Video games of Japanese origin vs others.

[Disturbed]

I always thought video games of Japanese origin were better than video games from other countries of origin. They were generally more original, not just based upon some sports or military stuff, and they looked and sounded better. Obviously, there were times were American studios took over franchises of Japanese origin and they made good games (e.g., Metroid Prime, Wave Race Blue Storm), but I think Japanese people were just more creative and more logical than other people, so that's why their games had better level design and more original more elegant artwork. And of course, games of French origin were also usually pretty good in terms of level design but there weren't many. Some games of American origin were great, but there just weren't as many franchises that really stood the test of time.

Obviously, the original Sonic the Hedgehog (the characters, the running speed/play mechanics) were quite original in 1991, although some games of American origin like the Lost Vikings were original too (I became fascinated about the history of vikings for a while and I enjoyed the death animations in the Lost Vikings although they weren't super original they used to sexually arouse me even when I was little, for some reason seeing electrocutions in entertainment really sexually aroused and sometimes disturbed me; I was such a psychotic pervert even when I was little I just didn't tell people about my perversions but some people seemed to wonder if I was a pervert and said I had a dirty mind.)

I was a huge fan of Castlevania, but the quality of the games varied somewhat and I need to get back to playing Bloodstained Ritual of the Night, but it's not quite as exciting as the Castlevania Order of Ecclesia was in 2008, at least to me (and certainly not as exciting as Sonic Adventure was in 1999 nor Devil May Cry in 2001, those games really blew me away when they were new.)

Of course there have always been many sequels, compilations, remakes, remasters, and reboots. I guess there have always been so many sequels because they're profitable; humans can't make too much originality and humanity doesn't always demand originality. Of course, imagination is more important than knowledge (as Albert Einstein said) especially when the products of someone's imagination are elegant (even though they make me feel inferior sometimes.)

Your thoughts? (please feel free to make insults if you think this post is ridiculous, I think the insults are funny sometimes)

[Grendel]

Given the dominant japanese themes of group harmony and tradition, I don't think anything embodying those values is prone to be appealing to western audiences. This is exacerbated by the fact that they've been pumping out steadily cheaper and more self-similar things for the last couple decades.

So I don't think the japan-craze that briefly took place in western countries had anything to do with peculiarities of japanese culture. The video game market particularly shifted to favor them because of a market crash in the US involving the spectacular failure of the E.T. game. If anything, japanese producers started playing around with outside ideas and symbols and driving them in new directions when their industries were still new and seeking to self-define, which is what gave them their novelties. But from what I know, that's pretty much died down and it's gone to crap again.

If you do enough research, you'll eventually learn things like "ninjas" as we define them were never a real warrior caste and were invented as a modern folk legend to add mystique to japanese heritage; that katanas are actually really heavy, really brittle, and generally crap compared to western steel; that Samurai wielded spears as often as swords because they're the universally superior weapon; that even the modern incarnation of origami partially copied from German napkin-folding techniques, etc. There's quite a bit of embellishment that's been done to make all things japanese seem more intriguing to themselves and to outside markets than they might otherwise be.



Japanese stuff is overrated imo. The true blindness in the "weeb" archetype is that he fails to recognize that the true spark of his intrigue in japanese products came not from the culture itself, but from the innovative period of creolization that came when japanese producers were seeking to self-define. He fails to embrace contradiction, instead following blindly the tired old steps of another. That, to my understanding, is how the trope took off.

[Sol]

If to talk about popular gaming consoles - those are mostly from Japan since mid 80s. This may help to make better games due to better contacts of Japan games developers with consoles' producers.
Also best Japan games developers may concentrate more on Japan made systems than on other ones - this may improve the average quality. The reasons for this can be different, including non-market ones.
If to take IBM PC games and popular non-Japan computers - the situation does not look as Japanees games are often among most popular ones. Taking the rather equal conditions on PC for all and significant income motivations - they'd could to use "creative super-powers" to lead there, in case those would be.