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Western games vs eastern games

What type of games do you prefer when it comes to where they were developed?

  • Most of my favorite games are western developed games

    Votes: 72 31.7%
  • Most of my favorite games are eastern developed games

    Votes: 77 33.9%
  • Don't care, I'll play anything

    Votes: 73 32.2%
  • I only play the finest slav jank available

    Votes: 5 2.2%

  • Total voters
    227

laynelane

Member
Eastern for me. When I think of the games I've spent the most time on - Souls, Bloodborne, Resident Evil, Nioh, SMT, Persona, etc. there's a huge emphasis towards Japanese developers. Still, there's Western games I've enjoyed and poured hours into too - GoW, TloU, Fallout, etc.
 

Mozzarella

Member
Based on my rated games, games i gave 5/5 and 4/5 go like this: 33% of them are japanese. 66% of them are western (including european games)
 

EDMIX

Member
He described the opposite actually, In Breath of the WIld the map is marked AFTER

Irrelevant. The point being made when I referenced Breath Of The Wild was based on having some collectathon bloated map, as clearly its filled with SHIT to do and collect.

I don't fucking buy that suddenly none of that matters when its from Japan and ohhhhh its labeled after, as if this person is going to fucking praise the next Far Cry, AC etc if they add that or something. They added that to omit Breath Of The Wild, they already knew that game was going to be questioned based on its use of all that filler shit.

Be like "or its endless versions of the same racers (not in karts)" lol

Be like "or its the same fighting game over and over (not with stock and or with Smash in the title) lol

Its very clear that this person wants to talk shit about designs, attack those from the west that do it, but insulate, protect, omit their favorite Japanese IP that are doing the same thing.
 

Lethal01

Member
Irrelevant. The point being made when I referenced Breath Of The Wild was based on having some collectathon bloated map, as clearly its filled with SHIT to do and collect.

Relevant, he is talking about collectathons where the thing you collect is pre marked on your map. He made sure to specify that point and then you use Zelda as an example when they specifically don't do that. It's silly.
 

EDMIX

Member
He made sure to specify that point

He sure did, its simply to insulate Zelda from any criticisms...

So he also stated open world filled with shit to do or collect. I see no reason to pretend that simply hiding it on the map, now absolves all wrong with the other points, but it looks like if its Japanese, apparently all that shit is allowed as it seems they only want to pretend their issue is "marked on map". It reeks of desperation and bias, and makes it hard to take the thread seriously with this sheltering of IP that literally do the same things. This collectathon shit has been in Nintendo games for generations, I see no reason to try to add this shit like "marked on map" as if THAT was the REAL reason behind them hating that concept or something.

Why state open world, filled with shit to collect, only to then pretend that wasn't their REAL issue with it, but marked on map was the real culprit? It just sounds like some shit stated to shelter certain IP while attacking others.
 

Aenima

Member
I like all kinds of games but i end playing and enjoying more Eastern games.

Actually all games i bought recently are all Japanese.

13 Sentinels
Yakuza Like a Dragon
Lost Judjment
P.W. Ace Attorney Trilogy
Resident Evil 2 and 3 remakes

And my most hyped games for next year are also 2 japanese games.

Elden Ring
Gran Turismo 7
 

Lethal01

Member
Why state open world, filled with shit to collect, only to then pretend that wasn't their REAL issue with it, but marked on map was the real culprit? It just sounds like some shit stated to shelter certain IP while attacking others.

Nah, even before Zelda came out the fact that open world have been just throwing tons of things for you on your minimap that you then start going to, to cross off like a checklist had been constantly listed as a huge issue. there is no pretending here. there are tons of popular videos specifically about this.

Also it goes past just not showing them on the map, when you don't show them on the map you now have to actually design the world to guide the player towards points of interests and have more unique sights. This one simple change has the knock on effect of making entire game worlds more important and I'm absolutely desperate for more Devs to learn this lesson.

Eastern or Western I will praise those who do.
 
