What does appealing to the west even mean?
It's a Japanese perception of what appeals to the west. Square Enix has been doing the same thing for years. They shifted their focus on the kind of games they used to make to games they think the west are in to, which has an ironic effect since they tend to be very Japanese, anyway, but they're never quite as good as the games they used to make.
Japanese makers seem to have forgotten that it was that Japanese charm that attracted those players in the first place. Their efforts to be more western just makes the product sub par and less appealing since it ends up being what they
think the west will like. Square learned that when they found a surprise hit in Bravely Default. Capcom is still trying to make all their games western friendly by leaving behind the Japanese style of storytelling and game making. I think this mentality is why Capcom is pushing the hyper realism so hard, too, because the west seems obsessed with graphics and, from what they might perceive, think it's even more important than the gameplay.
You also have to blame Japan because the shift in what's popular has also affected the kind of games and people who make games. There is a strictly distinct difference between RE1 and RE6. The way people approach games and characters has change drastically and not all for the better.
Why would you even increase your efforts in "appealing to the west"? I don't think the series is badly received here.
Since the US is the biggest consumer of video games in the world it's only natural for game developers to try to appeal to that market. Even Japan no longer buys councils like they used to because they feel like they are not worth the effort. Many gamers there still rather play the PS2 or 3 than bother to get a PS4.
It bothers me quite a bit because some of my favorite games were very distinctly Japanese. Even games like DMC1 and RE4 are clearly Japanese, no one would confuse them for western made, would never be made by a Japanese company in this day and age and that's my problem. The Japanese developers are no longer making the kinds of games that they used to make, the kind I fell in love with.
I also agree a lot with
@xMobilemux, foul language aside and the whole 'we're dedicated to diversity' makes me mad for other reasons and I never make those correlations (it's because it's reverse fascism). These statements raise some huge red flags because my least favorite games in the series, DMC4 and DmC, had the exact same press releases. "We're appealing to western audiences."
Referring back to RE4 and DMC1, being my 2 favorite games of all time and Capcom titles, which only helps to emphasise the point. These games were never advertised as being for western audiences, nor were they made with that mentality in mind. They were made with combat, fun, and focus on giving the best experience in mind. That's what games should focus on. Not being appealing to a demographic. If you make a game and work hard to create and experience that's just worth playing it doesn't matter how 'western' or 'Japanese' your game is, you will find an audience, and when you have a huge publisher like Capcom backing you you'll find it faster.
I have friends who are
always complaining about game design in Japanese games. Frickin' always. Playing RE1 they're constantly calling out the inconsistencies with reality, the impracticality of the castle, the nonsensical aspects of gameplay, stage design, creature locations and designs and nagging all the time about the story. But as much as they complain about it those are the games they play the most.
All that bitching a whinnying is trivial and just minor nags that everyone complains about and it's why they think that games that don't have those things are the better games. I'd argue that that's a shallow perception because as much praise those changes get and as little as people complain about those characteristics by contrast to the old games they don't play those games as much and they sure as hell aren't as memorable. Nobody defends Horizon Zero Dawn or RE7, maybe even the new Spider-Man, with the same amount of passion as they do RE4. Yeah, refined gameplay, more realism, better story and writing and so on, but those games lack the charm that those old games had. That's what I think we've lost in modern games, what makes those games that focused on being games more than appealing to western audiences.
