Poll: Do you believe that Japanese developers should cater more towards the west?

[MaximillionMiles]

Hmm... My opinion will most likely be ignored, but what the hell.
Yes, I think they should carter to the western market as well as their own, as long as the main vision is not compromised. It's a hard balancing act because if you bend too much to appeal to everyone your game may loose its charm, but if you completely ignore the western market, it's the same as ignoring a potential audience three or four times as big. Japan is a small market, and making games for Japan only is to cripple any ambition of growth.

Case in point 1 - All the games that are only released in Japan. Even those that have many fans and support in the west. In the most extreme cases, you have a game that was released in Europe, complete with english version, and still denied to the US because of the whims of the developer/publisher. THIS IS STUPID. It's limiting your profits for no good reason.

Case in point 2 - Some games, like Resident Evil 5 for example, reach a wide market and a variety of people. And if you're making a game for a wide audience, having at least a vague idea of do's and don't would be nice. Maybe if they had someone with some sense giving them advice on that game, RE　5 wouldn't face all those racism accusations and wouldn't be forced to create a stupid AI partner on the fly.(I'm not against RE 5 being set in Africa, but they could have handled it much better, ESPECIALLY on the first trailer. And the tribal stage, and tribal costumes, were pretty crass in taste).

I have no problems with games being quirky or very Japanese, but they should see the potential for sales on the rest of the world, and treat that market with the respect it deserves, no more, no less.

Of course... All is moot if the game is not good.

 

[KrabbiPatty]

To all the people saying no, you realize that Deus Ex: Human Revolution has been a by-product of a Japanese developer attempting to cater to a Western audience, yes? Whereas Final Fantasy XIII was their attempt at a strictly Japanese RPG.

The bottom line is that, for the most part, JRPGs and Japanese developers haven't changed in any noticeable way since the early 90's. In some ways this is a good thing, but if attempting to cater to a Western audience helps bring Japanese developers into the new age, I'm all for it.

Final Fantasy XIII strictly Japanese? LMAO Yeah right, the Japanese didn't like it either and it's probably because it was NOTHING like a JRPG should be.

Please explain because I have never heard this assessment before. How was it made for the West? I mean because if it was, they royally screwed the pooch. Hard.

Actually...you may be right, Quantum Theory was their attempt at Gears of War and it ate epic and shat fail too, so maybe it's not an issue of the Japanese not making any Western-themed games but simply that the Japanese suck at it so hard no one here can tell when they do.

 

[PorkChopXpress]

Some of the things that make Japanese games so compelling is how different they are because of the culture. I wouldn't have found Persona 4 as fascinating if it took place in an American town or culture.

My thoughts exactly. This conversation makes me think of the Americanized remake of Akira soon to be an unfortunate reality. Some things just work better when they come from a different country. Extra Credits covered this pretty well in their episode "They Myth of the Gun".

 

[AyaReiko]

Not really, I think they are doing just fine as is. ... 57.9%

Apperently a lot of you don't know how bad things have gotten over there. They've gone from having about half of the vg market to only about 10% of it. And a fifth of that is exclusively Nintendo's. Altus (maker of the Persona series) is and Nippon Ichi (maker of Disgaea) are near death. SE is largely regarded as a joke anymore. The only reason Capcom made Dead Rising and Lost Planet is because Inafune made their demos expensive, so Capcom wouldn't dare cancel them. Now that he's gone, expect more and more sequels from them and no new IPs. And it goes on and on.

 

[Epona]

To all the people saying no, you realize that Deus Ex: Human Revolution has been a by-product of a Japanese developer attempting to cater to a Western audience, yes? Whereas Final Fantasy XIII was their attempt at a strictly Japanese RPG.

The bottom line is that, for the most part, JRPGs and Japanese developers haven't changed in any noticeable way since the early 90's. In some ways this is a good thing, but if attempting to cater to a Western audience helps bring Japanese developers into the new age, I'm all for it.

Final Fantasy XIII strictly Japanese? LMAO Yeah right, the Japanese didn't like it either and it's probably because it was NOTHING like a JRPG should be.

Please explain because I have never heard this assessment before. How was it made for the West? I mean because if it was, they royally screwed the pooch. Hard.

Actually...you may be right, Quantum Theory was their attempt at Gears of War and it ate epic and shat fail too, so maybe it's not an issue of the Japanese not making any Western-themed games but simply that the Japanese suck at it so hard no one here can tell when they do.