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EDMIX

Member
Nah, even before Zelda came out the fact that open world have been just throwing tons of things for you on your minimap that you then start going to, to cross off like a checklist had been constantly listed as a huge issue. there is no pretending here. there are tons of popular videos specifically about this.

Also it goes past just not showing them on the map, when you don't show them on the map you now have to actually design the world to guide the player towards points of interests and have more unique sights. This one simple change has the knock on effect of making entire game worlds more important and I'm absolutely desperate for more Devs to learn this lesson.

Eastern or Western I will praise those who do.

I don't disagree with what you are saying as in...its not saying its not a huge issue simply that OP didn't put all that in and only added in marking on a map to omit Zelda from criticism.

So regardless, they listed open world, they listed worlds with shit filled in them to collect. If they have an issue with that, it should clearly be with games that do that, not simply the ones they hate from the west they want to cherry pick.


So I agree with with east or west you might praise good development regardless, but my comment was more based on what OP was stating as many of the things stated can apply to LOTS of Japanese games, its not like they just said their ONLY issue was things marked on a map or something, they stated open world and shit to collect, marking on the map doesn't change the other things they listed that they had issues on that they now suddenly want to backpeddle, ignore etc cause its beloved Zelda or something.

Praise the feature when its good regardless,
question when its bad regardless.

Too much of what was even stated can apply to both east and west depending on publisher, developer etc. So far I've seen nothing that points to any one concept exclusive to east or west.

Aenima Aenima FACTS! GT7 and Elden Ring are extremely easy day 1s! I'm hoping Yakuza 8 comes next year or even a sequel to Fist Of The North Star (but that sounds unlikely right now). Would love a Kenzen remake and Ishin ported to the west in the new Dragon engine.
 
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Elysium712

Neo Member
I used to play a lot of Japanese games but tbh these days I prefer Western games, I still play whatever is good but a lot of Japanese genres like JRPGs don't appeal to me nowadays.
 

MonarchJT

Banned
clearly western games ...eastern games (japanese) was top notch in the 90' ....if we want to make a serious speech they are technologically inferior to Western ones ...ok the gameplay is really taken into account but the videogame media is a bit like that of the movies ...... people buy blockbusters

The new hope appears to be in Chinese development teams japanese games right now are..just.....well...so so
Just look at the graphics of Elden ring (and I'm purposely quoting one of the most acclaimed Japanese Devs) taking away the art direction, they are ridiculous
 
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I don’t really distinguish western vs eastern games when it comes to what I play, but looking back at my favorite games it’s heavily skewed to eastern developers. I think a big part of this is setting - it seems like western games are predominantly based in some kind of “realism” that I usually try to avoid. I love it when a game takes me somewhere I’ve never been before and atmosphere plays a huge role in my enjoyment.
 

Fare thee well

Neophyte
I prefer Southern games, actually. As in, South America;

tumblr_n7ptbymniY1qdlh1io1_250.gif
Kidding asside, I am actually excited to see the rise of gaming production and gaming enthusiasm as other areas of the world are able to finally break into it. Some fresh perspectives would be amazing.
 

The_Mike

I cry about SonyGaf from my chair in Redmond, WA
The only Japanese games I enjoy are from Nintendo.

I don't ow why, but I just hate the general artwork and just how they are. I just never clicked with that Japanese feeling. Probably because I grew up with a PC and not a PlayStation
 
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Dream-Knife

Banned
Eastern by far. Just counting this last/current gen the only wastern games I care about are some indies, HL: Alyx, Forza, and ???
Eastern has my GOTGs. Xenoblade 2, SMT 4/4A, SMT 5, Nier Automata, MGSV, Persona 5/5R, BOTW, Dark Souls, Yakuza 0, etc.
 
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Alandring

Member
I'm more interested by the story and even if there is a very few Japanese games with a good story (like Danganronpa, 13 Sentinels, etc.), most of them are less interesting than western games.
 

lachesis

Member
Not just eastern, but pretty much 90+% Japanese "CONSOLE" games only.
I guess it's because how I grew up watching/reading manga/anime and playing 8bit-16bit Japanese games back from 80s... that they just click with me better.
 

