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"Japan used to rule video games, so what happened?"

Grimlorn

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Japanese culture is shit, and now that they have the computer power to put it on display, nobody wants it. Who wants to watch anime like cinematics that only appeal to anime/Japanese culture? They put too much of their crappy culture into games and it alienates people because no one can relate. This is the main reason why they fail and will continue to fail.

Akira Kurosawa disagrees
I'm obviously talking about their modern culture and how it relates to their video games. A guy who made good films 50 years ago has nothing to do with it. Look at that urinal game that was posted earlier in the thread, used panty vending machines, that live action movie trailer where a guy puts a girl's underwear on his head to become some kind of super hero, anime crap that is always the same regurgitated stuff, hentai/tentacle porn type stuff. It's just incredibly awful.

OH I forgot, I just saw a trailer recently for an Avengers Confidential: Punisher & Black Widow movie. It looks awful and that's because it has that anime style in it. Pretty sure Japan did it, but it's also Marvel's fault for outsourcing it to them. DC animate films look like masterpieces by comparison.
 
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Gregz

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Japanese culture is shit, and now that they have the computer power to put it on display, nobody wants it. Who wants to watch anime like cinematics that only appeal to anime/Japanese culture? They put too much of their crappy culture into games and it alienates people because no one can relate. This is the main reason why they fail and will continue to fail.

Akira Kurosawa disagrees
I'm obviously talking about their modern culture and how it relates to their video games. A guy who made good films 50 years ago has nothing to do with it. Look at that urinal game that was posted earlier in the thread, used panty vending machines, that live action movie trailer where a guy puts a girl's underwear on his head to become some kind of super hero, anime crap that is always the same regurgitated stuff, hentai/tentacle porn type stuff. It's just incredibly awful.

Not really interested in this thread, but c'mon guys, Japan provides soooo many lulz. Why hate on a country that is so fucking funny?
 

Grimlorn

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Jun 1, 2011
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Japanese culture is shit, and now that they have the computer power to put it on display, nobody wants it. Who wants to watch anime like cinematics that only appeal to anime/Japanese culture? They put too much of their crappy culture into games and it alienates people because no one can relate. This is the main reason why they fail and will continue to fail.

Akira Kurosawa disagrees
I'm obviously talking about their modern culture and how it relates to their video games. A guy who made good films 50 years ago has nothing to do with it. Look at that urinal game that was posted earlier in the thread, used panty vending machines, that live action movie trailer where a guy puts a girl's underwear on his head to become some kind of super hero, anime crap that is always the same regurgitated stuff, hentai/tentacle porn type stuff. It's just incredibly awful.

Not really interested in this thread, but c'mon guys, Japan provides soooo many lulz. Why hate on a country that is so fucking funny?
I don't really hate on it, but it is a fucked up culture and I think it's those influences that make their games suck and unrelatable.
 
Self-Ejected

theSavant

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>"Japan used to rule video games"

Which ones exactly? Pong? The stupid "Dance on Squares" games? The low budget Wizardry games? Uhm... yeah...
 

xilo3z

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It would be fair to say that "modern" Japanese culture sucks. Kurosawa was at his best when his films explored traditionalist themes. All of his movies attempting to emulate aspects of modern western culture failed. Compare his "psychological" films with those of a Bergman or a Fellini.

True- the majority of Kurosawa's career was spent emulating Shakespeare (something that was borderline perfection in my opinion), IE - traditional western/euro. When he wasn't directly translating Shakespeare to film, he was still using Shakespearean themes throughout pretty much all of his films. A much better representation of Japaneses culture would be Ozu. But as you pointed out, none of this is modern and therefor entirely moot.

Just something that irks me - when Kurosawa is brought up to show the creativity and complexities of Japan when yes, the man made jaw dropping films with an absurdly hefty collection of them in my top 25, but they are all just modern (for their time) adaptations and derivatives of ideas created by Shakespeare and other great play writes and poets. He openly admitted it. Not Japanese in origin at all. Beautifully done, but shows nothing of Japanese culture. Even his films made to show the nation of Japan and all of intrinsic elements such as Ran are not even built on Japanese ideas at all and barely even show the Japanese way of life or any of its culture, or habitat, or anything... As Ran is simply a fucking beautiful and breathtaking retelling of King Lear. Kurosawa and his films were smart and outstanding gaining the highest of high praise...But a product of Japanese culture they both are not. Ozu was the one who made films to show others of the Japanese way of life and culture, and embraced the Japaneses way and wanted to retell pieces of Japanese history. Kurosawa wanted to tell epic and amazing stories- which he got the ideas from...classical Euro writers.

