Capcom: First Dead Rising 'felt too Japanese'

by JC Fletcher on Apr 12th 2010 11:00PM

If you're wondering why Capcom sought the Canadian influence of new developer Blue Castle Games for Dead Rising 2, producer Shinsaku Ohara has a bit of insight. He told CVG that Capcom "wanted to do it better for a Western audience this time," saying that Dead Rising "was built in a very Japanese style."

Too Japanese, in fact, according to Ohara. Now, with the help of Blue Castle, Capcom is creating something that is "much closer to feeling like a Western game," in a collaborative process that is resulting in "crazier" ideas than before. Like duct-taping weapons together, or a zombie game show. We're crossing our fingers in the vain hope that the Servbots weren't singled out as "too Japanese" to find their way into Dead Rising 2.

Dead Rising 2

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Tags: blue-castle-games, capcom, dead-rising, dead-rising-2, japan, Microsoft, Xbox-360

Reader Comments (76)

I much prefer a Japanese game to feel like a Japanese game than for a Japanese game to feel like a Western game.

Agreed. I dont care what DR felt like cause it was so damned fun

it scares me that capcom disagrees
DR did so well for a reason. Making a sequel that ignores that defeats the point of a sequel at all

In this case, it's a Canadian game with what will probably be a pseudo japanese/western feel.

Honestly, I liked how different Dead Rising felt from other games. The only thing it could benefit from is a more realistic save system. Don't make people play longer than they want to just to make it back to a save point. I know its builds tension, what with being on a time limit and not being able to load a previous save unless you want to lose a ton of progress, but there are ways around that.

Capcom games are going Western style: Resident Evil 5's camera direction during cutscenes felt like "Jerry Bruckheimer" and Lost Planet 2 is going all biggie action.

Valkyria Chronicles: 2008.

>2 years =/= ages.

i prefer a Japanese game to feel like a Japanese game, too. but i feel that Dead Rising, while pretty decent for it's time- felt like a Japanese game trying to be a western game. but it ended up in a strange place somewhere between the two and never really found it's groove. the same can be said about Lost Planet.

i look forward to seeing what they have changed in the sequel because i absolutely loved the style and the ideas that were presented in the original.

i think that when a developer attempts to make a game that feels like a "western" game (or vise-versa) they end up focusing on the wrong elements of design and forget to focus on gameplay elements that make a game fun to play.

@brocobam
how about demon souls, resonance of fate, bayonetta and ff13 all of these are pretty damn good

Is... is that paddle with chainsaws on both ends? I MUST HAVE THIS.

In a world where games like Katamari, or better yet, Cho Aniki exist, there is now no way a game like Dead Rising can be Too Japanese.

I liked Dead Rising though. And I don't understand what they mean by it feeling to Japanese. I never thought to myself while playing, 'Wow, this game feels really Japanese."

Then you've never played a Final Fantasy game.

Isn't Mario and Zelda series Japanese as well?

If they 'feel Japanese', then 'feeling Japanese' is good.

Yes I also enjoy feeling up some Japanese...

I never said being 'too japanese' is a bad thing, but when you play games like FF its japanese cultural influence is obvious and that is a quirk people love (or hate).

@thatburningsensation

Yeah he's talking about Dead Rising not other games though.

lol it really didn't cross your mind that DR was Japanese? As if the awkward controls ,annoying save system and cheesy voice acting weren't enough to give it away.

Although you do get used to the controls...eventually.

I didn't get used to any of those and so I traded it in.

Resident Evil 4 was made by Japanese, ∴ Japan = Awesome

But I love Japanese games that try to be western. It adds a certain element to it. Look at SH 1-4

I agree, two amazing games, one great, and an okay.
Granted 4 wasn't suppose to be a SH game, SH name was tagged on to increase sales at about 75% done.

Dont have to tell me the history of any SH game. I write for HellDescent.com. Silent Hill is my obsession haha.

Ah, well, most don't know that from who I've talked to.

That's why I got a divorce from the ol' wife. Felt too Japanese.

Discuss.

Discuss what? No one believes you've ever been married.

I believe you.

