Kojima highlights the gap between western and Japanese development styles

@DrDrew Pinsky

Well I tell you what, I'm right there with you. As Raiden is one of my all-time favorite game characters, I'm anxious to devour some more info.

It's so bothersome we have no clear view as to when Rising will be released. I hope we'll hear something at this year's Tokyo Game Show. I need something.

While it's always pretty fun and really interesting to have a project be left to your imagination as it's shrouded in mystery, what I like is when devs like Ken Levine keep in touch with the anticipated audience, which is nice.

@DrDrew Pinsky

Rising is not being done directly by him. While Raiden is his creation, I don't know if it's necessarily up to him to choose when to reveal things.
Rest assured, they aren't gonna cancel a game that's looking good.

@Protobreed Oh yeah, I keep forgetting he's not as involved with it. Still, we've gone so long without any info that I'm worried it's pretty much on the fast track to never happening. I'm not even talking plot details or anything, just basic gameplay stuff, a new tech demo, anything.

@SpaceFox

QFT? Okay. Somewhere between lol and mfw there was really a point where someone needed to say "maybe it's time we stopped churning out these shitty initialisms".

@Kif QFT predates and is a lot more common than MFW, IIRC.
AFAIK, it stands for "quoted for truth", but YMMV. ROFLMAO. BBL though, I'm going to a BBQ.

@Hinchy

What the hell does YMMV mean?

Actually, don't tell me. I'm going to assume it means "You mad, Michael Vick."

@Hinchy

Don't forget to BYOBB.

@Fullmetal Salchemist Your mileage may vary.

@Esposch I can somewhat agree with this. Personally I'm a fan of the whole anime look and the culture/stereotypes as well as the plain bizarre stuff that is found in Japanese games, but that's not the problem for me. My issues is that I'm finding more and more often (especially with the RPGs) the gameplay and/or polish isn't matching up to the western counterparts.

Take Yakuza for example: it's a successful franchise which has some room to spend money on improvements, but we're still watching text get typed out on the screen for character's dialogue, and there's barely any decision making to the story you can actually make yourself.

@Esposch
the problem though is with JRPGs the "tedious" cut scenes are as essential to the experience as the character designs. People who generally like Japanese games like them because they're Japanese games. You start asking Japanese companies to start thinking like western companies and they create generally boring experiences with a few rare exceptions, but those games still dont really do well with the people who call themselves fans of that company's product. It's the same as asking a western developer to try and create an anime style game, they're just going to pull from the most generic and stereotypical elements and insult the people who they're trying to gain the favor of.

@PN04

Disagreed. So many of the cutscenes about trivial matters like two characters making some playful banter or someone picking a mushroom could very easily be played out in realtime as part of the gameplay (ie you're just walking along and the players have a chat.)

It would be less jarring and boring and more immersive.

@Esposch

Except in those situations (like Enslaved, Gears of War, Bioshock 2) once my character starts talking real time or I listen to an audio log, I stand still until it's finished so I can focus on it. So really, I guess in-game dialog without stopping the action is great for people who don't give a shit about the story - It sucks for anyone trying to get more from it then a variation the standard FPS that separates Gears from Halo from CoD from MoH from Duke Nukem.

@Punkrawk Bbob

Wow, I love the way you've completely thrown out the possibility that somebody can play a game and listen to it at the same time. If you can't do it, nobody can!

@Punkrawk Bbob FFS, Gears came out in 2006, that is 5 years ago! How can people still confuse it with an FPS now?!

@Esposch
by 'Nintendo does none of the above' did you mean 'Nintendo conspicuously fails to localise any of their high-profile JRPGs'? :)

I'm not a big cutscene fan either (but on the other hand, if there's going to be a cutscene, please actually make it a damn cutscene and don't give some kind of frankly broken illusion that it's interactive because I can still walk around and shit while the characters are talking at each other)..

@ShinAntonio

Along with a footnote that reads: "Reminder-- Kingdom Hearts 3. K?".

@ShinAntonio they got it already, they bought Eidos, no?

@ShinAntonio

I wish I could go back a few years and tell Square Enix about this so they could have not screwed up Dungeon Siege 3 so badly. The goblins with their floppy ears was bad enough, but then I got to the final boss who was wearing traditional Thai fingernail dance attire. I played through all the previous Dungeon Sieges and I don't think I remember any of the bosses wearing anything like that. If they had called it something else, maybe something in Japanese and told me that it was a Japanese RPG, I would've liked it a lot more because then I would have expected the random demons and earth guardians that aren't indicative of any Western RPG.

