Almost anyone who grew up with games on consoles in the last century probably has a fond memory or two with action games made in Japan. Names roll off the tongue like Contra, Bionic Commando, Ninja Gaiden, Splatterhouse, Castlevania and too many others to count. Japanese developed games dominated the console market in the '80s and '90s and it left a lasting impression on a lot of young gamers and future developers in America.
While gamers in the West were busy memorizing the Konami code, the market in Japan was forming quite differently. Japanese gaming history was forever changed with the release of Dragon Quest in 1986, creating a cultural phenomenon and establishing RPGs as the preeminent genre. Other games followed that and expanded or built on the experience, from Final Fantasy, Shin Megami Tensei, Fire Emblem, Secret of Mana, Tales, SaGa, Phantasy Star, Ogre Battle and many, many imitators. Other narrative heavy genres would rise in Japan, like visual novels and dating sims, creating different experiences, preferences and expectations among Japanese games – action titles from Japan still had a following, but it was an increasingly small percentage of the market (much like how JRPGs have their fans in the U.S. but it's only a fraction of the total console market).
The new Devil May Cry, with Dante reboot
Well into the seventh generation of game consoles, a few things are becoming apparent. One, the percentage of the worldwide market composed of Japanese titles has shrunk, and if you exclude Nintendo, would be shown to have drastically shrunk worldwide. Two, in a far more subjective sense, major Japanese game publishers have become much more conservative and sequel driven, even by the standards of an industry often thought of as being too conservative and sequel driven. Three, because of differences in consumption habits in Japan and the rest of the world, portable systems like the DS and PSP have taken a place of prominence that the PS3 and Xbox 360 mostly satisfy in America and Europe.
What this has created is a vacuum for a certain sort of core action title on home consoles, which has mostly been filled by Western developers. It perhaps should not be surprising then that Western studios have been tapped to create new entries in Japanese-created franchises, like Golden Axe, Contra, Silent Hill, Bionic Commando, and (most recently) Splatterhouse, Dead Rising, Castlevania and Devil May Cry. The demand for these sorts of “core” products is generally higher in the West than it is in Japan and the passion in creating and publishing them often seems to be higher as well, targeting a very keyed in demographic of gamers that demand the absolute highest quality.
Along the same lines, it also shouldn't come as a shock that some of the best independent developers in Japan are signing up with American publishers. Tomonobu Itagaki's Devil's Third, his first game with Valhalla Game Studios, will be published by THQ; Suda51's latest game Shadows of the Damned is being published by Electronic Arts; and probably the largest coup of all, long time Capcom game producer Shinji Mikami's studio Tango Gameworks was acquired by Bethsoft owner ZeniMax.
Suda51's Shadows of the Damned
To some this might be a troubling trend – I wouldn't be surprised if executives at Japanese games publishers are wringing their hands, wondering if their business has been changed forever. I'm sure there are gamers in America and Europe that are worried that the unique style and aesthetic of Japanese games will be altered or corrupted in order to try and please a larger worldwide audience. I'm not too concerned, however, because these publishers want the best, unique products possible; they don't want to put out garbage.
The door does swing both ways too, as evidenced by the Square Enix purchase Eidos. Fears of franchise characters like Lara Croft being turned into wide-eyed anime stereotypes were totally unfounded – in fact, the publisher released Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days, which is one of the most purposefully ugly and gritty games ever made. The upcoming Deus Ex: Human Revolution also looks tremendous and embodies my hopes for this convalescence of East and West: developed in Canada from a British company owned by a Japanese publisher that will have some of its CG done in Japan and looks like it'll have a seamless Japanese localization. The world is shrinking, and major game publishers ignore regions of the world at their own peril. Good games are good games, and titles from the West should sell well in Japan and there's no reason that Japanese games shouldn't sell well over here.
Gameplay is an art that transcends borders, and it simply makes good business sense to keep your eyes open for opportunities no matter where they present themselves, as Zenimax, EA and THQ clearly have. Far from ruining the Japanese gaming industry, it may in fact save some of the best Japanese developers from considering retirement or a career change. They'll be able to make games on their own terms with their own original IP, and shouldn't it ultimately be about these creative types being able to realize their visions? So when Keiji Inafune decides where he's going next, don't be surprised if he signs on with a large Western developer... and that the partnership leads to great things.
2 Comments
November 20, 2010
Nice article.
Amusingly enough, many of the classic Japanese games you've noted are very much inspired by western movies, books and other media. Contra, Castlevania, Bionic Commando, Splatterhouse and other hits all have these influences and even Japanese RPG franchises such as Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest were influenced by early PC role playing games. Resident Evil and Dead Rising wouldn't exist at all without George Romero's work, but some gamers wrongly put on their "gamer racist" helmets these days whenever a formerly Japanese-developed franchise goes to a team outside that country.
When the new DMC was announced, you'd think Ninja Theory was driving over grandmas with baskets of kittens. Instead of a few too many loudmouth idiots simply looking at the young developer's track record (both Heavenly Sword and Enslaved are great games). message boards
went haywire with all sorts of slurs about the reboot.
I say: shut up and wait for the damn demo, fools. Besides, Dante wasn't born with that white hair and long coat (white-haired babies are freaky, anyway). I'm actually looking forward to the game and I hope HT doesn't cave in to stupid fanboy emotions and whining. It's their game now and we should respect them for doing the best they can to make the character theirs while they have him.
Anyway, the funny thing is, if you were to tell creators such as Inafune, Mikami, Eno, Suda or others a few years ago that their work had a "western" feel, they'd probably take it as a high compliment.
More recently, D3Publisher of America is rebooting Sandlot's Earth Defense Force series with a US dev team, a move that was met with huge, targeted anger from some purists, particularly when the new game was initially revealed to lack split-screen co-op play (part of every EDF game). After a few weeks of petitions and pressure, D3 unveiled co-op play, but a few annoyingly vocal die-hards are still planning NOT to buy the game simpley because it's being developed outside of Japan.
As for sequel-driven content getting out of hand, go look up a list of Dragon Ball, Gundam and other manga or anime-based titles and you'll see that Japan had this madness first. We've finally beaten them at pumping out sequels and spin-offs at a faster pace that just happens to be on more powerful consoles. Then again, that's not counting oddball offshoot sub-genres such as puzzle, dating sims, pachinko, adventure and other games with popular Japanese game characters...
November 23, 2010
Thanks g(ee)lw. People should realize that, in the case of many of these franchises, if a Western developer didn't do a sequel, they're be no sequel at all. People should have a little open-mindedness to the process.