And Ozu would shoot himself in fucking head if he saw what has become of Japan and its culture. Tokyo Story: SUPA KAWAIIIIII!
 

RK47

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>"Japan used to rule video games"

Which ones exactly? Pong? The stupid "Dance on Squares" games? The low budget Wizardry games? Uhm... yeah...

Some italian plumber stomping turtles and saving princess in another castle
One dude clad in green outfit with a sword etc...hunting for triangles.
What are you? Living under a rock?
 

Lyric Suite

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It would be fair to say that "modern" Japanese culture sucks. Kurosawa was at his best when his films explored traditionalist themes. All of his movies attempting to emulate aspects of modern western culture failed. Compare his "psychological" films with those of a Bergman or a Fellini.

True- the majority of Kurosawa's career was spent emulating Shakespeare (something that was borderline perfection in my opinion), IE - traditional western/euro. When he wasn't directly translating Shakespeare to film, he was still using Shakespearean themes throughout pretty much all of his films. A much better representation of Japaneses culture would be Ozu. But as you pointed out, none of this is modern and therefor entirely moot.

Just something that irks me - when Kurosawa is brought up to show the creativity and complexities of Japan when yes, the man made jaw dropping films with an absurdly hefty collection of them in my top 25, but they are all just modern (for their time) adaptations and derivatives of ideas created by Shakespeare and other great play writes and poets. He openly admitted it. Not Japanese in origin at all. Beautifully done, but shows nothing of Japanese culture. Even his films made to show the nation of Japan and all of intrinsic elements such as Ran are not even built on Japanese ideas at all and barely even show the Japanese way of life or any of its culture, or habitat, or anything... As Ran is simply a fucking beautiful and breathtaking retelling of King Lear. Kurosawa and his films were smart and outstanding gaining the highest of high praise...But a product of Japanese culture they both are not. Ozu was the one who made films to show others of the Japanese way of life and culture, and embraced the Japaneses way and wanted to retell pieces of Japanese history. Kurosawa wanted to tell epic and amazing stories- which he got the ideas from...classical Euro writers.

And Ozu would shoot himself in fucking head if he saw what has become of Japan and its culture. Tokyo Story: SUPA KAWAIIIIII!

To be fair, one needs to point out of course that many of the ideas treated by Shakespeare are universal in nature. So, even if Kurosawa's treatment of ancient Japan was done through a western perspective it still manages to catch something of that culture. Plus, there are lot of interesting Buddhist themes running through many of his earlier films, though this seems to be completely absent in Ran (where he makes an atheistic point even? I haven't seen the film in a long while).

Frankly, i think the difficulty in translating Japanese culture using western methods is that westerners are an inherently literary and cerebral people, where as easterners seem to think more in images and symbols. There are many subtleties in traditional Japanese culture that fail to entice the westerner who always looks for some kind of intellectual stimulation. The westerner likes to think correctly and logically (think of Aristotle), where as the easterner always looks for greater shades of meaning even in the simplest of things. It is here, at least, that Kurosawa's Japanese side excels, because there are particulars in his treatment of ancient Japanese culture which may appear to be purely formalistic and even mundane but which actually carry an higher significance, which is isn't always obvious. And of course, there is the nobility of soul of his characters, which is a breath of fresh air compared to the Freudian monsters portrayed by many western directors, even if Kurosawa often devolves into mere sentimentalism (Red Beard, ouch).
 

TedNugent

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True- the majority of Kurosawa's career was spent emulating Shakespeare (something that was borderline perfection in my opinion), IE - traditional western/euro. When he wasn't directly translating Shakespeare to film, he was still using Shakespearean themes throughout pretty much all of his films. A much better representation of Japaneses culture would be Ozu. But as you pointed out, none of this is modern and therefor entirely moot.

Just something that irks me - when Kurosawa is brought up to show the creativity and complexities of Japan when yes, the man made jaw dropping films with an absurdly hefty collection of them in my top 25, but they are all just modern (for their time) adaptations and derivatives of ideas created by Shakespeare and other great play writes and poets. He openly admitted it. Not Japanese in origin at all. Beautifully done, but shows nothing of Japanese culture. Even his films made to show the nation of Japan and all of intrinsic elements such as Ran are not even built on Japanese ideas at all and barely even show the Japanese way of life or any of its culture, or habitat, or anything... As Ran is simply a fucking beautiful and breathtaking retelling of King Lear. Kurosawa and his films were smart and outstanding gaining the highest of high praise...But a product of Japanese culture they both are not. Ozu was the one who made films to show others of the Japanese way of life and culture, and embraced the Japaneses way and wanted to retell pieces of Japanese history. Kurosawa wanted to tell epic and amazing stories- which he got the ideas from...classical Euro writers.

