Japanese games are slowly making a resurgence. Games like Dark Souls and Persona 4 have recaptured our attention, after many developers struggled to make hits that resonated with the American audience.
What is irritating about this, is that anyone who is a JRPG or Japanophile to any extent, becried that the Westernization of Japanese games would only harm these products. Lo and behold after an entire generation and billions of wasted development dollars and monstrosities like RE: 6, everyone is going 'back to their roots.'
Good. Its like ordering sushi and being given a hamburger instead. Both decent meals, but one isn't what I asked for.
Why not just make games you enjoy making without worrying so much about the differences in western and eastern culture? Games like Mario and Zelda have worldwide appeal, do we really need to make games solely for Japanese gamers or solely for western gamers if they sell the systems worldwide? I liked Valkyria Chronicles and i also like Skyrim and Mass Effect. I don't see them as one being for U.S. gamers and the other for Japanese gamers. Gaming is a universal hobby, like music and movies. As long as the translation is fine I'm good to go.
Personally I love a good, Japanese-flavored game, but the really good ones, such as Persona 4, succeed IN SPITE of their cultural influences. Still a very Japanese game, yes, but it doesn't succeed BECAUSE it is Japanese.
But then you also get ridiculously Japanese games like Mugen Souls that appeal to a VERY small group of individuals outside of Japan because they're just a collection of safe, profitable cliches and tropes, so it's really no different than Western developers thinking all westerners want to blow stuff up in a first person perspective.
Maybe I'm just being cynical, but I just took this dev's comment to mean that they're going to swap out one set of tropes for another.
As a fan of JRPGs, all I can say to this news is this...THANK GOD, because westernization or what Japanese developers seem to think is westernization, has ruined JRPGs.
Maybe if we give them 8 more years they'll figure out 90% of their audience doesn't care about English voice overs and would import their games if the Japanese release had a simple translation and were made region-free.
I... Kind of liked Graces voice overs... I mean sure, quite a few are much better with their native languages. Yet this does not stand true for ALL games/movies/shows/etc., from Japan.
Having both is certainly the best option, but if they're going to take 4 years to localize a game, which seems to be what's happening, I'd much rather just have them sub it and make it region free.
Japan has always been enamored with American culture/media. Microsoft and their $$$ convinced many Japanese software companies to entertain the idea of a Westernization of their games. The 360 is an American console, America is the best country in the world...blablabla.
So we have the story of this gen, where Japan, with a few exceptions, spit out crap after crap software.
Time has passed. 360 never made it big in America. Japanese companies found themselves in contrast to their own country. And really, Japanese companies aren't very good at pretending to be American. In effect, they made games that the Japanese didn't like because they appeared to be selling out, and Americans reviewers laughed at Japanese attempts to mimic their culture. And getting Microsoft $$$ to turn traditionally Sony games 360 exclusive never paid off in the long run.
Having learned their lesson, and getting hit with that devastating earthquake along with a bad economy, Japanese companies HAVE to get back to where they came from to survive.
So, next gen...expect good Japanese games again! Expect good JRPGs again! I'm looking forward to it!
What? I didn't notice Japanese games were trying to Westernize they seemed like they were still the same to me with their turn based combat and cartoony looks the only ones that resembled a western game was demon souls ad dark souls...which they posted high review scores and raked in good sales.
Despite all this though some of my favorite games of this gen are from Japanese Devs. Valkyria Chronicles, Disgaea 3 & 4, every game from P*, Catherine and Gravity Rush. Maybe because those are very Japanese and aren't necessarily westernized.
Anyways I never agreed with making a game cater to a certain culture. That what makes gaming so great, different Devs from different culture bring all at to their games. What the point if everything game is the same?
The fact that Ni no Kuni, a shout out to the 16-Bit RPG's of yore is getting raving reviews and is topping the charts of several of online retailers, including over 4 of Amazon's sites is telling.
