"It’s not a system where you don’t get paid your next month’s paycheck if the game doesn’t sell," Inafune stated. "Even if it doesn’t sell, you still get your paycheck the next month. Because people are used to working in such a system, against such competition, the sense of wanting to make a better and better game has weakened. It’s like, "I’m just doing what I was told to do." " -Keiji Inafune.
Keiji Inafune is one of the few passionate game developers out there, he has been among the top developers of Capcom for decades which is why it was such a shock that he left after so many years. But Inafune has made it clear that he left in the hopes of influencing change within the Japanese gaming industry.
I don't know if it's because Western Gaming is really breaking away from Japanese development, or if it's just because Western gamers have acquired a different taste in games, but there's no doubt that Japanese Games have begun to lose their appeal to western gamers. CNET.com's top ten games of 2010 are as follows;
10)Enslaved; Odyssey to the West.
9)Limbo.
8)Starcraft II.
7)Heavy Rain.
6)Halo Reach.
5)Call of Duty;Black Ops.
4)Mass Effect 2.
3)Super Mario Galaxy 2.
2)God of War III.
1)Red Dead Redemtion
With the exception of Super Mario Galaxy 2, none of these top ten were made by Japanese Developers. 5 of these games however were made by American developers, 6 if you count Red Dead Redemption whose development was headed by 2 development studios, one of which is based in America. Judging from these statistics you can gather that there are a small amount of games from Japan that people hold in high regard, with the only game on CNET's top 10 list from Japan being Super Mario Galaxy 2, and at least half of those games were made by Western Developers.
Western Developers are gaining an edge in the gaming industry, while the majority of Japanese developers are stuck in a rut, and few of them are making any ground breaking innovations in game play. Let's for example look at Super Mario Galaxy 2. Which is of course a sequel to the original Super Mario Galaxy which was hailed as "one of the best video games of all time." It was pretty much the epitome of platform gaming at the time of it's release. No where on the internet would you find a bad opinion on the game. Super Mario Galaxy 2 was originally planned to be a simple iteration of Super Mario Galaxy with a few alterations here and there. However as new ideas and breakthroughs constantly building on this simple expansion, it became a full-fledged sequel. The Development for this game spanned 2 and a half years and became one of the best selling games of all time(sold 5.1 million copies world wide) and the best Selling game on the Nintendo Wii. With the Super Mario Galaxy series Nintendo created one of the best gaming experiences ever, and thanks to huge amounts of innovation they created the epitome of platform gaming, if not completely refining platform gaming all together. That type of passion and innovation in game developing is what the majority of Japanese developers are lacking when developing modern games.
One of my favorite Developers, Hideki Kamiya has been responsible for the creation of many iconic characters and their respective game titles. He usually develops games of the Action Adventure(alternatively called Hack n' Slash and Beam em' up) genre. He was the lead developer for games such as; Okami, Viewtiful Joe, more recently Bayonetta, but most notably(my personal favorite Devil May Cry. The Devil May Cry series received high ratings for it's gameplay innovations, visuals, camera control and essentially re-invented the action-adventure genre when it was released. It became what following action games would measure themselves against. Even though Hideki Kamiya did not get a chance to work on any of the sequels to Devil May Cry the innovations that shaped the action-adventure genre originated from his game, the first Devil May Cry. So in a sense you can call Hideki Kamiya the man responsible for such change in the gaming industry. Pretty much every game Kamiya has worked on, and been in charge of has become a huge success. But i bet you're wondering, "what about HIS games makes them good?"
In an interview with 1up.com Kamiya talks to them about what gives his games "The Kamiya Touch" and his answer was;
"I'm not doing anything intentional to make it feel like a Kamiya game. However, I do go into the details of the games. I never leave the music up to the music team, for example. I don't say, "Oh, just make some music for this stage." I'll bring in CDs and say that this is the kind of music I want for this kind of scene. So because I don't leave any details out of my sight, I'm able to influence everything. Since I'm just one guy, that personal touch probably filters into the game from different angles."
Essentially when he creates a game he does not let any detail escape him, he influences everything. All of Kamiya's games were a product of passionate designing, the likes of which is rarely seen today. He treats each game he's in charge of like a child, and takes as much care as an artist when they work on their next piece for display. It's that type of attention to detail that allowed him to deviate from the established formula that many games set for their respective genres and create things that stand out.
"'I feel like there's two ways to make action games. There's the logical way, and then there's making it by feeling. The logical way you end up with a game like Castlevania, the enemy does this, so you do this. You have limitations you have to work with, and you have to beat the game within certain rules and limitations and it's a very logical approach to making an action game. But I'm not a very logical type of game creator, I have to go more on feeling. And with the feeling I just want to make an action game that plays like I want it to play. One thing I do is make the character and what they can do first. For example, rather than making a game and putting a character like Dante in it, I'll make Dante and the fact that he can swing a sword -- jump around and do things like that -- and then build the game and enemies and traps around that, so that it fits the character. You make the character and what he can do first, that way you don't limit him."
Though Japanese games aren't as appealing as they used to be, the shift in dominance is not only due to a decline in quality of Japanese games. Western games have created a certain style that Western gamers appear to find more appealing in recent years.
1up.com's Top 10 Xbox 360 games are;
Games over Japanese games.
