Is there anyone else here who prefers Japanese video games over American ones?

I haven't playing video games (at least not on the consoles, which the Wii is the only one I have both owned and is both recent) since the Fall of 2012, and the only games I play (or have played) are either just old PC DOS games (like Wolfenstein 3D and Duke Nukem 3D) or my SNES/NES emulator on my pc. Essentially, I'm more of a classic/retro-gamer and whenever I'm in Taiwan (or Japan) or at a place like Dave & Buster's, I tend to dig arcade games the most as they still addict me, no matter what era we are in.

I don't actively follow much on contemporary gaming, except for things like Mario or Nintendo. And speaking of which, a considerably significant part of my childhood in was shaped by Mario, Pokemon (well primarily via anime, toys, and a few trading cards rather than games), and Nintendo. And I guess when i'm not looking into Mario or anything from Nintendo, I often tend to look at Japanese games and game characters like from Namco (Pac-Man and Galaxian), Capcom (Okami and a bunch of old games), Konami (Parodius and TMNT: Turtles in Time and Sunset Riders), etc. and nothing but them when it comes to gaming of any era.

As far as characters and aesthetics go, I've always found myself to be FAR FAR FAR more inclined to prefer and center my gaming life (if it is still even active) around the Japanese more than non-Japanese games. And every time I think of iconic and popular video games, I mainly think of the Japanese stuff like Mario, Zelda, Metroid, Kirby, Mega Man, Castlevania, Gradius, Ninja Gaiden, etc and the Gameboys, GBA's, and DS's (gosh I sorta miss the old days when kids had Gameboys and GBA's in their hands rather than those smartphones with a bunch of randomly created games on it). The only american or western games I prefer are stuff from the old Atari classics, the arcades, or the old DOS games. And Doomguy is one of my only 'favorite' western/non-japanese game characters I guess, if I HAD to pick SOMEONE from my memory and experience of playing any of their games.

However if I had to be more specific, my rant would boil down to just which characters/settings/art style I prefer more from rather than which games are more fun/addictive to play and the reason I prefer Japanese-created game characters over US/Western-created game characters is because the former seems to be more cute and cartoony and with more attractive color and style added to it and they seem more creative, while Western game characters these days seem too "realistic"-like and always too bloody and violent (i'm not against blood and violence but just not when people pick a character or work over others for ONLY those reasons alone) and too much of the whole "gritty" and "hardcore" attitude going on. And they seem pretty dull to me.

I just want to make sure I'm not alone on this. Anyone else who's into japanese games/characters more than the american/western ones like I do?

Sure. Final Fantasy, Fire Emblem, Shin Megami Tensei/Persona, Zelda, etc. are among my favorite series. I mean, there are a lot of bad Japanese games, but the good ones I appreciate for being so weird and ambitious, and tend to be filled with lots of personality and angst I don't find in many western games.

To be fair though, while I don't care for Call of Duty and Halo, I think the western market has done a decent job catching up in the independent market, while Playstation has gone downhill trying to emulate western games.

I don't have a preference for one region over another. I just care about the game being good.

There was a time when I gravitated more towards Japanese games, but it hasn't been like that for a while. I used to live and breath for JRPGs, now I take one look at the cast, roll my eyes and immediately lose interest. The aesthetics just put me off completely. There's a few exceptions (From Software, Platinum Games, Vanillaware) but I generally can't stand Japanese character design anymore.

Since I mostly still mostly play RPGs, I prefer Japanese. Western developers have easily caught up to, or even surpassed, Japan in a lot of genres, but western RPGs rub me the wrong way. I just can't get into something like the Elder Scrolls over Dragon Quest.

Well I don't like the West's major output of FPS (of course there are exceptions) or the East's major output of JRPG (of course there are exceptions) so I don't know.

Good thing about Japan video games is the amazing difference in genre you can find. There is games about everything and there is indeed still such a thing as creativity from Japan developpers when in the west they tend to just use the same recipes again, again and again. (yeah, call of duty 14, what a blast!!)

Of course most of those games don't leave Japan so, yeah, to truly appreciate their production you have to live there or invest some money in importation.

