When is a game too ''Japanese'' for you?

[DementedSheep]

Fanservice.
Wardrobe.
Katawa Shoujo.
Harem plots.
High school setting.
Gratuitous campy characters.
Vaguely effeminate villains.
Retarded dialogue.
Every second line of dialogue starts by repeating the first line of dialogue.
Panty shots.
Female anatomy.
Female armor.
Hyperdimension Neptunia.
Squad of Elite Strippers.
Passive-aggressive love interest.
13-stage bosses.
7 year old generals.
21 year old "veterans".
Kill God.
Save the World.
CHOTTO MATTE KUDASAI!

Also impossibly difficult, thankless games where style is championed over getting things done, and you're graded based on an average of EVERYTHING, and even though you did impeccably on combo, time and damage you get a C+ because you failed to break your controller while reacting to that one fucking QTE.

Basically^
With the addition of obnoxiously loud protagonists, hyperactive with a high pitch voice side kicks, lolita, LOL MASTURBATION, "ACCIDENTALLY" GROPING SOMEONE AND RAPE, out of place "cute" scenes, the character who stands on the sidelines in fights to monologue about how everyone else is awesome and they are useless (bonus point if their big moment is dying in place of another character because they know they are dirt compared to them), long speeches before and/or after fights, lengthy stories about a characters life to sad music, retarded jiggle physics and high heels everywhere.

 

[Gray-Philosophy]

As soon as something is even vaguely similar to any kind of stereotypical anime-looking art style or Japanese high fantasy. It's almost a shame really, because it isn't necessarily a bad style or genre at all. I just feel like I see it so often that I'm growing tired of it, to the point where it can turn me off a game completely.

Curiously, it's sometimes even worse if it's subtle. Like a combination of "realistic" aesthetics and animefied details like prettified faces, oversized eyes and just slightly disproportionate weapons and armour. Often accompanied by completely inconsistent laws of physics.

That said, I don't actually mind just Japanese themes in general. Something like Okami for example, that game looks way cool. It did something different and original, but it still looks unmistakably Japanese


EDIT:

Fanservice.
Wardrobe.
Katawa Shoujo.
Harem plots.
High school setting.
Gratuitous campy characters.
Vaguely effeminate villains.
Retarded dialogue.
Every second line of dialogue starts by repeating the first line of dialogue.
Panty shots.
Female anatomy.
Female armor.
Hyperdimension Neptunia.
Squad of Elite Strippers.
Passive-aggressive love interest.
13-stage bosses.
7 year old generals.
21 year old "veterans".
Kill God.
Save the World.
CHOTTO MATTE KUDASAI!

Also impossibly difficult, thankless games where style is championed over getting things done, and you're graded based on an average of EVERYTHING, and even though you did impeccably on combo, time and damage you get a C+ because you failed to break your controller while reacting to that one fucking QTE.

Also this

 

[StormShaun]

There are so many ways this can go.
Heck, I'm probably annoyed by so much of it, that I can't be bothered listing it all.
Personally, at the top, I really dislike...

- Heavy fanservice.
- Gigantic breasts that are shoved in your face.
- Bad writing. (I can take a certain amount from anything, but sometimes it can be too much.)

I would also add "harem plots", but at that stage, I would have dropped the game and completely shat all over it.

 

[CorrosiveSoul]

Games like Neptunia etc... are too Japanese for my taste.

 

[Michel Henzel]

Nope, can't think of anything. So I'm going for the "There is no such thing for me" answer.
I've looked at what other people listed and nope, I can't really say that anything so that has been said is too japanese for me.
I love things like the HyperDimension, Disgaea, Tales of, Senran Kagura, Valkyria Chronicles, Ar Tonelico series of games. And all of them contain pretty much all the things people have listed as not liking, so yeah I'm fine with it all.

 

[Skatalite]

^That post up there from Johnny Novgorod sums it up well. Another thing I don't like is how dialogue is often very melodramatic or cheesy, and there's almost always that one overly cutesy girl with a squeaky voice in there. I can't stand it. :I

 

[FalloutJack]

Well, if I can't understand what's being said, it's a little too Japanese for me.


In all fairness, though, let's go with aspects of Japanese culture that don't even make an appearance in anime, and definitely no goddamn tentacles, thank you. If I want those, I go to Lovecraft, where they're for tearing people limb from limb like they should be.

 

[GrumbleGrump]

Turn based combat shackled to a RNG. I'm sorry, but I seriously cannot see how gameplay more suited to a debate ends up in your exciting adventure game. How about we - and follow me on this one - have just one button that makes our character attack?

- Bad interfaces. For some reason, Japanese developers just fucking love their menus. slow, clumsy, clunky console menus as far as the eye can see. I still remember when some Nintendo bigwig was wetting himself with pride over having invented a radial menu for SKyward Sword. A game that released in bloody 2011.

This right here when coupled with the above mentioned debate style combat.

