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- Me Vs. Japan (Taken from my weplaythis.com blog 2/22/08)
- Posted 8 months, 4 weeks ago by Darth Mattingly
In Episode 15 of the Combobreaker Podcast I had started our second half of the show on a somewhat drunken rant on how I can no longer accept Japan's vision for gaming. While it boils down to a portion of the games coming from Japan, they are ridiculous enough to make up for the few good games that come out. It's not just the games they crap out that annoy me but rather their habits within gaming or basically the fact that they still only give a shit about Playstation.
In the latest EGM article, the cover story was 10 ways the PS3 would take over the world as far as current-gen console gaming is concerned. Thankfully, I was already taking a shit when I read this otherwise I would have just shit my pants in frustration. I guess it's possible for this to happen being that HD-DVD is gone and the PS3 is the cheapest Blu-ray player you can grab while getting a high end gaming console. Problem is the issue would be "well great - nothing worth playing" INCLUDING their "stellar" 2008 line up.
Even after 4 different XBOX 360s due to various defects ranging from a few Red Rings to busted disc drives, I fucking love it almost more than my beloved Super Nintendo at this point. I guess this is because it is a North American console made for North American gaming and that's exactly what everyone I know wants. No one I know has a PS3 and no one I know plans on getting a PS3 for Final Fantasy Shitteen, Metal Gear Solid: Shit Eater, Resistance: Fall Of Shit, SOCOM: US Shits, whatever the *Censored* else they're coming out with. It's not raising any eyebrows over here and this is coming from someone who used to love Final Fantasy and Metal Gear Solid. I own a Playstation and PS2 and see no need to continue supporting Sony. Playstation was an incredible system with an incredible lineup and console gaming's first CG cut scenes giant. But what the*Censored* happened?
XBOX came in and offered everything that Sony wasn't by catering to those of us who wanted more. We also wanted our gaming characters to look as normal as possible. Did you see the guys in FFX? Did you HEAR the guys in FFX? Enough said. In the SNES and PS1 games you were still relying on more than graphics to get you by and you didn't even notice that the guys in Chrono Trigger or FF6 were really anime style characters. They were just awesome. They looked like dudes, warriors - whatever the hell they should have looked like. Cloud was confused throughout FF7 but not about his sexual orientation or rather his sexual gender as many of the "great RPGs" are showing. (Not meant to be against gays, just saying)
So Japan doesn't want to play 360 and whatever I don't care but I just feel there's no room for the over Japanification of Video Games in the US anymore. If there wasn't the incorporation of blu-ray Playstation would have millions more of unsold consoles on US store shelves. *Censored*, I work with a kid who got one at launch and yet couldn't sell it on Ebay after some idiots actually died for it or some shit. Idiots.
As far as Nintendo goes, almost all of my friends have either a Wii or DS or both and while they are occassionally played they take a backseat position to the 360 or PC. I loved Wii when it came out. My brother waited overnight to get one and I HAD to have my own....so I did, several months later. The "omg" had worn off and to be comepletely honest I put it on Christmas Day when family came over and haven't touched it since. I actually think Mario Galaxy is totally amazing as well as MLB Power Pros...other than that...well I have VC for free on emulation so no thanks. There's a ton of games out and yet I rarely bother to look at this point. DS on the other hand has a lot of stellar games on it. It also has 45 billion wastes of time out there. So while moms and dads are buying Wiis and getting their sales up...casual gaming is pointless. I don't even consider myself a hardcore gamer. I don't even know what I'm talking about at this point haha. Essentially I was going to clarify a little bit more of my point that got lost during the podcast but I'm pretty sure I've trailed off and not made a point yet.
In the end, I'd just like Japan to stop pissing me off and ruining all that was good about their games and making them virtually unplayable to me at this point. I spent 20 years playing mostly Japan only made games and while there are some 3rd party gems still coming out for 360 and first party soon to be classics for Nintendo - they have lost one of their North American supporters in all their efforts to make metrosexual games. I gotta take a shit. Bye.
Ian
EDIT:
I'd also like to add that Japanese gaming consoles have failed miserably in capturing the online community that XBOX live is. Playstation provides a free internet program. Is home out yet? Who cares. The Wii offers basically nothing more than the Dreamcast did with a web browser with the addition of being able to take polls. Are you serious? Downloading Mii's is cool as well as virtual console but the latter is overpriced and already filling up with lame games instead of classic and hard to find games. Getcha head outta ya ass Japan.
REPLIES!
