While I disagree on a few points here and there I totally see why you would feel that way. But at this point it’s more about “I’m personally falling out of love with Japanese games” and less of “the Japanese gaming industry is lazy, uncreative, and fails to take or even capitalize on chances they get.”
I think it’s a little of both, personally.
I hate on Japan constantly, and even I can’t agree that ALL Japanese games are ass. That being said, you see the games that they’re putting out, and you can tell a lot of companies are just rehashing shit and resting on their laurels. I think it’s maybe more jarring since US and Europe has caught up so quickly, and a healthy chunk of AAA titles are coming from there now.
And honestly, you can cite Japanese fighting games all you want, but if they don’t start to make MAJOR innovations in how their overall product is handled then this little revival we’ve got going won’t last much longer. While I may not be as big a fan of MK’s gameplay as some other people, in terms of an overall product they blew their Japanese competitors out of the water, hands down.
I think Inafune has no right to talk when he has Final Fight Streetwise and the next-gen Bionic Commando under his resume now.
People have asked Blizzard this, and they’ve stated there is simply no market for mmos in Japan. Lack of PC gamers, everyone is on handheld, arcades, or consoles.
With Final Fight streetwise the only credit he got was a special thanks(what ever that means) and with Bionic Commando he credited as an executive producer. When the later game came out he had more of an administrative role at Capcom so I don’t think he had much to do with the project other than green lighting it. He had a hand in making Dead Rising and Lost Planet so I think we can forgive him
And people are hardly on consoles there.
If anyone is interested 1up.com wrote some interesting articles on this very issue I’ll link them here: http://www.1up.com/features/how-japans-earthquake-changed-developers, http://www.1up.com/features/japanese-games-breaking-west
Really? I thought FFXI was big over there. Or maybe not. Correct me.
I feel like I’m obligated to make a joke about FFXIV, but seeing as that whole game WAS a joke…
Final Fantasy XIV.
l’all
I think that’s due to platformers being (arguably) the easiest game to make a framework of. Everyone’s played them, everyone desigining a game has played the good ones, and they’re a simple concept: traverse screens of obstacles. It’s also pretty flexible.
A good number of those indie platformers have turned out well too (Super Meat Boy sans some screen lag issues, VVVVVV, etc., with more like Dustforce on the way) without being plain rehashes of old classics. But yeah, for the reasons listed above, it is probably a medium where a game can be made lazily.
Speaking of which, I actually had the opportunity to go see that Indie Game movie, but I thought it was on the wrong weekend and ended up not going. From what I’ve read, it might’ve just been a motivational “Chase your dreams”-type deal.
Man VVVVVV was the shit. That’s one I forgot in my list before.
This turned into a versus thread. No one has yet to explain what Inafune meant when he said Japanese games were used to winning. Winning at what? Is it sales numbers? Game design (how do you win at that anyway)? Metacritic score?
Thread also made me evaluate the games I’ve played most this generation. Turns out it’s a sports game (2K series) that’s been using the same game mechanics for decades. How many different ways can I throw an orange ball into a circle? Enough to play it every year apparently.
Japan seems to have its own MMO market. They don’t really seem to play Western or other Asian MMOs for that matter. Actually when it comes to MMOs they basically vary from country to country. Korea’s MMO market is dominated by Lineage I, Lineage II and Aion in the top 3 spots (I think). TERA is in 5th and growing as they patch the game and ready it for western release. Each of those games has a few million subscribers. WoW still has the highest amount of subscribers when it comes to an MMO but China’s had much bigger free to play MMOs.
I think it’s okay to use the same base mechanic as long as you refine it in some way in the next iteration. I’m not a big sports game fan but when Madden first introduced more accurate pass control using the right analog, I had a lot of friends who really dug that stuff, though as of recent it seems that those games are taking their time to refine their franchise mode to make each iteration different. I had a friend who just smoked weed and played franchise mode before he dropped out. Kind of hilarious in hindsight.
