Japanese games suck ?

[Eiganjo]

well, Im looking forward to quite some japanese games

Pokemon+nobunaga, Fatal Frame 2 Wiimake, Ni No Kuni, that new Fire Emblem, that project capcom/sega/namco are being mysterious about, just to name a few.
Also Disgaea so great :D

but then again Ubisoft's Child of Eden is great as well, even though that was from a japanese hand.

to each his own I guess, I wont bother with Cod 5 million or something or Fifa part 3 million

 

[Lee]

First, the Xbox 360 isn't very popular in Japan. Because of this, fewer Japanese developers will release games on it compared to the other consoles. As a matter of fact, a lot of this boils down to the fact that gamers in different regions have different tastes. Turned based, single player RPG's have always been popular in Japan. In the west, however, sports, racing, and FPS are far more popular, especially those with a competitive online multiplayer component, for example. As the Xbox 360 is made by Microsoft, an American company, it is not surprising then that it will have more games falling in the latter category than the other consoles.

I had the same thought actually but the figures for the PS3 are surprisingly similar, with a mere 5 of the top 50 games being Japanese in origin (MGS4, MGSHD, SFIV, SSF IV and Demon's Souls).

By comparison, 7 of the top 10 PSN games were Japanese in origin!

In short, I don't think Japanese games as a whole have gotten worse. What has actually happened is that the video game industry in the west has greatly matured since the crash of 1983.

I agree, but 'sucks' (as much as I hate his use of it) is a relative term and not entirely incomprehensible in its use when the competition (in this case, the West) is performing so much better.

 

[PK Gaming]

The very fact alone that Mario games are japanese should shut this guy up. Everybody has played Mario games, and its a fact that Mario games revolutionized gaming (time and time again) to say that (all, not just some) modern day Japanese games suck as a whole really fucking pisses me. Self entitled bastard has no right to call himself game designer if he can't even respect the founding fathers of gaming. Super Mario Galaxy 1 is my favorite game of all time, is regarded as being one of the best games of all time, by pretty much anyone with decent taste. His blatant disregard of everything the japanese has done up until now really pisses me off. You got here because of japanese games, show some respect.

I'm not even getting into the myriads of other modern day japanese games that end up being top tier, because why bother? This guy doesn't even deserve that.

 

[Xaqwais]

From what I can tell from the article, while he started out with the broad statement of "Your games suck", he was referring to the game design principles that a lot of games take. We all acknowledge that series like Mario, Zelda, FF are all great series.

But look at the issues that FFXIII had or the hand holding Skyward Sword had. Obviously, this guy is tactless and a jerq but he has a point. He has his game design philosophies and he's gonna stick to them.

 

[lilyhollow]

Straw Hat, he's clearly not saying that literally every Japanese game is bad. He's not crazy. Why are you assuming that he's crazy?

I don't know where the guy is coming from specifically, but I can think of a number of ways that people can and have criticized "Japanese games" in a generalized sense.

The concept of "narrative" is something that has been seriously considered in the game development scene lately. People tend to be bothered by most narrative games being "cinematic" in nature, where player agency is limited to the "game part" and all the interesting narrative happens in short "movie clips" interspersed throughout the game. It's easy to see why Japan would be considered stagnant in this regard; their most narrative-focused games are pretty much jRPGs, entirely text-based games, or like... Metal Gear Solid.

I don't know if that's one of his specific arguments or anything, but it's out there. And it sounds like a fair criticism to me!

 

[PK Gaming]

Really kristoph? The guy needs to throw us a freaking bone here, because he's being awfully vague. I made the assumption, because from what i've seen on the net the dude's a prick.

Sure, everybody is entitled to their own opinion, I get that, I really do but he said this at fucking GDC in public without regard for anyones feelings. He needs to show some damn respect. As an aside, I don't feel that Japanese games have stagnated in the least bit, though again thats just my opinion on the matter...!

The thing really cheeses me off is that this guy is just an indie developer. An ant in the gaming industry who thinks that he's experienced to really make a call like that.

im sorry japanese guy! i was a bit rough, but your country's games are f------ terrible nowadays."

Here's a quote from his twitter. Immature, brash and fucking rude, this guy is an idiot. He fully believes that modern japanese games suck.

 

[zorbees]

Why does he have to be big in the industry to have an opinion on it?

 

[PK Gaming]

Damn you got me.

The rest of my point still stands though. Like, there was a part of me doubted the legitimacy of the entire scandal... maybe it was taken out of context, or there was some hiccup. But he outright says the same thing on twitter.

-_-

 

[Stagnant]

The very fact alone that Mario games are japanese should shut this guy up. Everybody has played Mario games

You need to differentiate between "what is" and "what was"

 

[PK Gaming]

You need to differentiate between "what is" and "what was"

Normally I don't mind it when people snipe posts (hell I do it all the time) but cmon, is now really a good time? I didn't think I had to go into detail but...

Mario games are still a dominant force in the gaming industry; Super Mario Galaxy 1 and 2 are some of the best games of the generation (even if they were on the wii) so i'm not quite what you're implying. Even if I was wrong, you're totally disregarding the point i'm trying to make that this guy is a douchebag with no respect or common courtesy.

 

[lilyhollow]

He's probably not even being vague. It's called being taken out of context. And tweets aren't exactly a great way to elaborate. Like yeah, he was mean or whatever, but that doesn't mean he's not making valid points somewhere.

 

[Raverist]

The guy's a fool. Back in the days of the PS2, JRPGs were king. Hell, it's pretty much the reason I don't own a 7th gen console.