Dracula Jones 
Japan is willfully ignorant of western progression in gaming. Their entire design philosophy is a middle finger to people who have moved on. There are exceptions, of course. Miyamoto has a worldview similar to Will Wright. He wants to appeal to everyone, by putting out progressive, original games that are instantly familiar to the player.
But otherwise, there are so many layers of self-reference, inside jokes, and cultural insularity in 99% of the games coming from Japan that it's impenetrable to the average modern gamer. You just don't see any games from Japan starring plumbers or elves... everything is a pseudo-erotic cyberpunk acid nightmare.
2 weeks ago
Darth Mattingly Ok then. It's more fitting because you never liked mushrooms but I used to love Japanese gaming so now that they're shit, I don't and well the blog has to continue with it's shit theme. Also, I don't want them to make games for me because well North American companies already are and I have a ton left to play as it is.
It is not just my personal opinion but an opinion shared by many I have spoke to that it seems 90% of the great franchises as well as just the simply great games are entirely few and far between the metrosexual weirdo bullshit that we get instead. That's fact. Go to a game store and look at the shelves.
PS - You are too serious. Take a vacation.
3 weeks ago
acephalist 
@ M Clutch:
"Also acephalist I don't see anywhere on the post where Ian mentions anything about him wanting anime conventions to stop. I don't think this argument is really about anime in itself."
Conventions are conventions. It does nothing to my argument to note that there are just "some" conventions he would like stopped. The brute fact is that it's silly to ask the industry to cater to your individual tastes.
@ Darth Mattingly:
"I'm sorry acephalist but I would find more appropriate to compare it like this:
"It's like saying I don't eat mushrooms anymore since they started making mushrooms out of dog shit."
Uh... how is that more apt?
"No really first off - you don't get my sense of humor and for that well I don't really care."
Sure I do. But any humor you inject into the argument does nothing to the argument you're making. The point is that you'd like game makers to cater to your specific tastes.
I'm saying that I think that's a silly thing to wish for... seeing as it's kind of silly to wish for things that (a) you'll likely never get since it's clear there's a market for those conventions and (b) why should anyone wish to cater to your tastes, anyway? Game designers aren't stupid. They try to make games that people will buy.
But it's no reason to get "pissed" about it... again, any more than I should be pissed that grocery stores carry mushrooms, or even that particular dishes have mushrooms in them.
Try not to take my comments so personally.
3 weeks ago
M Clutch Another good example.... look at the main character of lost odyssey. He's supposed to be some sort of immortal. Yet in the cinematics all the enemies look a hell of a lot cooler than him.
3 weeks ago
Darth Mattingly I'm sorry acephalist but I would find more appropriate to compare it like this:
"It's like saying I don't eat mushrooms anymore since they started making mushrooms out of dog shit."
No really first off - you don't get my sense of humor and for that well I don't really care.
The real point is if you were to look at how the entire world was consumed with Nintendo and Sega and eventually the Playstation and mostly because it was all we had. Any North American company failed miserably until XBOX. The XBOX 360 has mastered much of what the original XBOX set out to do with things like XBOX Live and their media sharing abilities. Plus who can deny the awesomeness of achievements.
Anyway, Japan is no longer needed as much as it was because of XBOX mainly. What I really am getting at is some of the biggest franchises in gaming history such as Final Fantasy, Mega Man, Sonic, just to name a few - well they've run it all into the ground. The new stuff Katamri? Cooking Mama? Yea they're good for 10 minutes but when you had nearly 20 years of classic games and characters and you put out a ton of garbage after that, well I'm pretty sure I'd win. Drunk.
3 weeks ago
M Clutch As a player that has beaten FF X and actually had enjoyed the story I do wish it was not the first FF that had voice acting. Tidus sounded like a pussy....... I played most of FF X with my tv muted. At least if I am reading the conversations I can just give them a suitable voice. I would have even enjoyed it more if it was the normal Japanese voice acting with just english subtitles..... Either way yes Final Fantasy has gone down down the crapper, Cloud was bad ass in FF VII, now don't get me wrong I loved Advent Children. And in my eyes they did not ruin Cloud's imagine. But FF XII has some weird fucking cheetah girl that had rabbit ear or some shit. And the main character is just some recycled Tidus with just less fucking clothes on.
Now to the PS3 subject. At the moment I don't have plans to buy one, but if I reach the point that I want to get a blu-ray player I would opt for the PS3 unless the prices finally become reasonable since the stupid format war ended. Are there good PS3 games coming out?... sure. But not that make me run to a ebgames or best buy to get one. They aren't gonna fly off the fucking shelves either so I'm in no rush.
