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Japan is not only RPG's Mike.Why every discussion about Japan have rpg's dominating the entire debate?

Wow i have been thinking about writing something like this for along time. I have noticed this. I have a theory/rant that I discuss with my gamer friend all the time. I believe the current North American video game climate can be traced directly to the arrival of the first Xbox. Think about it, before the original Xbox, most american developers that were good were working on the PC front. American console game developers usually made crap games - with a few exceptions. Japan ruled the roost here. We had Nintendo, Sony and SEGA - all japanese developers and console makers. In my opinion Japan makes the best games, but not always the most innovative and original games. See Japan puts so much into their stories, characters, settings, music and presentation.

They treat their properties as more then just a product, thats why they have art books, soundtracks CD's, Figures, wall scrolls etc. they put more stock into their IP's.

American developers focus more on gameplay and game structure over story, characters, music and setting. Think about that. How many modern American game characters do you actually think about fondly, or even care about? How many characters in recent American made games do you actually give a shit about? Marcus Fenix? Master Chief? Gordon Freeman? Call of Duty guy? the main character of Fallout 3? Elder scrolls? Mass Effect? yeah those characters look cool, but they are as shalow as a kiddy pool, or they are silent protagonists. Those games were amazing and intense gameplay-wise, but can you really say you were emotionally attached to those characters or stories in those games?

When Xbox 1 arrived, it kicked down the wall seperating the PC and Console world. Now consoles would have hard drives and online connection, this opened the gate for PC developers like Epic, Bioware, Blizzard and others to make console games. Now all of a sudden gamers not versed on PC games were getting to see what all the PC players had enjoyed for years. Big open world RPG's, MMO's, FPS games in their full online glory, online multiplayer, DLC etc. Rockstar and GTA brought the Sandbox style to the masses as well. suddenly Japanese games seemed old, stale, kiddy and shalow. Now we had DLC, online multiplayer, dark gritty graphics, adult content, nudity, swearing etc. this would not have happened with out the original xbox breaking down that barrier. (sure dreamcast tried to do online gaming and FPS online to a lesser extent, but there was no hard drive)

Now we see Japanese developers realizing this and now they are trying to emulate these American developers by westernizing their games and/or outsourcing their franchises to western companies or european developers (see Dead Rising 2, recent Silent Hill games, Castlevania Lords of shadow etc.) this is not good in my book because once great series' like for example, Resident Evil 5, shook off their survival horror roots and now plays like an action shooter. It should be called Gears of Evil 5! did you ever think Resident Evil would have online co-op? or deathmatch? or duck and cover mechanics? did you ever think you would see a "zomibie" with machine gun?

Now we have this mentality in American/Japanese game development where every single game must have DLC, Online multiplayer, Co-op etc. or once great franchises are adopting a me too copy and past mentality by including game mechanics that have no place in said game.

If Japan wants to emulate American games, create new franchises, dont shoehorn American style mechanics into Classic IPs that dont fit with it.

I guess my point is, the modern American game industry has always been like this, it was just confined to the PC. Now its standard on consoles. Japanese game design had been stale and formulaic for a while, we just didnt know it fully until that PC wall was broken and we saw what PC gamers had been playing.

This worries me since i was never a PC gamer. Im no good at FPS games, i like my RPGs with deep interesting main characters (not silent protagonists) and amazing stories. I hate online gaming due to the immaturity, overly skilled players, cost and lack of in-person competition. I like deep stories, well developed characters and single player adventures. Those it seems are becommig rarer and rarer. Now it seems every big game is like a Michael Bay movie; big budget, intense, super fun, linear roller coaster rides that are amazingly exciting and then over and disposable. Too much focus on the online components will make most of these games useless in 15 years when you cant connect them to the internet anymore.

well thats my two cents. great blog!

@Alexander: You're right, it's not just RPG's. I believed I mentioned 2 non-RPG series inside the blog. Besides, almost all of the games you mentioned fit the criteria because they're rehashes of the fighting game genre. They may be fine games, but I don't think most people would call them unique, and I'd be interested to see whether a Western developer could make a decent fighting game.

@Matt: You're right on a lot of topics. I'd agree that many RPG's from Western developers sacrifice story for gameplay. Thinking about it objectively, Japanese developers wrote a lot of the stories people care about in RPG's. It's also true, however, that a lot of RPG's that come from Japan these days have borderline ridiculous stories. The most famous JRPG, Final Fantasy VII, had a plot that I still have to retread over and over to understand. This may be poor translating, but Crisis Core was the first time that I actually made sense of what was happening with that world. Storytelling in games might make for a different blog, but it seems that the taste of most gamers is not Japanese-centric anymore.

yeah its odd how all of a sudden after 25 years of playing japanese games, japanese games seem so foreign to the modern gaming audience. i guess thats due to the all new type of games that are now being played on consoles now that consoles more resemble PCs.

Thats why i dont really play modern games anymore, its lost its magic to me, its hook. every now and then ill play some of the new stuff but i mostly play retro stuff from NES, SNES, GEN, SAT, PSX, DC, PS2. something about those generations of gaming just ignite the nostalgia in me from the days when gaming was fresh and exciting and new. a simpler time :)

@ Matt: I know what you mean. I haven't finished a new game in awhile. In fact, I just popped Suikoden 2 back in because I feel the presentation is still quality. Another interesting note, I realized that most of my PS2 era games and on have a lot of numbers after the titles. I may just be part of the problem.

This is a great article. I dunno if Japanese dominance is completely over(Nintendo is obviously making bank with their casual games), but they have lost a lot of ground in North America, especially in the RPG area. Ultimately, the kind of experience you want will determine what game you buy: the highly polished, well-presented story driven Japanese game or the more gameplay and action oriented Western game.

@Matt: I completely agree that Japanese developers shouldn't shove out of place ideas into established IPs just so they can say, "Hey, we've got that too." Resident Evil 5 wasn't a horrible game, but it just wasn't Resident Evil. The cookie-cutter gameplay made it a completely different game.