 

[SweetShark]

All Visual Novel games with the Concept of you trying to f*ck:

- A Fish.
- A Pingeon.
- A Dinosaur.
- A Skeleton.
- A Egyptian God.
- A Humanoid Ship.
- A Hunanoid Tank.
- A Car.
- No, wait, the Car thing was invented by furries dragons. Forget about it.
- A Hum Meat.

I AM NOT JOKING. THERE ARE LEGIT GAMES LIKE THESE AND I LOVE THEMohmygodirelievedmysecretstotheworldpleasebegentlytome.

 

[Kina]

I don't mind Japanese-esque games, but when it gets too "moe" - I'm out.

 

[CrimsonBlaze]

When they prioritize gratuitous amounts of fan service over having fun, engaging game play and a competent game presentation.

Case in point, Mugen Souls.

I REALLY tried my damnedest to like this game.

NIS published this game and I am a big fan of NIS (they have a lot of great titles with compelling game play mechanics, great stories, and interesting characters), but I really dislike Compile Heart. I really thought that this would be the game that would make me enjoy Compile Heart with a sprinkling of NIS.

It wasn't.

They really do focus A LOT on Chou-Chou, a petite and child-like character who is constantly in compromising situations with other female characters of various proportions. There's actually a mini-game that lets you get a peek at these situations in the game. You can also dress your characters and have them run around in their underwear or swimsuits...uh huh...

In terms of game play, traversing the world is almost nauseating, as the frame rate frequently dips into the single digits realm. Nothing, graphics worthy, happens in the first area (an open grass field) that justifies this drop in frame rate. The battle system is alright; it's very reminiscent of what you would find in a Compile Heart title. I wasn't crazy about it, but I believed that this was the title that would allow it to grow on me.

Also, a lot the special attacks focus on the girl's bits whenever they execute them during battle...double uh huh...

Bottom line, if this was more NIS than Compile Heart, I would have enjoyed it more, and to a point where I would have actually bought the title.

 

[Musou Tensei]

When they prioritize gratuitous amounts of fan service over having fun, engaging game play and a competent game presentation.

Case in point, Mugen Souls.

I REALLY tried my damnedest to like this game.

NIS published this game and I am a big fan of NIS (they have a lot of great titles with compelling game play mechanics, great stories, and interesting characters), but I really dislike Compile Heart. I really thought that this would be the game that would make me enjoy Compile Heart with a sprinkling of NIS.

You are incorrect, NIS had nothing to do with the development of this game, it's made and even published by Compile Heart in japan (according to Wiki in collaboration with a company called GCREST, dunno them). The western censor I mean localizer and publisher is NISA, not NIS, that's a difference, like Nintendo of Japan and NoA, very different branches of the same company.
NISA butchered this one pretty badly, possibly the worst they ever did.

 

[Jute88]

A game can be too Japanese for these reasons:
1)Nothing is explained properly.
2)Too much hand holding, making me believe that the developers don't trust us to use our brains to grasp even the simplest of things

1)I'll give you an example from Tales of Symphonia: Bad guys destroy a town. You have a chance to rebuild it by donating to the villagers. However, you need to donate exact amounts of money or the town won't be repaired. Like, first donate 10, then 7, then 23, after that, 45, then 7 etc. in correct order. The problem with this is, that I had no idea of this, because the game didn't explain me that this is how you build a town. I just assumed that if you keep donating, it will eventually be rebuilt. But no, you have to be psychic to know about how much villagers need money at what points.

Another example story wise: Half-elves are hated in the game's world. So a couple of half-elves tell everyone that they're elves, so that the community they live in would accept them. So, apparently elves and half-elves look more or less the same. But, why exactly are half-elves so hated? Is it because they're not humans? I don't remember elves suffering from this kind of persecution. Maybe I've just forgotten some lore point that explains all this, but I don't remember the game ever explaining WHAT an elf or a half-elf even is? What are their similarities? Their differences? Can half-elves breed? Are there quarte-elves? How are they different?

2)Example from Golden Sun: If you haven't played it, the game has long dialogue scenes that revolve around very simple things. And did I mention that they're long? And boring? I don't mind long scenes telling a story, if they way they tell it is interesting, just put some effort into it. Overall I like the game, it just has a problem of telling the story properly.

 

[CritialGaming]

Tentacle rape.

That's about it.

 

[pookie101]

frankly i avoid japanese made games as a rule even games where i was enjoying myself like metal gear solid 5's open world ended up annoying the crap out of me.. nonsensical story and adding and interesting character who has a second job as a stripper

 

[Kingjackl]

I like my Japanese games, even the anime ones, but I hate whenever they fall back on those shitty cliched jokes about women not being able to cook. Persona 4 is the worst example, because it has so many scenes centred around that idea that completely fall flat in an otherwise pretty funny game. There have been a few others that have done it as well; usually the context is "woman cooks for man she likes in order to impress him, fucks up in a *hilariously* improbable manner, man gets exasperated, joke is made at her expense". It's retrograde 50s-esque sexist crap and it drives me up the wall.

I guess you could say I hate waifu pandering in general, but the reason I chose that instead is because Western games can be guilty of that kind of pandering too. This is one uniquely Japanese aspect of that which really annoys me, especially because so many use it.