Also acephalist I don't see anywhere on the post where Ian mentions anything about him wanting anime conventions to stop. I don't think this argument is really about anime in itself. It's about video games that have you playing a hero but now to him and many others makes you play as some dude that looks like would fucking cry at the sight of danger. I watch bleach none of the characters there share this fucking trend sure they aren't bad ass guys like characters from Gears or War or anything but they still are more believeable than some pansy looking sissy people that just aren't at all... well real in any way. In games and movies and cartoons as fictional or weird as things get you have to connect to them in some way. I have never seen anyone that looks at all like Tidus. Except people that intentionally dress themselves like him....
A fun fact is that when I played through FF X I stopped maybe 15 minutes away from beating it. I don't remember why the hell I stopped, just that I did. Now looking back first guess is, Tidus tired me out so fucking much that I didn't even want to see the obvious shitty ending. Which of course... it was. Granted the story it self is trippy and out there, Tidus' look and voice just didn't help at all. The story was good but shit if I didn't hear his voice once, and if he had some appropriate look to him it would have been better.
Again the only thing I can speak for is FF X since its the most relevant game that falls under this argument that I can think of. So again Tidus put some fucking armor on or something. How the hell do u get hit by a fucking dragon and not die when all you have is a short sleeved hoodie vest with no shirt underneath and over all shorts.... god fucking damnit.
3 weeks ago
combobreaker That might have been the most brilliant thing I have ever read.
3 weeks ago
JP first two sentences of the second paragraph says it all. nicely done.
3 weeks ago
acephalist I understand your opinion on Japanese (mostly anime) influences in games, though I'm left wondering why your railing against them is at all relevant. I don't say this to play contrarian or to be a jerk, but just because it's true.
For example: I don't like mushrooms. To me, they taste like boiled dirt and infuse any dish with the mouthfeel of a greased, deflated balloon. I'm saying this also as someone who studied to be a chef, too... lest you think I just haven't tried enough of the buggers.
No platonic ideal of an argument can ever change how mushrooms taste to me. None. Never. Ever. It's a subjective feeling and I can't help having it any more than I can one day stop enjoying ginger candy.
Your argument against Japanese conventions in games is like my distaste for mushrooms. And just as it would be odd for me to complain to fungiphiles that they are strange for their tastes... it's a bit odd for you to rail against your dislikes.
And the "just saying" part about game character androgyny... doesn't let you off the hook for making a bizarre and totally bankrupt argument.
Your asking for a halt to particular gaming conventions that you dislike would be like me asking supermarkets to stop selling mushrooms because I don't like them.
If you have any luck with that argument, though... keep me posted. ;-)
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Comments
Ian, you are out of control.
But I laughed haha
i guess you thought this was about gays and not shitty games.
Food for thought: to Japanese people, Kratos or Master Chief look much gayer than the heroes of Final Fantasy! Because in Japan macho: gay, feminine/androgynous: not gay.
If I ask you who is the more masculine between a man who does body building and a man who wears pink shirts with lace ruffles, you'll probably say the 1st one, but actually until a few decades ago big muscles weren't considered to be attractive, and until the 20th century lace and pink were unisex. So what is manly or not changes with time and depending on the country. You can't look at paintings of 18th century men and say they're gay just because they wear tights and lacy shirts.
Also there are plenty of Arab, African, Asian countries where men are slim and women obese traditionally. (that is the beauty standard) And to their eyes, overweight American men look extremely effeminate (actually they are right, overweight men are feminized, they have man breasts, and high rates of female hormones, that's why they often have high voices)... And normal weight women look manish to them. Eva Longoria looks like a man to them.
Sarah, there are countries where people would think you look like a lesbian with your short hair. See how this is all relative? You can't judge with another's country standards.
FF characters don't have ambiguous sexuality, they weren't meant to (in Japanese people's eyes) they look gay to Americans because of cultural differences. Just like Kratos is not ambiguous, even though he looks quite gay in Japanese people's eyes, but he was not meant to, and looks gay in Japanese people's eyes because of cultural differences.
And the FF characters don't have anything to do with emo, Japanese people don't know and don't care about emo, they have their own fashion styles. Actually some of the hairstyle of emo style are copied from Japan. Ask people who work in the fashion industry, they'll tell you the fashions in Japan are several years ahead other countries. And the haircuts that FF characters sport are haircuts that were specifically made for people with Japanese hair which is very thick, so they . These kind of hairstyles were created with Japanese people's hair in mind. Emos are just pale imitations.
