Open Letter: Let's Save Japanese Game Development

Posted on Monday, June 18 @ 15:34:25 Eastern by Daniel Bischoff

Be Japanese.

I want Japanese games that aren't straddling some awkward cultural line. I want Japanese games that can't have their inherent culture localized out of them. I want a game based in a foreign culture because far too many games are making me disgusted with my own culture.

I know first-hand that at face-value, Eastern and Western cultures lack little commonplace between them. I know that business people, the men and women who talk dollars and yen behind their suits and desks will say those face-values are too strong to break. I know they're wrong.

Games involve players on a deeper level than music or movies or TV shows. Players grow deeply intrenched in character and story and conflict and interaction in games. Those face-values don't matter as much when you're speaking to everyone in town to find out what the shopkeeper wants for a birthday present or why the enemy boss wants to destroy the world.

And that's how I think Japanese game development can fix itself. I know a lot of this might sound like detraction, but I remember what you were, and I know what you're capable of. I buy lots and lots of Japanese games, but I'm not motivated to finish them when I don't enjoy them.

That can change, and I'll keep buying to see what you come up with.

-ME

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Tags: japan, japanese developers

Comments

TurinAlexander
Joined: Sep 2006

Posted: Jun 18th, 2012 at 4:47 pm
You need to add an extra "the" to page five.

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danielrbischoff
Joined: Nov 2009

Posted: Jun 18th, 2012 at 5:05 pm
Where? Read through again and I don't see anything missing.

1 2

TurinAlexander
Joined: Sep 2006

Posted: Jun 18th, 2012 at 5:18 pm
I'd go ahead and nudge it in right there between "destroy" and "town".

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danielrbischoff
Joined: Nov 2009

Posted: Jun 18th, 2012 at 5:11 pm
I don't think I've stated anywhere here that Japan is dead. I think Japan is fine, but the development scene could be doing much better. Stagnated would be a more appropriate word to use.

1 4

danielrbischoff
Joined: Nov 2009

Posted: Jun 18th, 2012 at 5:32 pm
Yes, Western developers are stagnating creatively, but business is booming. I'm talking about GROWTH. And there's no way ALL 300 of those JRPGs were good, troll.

1 5

Heath_Hindman
Joined: May 2011

Posted: Jun 18th, 2012 at 5:51 pm
Dude, commenting 5 times doesn't like, earn you points on a scoreboard....

1 4

oblivion437
Joined: Nov 2006

Posted: Jun 24th, 2012 at 7:43 pm
But if I say something more times that makes it *more* true! That's like, logic, or something! I read it, in a book!

0 0

danielrbischoff
Joined: Nov 2009

Posted: Jun 18th, 2012 at 5:53 pm
I love how he's somehow STILL clicking "Add Comment" somewhere. MUST GET REPLY IN. Thumbs down to hide all this mess.

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danielrbischoff
Joined: Nov 2009

Posted: Jun 18th, 2012 at 6:00 pm
I think you did :P Just kidding before you jump down my throat.

0 1

Herb211
Joined: May 2009

Posted: Jun 18th, 2012 at 6:46 pm
Whoa what did I click into here? Its like walking into a really nerdy barfight. Lol.

0 1

HorriblePerson
Joined: Sep 2011

Posted: Jun 18th, 2012 at 7:17 pm
Well, Persona 3 IS awesome. Gotta love Atlus.

0 1

danielrbischoff
Joined: Nov 2009

Posted: Jun 18th, 2012 at 9:44 pm
Before I was like "Atlus? Wahuh?" Now I'm like "MUST BUY EVERYTHING ATLUS MAKES."

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213EDD
Joined: Sep 2007

Posted: Jun 18th, 2012 at 8:10 pm
Down voting everyone who is wrong is fun! Now I know how everyone feels when they read my comments

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danielrbischoff
Joined: Nov 2009

Posted: Jun 18th, 2012 at 9:44 pm
The other side of the mirror can be a freaky place.

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Bras
Joined: Jul 2008

Posted: Jun 18th, 2012 at 9:34 pm
What an excellent article, together with Heath's and Alex's it has made this a very enjoyable visit to GR.

