I've Always Wondered... How Do Japanese View Gaming Tropes Unique to Western-Developed Games?

[crusador90]

It's been one question... one perspective I've always wanted to see.. to hear from, but the language barrier and difficulty of travel means getting the answers I want is going to be extremely difficult to overcome. But I'm still driven to know the answer!

I've seen tons of topics out here as far as Westerners are concerned... "When is a game too Japanese" as well as tons of folks bashing on anime and games catering to to that crowd.

However... I've never been able to see the answer on the inverse side of that coin. How do those on the other side of the Pacific view our games?

 

[Bilious Green_v1legacy]

Based on the latest (full year 2015) annual sales data out of Japan that I saw on gaf, the top 100 sellers included almost no western developed games other than a couple of sports games like FIFA and baseball. The impression I get is that Japanese gamers play Japanese game almost exclusively and pretty much ignore western gaming outside of MMOs and MOBAs.

 

[sXeth]

It's been one question... one perspective I've always wanted to see.. to hear from, but the language barrier and difficulty of travel means getting the answers I want is going to be extremely difficult to overcome. But I'm still driven to know the answer!

I've seen tons of topics out here as far as Westerners are concerned... "When is a game too Japanese" as well as tons of folks bashing on anime and games catering to to that crowd.

However... I've never been able to see the answer on the inverse side of that coin. How do those on the other side of the Pacific view our games?

Unnecessarily gritty and realistic, muted in tone, and overly obsessed with shooting things?

I'm not Japanese, just a guess comparing some games from both sides.

 

[Here Comes Tomorrow]

I don't think they like them very much. Too many bland, samey visuals and characters and fairly bland gameplay.

Also apparently they get dizzy and there is no advertising.

http://www.crunchyroll.com/anime-news/2012/01/22-1/why-dont-japanese-people-buy-western-games

Incidentally, its interesting that in Japan Square-Enix publishes CoD and Capcom handle GTA

 

[NPC009]

My experience is a little limited, but this is what I gathered:
-Aside from a love for cute, mainstream tastes aren't that different from what you see in Western countries. Movies such as Lord of the Rings and Star Wars are mainstream there as well. Fantasy games such as Dragon Age or Skyrim probably wouldn't be considered too foreign, but they aren't massively popular because most videogames are seen as something for kids and young adults. (Once you're out of college, you're supposed to leave such things behind. Unless it's something extremely mainstream such as Dragon Quest.)

-There are gamers who are into shooters and the like, but these games are more niche over there. Some are released in Japan, some are not. Some sell fairly well (something like 100,00-200,000 copies isn't too shabby), some don't. There might be a long wait. Avid fans might import games from America, and there are magazines that cater to these gamers. IIRC, one of the reasons GTA broke through the barrier is because importers were so enthousiastic about III and IV. GTA IV was heavily promoted by Capcom and topped the charts for a while. You could say one of these reasons these games are popular is because they're so over-the-top foreign, but not in a completely unfamiliar way. On a side note: Legends of Localization [http://legendsoflocalization.com/a-peek-at-japanese-grand-theft-auto-localizations/] compared a view scenes from the Japanese version to the original. Fun and interesting read.

Edit: nearly forgot:

-More often than not, localisation is done on a small budget and games rarely get a decent amount of marketing. For instance, games might not have a Japanese voice track and are subtitled instead. As a result, these games are only noticed by players who keep up with the industry by reading magazines and such.

Edit 2: Oh, and this, too:

-M rated games often end up recieving a Z rating in Japan, which is the highest rating there (CERO goes like this: A, B, C, D, Z). Z rated games can't be sold to people under 18.

 

[crusador90]

I don't think they like them very much. Too many bland, samey visuals and characters and fairly bland gameplay.

Also apparently they get dizzy and there is no advertising.

http://www.crunchyroll.com/anime-news/2012/01/22-1/why-dont-japanese-people-buy-western-games

Incidentally, its interesting that in Japan Square-Enix publishes CoD and Capcom handle GTA

Fascinating... a mix of responses, but ultimately... it seems like this is an inverted parallel example of attitudes towards Japanese developed games in the West nowadays.

 

[Zhukov]

I once read a summary of the opinions of a bunch of Japanese gamers on Western games.

It went something like, "They're unimaginative, they're visually boring, the characters are all ugly and like 90% of them are about shooting."

Make of that what you will.

 

[DementedSheep]

Probably as annoying and off putting as I find theirs.