Japanese people's image of gays: has beard, wears tight clothing that show off bulging muscles, and goes to a training gym, wears shorts.
In the US, bleaching hair and shaping eyebrows looks gay to people but it has become popular lately amongst Japanese teenage boys and young adults. At first, only bad gang-type guys bleached their hair, then it became fashionable a decade ago. And eyebrow shaping since a few years, maybe 4 or 5 max. (not sure) You go to junior high schools and sr. high schools many of the boys are shaping their eyebrows until there's only a razor thin line left (even the burly guys do it), and nobody thinks they're gay, it's just fashionable for teenagers. Now whether eyebrows so thin look good on a guy or not is another question altogether (often it looks bad and stupid, but thats like a lot of youth fashion style...)
Also, there are plenty of young Japanese guys who have haircut like these and they're not gay.
The fashion is just different. Just because in the US it looks gay doesn't mean it does everywhere. The characters are not supposed to be sexually ambiguous but to look cool to a young Japanese audience. So they look like the fashions that young Japanese wear. There truly are guys with haircut like Tidus or Vaan.
In the US metrosexual is narcissistic guys who look like gays, and they do it for themselves cuz they're narcissistic. In the US guys who take care of their appearance are considered to be big fairies, but in Japan, guys dress up because that is what is popular with girls. The"metrosexual" trend in Japan started way before the word metrosexual was invented in the US.
The word metrosexual doesn't apply to Japan though, because the meaning is a guy who looks like a gay, but you don't know if he is or not, and in japanese people's eyes, FF heroes and the young guys I talk about don't look gay. Maybe they look feminine, especially, in the eyes of older people, but it looks normal in most young people's eyes, and anyway in Japan gay is not thought to be synonymous of feminine. Tidus is tanned, and in Japan that's manly, women with tanned skin is considered unnatractive. Look at Yuna she's lighter skinned, and light skin is highly praised in females.
In the US people disapprove of metrosexuals because they think it's gay, but in Japan young Japanese males started getting more fashionable through the influence of magazines that told them they should dress like this to attract the girls. Not very gay...
Western standards are not universal.
Japanese games are made for Japanese people, why should they put a macho character to please Westerners? You don't hear people say that Americans should put "metrosexual" characters into their games so that they can sell better in Japan.
I apologize for my rambling and unjointed writings, I am not a native speaker of English, but I tried to explain as best as I could, the cross cultural misunderstanding.
i totally remember working at the Forest Hill Field Club with WiNG where we would discuss the just released Dreamcast while shagging golf balls. I think we were the only ones who had one around here, at least that I knew of. Good times.
Well Sarah, there are still games coming out for Dreamcast in Japan...
I am actually experiencing the reverse of your article. Although it is true that the 360 has a higher quantity of games to play, I find that the PS3 has enough quality exclusives (and shared titles) to keep me more than happy. Then again, maybe I am just a weeaboo. Although thinking about it, I do play a lot more games that were developed by western companies now that I did when I was younger.
Wing, you love Sega way too much. I remember how you followed that sinking ship to the bottom of the sea. How is your Dreamcast doing, anyway?
I've seen mild criticism for Lost Odyssey only because of the very things about it that I love: turned-based, random battles and other classic RPG staples. I don't really see what the problem is with all of that and some games try waaay to hard to be "innovative" and end up just being annoying. Now that I think about it the other game I'm playing a lot right now is Apollo Justice which is also straight out of Japan, and weird, and fun.
Hmmm, never gave much thought to how much Japanese gaming I do.
Dude I've got one word for you:
SEGA!
Remember SEGA? They knew what was what. But their bad planning led to an untimely demise. Oh well.
I've since heard nothing but good things about Lost Odyssey and will most likely end up getting it down the road but even in many of the RPGs I find the game play kind of stale in that the things they add in to it make it worse. If they were to leave things to the average SNES style of turn based I'd be thrilled which Blue Dragon did a decent job of but I dunno I like me some non-Japanese games at this point.
Damn, you really hate everything Japan has to offer!
Well, I have every Sony system ever made, including the PSP and PS3, but I'm not gonna lie, everything takes a backseat to my 360 these days. BUT... it's also worth noting that I still love Japanese RPGs, most notably Lost Odyssey, which I've been obsessing over lately. I don't really care about characters looking realistic in games like that, I've resigned myself to the fact that the Japanese are effing weird and like their men androgynous and belly-shirt-wearing.
Long story short... if the gameplay is good, I don't really care where the game is from.