And Ozu would shoot himself in fucking head if he saw what has become of Japan and its culture. Tokyo Story: SUPA KAWAIIIIII!

Kagemusha (影武者 literally "Shadow Warrior"?) is a 1980 film by Akira Kurosawa. In Japanese, kagemusha is a term used to denote a political decoy. It is set in the Sengoku period of Japanese history and tells the story of a lower-class criminal who is taught to impersonate a dying warlord in order to dissuade opposing lords from attacking the newly vulnerable clan. The warlord whom the kagemusha impersonates is based on daimyo Takeda Shingen, and the film ends with the climactic 1575 Battle of Nagashino.[3]

SO SHAKESPEARE, DAWG

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kagemusha

Seven Samurai[1] (七人の侍 Shichinin no Samurai?) is a 1954 Japanese period adventure drama film co-written, edited, and directed by Akira Kurosawa. The film takes place in 1587 during the Warring States Period of Japan. It follows the story of a village of farmers that hire seven masterless samurai (ronin) to combat bandits who will return after the harvest to steal their crops.

WOW, SO SHAKESPEARE!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_Samurai

The film opens on a woodcutter (木樵り; Kikori, played by Takashi Shimura) and a priest (旅法師; Tabi Hōshi, Minoru Chiaki) sitting beneath the Rajōmon city gate to stay dry in a downpour. A commoner (Kichijiro Ueda) joins them and they tell him that they've witnessed a disturbing story, which they then begin recounting to him. The woodcutter claims he found the body of a murdered samurai three days earlier while looking for wood in the forest; upon discovering the body, he says, he fled in a panic to notify the authorities. The priest says that he saw the samurai with his wife traveling the same day the murder happened. Both men were then summoned to testify in court, where they met the captured bandit Tajōmaru (多襄丸), who claimed responsibility for the rape and murder.

Which work of Shakespeare does this shamelessly copy, I wonder?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rashomon
 

Lyric Suite

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The influence of Shakespeare transpires in many of those films as well. This isn't to their detriment. Kurosawa loved Shakespeare and understood him well enough. All of his films have something of the "dramatist" about them. One can say that he absorbed his influences and forged his style around them. Even his direct adaptions of Shakespeare's plays definitely have a unique stamp to them, also due to the obvious influence of traditional Japanese theater.
 
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Gerrard

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"There is nothing to learn, nothing to deduce, plan or discover. And no possibility of creative gameplay." in fighting games

Confirmed retard.
 

Lyric Suite

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I was talking about those Cave or Treasure shoot' em up, imbecile.
 
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Lyric Suite

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>mfw Codex thinks Japan didn't rule the video game market at one point

The title of the thread doesn't say video game "market" though. The implication is that Japan ruled video gaming itself. That isn't the same thing. I mean, PC master race games existed even before the Japanese started to make games for the Atari:

http://www.uvlist.net/platforms/games-list/181

Western games have a long pedigree that isn't really recognized.
 
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TheGreatOne

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I rest my case. The idiot doesn't even understand what a word like "japophile" means, even though he is totally one himself (Japanese are smarteter than us so everything they do must be better :retarded:).
No, fucktard. I'm not interested in Japanese culture. Just because I defend good Japanese games does not mean that I like Japanese culture, anime or all Japanese games. If that makes me a" japophile", then by that same logic you're a USA USA #1 Murrikan patriot if you defend PC gaming or CRPGs. In that fight, I'd rather be "reppin east side, nigguh", as you American street poets like to call it, as even with all the stupid shit that's coming out of Japan, it's still the more sophisticated culture with superior people when you factor in all different variables and not just video games and anime.
Ho, and Yahtzee, intellectual.
He's a filthy casual, but a lot of PC gamers seem to hold him in high regard as he likes to shit on consoles and praise the PC master race (a phrase invented/popularized by him IIRC), despite the fact that he hasn't played a proper PC game in over decade and acts like a retard every time he reviews a game that's even slightly challenging or old school, his Might and Magic X being the latest example of this.
I don't really hate on it, but it is a fucked up culture and I think it's those influences that make their games suck and unrelatable.
Contra, Mario, Mega Man, Sonic, Castlevania, R-type, Gradius, Thunderforce, Final Fight, Street Fighter, Ninja Gaiden, the earlier Zelda games etc, all of those have pretty much universal appeal and I don't really see how Japanese culture influences those games in any way. If anything they were influence by US/Euro stuff like Contra=Rambo, 80s action movies=beat em ups and Castlevania=Dracula and old horror movies. Most of the overtly Japanese games were never localized here back when the "Japanese ruled the video game market" (1985-2001). Back then it was customary to redesign anime style cover art when localizing games in Western markets. Even if you're not a "japophile" you can see that the Western replacement cover art was horrible in comparison 9 out of 10 times (FF3/6 NTSC-J vs NTSC-U, Dungeon Explorer PC Engine vs Turbografx, Winds of Thunder on PC engine vs Lords of Thunder on Sega CD etc).

