Hi all! In today’s blog I would like to touch on the topic of the characteristics of Japanese video games. Why have games from the land of the rising sun remained popular all over the world for the fifth decade and remain in the warm memories of every player for many years who touched these masterpieces?? Many people disdain the “Japaneseness”, but behind the cartoonishly bright graphics or stylized dark tones there is often furious hardcore and addictive gameplay. What is the secret of such success? So let’s try to figure it out!
Japanese developers were the creators of the gaming industry as we see it now. Of course, it has changed a lot over the years, but it was in the 80s of the twentieth century that Japan built the foundation. Just as manga and anime became part of Japanese culture over time, video games met the same fate.
When staff engineer Yokoi Gunpei came to his management at Nintendo with a crazy idea for a portable console in 1978, it became clear that the entertainment market was about to undergo big changes.
But no matter how technology changes, games have always had a certain charm in Japan.
The first difference between Western and Japanese games is that the Japanese are very hardworking and meticulous about the quality bar. Where Western companies will go on strike about long working hours, for the Japanese it’s normal workdays.
Japanese games are usually created under the direction of one person. And unlike Western companies, this person influences and makes significant changes at all stages of development. Few will name the Leader The Witcher 3, while names Hideo Kojima, Shinji Mikami, Hironobu Sakaguchi, Hidetaka Miyazaki, Goichi Suda, Fumito Ueda scorched by sweat and pain into the history of video games. It’s not enough to just be an effective project manager, the Japanese are visionaries. And while the master has most of the concept of the entire game in his head, his apprentices only help shape it and polish it to perfection.
Sometimes it seems to me that Goichi Suda is mentally ill. Such thoughts appear after completing crazy games of the master
Western companies are constantly under pressure from large investors. If before the digital era they tried to make a product of high quality, since there could be no talk of any edits, then in the 21st century dozens of patches after release have become the norm, not counting large dayone ones, which are often comparable to the size of the game itself (Cyberpunk 2077). Ordinary users were tasked with identifying bugs.
The Japanese have a completely different mentality. Honor and conscience are not an empty phrase for them. Where developers encounter difficulties, no one pushes them to release. Publishers give time to polish the product. Therefore, almost all games are of the highest quality. And even remasters and remakes are transferred to new systems with special scrupulousness and love, sometimes adding new features of a particular console. Can you remember Resident Evil remake for Nintendo GameCube, remakes of old Zelda parts on Nintendo 3ds And Nintendo Switch, reissue MGS3: Snake Eater with a new first-person view for Nintendo 3ds, remakes RE2,3 And Final Fantasy VII for modern systems.
The second difference is the deep lore and multi-level plot. Western developers offered fairly simple stories. Only in the last 10-12 years have there been any changes in this direction. For the Japanese, the skeleton of the game has always been built around the plot. Whether it’s the Shinra Corporation, which is causing an environmental disaster for the entire Earth in FFVII or a thousand-year conspiracy in Xenosaga – these stories make you watch what is happening with trepidation. Complex moral choices, emotional experiences of characters, intense relationships with party members have become the hallmark of the Japanese gaming industry. The West offers relaxation in its games, and Japan offers the study of the “book”!
Character designs and models are evolving in completely different directions every year. If Western developers rely more on creating “dummy” characters through editors, then in Japanese they prescribe the character, behavior, motivation of each character in the game. The West is increasingly bending in favor of feminists and minorities. Characters are reworked and become less and less likable. Everyone probably remembers how the character of Sonya Blade changed in Mortal Kombat or what kind of crazy bitch they turned Ellie into The Last of Us Part 2. The Japanese are faithful to traditional values and offer cute models of both male and female characters. Leon Kennedy, Claire Redfield in the RE remake pleased the most devoted fans; in the Nioh 2 editor, the results are not soulless dolls, but Team Ninja There are even programmers who calculate the physics of female charms in Dead or Alive 😉
It’s hard to believe now, but at the beginning of the 2000s, the Japanese gaming industry almost died at the peak of its form. The reason for this was high, aggressive competition with the Western market on the one hand, and on the other hand, the rapid growth of the mobile gaming sector. In Japan, people spend a lot of time in transport. In the subway, buses, and stations, people occupy themselves with phones or portable consoles. The developers plunged headlong into the domestic market, releasing a specific product on handheld systems, such as Monster Strike or Disney Tsum Tsum with billions of dollars in income. At the same time, visual novels began to gain popularity.
Large companies have encountered problems in technical implementation.
The level of Japanese games with the arrival PS3 And XBOX360 could no longer compete with such hits as Assassin’s Creed, Mass Effect, Dragon Age. Something needed to change. And for almost the entire cycle of the seventh generation consoles, programmers were busy independently developing three game engines: Konami – Fox Engine, Capcom – RE Engine, SquareEnix – Luminous Engine. To please the Western market, the bet was placed on photorealism. But along with technological progress, the games of the Japanese giants began to lose their identity and began to look more and more like the games of their Western colleagues.
