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General discussionWho makes weirder/more creative games? Japan or the West?(27 posts)(27 posts)
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Posted January 09, 2017
Depends who is asking. You as a non-Japanese person (I think) would obviously consider Japan to have weirder games. Someone from Japan would probably consider "Western" games weirder than their own. Someone outside both might consider both weird.
Also depends on what you mean by "creative". It seems you're comparing AAA of one with indie of another?
Post edited January 09, 2017 by babark
Posted January 09, 2017
I think Japan's weirdness & creativity is quite contained and has well-defined limits today. They invented a few extremely well-thought out genres and mechanics (shmups, jrpgs, etc), and they often utilize a fixed set of stylistic choices sometimes considered tasteless or unpleasant by the western community (see the Caladrius Blaze thread).

But the Japanese stick to their ways. I think the more extreme deviations from the norm come from the western devs these days. They don't necessarily work well, but are creative nonetheless.
Post edited January 09, 2017 by onarliog
Posted January 09, 2017
I'd say Japan used to be more creative and weirder.
These days, it depends whether you're talking about big publishers or indies. Big Japanese studios have pretty much lost all creativity and willingness to try new things imo, while American and European ones still sometimes take a few risks.

OTOH, it's hard to tell if you take indies, since the overwhelming majority of indie Japanese games never get released in the West. The Western indie scene is also capable of being very creative.

That said, from our point of view, the Japanese in general are probably kings of the weird stuff, but that's entirely subjective. I'm sure Japanese gamers would consider some western games weirder than anything they make.
Post edited January 09, 2017 by mystral
Posted January 09, 2017
Personally I don't see 'weird' and 'creative' as necessarily the same thing.
Something can be creative without being weird/odd.
I mean, the Long Dark, The Witness and Superhot are all creative games to me but I don't see them as weird.

The weirdest games I've seen have more or less all been Japanese.
I mean, the modern Final Fantasy games are all weird to me and that's one of the more normal Japanese franchises.
Of-course 'normal' is very much subjective in this case, it depends on what you are used to playing.

Some Western games appear weird simply because they are so badly made, like many of the one-man horror games.

I think the West makes more creative games when you consider our many Indie developers, to me this is where the core of modern game development lies, where new innovative ideas are born in terms of storytelling and gameplay mechanics.
Post edited January 09, 2017 by Ricky_Bobby
Posted January 09, 2017
Weird != Creative
Posted January 09, 2017
"Aw American gamer, fat and razy!"
Post edited January 09, 2017 by tinyE
Posted January 09, 2017
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eksasol: (They do makes good games and music though.)
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WinterSnowfall: Pretty... wierd music too.
Fucking forum bugs try to mess with my head more than this music clip. No chance!

Mind blown... oO
Post edited January 09, 2017 by anothername
Posted January 10, 2017
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DaCostaBR: I've asked myself that for a long time, and it sounds like a given right? Japan, they have stuff like Cho Aniki with giant semi naked dudes with viking helmets shooting lasers out of their head while flying through the sky.

For a while now though, I've been quite disappointed with a lot of japanese games in general. The crazyness of the PS2 era is gone and whenever I see creativity I feel like most of the time it's only in regards to visual design. I couldn't ever see Japan producing certain games like Papers, Please and its story and gameplay integration, or The Stanley Parable and how it tries to deconstruct interactive stories.

I guess I just don't feel that same spark of creativity anymore coming from japanese devs. Of course this could just be my own bias, these are indie games I'm mentioning, which probably haven't been released in Japan, and I do wonder if there aren't equally interesting japanese games we'll never get to see over here.

I was hoping we could share opinions, which side of the industry do you think is the healthiest and most creative? Did you always think that or did that opinion switch over time? What examples do you have of games that really struck you as weird, and creative, and whatever mix of the two and left their mark on you in some way?
so you're a gaming philosopher?.. show me your PhD papers or it never happened
Posted January 10, 2017
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babark: Depends who is asking. You as a non-Japanese person (I think) would obviously consider Japan to have weirder games. Someone from Japan would probably consider "Western" games weirder than their own. Someone outside both might consider both weird.
Also depends on what you mean by "creative". It seems you're comparing AAA of one with indie of another?
It's certainly true that some of the 'weirdness' is due to cultural differences, but Japanese devs seem to have more instances of purposefully trying to be weird. Just check out some of Suda51's games for instance!

Heh, this one just came to mind.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-IV8hCvsXy0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-71Ms80Qc4&t=31s
Post edited January 10, 2017 by GreasyDogMeat
Posted January 10, 2017
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anothername: Mind blown... oO
The whole metal-pop girlie band thing is kind of a fad in Japan right now... here's something else to blow your mind. Notice the "creative" totally senseless lyrics :).

"Neck of giraffe is very long. Very scary." :P
Posted January 10, 2017
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anothername: Mind blown... oO
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WinterSnowfall: The whole metal-pop girlie band thing is kind of a fad in Japan right now... here's something else to blow your mind. Notice the "creative" totally senseless lyrics :).

"Neck of giraffe is very long. Very scary." :P
Lyrics and growling Deathmetal are polar opposites anyway :D

But no, like that one youtuber correctly pointed out in the first clip: If you look very close one of the girls looks a bit like a guy. Tops weirdness from Naziesque dude in the other clip for me :P
Posted January 10, 2017
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mystral: That said, from our point of view, the Japanese in general are probably kings of the weird stuff, but that's entirely subjective. I'm sure Japanese gamers would consider some western games weirder than anything they make.
That's part of the reason I ask this. I've showed some japanese friends western games and I got that reaction.
It got me thinking about japanese games and how a lot of the industry seems a bit stagnant in terms of gameplay, and how a lot of the things we take for granted as "Japan is so weird! lol" is just window dressing and it doesn't have any real impact on how it plays.

Yeah, you can make a game about anime school girls that are also ballistic missiles, but in the end the game is still a generic 2D sidescrolling shmup like so many others.
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General discussionWho makes weirder/more creative games? Japan or the West?(27 posts)(27 posts)
(27 posts)