Do many Westerners really dislike Japanese games for such shallow reasons as "anime"?

[Rawne1980]

- Metal Gear Solid
- Resident Evil
- Street Fighter
- The Team Ico games
- Silent Hill
- Zelda (particularly Wind Waker)
- Demon's Souls/Dark Souls
- Final Fantasy 9

Some of those are great.

It's when you hit the extremes of that style it gets bad.

I'll take Final Fantasy 10.

I didn't dislike Tidus because he looked like a girl, oh no, I disliked him because he was a whining little prick that made me want to mush his face in with the Blitzball Waka carried everywhere.

And the dialogue .... oh feth me the dialogue. I shall leave you with this scene.....


Oh, the horror.

 

[Fishyash]

Superficial? Maybe. Close minded? Yeah pretty much. But there's nothing wrong with judging a game on how it looks.

I don't really care what country the artists drew the game in. It just has to look good, and that it fits with the scene in general. The style isn't too important for me.

However, it is important to other people how a game looks. I guess it's a similar reason as to judge a game on fidelity as well.

 

[RJ 17]

That "Westerners don't want to play that anime crap, so stop making it." If Westerners don't want to play that, then I don't think that Japan should worry about the Western audience anymore.

I actually think we're seeing this more and more.

However, more to the point, it's a simple cultural difference. Back in the day with games like FF 1 through 6, there really wasn't too much of a transition between Japanese and Western cultures in the game. That is, both sides of the coin could play and enjoy it. But more and more, Japanese games have become, for lack of a better phrase, "more Japanese" and as such it alienates the majority of the Western audience.

 

[Kahunaburger]

Not only is the art style shitty, a lot of Japanese games also have shitty gameplay and usually a shitty story.
Can I go back to Skyrim now?

I see what you did there.

I think I saw a mudcrab the other day.

Disgusting things. I hope to never see one again!

 

[Casual Shinji]

I didn't dislike Tidus because he looked like a girl, oh no, I disliked him because he was a whining little prick that made me want to mush his face in with the Blitzball Waka carried everywhere.

Yeah, but his Meg Ryan hairdo, leather dungarees, and Jersey Shore tan didn't help much either.

Even if he had diamant encrusted dialoge and the voice of Stephen Fry, he'd still look like a male prostitute for creepy weirdos with a boy scout fetish.

 

[Slycne]

Look some of us just still haven't forgiven them for replacing Snake with Raiden in MGS2.

 

[Bobic]

I'm sorry, but if I don't like an aesthetic, why should I spend 20 hours staring at it?

 

[dimensional]

Seems OP is taking a lot of flak I read the message as more of a question as to why people dismiss games based on art style than a statement along the lines of as a few have put it "stop liking what I dont like".

anyway my 2 cents is some people strongly dislike certain styles and that is why they wont play them and there is nothing wrong with that. Other people see the anime (which apparently is all one style now although I suppose western art is all pigeonholed as one style as well unfortunately) aesthetic as childish, its not cool anymore. Usually these will be teenagers or young children who give into peer pressure they dont want to be laughed at so they dont buy it and mock it seeing it as below them a few may go deliberately against the grain and play these games because its not cool atm so they are being really edgy or something (dont know).

So is it shallow to dismiss it based on its arts style well yes and no depends on your particular reason. I have been guilty of dismissing certain games based on their looks but I am much more tolerant on my art style now as I have found that it keeps the games feeling fresher if I switch from art style to art style.

I do think people should stop trying to apply logic to Japanese games though seriously that is one thing they dont have and I hope they never do but thats a bit off topic.

 

[Iwata]

I like anime. I actually have a fairly large collection.

That said, I despise JRPG's.

Whereas anime is varied in most (not all) aspects, JRPG's have long since fallen on the same formula over and over again to the point of exhaustion, and hold nothing new. The only JRPG's I play these days are the ones that have nothing in common with what we expect of the genre, i.e., Demon's/Dark Souls.

 

[Kahunaburger]

It certainly doesn't help that the Anime face only ever seems to have 3 emotions (Happy, Sad, Freaked-the-fuck-out) and all of them are over the top expressions - again, just ruins the immersion for me, and makes it hard for me to focus on the storyline and gameplay when the Characters are so... retarded.

I think that may be more of a function of the level of effort/expertise by the game designers than of the medium itself. The bodies of work of Hayao Miyazaki and the late great Satoshi Kon would be the last I'd accuse of insufficient emotional nuance.

IMO, the "anime faces" (and faces based on 2-D animation in general) are still probably ahead of most 3-D face modelling as a system for conveying character expression in a way that is feasible for significant use in a game with a large amount of character expressions.

 

[Tsun Tzu]

It's a matter of taste, really. I'm sorry to say, some people just don't like certain things, in this case, anime.

That's fine. If they dislike a game for its visual style, that's also fine. They're just opinions anyway and don't affect another person's experience with the game.

That said, I'm not much of a fan of Japanese games outside of visual novels. Turn-based combat just doesn't appeal to me and the tropes are somewhat irritating. Androgynous teenager with odd hair fights government/ancient evil/existential dilemma.

