Japanese Nier Hero was "Too Girly" for Americans

[Treblaine]

Shame they didn't realise that NO ONE would like the crap rpg-fetch-quest gameplay and retarded plot.

Seriously? Remember the day when Japanese games were praised for their narratives over Western Games? What the faaaack happened? MGS's bullshit with the patriots, so many emo gits in JRPG.

The only decent narrative I've seen in a Japanese game this side of the Spice Girls splitting up was Resident Evil 4, mainly because it knew just to have a bit of fun at the same time as being melodramatic/serious. Pure and simple.

 

[CD-R]

There was a time when the Japanese made the guys who wielded the ridiculously over sized swords actually look like they could wield the ridiculously over-sized swords.

Spoiler

 

[NickCaligo42]

You should probably look up who developed the game...it wasn't Square-Enix. Anywho, Final Fantasy XIIII does have a few cities - just not in the conventional type, and not the type that would serve the gameplay any favours.

And I really hope you're joking about Final Fantasy XIII's environments being "PS2-like"...

... Huh. Cavia. Never heard of 'em. I stand corrected, though.

 

[Levitas1234]

What is with the japanese fascination with androgeny. I don't want to sound narrow minded, but it seems they go crazy over characters who's gender could go either way.

I think it's really just a culture difference, In japan the badass emo girlboy thing is what women want and what the men want to become. Sort of like Americans and characters such as duke nukem that get all the women and kick ass.

 

[FloodOne]

I love how everyone claims that Cloud was emo.

If you ever played FF7, you can plainly see he isn't a wishy washy emotional type. He's just a dick.

It was Advent Children that ruined the character of Cloud.

 

[mega48man]

the fact that japan has these problems in the first place is why i don't like their games period. if they wanna sell games, they should look at who's doing good here and why. WoW for example: fantasy and badass (this armour was forged by the ancient king glandoran of the old nation of azergouth himself. said to protect any brave hero from the evil magics of lord darkireies whom was smited by the old king lifetimes ago) JRPG stuff looks like it's done by some fashion designer

 

[For.I.Am.Mad]

Ironically the 'girly' characters that are present and today's jrpgs are more meatheaded than any space marine. They just whine more. But the base of their characters: get stronger, save the useless birth giving creature, wield a big sword is macho 101.

 

[graverobber2]

I think most people are already used to the fact that japanese game protagonists look like girls

 

[Timbydude]

I don't care. I want the character that was meant to be used. I really don't have a problem with "girly" main characters; they tend to be more emotionally complex, anyway.

Otherwise, we're stuck with atrocities like Marcus Fenix.

 

[Kevlar Eater]

If skinnier men could not wield giant swords, anime would not exist.

The same thing applies to small girls with huge weapons. Without stuff like this, anime and manga would die a lot, but not altogether:

Spoiler

 

[Projo]

The more muscly men the better. I think I only like Warhammer 40k as compensation for the girly crap the rest of the world makes me put up with.

Ironically the 'girly' characters that are present and today's jrpgs are more meatheaded than any space marine. They just whine more. But the base of their characters: get stronger, save the useless birth giving creature, wield a big sword is macho 101.

But the space marines HATE AND KILL. They're not even after "hurr get stronger" because they're already giant balls of rage and momentum.

 

[Archemetis]

I wonder if Konami had the same kind of discussion when thinking about MGS4?

'OK! So we have MGS4 coming out soon, but I have a feeling we're missing something, We've got our hero with accelerated ageing against him, but we need something to make him appeal even more to the Western audience to balance out this change. So I've brought in our foremost expert on America to give us a few ideas..'

*Cue Japanese guy wandering in wearing a shirt that says 'Magnum P.I. ROCKS!' on it.*

 

[Stone Wera]

who look like they play American football."

Rugby is a real mans game ; )

Spoiler

Screw that, ping-pong is for OLYMPIANS!

OT: Why do the Japanese care so much about what Americans and Europeans think?

 

[Pinstar]

Square Enix too sissy to take risks. Look at Kirby. They wanted to make him white rather than pink and Nintendo said "F no" kept him Pink and I don't think that hurt the game, or the character one iota.

 

[joshthor]

whats with japans fascination with tiny whiny emo kids?

 

[TOGSolid]

Square Enix is worried about feminine male leads and yet...Final Fantasy.


Wut???

 

[ObsessiveSketch]

I dunno, the story change from brother looking for sister to father looking for daughter actually made the game's story much more appealing to me. There's a lot of that storyline in movies, but the 'father' aspect has been largely ignored in games. I'd like to see more of it, honestly.

 

[TIMESWORDSMAN]

So of course they made him look older than God, Smooth.

 

[lodo_bear]

A few people have mentioned homophobia in this thread, and I think they're spot on. I believe that the whole East/West split in the main character's design is motivated by the combination of differing cultural standards for masculinity and universal fear of homosexuality.

The Japanese think that big buff guys are gay, and the game design team didn't want to have a gay guy be the hero, so they made the Japanese version smaller, more androgynous, and generally more acceptable to Japanese tastes. The Americans think that skinny androgynous guys are gay, and they didn't want to try selling a gay guy to American audiences, so they insisted that the American version be big and buff.

I may well be completely off base, as I've never seriously studied sociology, but I do know that game companies like to make games that will sell and that a lot of people really hate gay people, and I think that those two facts are the biggest factors in play here.

 

[boholikeu]

"A lot of people were arguing for making only the macho old guy version for cost reasons, and we were saying, 'But if we don't make a girly version we'll lose heart and it'll take even longer'

Is it just me, or is that chain of reasoning absolutely hilarious? Because I'm pretty sure it's hilarious - they're telling us that not making yet another massively over-effeminate pansy, just like they do in all their other games, would be so disheartening to the design team that it would make them miss their deadlines.

Oh Japan, your obsession with men that are indistinguishable from women will never cease to amuse and befuddle me.

I thought that was hilarious as well. I think it's the first time in history that the suits are actually pushing for a more original character (he may be macho, but he's also old and a father) and the "artists" are crying about not being able to make the protagonist into a cliche.