The fast paced combat was supposed to appease the trigger happy FPS crowd but the game failed both in Japan and in the West.

You know that turn based combat that the West seems to hate? Yeah, it was there but covered up by the fact that you only controlled on character in battle and even then, the game played itself so it just came down to mashing the A button.

 

[TheRocketeer]

I think Western audiences are being served well enough. The industry can never have too much variety, and I think it's a mistake to tell the other crowd to get in step when we already have enough hands on this particular deck.

 

[Dexiro]

Japanese developers catering to the west is completely fine BUT only if they do it right.

Some developers try to cater to the west by steamrolling over their own culture and "doing whatever it is that western developers do", then you end up with some weird Japanese/Western hybrid that neither audience enjoys playing.

Instead they should find out what the Western audience likes about Japanese games and cater to that. We don't want a Western game made by a Japanese developer, we just want a Japanese game that Western gamers enjoy playing.

 

[Aris Khandr]

Only insofar as actually releasing more games over here. I'm still waiting for IDOLM@STER, Namco BANDAI. >.<

 

[airrazor7]

Developers, like any other creator of a creative and fictional medium, should make what they want, regardless of any region or nationality.

Besides, we have too many shoo-, ahem, western games as it is.

Some of the things that make Japanese games so compelling is how different they are because of the culture. I wouldn't have found Persona 4 as fascinating if it took place in an American town or culture.

My thoughts exactly. This conversation makes me think of the Americanized remake of Akira soon to be an unfortunate reality. Some things just work better when they come from a different country. Extra Credits covered this pretty well in their episode "They Myth of the Gun".

Rejoice, it has been canceled.

 

[dyre]

I don't really like a lot of Japanese games, but I don't feel particularly inclined to ask them to develop games especially for people like me. They should develop for whoever buys most of their games.

 

[DeathWyrmNexus]

This is going to make me sound like an asshole.

"Which is a bigger market with more money to plunder??"

It depends on their goals. Do they want to cater to a niche group or expand that niche group? The west is only a good group to cater to if you will enjoy making things for them. If not, fuck em. This coming from a westerner who isn't into Jrpgs.

 

[Raideh]

Cleaned.

 

[Zeraiya]

Simply, I think what makes Japanese games what they are is the fact that they have the unique Japanese flaire that is unseen in the West. By catering to the West even more so than they already do they are robbing themselves of the only thing that makes their games unique.

If anything Japanese games should go back towards their roots and just monopolise on what makes their games great and interesting instead of trying to morph their games into Western games.

 

[badgersprite]

No, because when they do cater to the West, they often end up making bad games riddled with stereotypes and cliches, because their perception of American culture is often pretty limited by what they've seen through film, TV and games. Basically, it would be like asking American developers to cater to Japanese audiences based on stereotypical anime cliches (which is actually very very Western-influenced a lot of the time).

Basically, the more you ask developers to intentionally cater to one group, the more likely they are to screw it up instead of just focusing on making a good game. Just look at the gaming industry's attempt to cater to women. Instead of focusing on writing a good game with good characters, you end up with a really defensive, insecure development process based around thinking, "How do we be more like X?" or "How do we make sure X likes this?"

 

[Et3rnalLegend64]

Which option is more Persona?

This one wins by far.

Anyways, on topic. Why should they? Devs should just do what they're good at. If they feel like branching out, then more power to them. This goes both ways for both sides. If they want to perfect their art instead of changing, I'm fine with that too.

 

[Shia-Neko-Chan]

absolutely not.

Western games feel too much like hollywood most of the time or insert unneeded elements like arbitrary choices, then the fanbase of Western games like to put down Japanese games because they don't follow that same mold.

I enjoy the charm of Japanese games because it's something Western games will never have, so I think they should stay the same.

 

[RJ Dalton]

Fuck no. You should never cater to an audience; that's a recipe for making soulless drudge. If anything Japanese game makers should strive for originality and quality within the context of their own culture. If it's good, people will appreciate it whether it's aimed at their culture or not.
Unless they're total fucking douchebags. You know who you are.

 

[Dingoman013]

well the thing is is that we aren't relying on JRPGS as much because we can make our own RPGS based more on our culture and what we like.

 

[Lazy Kitty]

If by catering to the west you mean making their games available (and compatible) here (but not necesarilly translated), then yes.

So many games they don't sell here which I would like to play...