Senhua

Member
Hey GAF, I'm curious about your preferences in games when it comes to where they are developed, or if you even have those preferences at all.

For me, even if I play games that come from more or less anywhere, I've realized that I vastly prefer eastern (mainly japanese in my case) developed games. I think they are more original and inventive when it comes to storytelling and gameplay mechanics. I take a look at my PS4 library for example, and while I have like 50% of each, I think I enjoyed much more those that came from Japan, like Bloodborne, MGS V or Persona 5, against those from the west, like The Witcher 3, Red Read Redemption 2 or Uncharted 4.

Western games, at least those coming from big developers, are kind of stagnated (imo) or maybe scared to make new things, playing their cards safely while trying to appeal to the bigger audiences. it's either the open world filled with shit to do or collect (that's already marked on your map) or the epic third person action/adventure cinematic game. I'm not saying they are bad by definition (I loved God of War for example) but for me at least it's starting to get kinda samey. That's a feeling that I don't get so often with eastern developed games. In fact, I think the only western dev that can get me really excited for their next game today would be id Software, but that's just because I'm a sucker for their kind of shooters.

There's still plenty of creativity in the west of course, but I think those are more present on smaller or indie studios.


So... what do you think? Do you care about a game's procedence? Do you completely ditch one of them? Maybe the western ones seem to hollywoodey to you? Or perhaps you can't stand the weeby vibe of japanese games?
You need to add more category because East Asian market taste != Western and there are a lot of Japanese Dev aims for west (SE and Capcom as an example) these days especially AAA and AA one's:

More like:
eastern developed games for western market (mostly Sony third party Japanese AAA-AA games )
eastern developed games for eastern market (mostly Nintendo first & third party games)
 
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sigmaZ

Member
It's hard to say these days to be honest. Japanese games were better when they didn't overload things with fanficy story elements and overconvoluted systems and terminology. The Japanese games that have avoided this trend have been some of the greatest gaming experiences over the years. Western games have become much more solid from the 2000's and there's been a lot of games with both good stories and gameplay elements.
I think these days both Japanese and western games have the same problem. Many of them are bloated because people whine and complain about how long or how much 'content' games have which allows big studios to make open world games with lots of mediocre content so that people are duped into feeling that the game has more value than it really does.
 

HYDE

Banned
Zelda, Demon's/Dark Souls, Bloodborne, Sekiro, Dragon's Dogma, DMC, Ninja Gaiden, Bayonetta, Nioh, Elden Ring, Metal Gear Rising,
Dragon’s Dogma wasn’t my cup of tea, but I don’t enjoy tea. All other series are perfection…I’d put Resident Evil in place of DD imo.

Add Metroid!
 
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bender

What time is it?
The majority of my interest lies in Japanese games. They tend to focus on mechanics first and offer a depth not often found by developers from other regions. A lot of what we see with western development is pushing graphics and it feels like game play is an afterthought. And while narrative is largely unimportant to me these days, I do prefer Japanese quirk, whimsy and optimism (Yakuza series) or subtle storytelling and lore (FROM Software) as opposed to the heavy handed narrative that comes out of the west. I also don't like the RTS genre and have mostly fallen out of love with FPS (Dusk is fucking amazing though). RPGs are a similar story. Shadows of Amn is an all time great but there aren't many western developed RPGs you could get me excited about outside of Diablo.

And even if western developed games are a minority interest of mine, this year delivered with HItman 3 which is a wonderful sandbox and the aforementioned Dusk which is phenomenal. I'm looking forward to Silksong and the Cuphead DLC too. And while Blizzard isn't the same and it may be a nail the coffin of my interest, I'll be there day one for Diablo.
 