Try to distinguish a real photo from a replica of a room using 3D scanning in FOX Engine
Company Nintendo remained true to its roots. Constantly experimenting with the form of presentation in the form of different consoles and with genres, the company’s games remained with recognizable characters and adventures. And be it Mario Kart or the next rescue of Zelda, each game reached the players with stunning success. If you look at the statistics, it is not surprising to find that a Nintendo product ranks 12 of the 20 best-selling games of all time.
One cannot fail to note another interesting feature of Japanese games – their atmosphere. The impressions that a living city makes in Yakuza with its colorful population or the Japanese subway on the way to school in Persona 5, can’t compare with anything. It’s as if you’re transported to the other side of the globe, you’re a gaijin in a strange, unfamiliar world. But you don’t have to be afraid! This world is welcoming, it will open up to anyone who is ready to get to know it and will carefully guide you by the hand from the title screen to the final credits.
Yakuza has long resisted entering the Western market. Features of the language, adaptation of jokes, specific details in the environment seemed to scare away the audience, but in the end they were accepted on their merits.
Sega and Atlus have Casino-Pub.co.uk given Persona 5 as much time as needed to polish it. The final result was amazing.
For many others, Japanese games are associated with hardcore difficulty. Some games such as the series Souls are player unfriendly from the start, while others gradually increase difficulty. For example Mario, Donkey Kong, Final Fantasy. As it turned out, ultra difficulty gives many players an additional motivator to complete. And God forbid you get together PvP with an Asian player Dark Souls. Nothing but pain and defeat awaits you.
Looking back, I realize that most of my game library is occupied by games from Japanese developers. Is it a coincidence or not?? It’s nice to come back to them, they never become outdated and are always relevant. In my humble opinion, Western games are killed by monotony. Yes, sometimes it’s interesting to run around in the open world and admire the scenery, but as a rule it all ends with the same type of events, forcing you to run from one end of the map to the other. Games need compactness. It’s hard to keep the plot in your head when you’re constantly forced to grind or do side activities.
What games do you prefer??
Best comments
The first difference between Western and Japanese games is that the Japanese are very hardworking and meticulous about the quality level.
Publishers give time to polish the product. Therefore, almost all games are of the highest quality.
The whole text smacks of some kind of terminal stage of viabusism, but these lines are the strongest. Highest quality? T.e Left Alive or Balan Wonderworld are not Japanese games or something? And this is from a relatively recent one, if you dig around, you can find a dozen more “highest quality” games. Hell, even the one I liked, Deadly Preomonition, isn’t exactly an example of quality either.
Few will name the Director of The Witcher 3, while the names of Hideo Kojima, Shinji Mikami, Hironobu Sakaguchi, Hidetaka Miyazaki, Goichi Suda, Fumito Ueda are burned with sweat and pain in the history of video games.
Okay, I propose to name the development leaders of Monster Hunter, Fatal Frame, Resident Evil 8 or some Chip ‘n Dale Rescue Rangers. Only without Google and Wikipedia. But in the West there are also plenty of famous game designers.
Again, such “story-based” games as Out Run, Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out. or Taiko no Tatsujin, apparently not made in Japan.
Hmm… And what books can I study in Dead or Alive Xtreme 3, for example?
What is the “golden era” like?? From first to seventh? From first to ninth? From fourth to ninth? Ten is included in it?
The West is increasingly bending in favor of feminists and minorities. Characters are reworked and become less and less likable. Everyone probably remembers how the character of Sonya Blade changed in Mortal Kombat.
It would be nice to have more than one example here.
It would also be worth giving more examples here.
Stop mixing sexuality and beauty.
This world is welcoming, it will open up to anyone who is ready to get to know it and will carefully guide you by the hand from the title screen to the final credits.
Yeah, Kamurocho with its thousands of aggressive Japanese gopniks is just friendliness itself.
And God forbid you get into PVP with a samurai on Asian servers in Dark Souls. Nothing but pain and defeat awaits you.
And in European and American it means everything is peaceful and calm, everyone just loves each other and other people’s mothers.
"Dead or Alive 6 talks about what sexuality is" – it’s a pity that she forgot to tell what a normal fighting game is, kek .
Highest quality? T.e Left Alive or Balan Wonderworld are not Japanese games or something? And this is from a relatively recent one, if you dig around, you can find a dozen more “highest quality” games. Hell, even the one I liked, Deadly Preomonition, isn’t exactly an example of quality either.
That’s why it’s worth clarifying that almost all games. There is a small percentage of hacky games.
Okay, I propose to name the development leaders of Monster Hunter, Fatal Frame, Resident Evil 8 or some Chip ‘n Dale Rescue Rangers. Only without Google and Wikipedia. But in the West there are also plenty of famous game designers
There are many famous ones, but few legendary ones, in my humble opinion
a collective image of most famous Japanese games was used
What is the “golden era” like?? From first to seventh? From first to ninth? From fourth to ninth? Ten is included in it?
) Corrected for a more streamlined description. Initially focused on 7-10 parts. But this is a matter of taste.
Thanks for the criticism. It’s never too late to learn from mistakes. Made some minor edits.
PS I learned about viabushnost for the first time. I even had to look up the definition on the Internet)
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