1985-1995 was the time period when in the mainstream (NES, SNES, Genesis+arcades, Neo Geo and Turbografx), was dominated by Japanese games (even though some PC games like Myst and Doom had mainstream level popularity), so kids who grew up during that generation (who did not play PC/Apple/Commodore/Atari/Sinclair) were used to the fact that 19 out of 20 games that were good were made by Japanese developers. Western games visibility (and quality) on consoles has steadily increased during the PS1->PS2->Xbox 360 era, so kids who grew up playing PS2/Xbox 360 games aren't anymore used to seeing Japanese games dominate the market, it's become more even between the two regions. During the 360 generation Western and Japanese developer games switched places, nowadays in the "AAA" space Japanese games are the minority. That isn't to say that there aren't any good games coming out of Japan anymore, but they're usually more niche stuff that the mainstream doesn't pay much attention to like Dark Spire and Deathsmiles. And the quality of Japanese AAA games plummeted when they started trying to appeal to American tastes and moved from 2D to 3D. They made some decent 3D stuff like Metal Gear Solid, Silent Hill 1-3&Resident Evil 1-4, the first Devil May Cry and the Ninja Gaiden game on xbox which is infamous for its difficulty, but especially when Xbox 360 and FPS games became really popular due to Colladoodys popularity, the Japanese big budget games that tried to appeal to Western tastes just sucked, like Resident Evil 5 and 6.

That's why the Xbox era sucks. During the 80s and 90s we got good Western games on PC and good Japanese games on consoles&arcades, and a larger portion of those Japanese games aspired to look more like bad ass 80s action movies than desudesu kawii shit. It's this modern era of Western developers making console games that gives console games a bad name amongst young kids who've never played much of older games. Of course you can argue that platformers, shooters, side scrollers etc are all popamole trash because they're not turn-based :obviously: games, but then you're either forgetting or choosing to ignore the fact that before the PC became popular, a lot of home computers were marketed as gaming devices and a large portion of their game libraries consisted of platformers, shooters and other such games that tried to copy Japanese games of that time period, so the PC master race wasn't always "above" those genres.
 
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Do yourself a favor an don't discuss with Lyric unless you want to dwell into the realms of the ABSOLUTETRUEGENIUS.

Popamole > faggy jrpgs.

At least they keep most of their decline to themselves.
The popamole on the other hand infect everything.
 

Telengard

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Your dates are a bit off. They tried to release the NES in the US in '85 in a test area, and failed. "Failed miserably" to quote the retail stores. They came back in early '86, with a modest success, and then made a general release in the Fall, but a lot of places didn't carry them then, after the failure in '85 and the whole distrust of consoles. It wasn't until '87 that the NES really became available everywhere and had its popularity take off. But in some areas, such as where I lived, they didn't bring them in even then, and it wasn't until '88 that stores everywhere started carrying them, after news stories of the console's popularity started coming in.

But it wasn't until '92 that computer game exclusive stores started to deign to sell console games. Before then, you had to go to a big box toy store if you wanted one. And they were even later getting the NES into Europe.

Anyway, what that all means is Japanese domination of the market didn't really begin until '88.
 

TheGreatOne

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Your dates are a bit off. They tried to release the NES in the US in '85 in a test area, and failed. "Failed miserably" to quote the retail stores.
That's true, but I'm also incorporating the release dates of some important titles into that. No matter how big of a PC gamer you are, you can not deny the importance and influence of games such as Super Mario Bros and Metroid (aiming this comment more at theSavant). Just because Ultima 4 wasn't ported to NES untill 1990 does not mean that it wasn't an important milestone in game design between 1985-1990, same goes for the release of MSX&Famicom games that didn't become known in the West untill some years later.
 