I think DMC3 to DMC4 had both a refinement in Dante’s combat style but a step back in level design. What’s better than multiple styles to choose from? Using them all at once in an instant. I actually love using Dante in DMC4 but let’s be honest, most people will not appreciate the combat mechanics and the first things most people would notice is the set pieces and level design. This is why GOW is so popular even though the actual combat is okay-ish and seems to be more copied than any other action game combat system. It sets up for the set pieces and decent level design. DMC4 pretty much felt lazy in design because it was the same stuff in the 2nd half with a different character. Even though you were given awesome tools to play with, you were in a shitty playground.
Having done a little indie game tool programming I can tell you right now the issue with indie devs doing rpg is the asset creation. It’s expensive and to be honest on the iphone market you can pretty much switch the name and the font and resell it and make some cash. Being original got snuffed real quick by devs pulling zynga’s and gimping sales for startups.
What advice would you give to someone who thinks he could do the storyline writing/scenario crafting for such a project and may even be willing to, at first, do it for free?
Yakuza only mentioned once?
I’m not a guy huge into game stories, I just picked the game up because it had Yakuza written on it and was beating people up on the back thinking it would be some cool beat 'em up. Now I’m hooked to the story and get to beat people up all cool like. Yakuza 3 made me shed a few tears.
Inafune is right. Japan needs to step it game up and produce good/better games. A lot of companies are simply pumping out sequel/reebot 1515351 and calling it a day, and if its a new game, it tossed at the Wii, or turned into Asura’s Wrath (A few great things, but with one major flaw that ruins the game). Japanese developers used to be the shit, they knew how to get things done. Now, not so much. Its the other way around, America/Europe develops better games and releases a bunch of crappy games, and Japan releases a lot of stupid shit (with an extremely disproportionate small amount of good games ) Maybe its the competition from European studios and American studios, or maybe its the larger resources available to America and Europe which allows them to do more. Or simply, it me wanting more and more engaging games in, graphics, sound, size, controls, difficulty, length, story, environment, characters.
As for Indie games, you know what’s fun
Geometry Wars 1 and 2, This is Hard, The Impossible Game, Marble Blast Ultra, Castle Crashers, Shadow Complex, N+
Japan can and should take these ideas and expand them into full fledged non linear games 60 dollar games. What I think Japan should do what Nintendo do and become the alternative market, however they shouldn’t port these games to a shitty console like Wii. But it really shouldn’t matter if the West or East does it, as long as somebody does it. These indie games are floating in a sea of shit, but a lot of these games have cool concepts that could be expanded by a lot by a company that has resourced, provided the company is willing to take a chance on the game and follow through.
Either way, the West and the East have to steep up their game. Developers on both sides are realising a bunch of crappy games.
lol fish on twitter
Don’t know who “Phil Fish” is, nor do I really care.
Inafune makes a great point to say that known developers or known franchises get can get a lot of media attention without needing to put forth a lot of effort, but that’s true on all sides of the pond. For example, I don’t feel like any of the Halo games since 3 have deserved the press they got. When Bioware announced that they were making a Sonic RPG, everyone leaped to find out what these Western developers would be doing with the license (the answer: making a horrible, horrible game). Activision has been remaking Call of Duty 4 every year since 2009, but reporters still want the scoops on them, despite knowing that they’ll be basically the same game as before. That’s how it is for the entire video games industry.
To be fair, at least 90% of the games Japan puts out are shit.
To be fair once again, at least 90% of the games America puts out are also shit.
That said, I can think of many games from both the East and the West that I love that came out in the last 5 years. If you can’t, then:
a) You aren’t looking hard enough.
b) You’ve willingly blinded yourself.
I love you.
I think The problem in Western games is the whole immersion equals empathy .They equate immersion either in game cut scenes,realistic face models q.t.e’s with empathy and care when it could be far from the truth .I don’t need a ridiculous set piece to make me pay attention to a video game and enjoy the expierence I just need good gameplay , unique environments and great storytelling to truly like my character and care for them.Video games should quit taking pages from movies and quit saying shit like blockbuster,water cooler,jaw dropping all that movie review shit frequently.