Maybe she whipped out the tentacles, coconuts and chains or something during the sex? I can see how that feels too Japanese....

But then do you really need to complain? You're a male, you're immune to that stuff.

Oooh, another personal shot from wiizer. Good stuff.

Coconuts?

Also, by US standards she was WAYYYY too young for you.

Because when I think of completely insane game shows, I think America

Price is Right would like to have a word with you.

That's the first thing I thought of after reading this article.

Think American... I know! Zombie game shows!

I'm not sure I follow.

The Japanese are very good at misunderstanding the western world.

(See: Christmas)

The Japanese feel of Dead Rising was what was so great about it, the quirky and different sense of humour.

I'm gonna remain skeptical about DR2, even the main character seems to be one of those macho alpha males. Frank West had the everyman charm about him and that's what worked.

He covered wars you know.

I agree. I have to assume there's a connection between their efforts to make a more western style game and the new protagonist's rather douche-bag appearance.

Well, can we have Dead Rising 2 dubbed in Cantonese then? :P

"Like duct-taping weapons together, or a zombie game show"

Just the other day I told a friend, "You know what this class needs? Duct-taping weapons together and a zombie game show". . .

Duct tape is very American.

Dead Rising was one of if not my favourite game of 'this generation' and that is coming from a now PS3 owner (my 360 died etc).

I loved it all, it was packed with details and atmosphere and wasn't just about mowing down zombies (though of course that was cool as...) I remember it going to overtime mode or whatever, when it was the human soldiers, talk about packing in the value.. and it just felt atmospheric behind belief, especially around the supermarket area at night. I would love them to retain this atmosphere, double it if they can.

The much debated save system, I got along with O.K. It was kinda up to you what you did and you could always replay it (I did). Yes it could have done with some adjustments and if it's changed then fine, but the rest was awesome. The graphics were also top notch (for the time and even today).

Stop making all games from a Western point of view.

Two things: Why are half the comment sections in the articles broken. And are you guys going to get better implementation for Opera Mini on iPhone?

I didnt say it was their fault, I assume it's AOL's fault.

My favorite feature of the original Dead Rising was rescuing the civilians that were trapped in the mall. It was difficult and frustrating because the A.I. for the civilians was pretty terrible, but for some reason I really enjoyed the challenge. And found the image of escorting seven limping people through air ducts to avoid zombies thrilling.

With that said, there has been a lot of vocal hate for the rescue missions, and I hope that they don't get axed as being "too japanese".

Get back in my TV.

@(Unverified)
You.. YOU CAN USE AIRDUCTS TO TRANSFARE SURVIVORS?!
Why the hell didn't I know about THAT! would have saved me countless miserable hours running around with 5-6 guys behind me getting killed left and right.

So they're making it crazier so it feels less like a Japanese game?

I think they're doing it wrong.

I meant to add, I get the feeling Capcom are overthinking things with DR2 if they are 'worried' about such trite and unimportant crap as 'not western enough'. It was it's very Japanese-ness that made it special. It's like they are saying 'lets dumb it down for the MW2 crowd'... please Capcom no. Trust in your instincts, take a risk and now n then you hit one out of the park - don't FOLLOW other devs and make your games for the lowest common denominator.

Mind you comparing Resi5 to Resi4, well I'm a bit worried really. R4 was a great game. R5 removed the majority of what was so enjoyable about R4 and the series in general (atmosphere and creepiness)

Damn, do Capcom have an email address where we DR fans can write and point out how fkin cool the first game was and it only needed some minor tweaks.

Also, I'm wondering how good the new setting can be compared to the original. The first felt like 'anytown' with 'everyman' in the lead role, perfect... and weird.

This is more specific, in setting and character and that could be removing a lot of the impact for the more discerning player.

Capcom, you're overthinking. I love the first one and yes, just fix the save system and nothing else.

I believe that the save system is one of the "too Japanese" aspects they have decided to change.

That's all they need to change; otherwise, it is unnecessary for them to make it appeal to campers (AKA mainstream gamers... in America).

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Capcom: First Dead Rising 'felt too Japanese'

Dead Rising 2

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