It gets old. (Not that western gaming doesn't have its own irritatingly persistent plotlines, but I can at least get behind the gameplay)

 

[jehk]

For me it was when anime went moe (ie. the super overly cute art style). I saw The Secret World of Arrietty and the art style was pretty amazing.

 

[LiquidSolstice]

I won't apologize for my preference; I find anime to be generic, depressing, and ultimately, boring (but it's ok if you like it!). I do not wish to watch anime, ergo I do not wish to play anime. A game with an anime art-style is JUST as much of a turn-off to me as a game with a cell-shaded art-style. I don't see why it's ridiculous...

I overlook Japanese games for being heavily obsessed with bringing anime to the world in game form. I think the issue is that Japanese games are targeted towards....well, Japan.

 

[Rastien]

Personally i enjoy most games sports games not so much as im pretty sure if i play fifa 2013 (when did we skip ahead a year in these games anyway :S) it will play the same as fifa 2001 i played 12 years ago with better graphics and possibly phsyics but they seem abit copy pasted also.

Back on topic, i respect peoples choices if they give something a fair go, not playing something because its in anime art style shouldn't hold you back. Oddly enough i sat playing chocobo dungeon the other day round a mates, he took the piss massivley about the art style and "level of gayness" as he put it, i pointed out i wasn't following the story and its a fun dungeon crawler.

2 days later after leaving it there i pop in for a cup of tea to find him twice as far as i am and loving it, after putting the looks and "level of gayness" to one side he found he was really enjoying it.

So yeah, i guess just try something don't judge a book by its cover you might really enjoy it!

 

[Gennadios]

And if the West does not want to look past androgyny or anime aesthetics, well then I think that's sad for us and I'm disappointed in us. And that Japanese developers should ignore the Western audiences that will refuse to play as such characters. They'd be better of pleasing the Japanese market that is happy to play as an anime character. And won't shallowly refuse a game because it has manga designs.

That's the exact opposite of how capitalism works. A game release is supposed to be a worldwide thing, and if a designers aesthetic isn't resonating well with people overseas it's as good a reason as any to tinker with it and see if there is something that can be done to tone down the elements that turn other markets off the most. If a game costs millions of dollars and you need international revenue to survive, the shallow manga refusers need to be pandered to for the cash in their wallets.

My main problem wih Japanese games is that they're still shoveling in the aesthetics that sold well in the 90's (90's sucked and it's where good aesthetics went to die.) There's plenty of interesting and creative stuff in Japan. I may not have sold my DS if they ported over more of the Fire Emblem games or any of the Tactics products. Instead they keep localizing FFVII over and over with updated graphics and different ages/blood types of the protagonists. F*** that s***, the people who bought their games in the 90's are out of high school now. There are only so many pimply 16 year olds I can bother playing nowadays.

 

[Squidbulb]

I hate unrealistic characters, unless they don't try to make you take them seriously. One thing that bothers me about anime is that it's hard to take it seriously when the characters' eyes are literally bigger than their stomachs. It just looks stupid.
That said, I love Ghost Trick and Ace Attorney despite them having an anime style (sort of).
On the other hand, I also despise disturbingly muscular men with the intelligence of a fish. I honestly hate American macho men with a massive erection for their country that are depicted as the greatest heroes who ever lived. I just want realistic, believable characters that I can actually empathise with.

 

[Limecake]

Personally i enjoy most games sports games not so much as im pretty sure if i play fifa 2013 (when did we skip ahead a year in these games anyway :S) it will play the same as fifa 2001 i played 12 years ago with better graphics and possibly phsyics but they seem abit copy pasted also

I agree that not every year of a sports game is worth buying but don't throw out the entire sports game genre, MLB 12: The Show is a great sports game and although the jump from 2011-2012 wasn't that big of a step (didn't they change wildcard rules this year IRL?) the game is still a solid buy and easily my favorite sports game (Tiger woods coming up second)

OT: While anime style doesn't bother me, for the most part Japanese story-telling isn't my cup of tea. It's just so damn cheesy, there's only so many times I can hear someone say 'believe in yourself' before my mind automatically thinks I'm watching a disney movie and I zone out.

Final Fantasy is the best example of this, Metal gear has a little more mature of a story but it's way too long winded about it's message.

Also, screw Japanese developers, every since Super Mario 2 they've decided to not release some of their best games in North America. Project Rainfall anyone?

seriously though, time to release mother 3.

 

[zefiris]

There is also the fact there is no variation or variety in Japanese design looks.

That's not a fact, though.

The responses to this thread really proved Lilith Slave's point. :/

A game release is supposed to be a worldwide thing

Actually, this is the direct opposite of how capitalism works. Look up the term niche. Just catering to the majority is a sure-fire way to reduce profit. It makes a lot more sense if some people cater to the majority, while others cater to smaller groups.

Noble M600. A two door sports; sleek, precise and not for beginners. Sexy as all hell to look at too.

I'd rather drive the Volvo.