I realized today as I was swearing in frustration at Metroid Other M that I'm am completely sick of Japanese developed games. So much so that I actually canceled my pre-orders on Capcom's Ghost Trick and Konami's Castlevania Lord of Shadows. There are a few things that stand out just why I can't deal with their games anymore. 1) The story. It's the same rehashed story you can find in in any manga or anime. Ultimately the female characters are completely worthless without the help of a man, even if the woman is the main character (ugh, that ruined Other M). The over all plot ends in completely unsatisfying way that could -almost- be considered Greek tragedy level, if everything was just so damn stupid. Seriously, pretty much every sci-fi or magical explanation is on the quality level of a Godzilla movie plot. 2) What ever happened to localization? Remember when Sailor Moon first came to the states some... 15-20 years ago? They renamed all the characters, changed a lot of the dialog, and even the food to make it seem like it was just an American cartoon to people non the wiser. I use to to think that was stupid... that a piece of the true show was lost by Americanizing and losing the Japanese aspects. Now I realize that's crap. So much of Japanese culture and ideals go into the stories and the imagery that an average ignorant Joe (like me) completely misses it. By all means butcher the story by completely rewriting the dialog so it goes from an anime mind-f*** to a good ole USA style action movie Bruce Willis style. 3) Controls... for what ever strange reason, the Japanese either have a completely different idea of what makes control comfortable, or part of the experience for them is having the controls feel like they fight you with every action you try to take. Capcom is notorious for this. Have you played a monster hunter game? It's a great concept and amazing game when played with friends... but ultimately I hit a wall in it because I just couldn't get the controls to do what I want. And why should I have to fight the controller when there are games with intuitive button combos like Dante's Inferno. I didn't actually enjoy Dante's Inferno, but at no time playing it did I ever think, "God the controls on this game suck," like I do for just about every Japanese developed game. There's a reason Japan's game industry has constantly been on the decline. Maybe my gripes are just a small part of it. Has anyone else noticed that you, as a player, really only play American (or at least Canadian/European) made games now?
i havent enjoyed manga/jap games since fist of the north star...although i am looking forward to its release on console should be quite epic from what i have seen so far. but yes i agree there concept on the mainstream regardless what company seems some what distorted these days.
Three problems. Number one: Intuitive button combos? You're kidding right? Lemme give you five games (including that one) that can be beaten solely by button mashing (in order from how quickly I have beat them with just button mashing.) 1. God of War 2. Dante's Inferno (or should I lump number one and two together?) 3. Bayonetta 4. Devil May Cry (any of them, really) 5. Soul Calibur 4 Also, I personally never really had a problem with controls on games, usually it just takes a while to get used to them. Number two: The whole "butcher the whole story by completely rewriting the dialog so it goes from an anime mind-f*** to a good ole USA style action movie Bruce Willis style." You've gotta remember, they research to see who buys what in America. Unfortunately these mostly seem to be dumbed down versions of Japanese games. The plots are rewritten sometimes for relevancy. If you heard a character say, (after seeing a bunch of people jump in a river) "Damn, did the Hanshin Tigers win the championship again?" Would you get the reference? If you would, good for you. You're not part of the 95% of people that, by them editing it to be a Dodgers reference, the company is trying to appease. Lastly: The same rehashed story. Though I do agree there are tons of games that do that, you have to understand something: Female characters are completely worthless (and helpless) without the help of a man is the case of lots of games for nearly all countries. This misogynistic view is in nearly all games everywhere: The strong knight has to save the princess who has no ability to fight whatsoever The mighty man has to protect the girl to get her to safety. God forbid she pick up a gun. The man has to save his wife who's been kidnapped The manly barbarian has to defeat an overlord while admiring sexy ladies You getting my point here? Women are objectified as helpless/sexually promiscuous in tons of games. Why? Because it sells! My advice? Buy games you enjoy. If this kind of demographic doesn't apply to you, don't buy those games. Rent them from somewhere first. Though I understand that you may be tempted to avoid Japanese games like the plague, there are some that don't fit that stereotype: Devil May Cry 3 Resident Evil 5 Shin Megami Tensei: Persona series Mirror's Edge (the story's a bit cliche, but interesting) Metal Gear Solid series (sure it has a male role, but he does get plenty of help from female counterparts) Just a few suggestions.