Give me Disgaea or a Level 5 game anyday.

 

[Mastadi]

It's not that the Japanese games suck nowadays, it's just that western ones caught up.

 

[Tortferngatr]

Disrespectful and unfair, but just another manifestation of the slow yet inevitable shift in gaming supremacy from East to West.

You only need to look at GameRankings top 10 rated Xbox360 games - each and every one was developed in the West. In fact, from my casual glance it looks as though only 4 of the top 50 games are Japanese in origin (with two of them effectively being the same game in Street Fighter IV and Super Street Fighter IV and another being a port of an old Castlevania game...the other is Bayonetta if you're curious).

He's generalising and opening himself up to a billion 'but what about [video game]!' comments but maybe this will light a fire up under certain Japanese developers?

...isn't the XBox360 the hipster console in Japan?

 

[theangryscientist]

...isn't the XBox360 the hipster console in Japan?

http://www.smogon.com/forums/showpost.php?p=4137894&postcount=27

 

[PK Gaming]

He's probably not even being vague. It's called being taken out of context. And tweets aren't exactly a great way to elaborate. Like yeah, he was mean or whatever, but that doesn't mean he's not making valid points somewhere.

You're right, I think he genuinly thinks ALL modern day Japanese games suck. It's to be expected from someone who posts this:

and this:

Hide

(pay attention to the retweet)

AND THE COUP DE GRAS:

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/03/07/the-competition-the-story-behind-the-igfs-critics/

An article that basically shows how much of a dick Fez is. At this point, he's just trolling and I can't see how anyone actually agrees with his claim. Lee raises a good point, but the dude makes a huge sweeping generalization.

 

[DracoMihawk]

i let keisuke die...

On Topic: i personally think on a modern note japan is producing much better games. Atlus itself imo produces better games then any western company could. This is just in my opinion what makes a game, which is story and gameplay, not stupid graphics. while graphics are important, it shouldnt be what determines whether a game is good or not

 

[Stagnant]

Mario games are still a dominant force in the gaming industry; Super Mario Galaxy 1 and 2 are some of the best games of the generation

What I am seeing here is a personal bias. Please let me know where you have CoD's ranking in "best games of generation".

Also,

Mass Effect
Uncharted
Gears
Halo
Elder Scrolls
Little Big Planet
etc

 

[waterwarrior]

What I am seeing here is a personal bias. Please let me know where you have CoD's ranking in "best games of generation".

Well, going back to Gamerankings again, Galaxy 1 and 2 are ranked #2 and 3 of all time, on any system (only beaten by OoT). Only CoD 4 is on the first page.

Also, Elder Scrolls are giant, massive RPG's with complex story lines, a gigantic mythos behind them, filled with mystical creatures of all shapes and sizes, every girl in existence is no smaller than a C-cup... Most American series of all time, right?

Edit: Just to clarify, I fucking love Skyrim, it just has a lot of influence from Japanese RPG's is all (minus the turn-based combat)

 

[PK Gaming]

What I am seeing here is a personal bias. Please let me know where you have CoD's ranking in "best games of generation".

Also,

Mass Effect
Uncharted
Gears
Halo
Elder Scrolls
Little Big Planet
etc

Dude who cares, I just brought those games up in order to directly contradict Phil Fish's statement that modern day Japanese games suck. Its really that simple lol.

In regards to the second half of your post. I think you're the under the impression i'm a Nintendo fanboy. No way, I play all games, all the time. Speaking of which, I'm currently playing ME3. I'm a huge fan of ME, Uncharted, LBP, Elder Scrolls, indifferent to CoD and a Halo fanboy.

(exhales)

 

[The Knights of Wario Land]

You could argue that this guy is having an opinion, but he has absolutely no logical sense behind his insult.

He's just doing this for attention, and he got it all right. Or maybe he's just a huge troll.

 

[capefeather]

I honestly don't see why such a big deal is being made out of this.

 

[EpicTurtle]

I bet Pixel is so pissed right now.

But seriously, although Japanese games aren't as good as they used to be (and Western games are getting better), they still are extremely well tuned. I guess Phil has some natural biased because indie games aren't that popular in Japan (except Cave Story).

 

[Lee]

relevant comments from Keiji Inafune, creator of Mega Man.

http://uk.games.ign.com/articles/122/1220370p1.html

Inafune began his talk by reiterating the poor state of the Japanese game industry. He explained that Japanese developers lack a desire to win. In order to win, Inafune continued, developers need to acknowledge their losses and start from scratch. According to Inafune, Japanese games are now "a blast from the past."

...

Japanese developers, Inafune said, take the easy way out and have rode on the success of their predecessors.

 

[PK Gaming]

Pretty ironic coming from the guy who's been rehashing megaman (read I have no problem with megaman games, they're GOOD, but the irony is palpable) games for years. He's done with Capcom sure, but I wonder if he'll succeed or wind up forgotten...?

Also relevant

Reading Hiro's Twitter (as well as the feeds of other Japanese people that spoke with Hiro), and I really feel sorry for him even more.

Apparently he paid his own way to come to GDC for the first time so he could hear some great talks and learn new things. He studied English hardcore beforehand, and even switched his language at home to English just to practice for the conference. Then, on his first day at GDC, he works up his courage to ask Fish a question, and gets berated like that.

Anyway, the guy seems like he's really nice. The response really got to him, though. He posted at 3:00am the night of the incident saying he couldn't sleep.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y410SQD2mz8&feature=youtu.be&t=1m13s

I'm thoroughly enjoying the backpedelling on Fish's twitter. You reap what you sow dude.