 

[EyeReaper]

Well, I think they're growing more and more fond of the nonshooty ones. I mean, The only thing that would make the FROM Software RPGs an more WRPG is if it were titled "The Elder Scrollsark Souls" Or maybe a terrible fusion into "The Eldark Scrouls"

Though I do agree on one point. Our (western) Brotagonists are pretty boring. You now, insert that picture of all the chiseled scruffy game leads here. Meanwhile the average Japantagonists are constantly trying to upstage and outlandish each other.

 

[The Almighty Aardvark]

the characters are all ugly

Amusingly enough, I was digging around looking for discussions about this, and a common complaint leveled at Skyrim was that their girls weren't cute

 

[kilenem]

-M rated games often end up recieving a Z rating in Japan, which is the highest rating there (CERO goes like this: A, B, C, D, Z). Z rated games can't be sold to people under 18.

That is ironic, sense some Japanese games have to be changed, to be rated teen.

 

[Sniper Team 4]

I think the a good comparison is Halo, and I mean the original trilogy. When that game released in the U.S., it blew up. It put the Xbox, and Microsoft as a console maker, on the map. It is still talked about to this day. Western audiences loved it to bit--a tough, lone soldier taking down entire armies with just his gun and being a bad ass? That is Western culture in a nut shell, especially to the Japanese. And it just doesn't interest them. Over there, Halo was little more than a blip on the radar.

Meanwhile, companies have had to ask SquareEnix to release new Dragon Quest games on the weekends because so many people were calling in sick when the games launched. Japanese like stories about groups of characters working together, girls who are more in line with cute and innocent than smoking hot and naughty, and stuff like that.

 

[Mutant1988]

I honestly can't think of any tropes that are unique to western developed games. A reluctance to challenge formula or subvert expectations isn't really tropes.

 

[NPC009]

-M rated games often end up recieving a Z rating in Japan, which is the highest rating there (CERO goes like this: A, B, C, D, Z). Z rated games can't be sold to people under 18.

That is ironic, sense some Japanese games have to be changed, to be rated teen.

Cultural differences. As long as characters aren't showing their genitals or having sex right there on screen, you can get away with a lot of nudity there. In America... not so much. On the other hand, Japan is more strict when it comes to violence, especially if it's meant to look realistic.

Japanese technically don't have to be changed, but publishers used to aim for the T rating because of the restrictions on M rated games. A decade ago, many stores weren't all that eager to stock M-rated games. However, with the rising popularity of military shooters, some of the stigma disappeared. The M rating isn't as problematic as it used to be.

 

[9tailedflame]

I mean, i'm western and i generally prefer more eastern games, so i can't imagine that many people in japan frothing at the mouth for CoD.

 

[NPC009]

I mean, i'm western and i generally prefer more eastern games, so i can't imagine that many people in japan frothing at the mouth for CoD.

Hmm, I dunno, the country does have its fair share of military otaku. On the other hand, they seem to be all about tech and tactics, rather than 'destroy the enemy, long live America!'. Well, and tech + cute girls seems to be a big thing. Girls and tanks! Girls and warships!

Edit: O, and fighting human enemies don't appear to be much of a thing. Aliens, monsters, dragons - that's all fair game, though.

 

[Hawki]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_rvM6hubs8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=os3lWIuGsXE

Worth a watch for anyone who hasn't done so already.

 

[stroopwafel]

I don't think you can answer such a question without taking the complete generational shift into consideration. The current generation seems to have almost completely abandoned consoles in favor of 'mobile gaming' and creepy animoe stuff with underage girls so yeah I don't really think they look very favorable towards 'western developed games'(the sales figures kind of support this). Unfortunately you don't have many games made here that have you petting your virtual girlfriend on your gameboy.

Western games does seem to have a very dedicated niche in Japan though. Espescialy titles like GTA sell very well there. So there is obviously an audience that appreciates western games even if it's not very mainstream. As far as I know though western games have never been hugely popular in Japan even when the games industry in that country was at it's peak(so it's not just a generational thing but a cultural one as well). However there was a greater diversity of titles that extended beyond Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy. Even the popular Japanese games nowadays(Dark Souls, Metal Gear Solid) seems to be mostly made with western markets in mind.

If Japanese gamers nowadays hardly give a shit about a console games from their own country(again except DQ and FF) they sure won't about western games. It's either family entertainment/kid's stuff or animoe that's popular.