I'm just sick of BAD Japanese games and there have been A LOT of them this generation. FFXIII was the last straw imo, what a sack of crap. Bayonetta, Lost Odyssey, Blue Dragon and Tales of Vesperia, however, are really good games. Bayonetta and LO in particular. The thing I like about Japanese games is that a lot of the time the art direction and story themes are a lot more creative than western games. I love Fable for example, but I hate this kind of European art-style (I love Moebius though, who did most of the concept art for the amazing Panzer Dragoon games).
This all comes down to the industry. It's an ebb and flow of the gaming world -- a few years ago Japan was the mecca of gaming development. Lately a LOT of western studios have slowly worked themselves into the gaming mix and the Japanese industry has become more and more irrelevant each year. The TGS has even become something of a passover convention for a lot of gamers. I think you will see an innovation come from somewhere else soon (maybe Japan again) and then the industry will start looking at that region for games once again.
Japan use to be renowned for making great games but now there have been so many disappointments that that has changed now. SNES was the best for Japanese games I think. I agree with you and only buy Japanese games after researching them first.
I think this report from PAX shows where the problems with some of the Japanese games are compared to western games: http://spoonyexperiment.com/2010/09/13/ ... ld-wars-2/ They have incredible beautiful art but there is too much grind and boredom. Plus I really can't enjoy a game where the art designers pin cat ears on a 15 year old girl wearing lingerie-armor. Furry-pedo much? Seriously, what is wrong with them? It would be nice to see some female characters in games with more depth than: She's really hot and wears next to nothing! And yes, I'm well aware of the irony of this statement in combination with my signature...
It was pretty much the opposite for me. I really enjoyed the controls to Bayonetta, and on the whole I've never had any problems with Japanese control schemes. For Bayonetta, the controls were easy to pick up and fun to use. The camera was kinda dumb at times...but once you got used to it, it was no big deal. On the other hand, the control scheme and overall movement for Dante's Inferno felt blocky and awkward by comparison. I too didn't enjoy that game. I do wonder if I'd have felt the same way if I'd played Dante's Inferno first though. The one thing that I love about Japanese games is that the good ones are so completely different from western games. Take Shadow of the Colossus for example. Who else is going to design a game that's composed of riding from boss fight to boss fight with nothing but scenery in-between. It was such an unique experience in my gaming life that I'm willing to keep giving Japanese games a chance....though, these days, I'll read a ton of reviews before giving them that chance
I don't think teenagers are pedo, Pedo is more like 13 and under. And some people are into the cat ears. I guess it could seem like pedo if your 30 years of age apart or something...
Let's see, I play... Monday Night Combat (Uber Entertainment, USA) Mass Effect (BioWare, Canada) Crackdown 2 (Ruffian Games, Scotland) Halo Wars (Ensemble Studios, USA) Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe (Midway, USA) Perfect Dark Zero (Rare, England) And games I want to buy... Mortal Kombat (NetherRealm Studios, USA) Need For Speed Shift 2: Unleashed (Slightly Mad Studios, England) So, yeah.. Western games only.
dont talk sh!t on my Castlevania LoS , its one of the better games recently released...also i think it was made by a western developer.
Their controls are just different. You grew up confortable with the X button selecting things. On the other end of the world, they grew up with the Triangle button selecting things. They also read things right to left. It is as effective as our ways, no more, no less, just simply different. Reading something in a different direction doesn't change the effectiveness. If you are talking about Sony in general, then they simply chose a less popular choices in console design is all. XBox had simpler and familiar stuff in their console, Playstation had blu-ray and a system that relied more on the gamer than the company. Pretty soon, Playstation (possibly by cooperating with Steam) will have the generally better console and will discard XBox as "good", seeing as how more people are disheartened by microsoft acting like nazis and that blu-ray is becoming more popular. And there isn't anything wrong with capcom. I still love Megaman Legends and Legends 2, and Street Fighter, and Metal Gear Solid (which was Konami, but still), and Castlevania (also Konami).
