http://www.ninjatheory.com/forums/s...-2012-Time-running-out-for-Japan-says-Inafune
http://www.oxm.co.uk/39117/sega-japanese-games-shouldnt-pretend-theyre-western/
As gamers,i'm sure you guys know the golden age of gaming where japanese games dominate the gaming industry.But now i've heard that japanese games don't do well in the west now.
Since you guys are mostly from the west i would like to your thoughts about this.
From what have I played in recent Japanese games, each of the Japanese games have their own interesting concept, but they failed to implement it or execute it in their final game successfully. The factors that prevented Japanese games from being successful in other parts of the world are:
1. Unclear game design.
Good examples are Final Fantasy XIII and Asura's Wrath. Final Fantasy XIII fails to have high critical reception due to it's extremely linear nature progression, which is quite uncommon for RPG games. As for Asura's Wrath, it's game design is interesting,but poorly balanced due to abundance of cutscenes, QTEs and lack of actual fighting levels.
2. The repetitive nature of each game for a series, example: Yakuza series.
Many Japanese games have generic gameplay nature that is recycled in every installment of a game series. Example, Yakuza series. Each Yakuza game have about 80% similarity in gameplay system, except for it's spinoffs. To be fair, Western games are not devoid of this matter, but Western developers have more or less innovate the gameplay for each new game installment, whereas Japanese developers do not do much in innovating the gameplay itself.
3. Lack of marketing
Many Japanese games that have been released fail to sell a lot after it's release due to lack of proper marketing. Shadows of the Damned is the best example. Despite the game's development was directed by popular game developers such as Shinji Mikami, Suda51, and Akira Yamaoka, the sales of the game is fairly poor since virtually not many people are aware of this game's release.
4. Western target audience
Many recent Japanese games are targeted towards to Western audience, such as Final Fantasy XIII and Final Fantasy XIII-2, to garner more new fans to the series with more accessible gameplay. Sadly, I think this backfires, as not many gamers/critics like both games, and any other Japanese games that are catered toward Western audience.
Examples of successful Japanese games that I have played and known of are Dark Souls, Demon's Souls, Bayonetta, Vanquish, and Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. Dark Souls and Demon's Souls may be difficult, punishing, and hard, but the game design for both games is entirely original, addicting, and unique. Bayonetta is a very similar game to Devil May Cry games, but with it's own unique version of gameplay that makes DMC4 inferior in gameplay design.
Vanquish is a very high-speed action third person shooter game that is not bound to realism, and has many features that makes the game to be virtually awesome, such as the Boost mechanism. Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots took everything good from previous MGS games and implement it to the final game, with it's own original additions. The game may have too many cutscenes, but most of the time, players would play the game to follow the story of MGS universe.
It is hard to say whether Japanese developers can continue to make more successful games like in the past, since they are bounded by lack of innovation and playing safe by recycling the gameplay design for each game. Unless they find a way to break that trend, I suspect that Japanese games will continue to fail in terms of sales and reception when compared with Western games.