Keiji Inafune seems to believe there is a huge difference between Eastern and Western Gamers. A lot of gamers notice a more linear style of games coming from Japanese developers, whereas Western Games are more oriented toward free-roaming Sandbox games, where there is a lot freedom to do whatever tasks you want. In a sandbox game the gamer is allowed to do what they want in their environment, and take on tasks that they want. Essentially the gamer can create his or her own experience, whether it's an experience where they blast through to the end of the game as fast as possible, or an experience where they take their time and build themselves up doing other tasks before proceeding to the next stage of game play. Japanese games however tend to be very linear, in other words they are usually on a set path with little deviations. At first glance a linear game might seem like they are a step below sandbox games, a game with a linear style has a lot to offer. A linear game allows the player to have a very definitive experience, keeping the player involved in the story with a smooth flow from beginning to end. Even thought gamers would prefer a more open ended style to make the experience of the game their own, a lot can be said about the more linear style of game design. You will a more clear image of what the developers wanted you to get out of the game and you will less likely run the risk of monotonous game play that many sandbox games are plagued with.
There is and always has been a noticable difference in Eastern and Western game design. But over the course of the years, Western gamers have begun to shift they're attention more to Western games.Though it may not sound strange at first keep in mind that a decade ago, Japanese games were definitely dominating the gaming industry and none would question their superiority. But whether it's because Western gamers have developed an acquired taste, or if Western Developers have begun to shape the gaming industry with their innovations, for one reason or another Japanese games have lost much of their appeal in recent years. The majority of top rated games in the US all seem to be some kind of shooter that came from Western developers. The best developers of Japanese gaming still create works of art, but I'm afraid they are the minority. Whereas the majority of Eastern developers have become quite formulaic with their creations, and we don't see much innovation aside from the creations of the few truly passionate developers out there like Hideki Kamiya. I'm willing to admit that much of this is due to a cultural difference between East and Western gamers and developers, and we can't expect every game released to be an amazing one. But the fact is that the shift in popularity is not due to existential factors alone. No matter the circumstances or the audience, people will recognize a good game, for example the relatively unknown Monster Hunter series. Not only that Japanese developers do take the time to alter what content they feel that they need to for an overseas release, so they take into account the cultural rift, and what Western gamers may deem interesting or not. So no matter what circumstances surround gaming today, good games get credit where credit is due, and as we can plainly see, Japanese games are no longer totally dominant as they were in ages past.
"'I feel like there's two ways to make action games. There's the logical way, and then there's making it by feeling. The logical way you end up with a game like Castlevania, the enemy does this, so you do this. You have limitations you have to work with, and you have to beat the game within certain rules and limitations and it's a very logical approach to making an action game. But I'm not a very logical type of game creator, I have to go more on feeling. And with the feeling I just want to make an action game that plays like I want it to play. One thing I do is make the character and what they can do first. For example, rather than making a game and putting a character like Dante in it, I'll make Dante and the fact that he can swing a sword -- jump around and do things like that -- and then build the game and enemies and traps around that, so that it fits the character. You make the character and what he can do first, that way you don't limit him."
Though Japanese games aren't as appealing as they used to be, the shift in dominance is not only due to a decline in quality of Japanese games. Western games have created a certain style that Western gamers appear to find more appealing in recent years.
1up.com's Top 10 Xbox 360 games are;
- Read Dead Redemption
- Super Street Fighter 4
- Just Cause 2
- Bayonetta
- Alan Wake
- Splinter Cell: Conviction
- Mass Effect 2
- Bioshock 2
- Halo; Reach
- Crackdown 2
Games over Japanese games.
Keiji Inafune seems to believe there is a huge difference between Eastern and Western Gamers. A lot of gamers notice a more linear style of games coming from Japanese developers, whereas Western Games are more oriented toward free-roaming Sandbox games, where there is a lot freedom to do whatever tasks you want. In a sandbox game the gamer is allowed to do what they want in their environment, and take on tasks that they want. Essentially the gamer can create his or her own experience, whether it's an experience where they blast through to the end of the game as fast as possible, or an experience where they take their time and build themselves up doing other tasks before proceeding to the next stage of game play. Japanese games however tend to be very linear, in other words they are usually on a set path with little deviations. At first glance a linear game might seem like they are a step below sandbox games, a game with a linear style has a lot to offer. A linear game allows the player to have a very definitive experience, keeping the player involved in the story with a smooth flow from beginning to end. Even thought gamers would prefer a more open ended style to make the experience of the game their own, a lot can be said about the more linear style of game design. You will a more clear image of what the developers wanted you to get out of the game and you will less likely run the risk of monotonous game play that many sandbox games are plagued with.
There is and always has been a noticable difference in Eastern and Western game design. But over the course of the years, Western gamers have begun to shift they're attention more to Western games.Though it may not sound strange at first keep in mind that a decade ago, Japanese games were definitely dominating the gaming industry and none would question their superiority. But whether it's because Western gamers have developed an acquired taste, or if Western Developers have begun to shape the gaming industry with their innovations, for one reason or another Japanese games have lost much of their appeal in recent years. The majority of top rated games in the US all seem to be some kind of shooter that came from Western developers. The best developers of Japanese gaming still create works of art, but I'm afraid they are the minority. Whereas the majority of Eastern developers have become quite formulaic with their creations, and we don't see much innovation aside from the creations of the few truly passionate developers out there like Hideki Kamiya. I'm willing to admit that much of this is due to a cultural difference between East and Western gamers and developers, and we can't expect every game released to be an amazing one. But the fact is that the shift in popularity is not due to existential factors alone. No matter the circumstances or the audience, people will recognize a good game, for example the relatively unknown Monster Hunter series. Not only that Japanese developers do take the time to alter what content they feel that they need to for an overseas release, so they take into account the cultural rift, and what Western gamers may deem interesting or not. So no matter what circumstances surround gaming today, good games get credit where credit is due, and as we can plainly see, Japanese games are no longer totally dominant as they were in ages past.