@Vladeon

I don't think anyone even vaguely japanese had anything to do with Dungeon Siege 3. SE just ships them to the stores.

@Mmmmz

yeah but they really only led for 4 out of 6 generations because the western world had not really supported it 100% during that time, and so western audiences didn't really have a choice. It was japanese games or nothing.

15 years ago el shaddai might have made a big splash, but now I look at it and say oh it's like god of war but very japanese.

same with vanquish, awesome game, but to the western world it's a japanese gears of war.

@eat it
It was hardly japanese games or nothing. The difference was that japanese games were often good. Back then we didn't go, oh that's a good japanese made game! It was simply a good game. Some western games were quite good too and again there wasn't a distinction unless the name sounded foreign. A good game was a good game.

I don't understand your thinking of the western world not supporting Japanese games during the Atari 2600 since the Atari was firmly USA based with small releases world-wide. Japan having the fewest games. It was sort of the opposite and when you consider that Japanese Arcade games did pretty well at the time and that was the main gaming venue.

Some people called God of War a western Devil May Cry... I mean, you can keep going circles all week long with those inane comparisons. Both were good games.

And vanquish is more about being another shooter in a shooter saturated market.

Most people don't make distinctions about whether a game is western or japanese. If it looks fun, they buy it. If they heard of it, that is..

They don't assess them like fine wine, with a monocle in their eye, rubbing their chins going, "Well, here we have a smooth, strong western game that brings notes of passion and violence, but over here we have a meek, overly stylized japanese game that brings notes of emo and despair. Both have a long lasting finish but I find the boldness of the western game to be more pleasing to the palate"

Most people just look at a game and go, "$59.99 for a game that looks like it'd provide 10 hours of fun when I never heard of it and it looks like any other game of that genre? No thank you."

@Mmmmz "Most" people will just glance at shelves and pull of the most recent Madden, call of duty, or just dance. There really is no point in using the majority of consumers as a point of reference in a discussion like this, especially because a lot of enthusiasts like us DO note the distinctions that make a game overtly Japanese.

@TheDarkWayne
So explain why "you" people decided to get all bitchy and nitpicky about "japanese" games, so suddenly?

I understand it with shooters, that was always a western market, but gaming as a whole?

Also it is worth mentioning "everyone" because that's what companies are trying to access. They couldn't give a damn about you elitists any more unless they know you'll come by the millions, and even then the "others" join in on that fun too.

Why do you think shooters are the most popular game? They're the most accessible by the general gaming population. That's also why Japanese companies are suddenly having issues. The 360 is top dog in the U.S and it capitalized on shooters, immensely. Then take into consideration that this generation is largely filled with "been there done that" sequels and spiritual successors, there's nothing to truly compelling coming from Japanese devs. They cash in on franchises established in their golden years while failing to create new, fresh content.

And the two largest genres in the western market, shooters and sports games, don't need that as much. Also take into consideration that most western game heros are just as bad as japanese ones, only they're western.

The only culture difference is the gun culture between the west and japan and since that's the genre du jour this generation it makes perfect sense that Japan is lagging behind.

Still, like I said, good games know no bounds. Plain and simple. Metal Gear Solid is rather "japanesey" and it did quite well. Of course the latest one was... interesting but nevertheless it sold pretty well despite its shortcomings.

@MGTrey

If only we could get a certain ex-boy band member to sing
"I got you a snake in a box, baby!"

@MGTrey
1. Cut a hole in the box!

@MGTrey
2. Put a snake in the box

@Crayola Q Pants ESQ

3. Have the snake jump out and bite you, because you cut a hole in the box dummy.

@Colin

Joke killer is a joke killer.

@PreGHz

Tired meme is tired.

@Cafecito
why not?

@Cafecito
Because we can still kills those without Fox news getting all pissy.

@(Unverified) Yup, nothing cooler than Rocket Sliding on your knees, then slo-mo into a cartwheel while shooting a giant 3 story Robot.

@(Unverified)

You mean Lost Planet?

@kidquest

No one means Lost Planet, no one wants Lost Planet. Don't mention the game again lol

@Caroso
he forgot to say THE one thing that leads to international success.

MAKE A GREAT GAME

i like kojima and all but this crap coming out his mouth is absolute bollocks.
just putting effort into making a great game leads to $$$$ is what some developers need to understand, not pandering to if western gamers with space marines or eastern gamers with effeminate dude and underage girls.

@Caroso
The point is more that rather than trying to craft games in japan that americans will like, make games for each continent and dont worry about trying to get them to fit in just set them free in those markets and if they sink, oh well, but if they swim? then great. Either way they'll have games in their own regions made by their own people that fit them perfectly regardless.