Developer Admits Sun Setting on Japanese Game Industry

[Taunta]

I just recently watched Extra Credits series on Western vs. JRPGs, so this doesn't surprise me much. Especially since in JRPG-land, more money is being poured into graphics and cinematics,and less into actual gameplay innovation, which I think is the wrong place to go.

Maybe this is irrelevant to the problem, but I think part of the cause may be that their innovation in games is going the opposite direction as everyone else's.

But I don't think I can say much about this. I can't even remember the last time I bought a Japanese game that wasn't made by Nintendo. I think Recettear, which was still a couple years ago.

Hell they could probably be making a profit on what they have out now if they weren't so stingy with the localization.

Exactly my thoughts, they've got like this xenophobic fear that releasing games outside of Japan is a bad thing. I'm sure it's more complex than that but from an ignorant, outside perspective that's sure what it looks like.

Unfortunately, xenophobia is still a big thing in Japanese culture, so it only makes sense that it would extend to the video game industry. The big problem is realizing that there's a problem with your culture and then fixing it, which is easier said than done.

That JRPG series Extra Credits made is all shades of wrong. Go check out Tales of Graces F, Xenoblade, any of the Ys series for PSP or on Steam (only 3 is on steam), a ton of the stuff published by Atlus, NIS America and XSEED. There is innovation going on there no one buys it though. If you happen to own a PSP I would say go check out Ys Seven since it's honestly some of the most fun I've had with any game for a long time. If you own a PS3 try Tales of Graces F. I didn't get it myself due to a bad experience with hating characters from a eariler game in the series but the people who have played it only have good things to say. For Wii once again Xenoblade with statements mirroring the Tales of Graces F ones. There's plenty of great games coming out of Japan the problem is websites don't even bother noticing them. Also I don't know any for 360 since it's not very popular in Japan in the first place so I don't know every japanese game coming out on it.

To be fair, EC didn't say there weren't any exceptions. I think they were mainly referring to Final Fantasy and that ilk. Games that have huge budget movie cut scenes but still have menu-based combat.

This doesn't change that they did no real research, misinformed a ton of people and claimed their opinion as fact. Square Enix do NOT make all RPGs that come out of Japan. There are tons that come out that don't focus on those at all it's not accurate at all it's a generalization that has no facts behind it.

Read my post again.

They said that it was not indicative of all JRPGs ever. They even listed their own examples of ones that do it right.

 

[l3o2828]

They do create good games, such as jrpgs. But my issue is that they are cliche now. All the characters are the same, similar stories - they need more originality. Im playing FF13-2 and its deja vu when talking to people and seeing the characters. Every statement being folowed by the statement repeated in question form eg."We will find Lightening" "Will we find Lightening?"
Its annoying. Also the same characters moaning about being weak eventhough they have now battled and killed 1000 monsters and 3 bosses (thats Hope).

They are still enjoyable to play, they just need to shake things up a bit, make a different kind of rpg. Different artstyle instead of the cliche anime style - Im aware that the jrpg style, but its overplayed and they need something different to get people interested again. Maybe one with a more realistic style?

Play the Shin Megami Tensei games (Persona, Digital Devil Saga, Devil Summoner).

As for me, i feel the japanese developers/publishers etc are too wrapped up in the incredibly Xenophobic 'nature' of japanese audiences which almost always means we get either a stripped out version of game or nothing at all, which for me is enough to condemn most Japanese developers to death.

 

[Sylveria]

Hell they could probably be making a profit on what they have out now if they weren't so stingy with the localization.

^^^ This. They don't bring over stuff people are actually interested in. Instead they bring over half-hearted, flashy, "Westernized" stuff like FFXIII or putting Japanese series in the hands of "western" douches like they're doing with DMC. Admittedly, FFXIII sold like lubricant at a brothel, but it wasn't cause they put a more western spin on it, it was because it was an FF game and twitch-based menu navigation is, apparently, really fun for some people.

Look at the hell and high water that people needed to go through to get Xenoblade and such published. Hell, we're just now getting Tales of Graces on a console that people are actually interested in and even with that there's almost zero advertising push for it.

They need to realize there's nothing wrong with working the niche audience. Remember, gaming used to be a niche thing, now everyone wants to make $500million games and are shocked when the game doesn't sell up to their ridiculous expectations. If they actually scaled back their production costs and made $40-50 games instead of $60+ ones, they'd be able to appeal to that smaller audience and still profit. Heck, if the over-all costs were lower, they may even be able to gamble with something unique. Look at what NIS, Atlus and their ilk are doing. They know they're not going to sell a million copies, and their production reflects that which allows them to profit.

 

[Farther than stars]

News today is full of polarization. On the one hand there's this, of which you can wonder how news-worthy it is, since the situation of the Japanese game industry is really a matter of opinion at the moment. And why would we take this guy's opinion over the next one? I mean it's not like one developer (on the composing side of things might I add) can possibly speak for the entire Japanese gaming industry.
On the hand, you then have articles on this site that predict an apocalypse-scale doomsday brought to you by Anonymous. So between this and that I don't really know what speed of newsday it is today.

 

[putowtin]

"Creating videogames is a service," he continued. "If you can't, or don't want, to see and meet users around the world, I don't think it's possible to provide the entertainment they want."

Truer words were never said.

You can't keep doing the samething if no-ones interested