People bought your games in droves before Japan. That's what they want. Sure, you could do with a lesson in how to make a top notch online experience as well as some lessons as to what Anti Aliasing is, but you still make phenomenal games, despite what the haters say. Never change.
it's not like Japanese media is that good anymore. These days Japanese people doesn't even care about how bad a game/movie/anime is as long as it is cute. =/
It's about time, critics can harp on how old or tired they are of JRPGs all they want. Personally, the whole reason I bought a PS3 at launch were to get drowned in those types of games in the first place. Bring it on Japan
The game that made me most excited for Generation 7 (PS3, Xbox 360, Wii, etc.) was the trailer for Final Fantaxy Vs. XIII. I was envisioning Kingdom Hearts meets Final Fantasy. Alas, Kingdom Hearts has remained a no-show on the consoles and a Final Fantasy I did care for has been shoved down my throat repeatedly.
I still hope FFvXIII will amaze me....whenever it arrives.
I missed JRPG's this gen. I've played some good ones on the DS, but there's been a noticeable absence of them on consoles. Xenoblade reminded me of what a JRPG can bring. So many unique and deep gameplay mechanics.
Thank you, Namco, for this wonderful statement. It's about time that Japanese devs like SE wake up and understand that there's really no need to Westernize Japanese games.
A vital point though is being missed I think and that is the change in how these games have been made this gen is in response to how they just aren't selling as many as they used to. It's all very well saying to go back but if the larger part of your audience isn't there then there's little they can do. I personally think the best of Japanese design both art and gameplay is superior than almost all most western efforts but it's all for nothing when you don't get decent sales. A large percentage of the audience for most of this stuff was teen to mid teen back then and there's the bigger problem now that most have grown out of the interest for jrpg's or indeed a lot of other mostly japanese type games that were once much more acceptable.This era was in effect like a second infancy of gaming when the truth was that western games just weren't as good as what the japanese managed
People forget that places like this only represent a fraction of those that play games and so it's easy to think there's still a massive craving for jrpg's. Enough to make a healthy profit for devs still? I wouldn't like to bet on it outside Japan
It is like how we always buy foreign shirts in their native language because it is unique, same goes for Japan. Once they started westernizing their games, it lost it's uniqueness because of the other western type games.
GOOD! That's all that needs to be said. How many years have we been trying to tell them to look to the past. What made their games great to begin with. It used to be that the western devs struggled to make games as well as their eastern counterparts, but these days it seems to be the other way around. Ironically enough, trying to cater to everyone else and not making the games they would usually make is what ended up dragging them down >.<
Hey thanks! Finally a developer that isn't trying to make games for a market they don't understand. Jap devs should make their kind of games, while western devs make their own kind. Makes sense doesn't it?
Guess I better brush up on my Japanese...too many haters so I am sure they will stop localizing it because of the haters who think that Western games are actually better lol specially on the RPG side of gaming.
J-RPG and in general Japanese Game fans don't want their games playing like western stuff and especially not on the wrong console. They were the 1st to learn this after Vesperia on the 360 nearly destroyed them cause no one cared.They went back and did better than they could have imagined. Team Nomura at SquareEnix always knew this but Wada is so retarded and desperate he wants to succeed on the wrong console and is destroying everything they build up in the past gens. Same goes for Capcom - They even said RE should be targeting the Call of Duty audience cause they are bigger and make more money...if there games would sell what they aren't cause the CoD Community doesn't care for other games and their fanbase doesn't care for games that aren't made for them.
What is irritating about this, is that anyone who is a JRPG or Japanophile to any extent, becried that the Westernization of Japanese games would only harm these products. Lo and behold after an entire generation and billions of wasted development dollars and monstrosities like RE: 6, everyone is going 'back to their roots.'
Good. Its like ordering sushi and being given a hamburger instead. Both decent meals, but one isn't what I asked for.
Well it's about time i would have to say!! Remember what made you guys so successful in the past.
Japan is great at making 'Japanese' games. We do not need Japan to make 'Western' games.
Finally
The fact that Ni no Kuni, a shout out to the 16-Bit RPG's of yore is getting raving reviews and is topping the charts of several of online retailers, including over 4 of Amazon's sites is telling.
People bought your games in droves before Japan. That's what they want. Sure, you could do with a lesson in how to make a top notch online experience as well as some lessons as to what Anti Aliasing is, but you still make phenomenal games, despite what the haters say. Never change.