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danielrbischoff
Joined: Nov 2009

Posted: Jun 18th, 2012 at 9:45 pm
Thank you Bras! I felt like I was stepping on Heath's territory with this Japan feature, but I enjoyed writing it.

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Heath_Hindman
Joined: May 2011

Posted: Jun 18th, 2012 at 9:48 pm
Hey man, it's not like I own this country or its people anymore!

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danielrbischoff
Joined: Nov 2009

Posted: Jun 18th, 2012 at 10:26 pm
Did you lose that in the lawsuit? The People of Japan v. H. Hindman.

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Heath_Hindman
Joined: May 2011

Posted: Jun 19th, 2012 at 5:26 am
We spent the whole time talking about the spelling of my last name and in the end the biggest thing that happened was that I became a Nakamura.

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Noritama
Joined: Feb 2012

Posted: Jun 18th, 2012 at 11:16 pm
Honestly with my experience living there they don't know what they want to be. Their games in general are pretty bland Im not talking about games that get translated just in general. Usually every year when I visit my folks for a month I buy a couple of games and it just gets depressing really. But that's ne being a negative Nancy . There is hope for Japanese gaming.

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ShadeTail
Joined: Nov 2006

Posted: Jun 19th, 2012 at 8:59 am
While that's an entirely reasonable statement, it doesn't change the fact that things really have stagnated over there. You bring up art styles, so let's talk about that. It seems like they do nothing but anime-styles anymore. It's very rare to see something really different, like Okami was back in its day. Ironically, considering the over-all subject matter, the most non-Japanese art styles I've seen from them lately have been from Square Enix (who go more for realism (of body if not clothes)) and Nintendo (whose cartoon style almost looks western). Then again, maybe that's not so ironic. Love or hate the results, the fact remains that Nintendo is one of the few Japanese developers who try to use Japanese kitschiness in innovative ways, rather than just make another anime game.

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danielrbischoff
Joined: Nov 2009

Posted: Jun 21st, 2012 at 10:48 am
Good point. And I'll reiterate, I think there is SO MUCH GOOD going on in Japanese development, but there's not enough of it.

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tinymhg
Joined: Jun 2011

Posted: Jun 19th, 2012 at 9:29 am
No just mad.

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Noritama
Joined: Feb 2012

Posted: Jun 19th, 2012 at 12:31 pm
Actually the concept of RPGS have existed for ages. Platformers maybe would of been different. I'm not saying Japanese game were always bad or is bad. I'm just saying from my experience the creativity of Japanese games as a whole has suffered. they play it way too easy or appease to western audiences way too much. Keiji had it sort of correct.

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drathbone
Joined: May 2011

Posted: Jun 19th, 2012 at 1:50 pm
Is that Stealth dude the one who was crying on one of Heath's posts saying he was arrogant and his article sucked or something? Seems his neg train left the station again.

Anyway, good article guys.

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danielrbischoff
Joined: Nov 2009

Posted: Jun 21st, 2012 at 10:47 am
Thanks drathbone. No clue what crawled up his bum but I know he came from N4G.

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Nick_Tan
Joined: Jul 2006

Posted: Jun 19th, 2012 at 2:04 pm
I actually see some lights in Japanese gaming. Atlus is one of them with the Persona series. Platinum Games and Suda51 are other developers with a strong sense of innovation. One of the struggles with Japanese developers is that a lot of their money is being made on the mobile and social side of gaming, which has left developers for console titles in a bind. MMORPGs are huge there (which is in part why Final Fantasy has shifted toward that model to its detriment).

That said, Japanese developers are still very much relevant, with Ni Nu Kuni, Persona 4 Arena, RE6, and MGR all given E3 awards. For me, it's less that the East has gone down as much as the West has caught up.

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Noritama
Joined: Feb 2012

Posted: Jun 19th, 2012 at 2:24 pm
To be honest I wish they would just continue with the SMT series in general. Persona is suppose to be a spinoff of the design.

0 0