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

[bloodofthegods]

Vanquish and Binary Domain. They're both third person shooters, and they're the best ones from the 360/PS3 era...with Vanquish probably being one of the best ever made.

Thanks for the suggestions. I checked out gameplay videos and reviews and they both seem to be in good favor with gamers. I think I'll like Binary Domain more myself, but I showed both videos to my son (12 years) and he so wants Vanquish. It may be a bit too fast paced for me, as the older I get I am getting to be a real casual gamer, and one of the reviews said it really had a very unforgiving learning curve. But it does indeed look beautiful visually.

One question, without derailing the thread too much, on the topic of third person shooters ... what's to be said about The Last of Us? I have read/seen reviews comments on both extreme ends. Some say it's an amazingly unique game and others say it horribly overrated. It seems it could be interesting and hold my attention. It seems to have the horror aspect like the first Silent Hill, RE4 or Dead Space, which are three of my favorite horror games.

[simbob4000]

Thanks for the suggestions. I checked out gameplay videos and reviews and they both seem to be in good favor with gamers. I think I'll like Binary Domain more myself, but I showed both videos to my son (12 years) and he so wants Vanquish. It may be a bit too fast paced for me, as the older I get I am getting to be a real casual gamer, and one of the reviews said it really had a very unforgiving learning curve. But it does indeed look beautiful visually.

One question, without derailing the thread too much, on the topic of third person shooters ... what's to be said about The Last of Us? I have read/seen reviews comments on both extreme ends. Some say it's an amazingly unique game and others say it horribly overrated. It seems it could be interesting and hold my attention. It seems to have the horror aspect like the first Silent Hill, RE4 or Dead Space, which are three of my favorite horror games.

Vanquish is great, but it's also not a game where you can sit in cover all day like other cover based shooters. Cover is there, but you're also meant to be zipping around and using your slow-mo power. A problem some people seem to have with Vanquish is they try and play it like Gears of War, but you aren't really meant to. You can't really sit in same cover in Binary Domain either, but that game is still about the cover. They've both also got really good boss fights, maybe the only third person shooters with good boss fights. And shooting robots in Binary Domain feels so good.

A lot is made of The Last of Us because of it's "emotionally engaging" story, but from a gameplay standpoint it seems like a pretty crappy stealth game with the ok-ish aiming of Uncharted. Although I haven't played it, so I can't say how bad it actually feels, but it's looks like Uncharted aiming. Seems like time would be better spent watching The Road and some good zombie movies, or maybe playing Dead Rising or State of Decay.

They aren't horror games in the sense that they're sold as horror games. But Dragon's Dogma when you're in dark place or outside a night feels like a horror game, it one of the few games where the dark is dark...and stronger stuff comes out at night. Dark Souls also feels like a horror game; (more so when you aren't playing online) I'm guessing Bloodborne does too, but I haven't played it.

[Michael P]

I've played great games and crappy games made in both countries.

[weetomuncher]

I love vintage British games actually.

It was kinda weird that old Sinclair ZX Spectrum games always had toilets in them and they usually chased you around though.

[Username taken]

I've played great games and crappy games made in both countries.

Quoted for truth.

[nickthemkfan]

Well, I think some western game characters are cute and cartoony too~ just take a look at tiny toon series, the earth worm jim series, crash bandicoot series and even conker's bad fur day Maybe Japanese-created game characters are more cute is because their culture have the cute and humor side.

[simbob4000]

The Tiny Toon games are made by Konami.

[nickthemkfan]

Thx for mention that bro

[Speed Force League Unlimited]

Sniper, you said most of the games you prefer are classics and arcade style, and in those games the Japanese easily did a better job.
When it comes to larger games, I don't really have a preference by country/region, if the developers do a good job and the publisher helps, then they got my attention.
I love the Assassin's Creed games I played (first one is the exception, that game is a mess), but would you count them American made for being made in North America? Or do you consider them out of both countries for being developed in Canada?

[simbob4000]

Well, usually when people talk about American games they're talking about western developers and publishers as a whole.

[Look]

"Zelda" and "Super Mario Maker" as well as "Star Fox Zero" are getting a big push in 2016

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.

I don't have time for games but agree, when I did play I found many Western games to be too based on reality, they are shooter or thieves or they want to make a movie like some kind of boys in the hood meets expendables/dirty harry
when i did play Japanese games as silly as some games were at least it takes imagination to come up with new concepts like Zelda, Star Fox, Dragon Quest, Resident Evil or Final Fantasy.
I never understood the huge popularity of Western games like Grand Theft Auto, they are ok but nothing I would have wasted too much time over and the Japanese people have very different tastes in games to people in the USA. Often Grand Theft Auto will have trouble making it to the Top Ten in Japanese charts, other times even with highly promoted releases games like GTA will Fail to Make the Top 50 in Japan, they will be ranked out by the latest Mario or Sonic or Devil May Cry or Minecraft or Zelda or whatever

[Speed Force League Unlimited]

I don't have time for games but agree, when I did play I found many Western games to be too based on reality, they are shooter or thieves or they want to make a movie like some kind of boys in the hood meets expendables/dirty harry

Yeah, this is getting too repetitive and uninteresting.
Newer Western games made me really miss the moon jump, that made Saints Row IV Super Powered Virtual Reality a much wanted much liked change of pace.

[Shawn Hopkins]

What I think about Japanese games is what I think when I see the Vita RPG selection at Gamestop.

"No thanks, I'm not a pervert."

I know sex sells, but as the Japanese market has shrunk it's followed the lead of anime and leaned on fan service too hard. Games where you rip clothes off women, or punish criminal girls, or make harems, or watch boobs jiggle take up a huge part of the output. And even stuff that's not solely aimed at ferocious maturbators generally has at least some content to attract them (look at Quiet in The new Metal Gear, I don't care how they justify it in game, they made a statue of it with squishy boobs).

Heck, it's not even stuff I personally find sexy. Since it often involves women that look or act really young (hello Paz!) it's actually super squicky. Western games use sex, too, The Witcher is a notable example, but at least that stuff sticks to softcore Cinemax cliches and doesn't go in weird fetish directions.

That only applies to a certain range of Japanese games of course. Games aimed at kids or general audiences, including most of what Nintendo does (except for its obsession with Zero Suit Samus) don't have these problems.

[alex]

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, Fallout 1, 2 and 3 and Planescape Torment and Half Life 2 and Grim Fandango and Portal and Baldurs Gate and the Witcher titles and the Civilization series and Bioshock and Diablo 1, 2, 3 and Starcraft 1and 2 and world of warcraft and GTA and System shock 1 and 2 and Deus Ex and the total war games and dishonored and Dragon Age and the Batman games and ...well, i can stop there.
No personality and mechanically void, but pretty looking.
Perhaps they should have more stories that begin with amnesiac heros who don't speak or begin with villages burning down?

[Hiromi]

No, not really. There were actual third person shooters on PC before either of them made a third person shooter. If you're talking about the over-the-shoulder view they all use today, Splinter Cell did it first. If you're talking about the stick to wall and shoot from cover mechanics almost everyone uses today, WinBack and Splinter Cell both did it before it showed up in a MGS game.

Winback maybe, but Metal Gear Solid 2(2001), the game those mechanics were really introduced in full came out a year before the first Splinter Cell(2002) so no on that