[QUOTE=GoingPostal;1135513]Good thing about Japan video games is the amazing difference in genre you can find. There is games about everything and there is indeed still such a thing as creativity from Japan developpers when in the west they tend to just use the same recipes again, again and again. (yeah, call of duty 14, what a blast!!)

Of course most of those games don't leave Japan so, yeah, to truly appreciate their production you have to live there or invest some money in importation.[/QUOTE]

This is so ignorant I can't even begin to sum it up. You've never heard of any games outside a couple FPSs, or indie games? Not like Japan is any better with the sheer amount of old franchises still cranking out sequels.

This seems to be an argument used by every single person who goes on about Japanese games being better "they're so creative and have story unlike Western games which are just all Call of Duty and Battlefield". FPS franchises are basically like sports game franchises, released every year with some updates. Once you get over that you can understand them a bit better. And even so I don't see why people look down on others for playing them. It's a video game that cares more about fulfilling gameplay and being able to play with your friends. And there's plenty other options. You get everything from South Park Stick of Truth to Grand Theft Auto, from Journey to Batman Arkham, from Witcher to Pillars of Eternity.

[QUOTE=LoneNecromancer;1135544]This is so ignorant I can't even begin to sum it up. You've never heard of any games outside a couple FPSs, or indie games? Not like Japan is any better with the sheer amount of old franchises still cranking out sequels.

This seems to be an argument used by every single person who goes on about Japanese games being better "they're so creative and have story unlike Western games which are just all Call of Duty and Battlefield". FPS franchises are basically like sports game franchises, released every year with some updates. Once you get over that you can understand them a bit better. And even so I don't see why people look down on others for playing them. It's a video game that cares more about fulfilling gameplay and being able to play with your friends. And there's plenty other options. You get everything from South Park Stick of Truth to Grand Theft Auto, from Journey to Batman Arkham, from Witcher to Pillars of Eternity.[/QUOTE]

I haven't played the newest Call of Duty, which does look fun, but none of the CoD games between that and Modern Warfare 2 (2009) have had gameplay as good as Modern Warfare 2. It isn't good when your yearly release starts to feel worse over time.

Major western publishers and developers used to make some really great games, across a wide number of genres, now it feels like they mostly just make crap.

Releasing yearly (or almost yearly) games with little improvement over previous versions is common to both the East and West, you've got FIFA, COD, Assassin's Creed etc from the West and Pokémon, Professor Layton, Dynasty Warriors etc from the East.

I will say however western games don't seem to release two versions of the same game like Yo-Kai Watch, Fire Emblem, Pokémon, Inazuma Eleven etc do.

[QUOTE=simbob4000;1135686]
Major western publishers and developers used to make some really great games, across a wide number of genres, now it feels like they mostly just make crap.[/QUOTE]

Western games are pretty much the same as they've been since the 90s. That is, no personality, mechanically void, but just really pretty looking.

Yes, I do find myself playing more Japanese games and I've always been a Nintendo fanboy at heart, so that helps too. My favourite franchises are all from there Mario, Pokemon, Persona etc.

Not to say there aren't some top-notch Western games, but I've always gravited more towards Japanese games.

[QUOTE=GoingPostal;1135513]Good thing about Japan video games is the amazing difference in genre you can find. There is games about everything and there is indeed still such a thing as creativity from Japan developpers when in the west they tend to just use the same recipes again, again and again. (yeah, call of duty 14, what a blast!!)

Of course most of those games don't leave Japan so, yeah, to truly appreciate their production you have to live there or invest some money in importation.[/QUOTE]

LOL that's hilarious.

How many Pokemon, Dynasty Warriors and Mario Party/Kart/whatever games are there again?

If you think this is a problem that's exclusive to western devs, you must not play very many Japanese games after all.

I've always preferred Japanese Games as I feel the Eastern are better at making the type of games I enjoy. Fighters are my #1 and they are almost exclusively developed in Japan. At current I only know of two western devs that are experienced with them.

[QUOTE=Kid A;1136444]Western games are pretty much the same as they've been since the 90s. That is, no personality, mechanically void, but just really pretty looking.[/QUOTE]

That's not true, at all. There were actually fantastic games coming out of the west in the '90s. Some of the best RPGs and first person shooters ever made came out of the nineties. And there's whole styles of games that big studios don't even touch now. Weirdly the big western studios don't even really make RPGs anymore.