CVG: While it might be easy to simply reel off a list of why the traditional Japanese ways are on the way out, we thought we'd take take a more productive angle and put together a list of recent J-games that prove the land of the rising sun hasn't burned-out just yet.
The PlayStation 3 is Sony’s most interesting home console ever, but what’s most interesting of all is trying to nail down the very best games on a console with hundreds of incredible games. Let’s give it a shot.
We desperately need Motorstorm back. Evolution is no more though and this makes me sad
Sly Thieves in Time
Stay the Party
Portal 2
Dj Hero
Demon’s Souls
God of war Ascension
2 of those games got railed through the “gaming media” during release.
Sly and god of war.
Both of which were fantastic games.
Yes it’s a decent list of popular games with a heavy hand on FPS and no Warhawk or Starhawk 2 of the best games (not sale wise) on ps3.
I would buy a Starhawk again even if it didn’t have a graphics upgrade hell I would even take a new one with micro transactions 😱🤯
I've noticed a recent nostalgia for the PS3 and I don't get it for me it's been my least favourite generation to date and I've been gaming since the NES I just feel like the ambition of the developers outweighed the capabilities of the consoles so I remember lots of games running in the lower end of 20fps range and I remember for the first time ever actually disliking the duelshock 3 and it's curved triggers
Sure there were some standouts and great games but that's the only gen I switched entirely to PC gaming
Maybe the recent nostalgia is because pretty much all of its games are trapped on that console. People want to play them on more modern hardware. hell... if XB can do it then so can Sony. there are competent emulators out there that can run on PS4/5 hardware but Sony just wont let them become official... why is that?
If we are talking least favorite generations (personally) then this one is certainly mine. i had more fun playing 8th, 7th and 6th gen stuff than 9th. And it isnt like i dont have access to do so... the heavy hitters just havent shown up anywhere close to those previous gens. The few here and there just doesnt cut it compared to the likes of constant good games that showed up in 6th, 7th and 8th gen. hell.... I'll even throw in 5th gen has been better than this one.
I tend to agree there's lots of amazing games locked to the PS3 like GTA IV or mgs 4 but then again my issue was never with the content the PS3 had but rather it's performance many other people have said the PS3 felt like it couldn't walk and chew bubblegum at the same time using PSN and downloading a game could take a few minutes to just start a download.
I typically don't worry all that much about performance I've never had a problem with games that run at 30 but games like crysis 2, Skyrim are good examples where the performance was so unstable you would never even touch the top of the frame cap and the hitching was worse than say Goldeneye on the n64
I think emulation is more than possible on the ps5 though it's just that Sony has no incentive to rush it's development it will likely be a ps6 feature if it ever happens at all.
But yeah the 9th gen has been so bad from a content perspective thats a given I see constant articles where people are frequently expressing their disappointment around the industry as a whole right now to much live service competition that sinks longstanding studios and consumes Devs time less ambition and games cost so much to make they have to play it safe.
The 5th gen was easily better than the 9th we had some all time greats crash, Spyro, Tony hawk, mgs, Mario,64, Goldeneye, Mario kart 64 the list goes on. The 5th gave us a new dimension and I remember being blown away by how much more open gaming had become the 4th gen with the mega drive and SNES was great and very easy to still revisit some of the greatest games of all time came out like earthbound, secret of mana, sonic , Mario world etc but saving our games was still not a standard function or a given so gaming was still evolving but it was very impressive to see some of the tricks Devs used like dithering to give us new experiences those earlier gens limitations bred innovation.
if XB can do it so can sony? I didn't know xbox had a cell processor in their older consoles, that's the reason why ps3 was so cool, but also the reason why games are hostage there and no, xbox did nothing similar even though their backward compatbility is good, they always had a similar architecture to their consoles.
Sorry Michael... I guess you missed the obvious part where i said there are already emulators out that do this. and that is what XB is doing... emulators for OG and 360 games. Its why the full slate is not BC on XBO/Series.
Former SIE president Yoshida explained that Sony wanted to work on the sequel to Demon’s Souls with FromSoftware, but the developer turned it down and instead decided to work with Bandai Namco on what would become Dark Souls.
Not sure what Sony was thinking. Wrong people testing the game. It was my favourite game from the PS3 days. Had to import it from Canada because it wasn't available in Europe at the time. Then I bought it again when a local version was available. It was fun to play online and get two separate platinum.
I understand, sony acting so cocky when it came out. But they quickly realized what they were missing on. I remember an interview of Yoshida saying clearly he hated the game.
"But they quickly realized what they were missing on."
So they've been sleeping on Bloodborne too
Sony didn't realize what they had with Demons Souls. It happens. Marvel approached Xbox to make Spider-Man before they went to Sony and Phil Spencer said "thanks but no thanks". You win some, you lose some. Personally I wasn't THAT bowled over by Demons Souls either when it launched on PS3. I thought it was slow and clunky. The remake on PS5, however, is fantastic! So I get why Sony was lukewarm on the franchise. I dont know if anybody could've foreseen what From Software would eventually become.
To be fair, not even From Software knew the huge success it would become. Their revenue target was tiny, as already confirmed by Miyazaki.