I play everything but in recent years JP makes better games i care about dropping $60+ on the west has a problem of sitting on what to many ips and doing nothing with them and to many games that a copy each other in tone,style and gameplay. The open world style isnt bad and the west has made some really good games using that style however the problem people have wit the ubisoft style is as soon as the game starts your mini map or map is not littered with a million and 1 icons you cant see anything and for some people its like looking at a check list. My problem with the ubisoft style is that the gameplay loop sucks the stealth is clunker than there earlier 2005 splinter cell games way to many pointless conversations "assassin's creed odyssey" and there almost no reason to explore the world all of the cool stuff is in the missions. Frankly if you want to just sightsee there are way better games to play then whatever ubisoft brings to the table. I also see people talking about how JP games dont innovate as much and are like 2 gens behind. I guess if you base it all on Real life graphics and face animations then yea but I would even go out and argue that there are plenty of western games that dont innovate outside of just graphics. Uncharted series is a series I like 2-3 were the peak but after 5 games gameplay wise all they added was a grappling hook in that time frame yakuza 0-5 and tales of symphonia - tales of berseria and everything from gameplay, playable characters that varry to quest lines to even the cities got overhauled and changed. Call of duty has more drastic changes " good and bad" throughout its life cycle then alot of the western games I see mentioned. The bigger problem western games have is downgrades and going back a million steps God of war 3 had better gameplay then god of war ascension ME3 had more stuff in it then MEA GTA4 had better phyics than GTA 5.
 

EDMIX

Member
Is length really a big difference when it comes to east vs west? I try not to believe stereotypes.


Theres plenty of 20 hour plus japanese games and under 5 hour western games

Agreed. I don't disagree that they like shorter games, but I don't see that as a hard concept solely on east or west or anything like that.

I think most of what was said in the thread barely even supports 1 side or the other as a majority or something. Muthafuckas talking about seeing backs, cutscenes, how long a game is, can you collect shit, open world etc. None of that shit is exclusive to any one country and has never been exclusive to any one country. We got short games that are Japanese ie RE3, (you was right to bring that up with your icon too lol) Onimusha, Silent Hill, Viewtiful Joe, we got many games that are um "cinematic" ie Metal Gear Solid aka the original movie game with cutscenes damn near the length of a whole ass movie lol Even the shit with "ohhhhh day be having actorz in da game cuz hollywoodz"

Also them :
project-judge-sega.jpg

Onimusha-Warlords_Famitsu_10-02-18_001.jpg

yuta-yakuza-6.jpg

hirose-yakuza-6.jpg

iQ7gCaUHwoToh7dgJrvacV.jpg


So I don't really know if that much really happens from 1 country to the next that is extremely different or only on 1 side or something as I don't even see much that can stand to any real scrutiny.

Someone can like long games and only buy JRPGs, someone can like long games and only buy WRPG.
Someone can like open world games and only buy Japanese games, someone can like open world games and only buy western games.
Someone can like 3rd person titles that are um "cinematic" and buy Japanese games like DMC, Metal Gear Solid, Resident Evil, Silent Hill, someone can like 3rd person titles and buy games like Days Gone, The Last Of Us, God Of War.

You can find a great deal on both sides that support many concepts, I'd argue the biggest might be multiplayer games on the west vs east, but even then Smash Bros, Mario Kart, mobile online gaming, Phantasy Star Online. So its hard to really see a massive difference, I'd argue more differs from developer to developer then a whole ass country.
 

EDMIX

Member
nah man, sword has to be one of the primary weapon

well to be fair, you can use a sword in Yakuza from time to time lol

Not even close…Nioh 2 shits all over Ghost of Tsushima from epic heights! And I like the game.

They are pretty different games though, one still has to wonder why Japan never really did a major AAA game on those events, but then again they probably wonder why we haven't made some epic ass Civil War AAA game or something lol, but lets be honest here......the west is more likely to make a game about Japan that moves record units, then Japan can make a game about The United States past and move more units then the US, like very unlikely
 

Rockondevil

Gold Member
Nothing against Eastern games but I definitely enjoy a lot more Western games. Guess that's just more my style.
 
