Differences between Western and Japanese game Design Philosophies Options

[Xbox-Scene]

Differences between Western and Japanese game Design Philosophies Posted by XanTium | January 19 21:00 EST

From 1up.com: [QUOTE] Through exploration, research and discussion, we've stumbled onto some intriguing answers. Not all of these are proven, scientific theories, but they may offer some insight as to why, for instance, the Xbox 360 lingers unsold on Japanese shelves. One might look at the Japanese console sales charts and make broad claims, like how the Japanese don't like the Xbox. This is not entirely true -- just dive through Japanese message boards or blogs, and one can find legions of enthusiastic fans discussing and praising the likes of Halo, Ghost Recon, Oblivion, Splinter Cell, and Prince of Persia. It just so happens that Western games are a niche market over there. It's much like the Western market and games such as Shin Megami Tensei or Disgaea; they may not be big sellers, but they've garnered underground success and attracted thousands of obsessed fans. As it turns out, great games are great games, enough to overcome hundreds of years of cultural divergence. There are instances of similar game design that show up in different ways. The Japanese have games like Dynasty Warriors and Dragon Quest that focus on long bouts of repetitive grinding to build up characters, while Westerners have World of Warcraft and Diablo. Where English message boards are filled with posters complaining about shoddy localizations and bad voice acting, there are plenty of Japanese fans that bemoan how many Western games aren't even translated into their native language, and the ones that are are often shoddy. Just like America has vast lobbies calling for the censorship of games for being too violent, Japan has also been clamping down, in some cases forcing companies to remove some of the gorier aspects of Resident Evil 4, Dead Rising, and God of War. On the surface, as much as things may seem to be different across the ocean, we're more similar than most realize. [/QUOTE] Full Story: 1up.com (8 pages)

[signal-to-noise-ratio]

Its cool they like Oblivion it is an amazing rpg and with the new packs coming out its getting better.

[epsilon72]

I must admit, I have always liked Japanese games better than Western ones; it's what I started out with. I guess I'm one of these "niche" guys.

[Ichijoe]

Personally just because you can do everything in 3D it doesn't always mean you should.

I haven't tried Oblivion yet, as my 360™ hasn't gotten here yet perhaps Tomorrow?!
According to the Store I bought it from (Quelle), they shipped it out, sometime Last Week.
But, if it's like Morowind on the XBOX™ I'm going to find it very frustrating.
The PC version had way better Control's.

But, it was a good show of what a FPS RPG Game could look like, and I don't think anybody s ever even gotten close to it.

Other 3D RPG's like Sudiki or Fabe just SUCKED OUTRIGHT and should have followed Rule 1 (Above)!
I think Sudeki would have made a better 2.5D Game, then again perhaps not.

Having used Cracked Firmware on my S0NY®™ PSP™ to play the old Playstation™ J-RPGs' (um Lunar), I realize what I miss most about Video Games.
But, to be honest such J-RPG's are just as gulity of beeing stale as any FPS Ego-Shooter. (If you think about it),.
It's just that I haven't really been playing any really good J-RPG's since my PC-Engine / Playstaion1 Days, and it's been just an endless swarm of Ego-Shooters from Doom (ca. 1993) to Doom3 (2005),..

I like a good Ego-Shooter as much as the next Guy!
But, I would kill to have some low-def 2D / 2.5D Drop-Down RPG's on my choice of Console.
Surely Microsoft®™ could get something like this for there Live™ Market couldn't they?!

[dmitri]

I'm sure it has nothing to do with elitism, sexual confusion, or the addiction to cartoons.