Japan is Ruining Video Games

K. Lenae, Reader Submission

April 8, 2010

I have a thought here that I feel needs to be expressed.

Japan has not made me happy in a long time. There, I said it.

I haven't enjoyed a Japanese game in years and every genre they ever ruled within my own tastes is slowly being conquered by western minds. The worst, most terrible, and horrendously awful part of this momentous realization is that I feel everyone is letting them get away with it.

I understand, my nerdy comrades, as a child I, too, was a Japanese game fan. Never was there a day I didn't spend defending the honorable justice within Final Fantasy and Grandia. I defended cheesiness, the lack of voice acting and the horrible voice acting, as well as ridiculous difficulty spikes and repetitive combat, but I still persisted. Several of my tormentors later became my secret compatriots and those were the most glorious days.

They were glorious because within the repetitiveness, within the hours of campy adventure and bad translations there was honest-to-goodness gameplay and story to admire within the flaws. I defended Final Fantasy because it was fun and the story was amazing. I defended Katamari because it was ridiculous and fantastic. I defended Pokemon because I'll be damned if I didn't spend hours on that stupid game. Because it was good and I was having fun.

My friends, Japanese games are not that good anymore, so please, stop defending them out of habit.

Final Fantasy XIII sacrificed story, gameplay and characterization to delve into shiny non-interactive backgrounds and easily understood features to attract the four people who had never played Final Fantasy before and needed to be convinced. Did this make it a good game? God no, it made it a horrid, shallow sham of what we enjoyed as children meshed into a giant collage of pieces of other successful entries in the franchise. The characters were hollow, the graphics were pretty, the story was in shambles and had to be read in the menu and the gameplay was devolved into button bashing.

And Bayonetta? The glorious game that GameStop employees with Japanese tastes get glistening eyes while telling me about it? Horrid, horrid, horrid! It breaks up the action with exploratory segments in a HD coated version of a PSX town were nothing except game elements can be interacted with and cheaply makes everyone except the main character into a generic model. It fakes good graphics and gives you quick-time events. Never did I feel awesome as *I* performed a great feat in the game, I'd just hit the O button in time and watch as the long-legged half-arachnid woman would show me why none of the developers had ever seen a real woman's proportions. Does the story justify anything? No, it's just as bad but people tell me that's the style in it's defense, but even as a wacky tale it's not that fun, greater times can be had while rolling up planets.

They're going in the wrong direction and trying to please too many people. It's like the PS3, how many RPG gamers did it offend when it ignored that customer group to focus on bringing FPS fans to the console? It's no wonder no one cares about White Knight Chronicles now since it was a mediocre launch title in Japan and it took Sony two years to bring it to us. We don't like it because it's not good. But here we have several games that I see people talk about not enjoying yet they rate it highly. Why is that? You don't enjoy it but it's "brilliantly crafted?" I understand that a piece of wood in a pile of crap can be considered art if an artist constructed it, but the artist doesn't expect everyone to react positively to it. Some people will be offended, others disgusted, and at the end of the line will be the few who understand and appreciate it. If the artist was given a critique by random people he would most likely expect a lot of people to dislike his work, if everyone told him how wonderful it was he'd know that they were lying and probably be disappointed. This doesn't work with a media like games because, if you all say you like it and the developers know you're lying they'll be a bit hurt, but their wallets will laugh happily while being lined with your money and the publishers will demand more of the same since it works.

This would work in a different point in gaming's history. Right now, western games are on fire. It's like everyone except Japan finally realized what people like to play. Even with RPG's the western developers are getting it right where Japan gets it so, so wrong. And even the flawed entries are still interesting and the level of polish and improvement from a lot of new IP's is fantastic and creative. Although the economy still terrifies the members of almost every gaming studio they're still producing products that demand attention and respect. Epic games are coming back to the plate and Japanese offerings are, quite frankly, pathetic in comparison. This is sad for me because Japan is where it all started in my gaming past, the NES was my first babysitter and I remember it fondly, and I'm sure there's no greater insult for Japan then to know it's former milk cow is over at the other castle making money for a different continent.

I'm sorry my friends, I know Japan is trying, but they're going in the wrong direction and it's all our fault. How could they realize that they're doing it wrong if we all tell them how fantastic the game is? How can they get better if they keep going in the wrong direction because we compulsively buy and defend their products? Rally with me dear gamers and protest that which is not good. Please stop supporting mediocrity and the next time you play a Japanese game, listen to that voice within you that cries for greatness and complain a little. If we let them know when it's bad then when they're good again the developers will actually know we're really enjoying it rather than simply kissing their buttocks in the hopes that they'll remake the games that were GOOD.

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