Exactly, these nipple head 'journalists' trying to spin this into a story to wield against Sony are ignoring the fact that hindsight is 20/20.
As you correctly point out, Demons Souls was incredibly niche at the time so it's not a surprise that Sony were cautious about investing huge amounts into advertising and support etc.
You can't just find the RIGHT people. This kind of thing didn't exist yet. FROMSOFTWARE started something huge and you could never see it unless you happen to get someone who not only gets a gut instinct but also the will and authority to act on it. You can't look back from 2025, you have to see it in a 2009 landscape. And Demon's Souls didn't even hit big, it wasn't until Dark Souls that it all started hitting, shortly after it's release in 2011.
Hey sometimes you just can’t see the potential.
It’s like the Chicago Bears moving up in the draft to take Trubisky over Pat Mahomes.
Replies(2)
I bought the Japanese version of Demons Souls before US release. Me and my friend heard about it from an online friend in Japan. It took a while for it to become popular in the US. It was a new IP with nothing like it at the time and it wasn’t easy to play obviously. Eventually word of mouth spread about it and sales picked up after launch. I don’t think anyone could have seen how big it would be at the time. It was considered very niche and hardcore games were minimal.
I do wonder if we'll ever see Demon's Souls 2. Sony clearly wanted it. FromSoftware's subsequent releases penetrated the mainstream in ways the developer likely never imagined. Any stigma or negative perception around the original game's release has long passed. Bluepoint's remake sold very well on PS5. I think the time has come to visit the IP that started it all.
With Sony now firmly in bed with Kadokawa now. I think a Demon's Souls 2 and/or Bloodborne 2 is fairly likely.
They also seem to not want to get on Fromsoft's bad side or undercut them in any way. I think it's completely up to FS. (which is kinda funny cause FS themselves makes weird moves with their games whenever it's not Miyazaki helming the project. ie DS2 and Nightreign)
Creator of Bayonetta, Devil May Cry, Okami, Viewtiful Joe, and Wonderful 101 comments on how they're all part of the same universe.
I could definitely see a Bayonetta/Dante game. Imagine them initially battling each other before eventually teaming up to take on the big baddies. Now, imagine what their child(ren) would be like.
Bayonetta and Dante I could see but even then with how their lore differs it's a hard sell. For the others...I just can't see it at all.
I feel he's just saying whatever comes to him online
Bayonetta is a witch who enter contracts with demons for power and Dante is a demon, not really hard to connect.
They could even write in an alliance between the umbra witches and sparda.
On the surface yeah but the actual lore the two games have given us if you go into it...not so much.
This site copied the list from another site............its kinda pathetic.......
fyi as much as japanese devs say bad things about japan..............
more and more western devs are saying bad things about the west.............hell the european game industry is basically dead...........and korea, china, and japan are on the up tick
Without japanese rpgs, there are no rpgs. Japanese rpgs are the basthion of originality and creativity. Also japanese rpgs far surpass anything the west can do.
Did you even play xenoblade? The story was amazing, and the characters were no more cookie cutter sterotypes than every single western rpg
You are right, jrpgs have a big focus on story, world, character, originality. The story was amazing
"What's more, it creates its own brand of role-playing game, kicking aside the hyperbolic norm of the J-RPG and turning its nose up at western accessibility. If that ain't special, we don't know what is."
Actually there is no norm of japanese rpg thats what makes them so special. They are all basically very different.............
This is why I have an issue with these sites because they pick games they see, and not the real horses in the fight or even know the genres they talk about
oh and the fact that they only picked console games proves, that this site isnt in touch with what people love about japanese games and they arent in touch with the best of japans work this gen.
If I were CVG i would take this article down and seriously consider who they are trying to impress.........
Hell I can do the exact same article about the west and give 5 lame games about why its surviving even after peter M, thq, and a host of others said this is the worst time in western gaming ever
I will list amazing japanese games just this year that I think are stellar
Kid icarus
pokemon x nobunga
shining blade
suikoden psp
beyond the L
resident evil revelations
tales of graces F
final fantasy 13-2
final fantasy rhythm
You see a pattern? handhelds are far more important over there so not even picking 1 handheld game comes off as not knowing japan. by the way without japan the rpg, platforming, fighting, vn genres would cease to exist
Bayonetta
No more heroes
Shadows of the damned
Anarchy reigns is comming (hope it's good)
Metal gear rising
Katamari
Gravity daze (or rush)
The last guardian
Sine mora
Lollipop chainsaw
upcoming game from Kojima
Luigi's mansion 2
Paper mario incoming
and mooooooooooooore :)
The entire fighting genre.
Japan has always been relevant to the gaming industry, and if anything has become MORE relevant. There's a reason why the word "Nintendo" is synonymous with gaming.
Only bigots (and goddamn are there a lot of these in the industry/community) and the blind think Japanese developers somehow devolved in the last decade. There was a shift in the industry, yes--most of the talent shifted focus to cheaper-to-produce handheld and mobile gaming platforms, where less cost meant there was more room to take greater risk.
There's a reason why all of the big Western games are so similar to each other, filled with chest-high walls and whatnot.
I have no sympathy