Western vs Eastern games (What you play)

[GregN]

I was driving home and I was thinking, the tides have shifted a lot with what's popular in gaming today. Many games are western.

I find I play mainly Japanese games (Nintendo, Sega, working designs, Atlus, XSeed, NIS, Aksys).

Why? It's simple. I grew up playing Japanese games.

Being a child of the late 80s meant playing NES for me. Most of the games released on the NES and SNES and Genesis where american translations (most of them bad) of Famicom, SNES, and Mega Drive games. There was a goldrush of companies like Vic Tokai, Culture Brain, etc.

I also like JP games because of the animeish characters and the bright colors.

So what so you guys? What do you play, eastern or western games, and why?

 

[DanAdamKOF]

Japanese-origin games like 99% of the time.

 

[bloodycelt]

In terms of hours? I would say I've sunk more hours into Civilization then any other game. But outside of that, I usually grab Japanese style games.

 

[DevilRedeemed]

part of the reason I don't play console games anymore is because they have become singularly western - even japanese cater to western taste heavily nowadays. coupled with the downfall of the arcades and thus their influence on home gaming as well as gaming shifting to more pc-like terrain I'm like fuck it.

in the past though, it was mostly japanese console gaming and what little I played on the computer (though back in the days of 8bit computer gaming it was all western and I was happy with that), I have always liked what western companies have done. Amiga and Atari ST stuff and some of these games on console was bloody good.

 

[famicommander]

I have a shitload of games from both. If I had to guess, maybe 55-65% are from Japan.

It depends on the platform. Obviously most of my PC games are western and most of my handheld games are Japanese. The consoles are probably close to an equal mix, with the NES-PS1 era skewing Japanese and the PS2-present era skewing western. The Atari/Coleco/Mattel generation was probably more western, but also a lot of Japanese arcade ports.

It's really an arbitrary distinction as far as I'm concerned. Vidya games is vidya games. If they're fun, I buy them. Simple as that, really.

 

[neo_mao]

It's really an arbitrary distinction as far as I'm concerned. Vidya games is vidya games. If they're fun, I buy them. Simple as that, really.

Yeah most definitely.

I used to be all about Japanese stuff, but now I don't even think twice about it.

There are so many great western games over the last few consoles. I'd say aside from the 360 shmups, the vast majority I enjoyed from the last gen and current were western. The Arkham games, Uncharted, Gears of War, God of War, Witcher, Ratchet and Clank, Fallout, Halo, Alan Wake, Forza, Borderlands - the list goes on and on.

Don't get me wrong, I still like japanese games like Bayonetta and a lot of the Nintendo stuff, but now I don't even consciously make the distinction.

 

[NGCDFreak]

Japanese games only for me.

 

[ForeverSublime]

Greg offended the one guy that wants to answer "Euro-games", but I'm not sure he can read and only responds when he recognizes his name.

 

[Azra113]

East > west

Though both sides are releasing pretty shitty games these days.

Also, why didn't you make a poll.

 

[oliverclaude]

I love western games, but strictly from the pre '83 crash era. Those minimalistic concepts were brilliant. Let's not forget big arcade names like Atari or Midway. Then there's Another World, of course, Flashback and many other home computer games that are worth it. Tim Follin is a musical genius and easily up there with Konami's best composers. There are tons of brilliance on the western side... yet, all buried in the past.

The present looks indeed extremely Japanese for me, too. The thing I like most about eastern video game conceptualists is, that they are able to make the most kawaii games and still take them as very serious entertainment, as an important product. Not so in the west... here, classic sprite based games are always regarded "with a wink", like their creators were ashamed of programming them. Developers are hiding behind parody, everything has to be exaggerated to the point where it becomes satire, just to be on the safe side and be able to say: Hey, we're adults after all.

Japanese teams are never afraid of doing sweet games with a serious approach and their perfectionism is what makes those games timeless and suitable not only for teens, but all kinds of adult gamers.

 

[@M]

I play both, all that matters to me is whether or not the game is entertaining/engrossing; I don't care where the developers live. Good game design transcends location.

 

[Colorado Rockie]

Most of the current gen games I play are Western developed except for the Vita which are nearly all Japan based. I can't play JRPG's like I used to. Although most of the recent Western RPG's like The Witcher 3 and Fallout 4 I found pretty boring. Last one I really got into was Kingdom of Amalur.

 

[NeoGeoNinja]

I mainly end up playing Eastern games. However, the time I usually spend playing Western games is those of the Racing Genre persuasion. I don't play many Western games outside of racers tbh...

 

[cat]

I play a lot of japanese games on the saturn and megadrive, i find the jap versions of games like dynamite heddy, SOR 3, EDF, magical hat ( decap attack in the uk ) battle mania and vampire killer way better, uncensored, complete and not changed graphically.

 

[xorthen]

I play glorious nippon games all day. No white piggu garbage from the west. BLAH

 

[Liquid Snake]

I play glorious nippon games all day. No white piggu garbage from the west. BLAH

100% agree

 

[LoneSage]

it isn't 1994 anymore. times have changed. western games back then were eurotrash. western games now are the witcher, skyrim, fallout, etc.

 

[xorthen]

The west only makes first person shooters and army crap. And a sometimes the occasional decent RPG. There really isn't much that impresses me much these days.

 

[Heinz]

Bit of both really. Pity that both sides are producing trash by the container load now however.

 

[CORY]

Japanese games of course but I'm not sure I dig them as much as I used to. I'm fed up with all the pedo shit in my shmups and I could certainly do without all the faggotry in my fighting games.

 

[Electric Grave]

I'm down for whatever plays great. I don't care where it comes from, even if it's from Europe, lol...TURRICAN 4LF!!!!

 

[NeoGeoNinja]

Japanese games of course but I'm not sure I dig them as much as I used to. I'm fed up with all the pedo shit in my shmups and I could certainly do without all the faggotry in my fighting games.

Precisely this. All of it. Can't believe how super faggot BlazBlue ended up by the latest iteration. Embarrassing levels of grade-A faggotry extraordinaire...

 

[famicommander]

The west only makes first person shooters and army crap. And a sometimes the occasional decent RPG. There really isn't much that impresses me much these days.

What about indie developers?

Stuff like Super Meat Boy, Amnesia, VVVVVV, Trine, Hyper Light Drifter?

 

[Electric Grave]

For all those games try, they sure as hell are missing something. I wanna like them but it just doesn't feel great, precise, tangible. I love N+ but still it's just not great, same for Rayman Origins, it plays fun but it's not right there where it needs to be.

The pinnacle of the genre ended with NES, SNES never really continued, some games here and there did take the genre forward but none of those games captured the manic level of the Genre the NES displayed.

 

[Syn]

Own a bit of both as I can't care. Fun is fun, shit is shit and you can find plenty of both east or west.