Lyric Suite

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No, fucktard. I'm not interested in Japanese culture. Just because I defend good Japanese games does not mean that I like Japanese culture, anime or all Japanese games. If that makes me a" japophile", then by that same logic you're a USA USA #1 Murrikan patriot if you defend PC gaming or CRPGs. In that fight, I'd rather be "reppin east side, nigguh", as you American street poets like to call it, as even with all the stupid shit that's coming out of Japan, it's still the more sophisticated culture with superior people when you factor in all different variables and not just video games and anime.

The brain damage continues. The argument was this: are western games superior to Japanese games? The article proposes that there was a time when Japan made the best games. I challenged that claim. Japofag butthurt ensued. The fact the Japanese made good games in their own right has nothing to do with the argument, and i pointed out this fallacy not once, but twice now.

Also, i'm not American, newfag.

Let me say it again: western games > Japanese games. Does this mean that Japanese games are shit by default? No. Does it mean all western games are superior by default? No. But just compare the two markets and platforms side by side starting from the late 70s up to whatever the decline started to set in, and than come back to me with a proper counterargument to the original premise, rather than squander my time with all those little red-herrings.
 
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Lyric Suite

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Even if i misinterpreted what the article was trying to say, the argument still stands, does it not?
 
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TheGreatOne

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The brain damage continues. The argument was this: are western games superior to Japanese games? The article proposes that there was a time when Japan made the best games. I challenged that claim. Japofag butthurt ensued. The fact the Japanese made good games in their own right has nothing to do with the argument, and i pointed out this fallacy not once, but twice now.
The reading comprehension problems continue. There was never an argument on my part regarding the perceived superiority of Japanese/Western games.

Also the article does not claim that Japan made the best games (again, reading comprehension). Ruling the market means having the largest market share, not making the most progressive and complex games that only a small group of people play. To put it in wrestling terms so that no one will understand my point; when looking at the big picture, it doesn't matter if Ring of Honor has the most technical wrestling in the world (or atleast in the US) if they're wrestling in high school gyms in front of 60 people and not making any money. And the whole best games argument is an exercise in futility since your subjective and fiddly arguments about "possibilities inherent in the medium" and "japs not taking the medium as seriously as westerners" are neither objective nor easy to define to the point that you could use them universally to judge games "scientifically". In other words, if I give you an example of a well designed, good Japanese game, you'll come up with a BS excuse why it can't qualify as a good game (or one that's equal to a good western game)

When it comes to the "Japanese games ruling video games", it was during 80s(*) and 90s when majority of the most commercially and critically acclaimed console and arcade games were Japanese. As console&arcade games (especially in the US) had a larger market share and were more well represented in mainstream media than computer games, it's justified to say that they ruled the market both in terms of sales and in the eyes of the average, casual consumer. Even if NetHack, Alpha Centauri and Deus Ex are better individual games than any Japanese game of that time, it does not matter (enough) in the large historical perspective, even when you do acknowledge their design merits.
(*)Though in arcades the situation was more even. In the early 80s it was something like 70/30 between US/JP. As time went on Japan started dominating the arcade scene.

Where the article makes a mistake is when it calls Japan the spiritual home of video games. Spacewar, 1st generation arcade games&1st and 2nd console generation consoles and all the noncommercial computer games developed in universities during the 70s were American.
Also, i'm not American, newfag.
I never meant to say that you're an American (thought the patriot comment kinda implied that), rather my point was that you worship American culture/you're a wanna-be American.

As to why I haven't got your personal information in my codexmembers.txt; you're too insignificant so your nickname never caught my attention. This is the first time I've even noticed your posts on this forum.
Let me say it again: western games > Japanese games. Does this mean that Japanese games are shit by default? No. Does it mean all western games are superior by default? No. But just compare the two markets and platforms side by side starting from the late 70s up to whatever the decline started to set in, and than come back to me with a proper counterargument to the original premise, rather than squander my time with all those little red-herrings.
What the hell is the original premise? I never claimed that Japanese games>Western games, I only disputed the following statement "So what you're saying is that the japs can't have actual depth and complexity in their games ? Narrative wise, at least."
 
