Why no Japanese-themed Games from the West?

COD, apparently. In its third week it outsold the release of Ni No Kuni

Star Craft is insanely popular in Korea, not sure about Japan though.

I dunno, since gaming over in Japan tends to have a MUCH heavier emphasis on consoles, and PCs there mostly deal in Visual Novels and indie titles (although famous examples include Cave Story and Touhou)

edited 2nd Dec '11 2:13:18 PM by EarlOfSandvich

I now go by Graf von Tirol.

There's a lot of weird locational factors involved in game sales.

While both are made in Japan, Street Fighter and King Of Fighters had pretty opposite performances in the US of A and Latin America. Because Street Fighter arcades were so much more expensive and difficult to get than King Of Fighters arcades for many of the countries South of the US, King of Fighters waltzed in to fill that hole. But in the US, people already played Street Fighter, and so King of Fighters had a hard time getting in. Today, the United States is the world's largest consumer by far of Street Fighter (With Japan surprisingly very, very, very far behind), while King of Fighters rules supreme in Mexico, Peru, Guatemala, etc (Another case of the above trope).

Or how about Mortal Kombat? It's surprising that Mortal Kombat never had an Asian following until we remember that the game sold in Asia wasn't the game we had in the United States. Mortal Kombat not on an arcade and with sweat replacing the blood is just not Mortal Kombat.

I remember on a particular site, somebody posted up the trailer for Red Alert 3 showing the Japanese faction with the title of something like "How the US sees Japan". A user responded by posting a Metal Wolf Chaos trailer with the title of something like "How Japan sees the US". It was amusing.

Anyways, Red Steel.

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well i know several Indie that make VN like this http://www.scoutshonour.com/donttakeitpersonallybabeitjustaintyourstory/

also atrix stuff is bit animesque for example mechquest

There's Shogo: Mobile Armor Division and Oni, but those are more anime-themed, so...

edited 2nd Dec '11 3:56:38 PM by RocketDude

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Jade Empire is a great case in point. Its an excellent game (or was for its time), but was by far the poorest seller of all of Bio Ware's titles.

"You want to see how a human dies? At ramming speed." - Emily Wong.

From what I know of Jade Empire, it's not Japanese-themed at all.

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Yup, it's very Chinese though. Wish it had a sequel.

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Chinese-themed, yes. Sorry forgot to make that point.

"You want to see how a human dies? At ramming speed." - Emily Wong.

I'm pretty sure Jade Empire's poor sales had more to do with it being relatively short, and lacking in a license tie-in.

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Jade Empire also took a lot of flack for poor combat and re-hashing a lot of KOTOR's mechanics without genuinely iterating on them.

I do love Jade Empire, but it's got some pretty big flaws that make it kind of obvious why it didn't have the runaway success of some of its licensed predecessors or some of Bio Ware's heavy hitters that came out later. It's marketing idiots that assume it was the setting that was the turn off, when the setting itself was the highest source of praise (mainly because in a genre overloaded with Dn D rip-offs, a fantasy that isn't in yet another generic Dn D world is already breaking ground).

Jade Empire is actually a love letter to wuxia though. Quick glance at the tropes page should help you figure out how many films the game references.

oh forgot about Mini Ninjas (Dev: IO interactive)

it fun little game. try it on steam http://store.steampowered.com/app/35000/

Sounds like a pretty cool game from the trope page. Will check it out when I get home.

That's very arguable, I know plenty of RPG fans who stayed away from it because of the setting. Yes it had other flaws, but to categorically assume the setting was something that didn't contribute to its lack of sales is naive.

"You want to see how a human dies? At ramming speed." - Emily Wong.

Did any of them give a coherent reason for doing so?

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Not really, but does that mean something...if the setting doesn't appeal, it doesn't appeal regardless of whether you have a well-thought-out rational reason or not. I have no real rational reason for not liking the post-apocalyptic setting of the Fallout games, I just don't...so I don't play them.

"You want to see how a human dies? At ramming speed." - Emily Wong.

I never even knew there was an Wu Xia RPG until now, shame it didn't do so well though. It's like a perfectly ripe setting for the genre, yet it's so so rarely used.

Would like to actually see one come from a Chinese company...too bad the pinnacle of Chinese games so far is that stupid Team Fortress 2 ripoff.

Anecdote is not data - I know plenty of people who bought it BECAUSE of the setting. Strip that out and you've got another generic game.

There's actually tons of Chinese Wuxia RPGS...they just never leave China and obviously you need to read Chinese to understand them. They also hit their heydey in the late 90s. Here's a GAF thread that talks all about them. http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=366343

Oh, now that's interesting. Thanks for sharing. Would really like to see a modern one that can be exported worldwide though.

So great, we've both go anecdotes for and against the setting. What I was trying to counter was the assertion that people did not buy the game because of the setting...when I know people who clearly didn't.

"You want to see how a human dies? At ramming speed." - Emily Wong.

I guess what we'd really need was evidence that was it's biggest problem

So getting back to the topic on hand, I guess the OP can be answered pretty simply - games made in the West sell better if they focus on the familiar Western settings. The reverse is also true for Japan. To be honest, games like Metal Wolf Chaos and Wild Arms are really the exceptions that prove the rule. Cultural myopia is a big motivator. Most people hate being exposed to things they aren't familiar with and don't turn to entertainment to "learn", though they will flock to the occasional example when it is considered "exotic". See the success of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, which was not replicated despite many other films in its genre flooding the Western market.

That's because western culture has been in dominant position since the last 200 years.

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Question: What exactly would be a Japanese-themed game, or a Western-themed game, for that matter? Just taking place in those countries?

And if that's the case, the reason is because the majority of the world is western and Japan is a tiny little island, so it makes more sense to appeal to the former.

EDIT JUST WATCHED THE VIDEO

I find it really annoying that the guy keeping pointing out stereotypes as "representations of diversity" on the Japanese side. Soul Calibur having a chivalrous blonde knight or a large "savage" native with a heart of gold is just as stereotypical as "Here is Sub-Zero, he is a ninja" or whatever. (Also Sub-Zero isn't a ninja but there's neither here nor there)

And he continuously brings up "Japan appeals to the west with their games, why doesn't the west return the favour?", to which I've said that Japan is a VERY small market compared to the west, and creating a game aimed exclusively at it would be financially suicidal.

edited 4th Dec '11 7:01:09 PM by TravisBickle

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