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ShirAhava

Plays with kids toys, in the adult gaming world
My interest in video games in general is an extension of my greater interest in eastern/japanese culture

I find most western art styles either generic or flat out ugly

and Most western styles of gameplay I find dull and uninteresting with a few exceptions mostly (racing/snowboarding/skateboarding) games

If western gaming were the only option, I honestly don't think I'd even be a gamer at all
 

HYDE

Banned
well to be fair, you can use a sword in Yakuza from time to time lol



They are pretty different games though, one still has to wonder why Japan never really did a major AAA game on those events, but then again they probably wonder why we haven't made some epic ass Civil War AAA game or something lol, but lets be honest here......the west is more likely to make a game about Japan that moves record units, then Japan can make a game about The United States past and move more units then the US, like very unlikely
For sure! Great game, but wish it’s combat compared with other Japanese action games. Also…so cool that Japanese is a second language.
 
What kind of bizarre question is this? So disrespectful, since pretty much every single great game was made by Western devs. Bethesda is West, Rockstar is West, all of the best studios are from the West.

I can't even think of a single quality AAA game from the East tbh. All those FFs, Res Evils, Marios, Pony adventures by eastern studios are AA low effort games at best.
 
Good point on the best Samurai game being made by west dev.
Agreed. I don't disagree that they like shorter games, but I don't see that as a hard concept solely on east or west or anything like that.

I think most of what was said in the thread barely even supports 1 side or the other as a majority or something. Muthafuckas talking about seeing backs, cutscenes, how long a game is, can you collect shit, open world etc. None of that shit is exclusive to any one country and has never been exclusive to any one country. We got short games that are Japanese ie RE3, (you was right to bring that up with your icon too lol) Onimusha, Silent Hill, Viewtiful Joe, we got many games that are um "cinematic" ie Metal Gear Solid aka the original movie game with cutscenes damn near the length of a whole ass movie lol Even the shit with "ohhhhh day be having actorz in da game cuz hollywoodz"

Also them :
project-judge-sega.jpg

Onimusha-Warlords_Famitsu_10-02-18_001.jpg

yuta-yakuza-6.jpg

hirose-yakuza-6.jpg

iQ7gCaUHwoToh7dgJrvacV.jpg


So I don't really know if that much really happens from 1 country to the next that is extremely different or only on 1 side or something as I don't even see much that can stand to any real scrutiny.

Someone can like long games and only buy JRPGs, someone can like long games and only buy WRPG.
Someone can like open world games and only buy Japanese games, someone can like open world games and only buy western games.
Someone can like 3rd person titles that are um "cinematic" and buy Japanese games like DMC, Metal Gear Solid, Resident Evil, Silent Hill, someone can like 3rd person titles and buy games like Days Gone, The Last Of Us, God Of War.

You can find a great deal on both sides that support many concepts, I'd argue the biggest might be multiplayer games on the west vs east, but even then Smash Bros, Mario Kart, mobile online gaming, Phantasy Star Online. So its hard to really see a massive difference, I'd argue more differs from developer to developer then a whole ass country.
Damn the actors don't even look even remotely similar to game chars. How do you fail so bad, unless it was intentional.
 
Probably about even for me, though I probably play Japanese games a bit more because a lot of western series I used to love (like Dead Space or Mass Effect) have gone to shit since the end of the 360 era through last gen, whereas Japanese series tend to be able to bounce back more often. Don’t really have a preference though.
 

buenoblue

Member
I like both. A big budget western game is something I can't miss out on, but they are pretty predictable.
With japanese games it's anything goes and at times you'll be like WTF LOL, which I enjoy immensely.
 

Banjo64

cumsessed
Spend more time overall on western franchises, but Nintendo put out a lot of must have games that I put a lot of time in to (Smash, MK, Zelda, Mario, Splatoon, Pokémon).
 
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