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Grimlorn

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I rest my case. The idiot doesn't even understand what a word like "japophile" means, even though he is totally one himself (Japanese are smarteter than us so everything they do must be better :retarded:).
No, fucktard. I'm not interested in Japanese culture. Just because I defend good Japanese games does not mean that I like Japanese culture, anime or all Japanese games. If that makes me a" japophile", then by that same logic you're a USA USA #1 Murrikan patriot if you defend PC gaming or CRPGs. In that fight, I'd rather be "reppin east side, nigguh", as you American street poets like to call it, as even with all the stupid shit that's coming out of Japan, it's still the more sophisticated culture with superior people when you factor in all different variables and not just video games and anime.
Ho, and Yahtzee, intellectual.
He's a filthy casual, but a lot of PC gamers seem to hold him in high regard as he likes to shit on consoles and praise the PC master race (a phrase invented/popularized by him IIRC), despite the fact that he hasn't played a proper PC game in over decade and acts like a retard every time he reviews a game that's even slightly challenging or old school, his Might and Magic X being the latest example of this.
I don't really hate on it, but it is a fucked up culture and I think it's those influences that make their games suck and unrelatable.
Contra, Mario, Mega Man, Sonic, Castlevania, R-type, Gradius, Thunderforce, Final Fight, Street Fighter, Ninja Gaiden, the earlier Zelda games etc, all of those have pretty much universal appeal and I don't really see how Japanese culture influences those games in any way. If anything they were influence by US/Euro stuff like Contra=Rambo, 80s action movies=beat em ups and Castlevania=Dracula and old horror movies. Most of the overtly Japanese games were never localized here back when the "Japanese ruled the video game market" (1985-2001). Back then it was customary to redesign anime style cover art when localizing games in Western markets. Even if you're not a "japophile" you can see that the Western replacement cover art was horrible in comparison 9 out of 10 times (FF3/6 NTSC-J vs NTSC-U, Dungeon Explorer PC Engine vs Turbografx, Winds of Thunder on PC engine vs Lords of Thunder on Sega CD etc).
Again read what I typed in this thread. I'm not talking about 20 years ago. I'm well aware that there were Western influences in their games back then. And because the technology was more limited back then, they had to keep games to being games. Now in the past 10 or so years it's all graphics and adding their culture in games because they can fit it in, or because their anime/hentai culture blew up. I'm not sure.

If popular characters like Link were designed for the first time today, they would have weird looking, unnatural hairstyles and they would look feminine and have completely feminine personalities. Back then games were just games and you didn't have to worry about your characters looking and acting unnaturally, which pulls you out of their games. It's one of the many reasons the Souls games are so popular. There is a great Western influence. Characters are kept to a minimum sort of. They aren't made to look or act unnaturally for who they are. Your character isn't made to look like a cartoon character.
 

Curious_Tongue

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Kagemusha (影武者 literally "Shadow Warrior"?) is a 1980 film by Akira Kurosawa. In Japanese, kagemusha is a term used to denote a political decoy. It is set in the Sengoku period of Japanese history and tells the story of a lower-class criminal who is taught to impersonate a dying warlord in order to dissuade opposing lords from attacking the newly vulnerable clan. The warlord whom the kagemusha impersonates is based on daimyo Takeda Shingen, and the film ends with the climactic 1575 Battle of Nagashino.[3]

SO SHAKESPEARE, DAWG

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kagemusha

Seven Samurai[1] (七人の侍 Shichinin no Samurai?) is a 1954 Japanese period adventure drama film co-written, edited, and directed by Akira Kurosawa. The film takes place in 1587 during the Warring States Period of Japan. It follows the story of a village of farmers that hire seven masterless samurai (ronin) to combat bandits who will return after the harvest to steal their crops.

WOW, SO SHAKESPEARE!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_Samurai

The film opens on a woodcutter (木樵り; Kikori, played by Takashi Shimura) and a priest (旅法師; Tabi Hōshi, Minoru Chiaki) sitting beneath the Rajōmon city gate to stay dry in a downpour. A commoner (Kichijiro Ueda) joins them and they tell him that they've witnessed a disturbing story, which they then begin recounting to him. The woodcutter claims he found the body of a murdered samurai three days earlier while looking for wood in the forest; upon discovering the body, he says, he fled in a panic to notify the authorities. The priest says that he saw the samurai with his wife traveling the same day the murder happened. Both men were then summoned to testify in court, where they met the captured bandit Tajōmaru (多襄丸), who claimed responsibility for the rape and murder.

Which work of Shakespeare does this shamelessly copy, I wonder?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rashomon

These stories sound boring and overrated.

In that way, they remind me a lot of Shakespeare.
 

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