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Post by Discoalucard on Mar 27, 2006 23:54:21 GMT -5
So I'm starting to write an article about the differences between Western (American or European) and Eastern (primarily Japanese) games. I think it's a big topic to coverbut I mostly want to examine:
-narratives and their importance -linearity vs. non-linearity -visual styles -the concept of the ideal "hero"
I also want to try to examine why certain genres work here in the States (FPS games, mostly) and in Japan (love sims) but not vice versa.
From a visual standpoint, I think it's easy to say that Japanese games are a lot more stylistic than most Western games, which usually focus on realistic characters and environments. The question is: Why? Personally, I think part of the reason comes from manga - the artform has become a huge part of the Japanese culture, whereas telling stories with drawn pictures is still looked upon as chilldish. Since stylistic drawings have become a more accepted part of Japanese culture, they can play around with it a bit more. That's only one aspect though, there are probably others.
There's a wealth of areas to cover - Western RPGs (Fallout, KoToR, Oblivion) vs Eastern (Final Fantasy, Suikoden etc). Jet Set Radio vs Tony Hawk. Standard EA baseball games vs Konami's Jikkyou baseball series. Metal Gear Solid vs Splinter Cell. So what makes each type of game unique, and why?
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Post by Gilder on Mar 28, 2006 0:38:59 GMT -5
Your Killer 7 article touched upon this and I thought it was great. Can't wait to read what you've come up with. You should also talk about when East works on usually Western style games and vice versa. (A good example would be Sega making their RTS style game Hundred Swords for the Dreamcast/PC.)
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Post by aggroger on Mar 28, 2006 2:42:55 GMT -5
Very interesting idea for an article.As for the "visual" difference,you can also compare the stylistic drawings in Japanese game with the Western obsession with "realism".
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Post by shido on Mar 28, 2006 3:02:55 GMT -5
Western games are more about what you do in the game Japanese games are more about how you do what you are supposed to do in the game
You can see it in the differences between japanese RPG and western RPG, and also in the differences between japanese action games (like DMC, Onimusha, Shinobi) and western action games (like GTA, NOLF, Half Life).
I prefer the japanese way, and japanese games in general
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Post by YourAverageJoe on Mar 28, 2006 4:25:26 GMT -5
I think the Western ideal hero would be some "XTREME" attempt at badassitude, complete with a heavy machine gun, flame thrower, black humor (optional), a desire for revenge (optional) and somehow always impresses at least two females.
The Eastern ideal hero is persistent, hard-working, sometimes stubborn, is adolescent (optional), has a spikey hairdo (optional) and has some goal (can be a quirky one like washing the dishes or something) that he will go to great lengths to achieve.
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Post by Shinigami on Mar 28, 2006 10:50:17 GMT -5
Is there also going to be information about Console vs PC, and how it relates to East and West game design? At the moment, I can't think of any Japanese game released exclusively for PCs.
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Post by zellsf on Mar 28, 2006 13:51:20 GMT -5
Just be sure to be objective. There's enough Japan fanboys around.
I have no idea how a country can have fanboys either.
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Post by wil327 on Mar 28, 2006 16:31:48 GMT -5
Kurt, keep in mind that a lot of it has to do with cultural mindset, and history. I happen to have quite an extensive library on different schools of thought in both Western societies, and eastern societies, as well as quite an extensive section devoted to Japan as a whole, both on culture and history. You know that I have a huge section on US history and society as well.
That is if you want to go that way.
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Post by Discoalucard on Mar 28, 2006 18:20:19 GMT -5
Your Killer 7 article touched upon this and I thought it was great. Can't wait to read what you've come up with. You should also talk about when East works on usually Western style games and vice versa. (A good example would be Sega making their RTS style game Hundred Swords for the Dreamcast/PC.) I just bought that game for the PC for $2 like a few weeks ago. I haven't installed it yet though! But yeah, that's a good comparison. Same thing with Breakdown and Half Life. For American-style heroes, look at Metal Gear Solid. Despite being a Japanese franchise, Snake has many of the characteristics of a traditional American hero - strong, pragmatic, kind of a badass, rebellious, and not so in touch with their emotions. Japanese heroes have many of the same traits, but I think I get the feeling that they're more emotional, and often not as "perfect". Still, I think the concept of an American hero is changing to become more realistic and relatable (see: Spider Man, even though he's been around for decades, it's only been within the past few years that he's really become a mainstream character.) Anyway, it's mostly about East vs West in general. The PC market over there is all dating sims and hentai stuff, not counting Falcom. I think that's one of the reasons they are adverse to RTSes and FPSes, actually - since their market is so console-centric, they've never gotten a chance to play them the way they're meant to be played. And yeah, I'm all about objectivity. I like both kinds of development ideas, although some aspects are better than others (the Japanese approach towards music in games, for example, while Americans are much better at creating a "realistic" atmosphere. Oddly enough the Japanese games that do pull this off, like Silent Hill, are more influenced by American games. I also prefer Western-style narratives, but they're relatively rare nowadays.)
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Post by Protodude on Mar 28, 2006 19:04:54 GMT -5
It seems that recently, at least in my opinion, the line between East/West game design is becoming thiner. However, there are still plenty of differences between the two.
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Post by YourAverageJoe on Mar 29, 2006 3:09:58 GMT -5
You should also talk about when East works on usually Western style games and vice versa. (A good example would be Sega making their RTS style game Hundred Swords for the Dreamcast/PC.) I agree, but what about the times when they make games specifically for the Western market? A good example would be God of War, it's so obviously made for the Western market that you really begin to wonder if Capcom's HQ is in Japan!
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Post by Shinigami on Mar 29, 2006 20:57:41 GMT -5
God of War was made by Sony, not Capcom.
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Post by Discoalucard on Mar 29, 2006 21:38:10 GMT -5
Published in Japan by Capcom oddly enough!
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Post by Fletch on Mar 29, 2006 23:09:55 GMT -5
One thing I've noticed with the Japanese is that they don't always demand much innovation between sequels. I mean Dragon Quest has been pretty much the same game for over twenty years yet it still sells like crazy. Granted it's not the only guilty culprit.
Actually that reminds me. There been a whole bunch of interviews with Treasure recently and I was surprised to find out that not only do they know about their American following, but apparently we're bigger then their Japanese following. They actually designed Sin and Punishment with Americans in mind (hence the English voice acting) and were disappointed when Nintendo didn't bring it over because they thought it wouldn't sell enough units. Not sure if that's something you can work in there, but it's still interesting to note.
-James
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Post by Neo Rasa on Mar 29, 2006 23:25:13 GMT -5
It's a completely different thread of this type of article, but it's interesting to note how American the first two Silent Hill games are in their pacing and overall storylines. SH3 and 4 are much more eastern.
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