCameron]

So, when is PlatinumGames gonna make a PS4 exclusive? The Wii U has 2. The XBox One is getting one.

[tanukisuit]

Isn't Nier: Automata exclusive to PS4?