Something I wrote for a video game forum
Hello GWJ community. I’ve been a fan of the podcast for about a year now. I’ve been a gamer for most of my life , with a current focus on classic PC and Ipod games. I am also a Japanophile, having taken a couple semesters of Japanese, a big anime fan, and been able to visit Japan itself.
This week’s podcast topic on Japan finally got me to chime in on the forum.
TWO TYPES OF GAMES
Certis brought up a very important division to Japanese games – games made for international release and games with,originally, the Japanese market in mind. We are all familiar with the former ,of course, from examples such as Space Invaders, Street Fighter and Resident Evil that are so established in gaming that we do not think of them as Japanese.
Then there are games made for the Japanese market. Examples that have made it to the US shores are Persona or Dragon Quest. However, for every Persona, there are easily scores of JRPGs, dating simulations and other games that never cross the Pacific. The ones that do cross do so for a myriad of reasons such as import demand or a foreign license. Its these games where I feel the barrier goes up , not only for the GWJ commentators, but for the gaming community in general. To understand why that barrier exists, we need to take a look at Japanese culture, particularly, anime.
GAMES AND ANIME
The companies and individuals that work on Japanese games generally work in the anime industry. One important difference is that Western game developers are entities generally focused on gaming, while Japanese developers are often part of a broader entertainment company (1). Gamers generally know Nintendo started out as a card company, but do they know that Square Enix also has its own manga (comic) studio, which is responsible for the now well known Fullmetal Alchemist? Or that highly regarded Japanese animation studios like Studio Bones and Gainax developed their own games?
Another important fact is that Japanese artists, composers, voice actors and programmers interchangebly work on anime projects, be it games, movies, tv series or comics. One well known example is Akira Toriyama, the character designer for Chrono Trigger, who is the same artist for the comic manga Dragon Ball. Anime intellectual properties routinely cross mediums – e.g. a comic becoming a movie or a game becoming a tv series or vice versa(2). So its impossible to talk about Japanese gaming without having to talk about anime.
LOST IN TRANSLATION
Ever wonder why a common Japanese anime game trope has high school age kids with outlandish looks and fantastic abilities going on a world changing adventure? For the teen target market of that game, it can be seen as an expression of the escapist ideals of the conformist academic meat grinder that is being in a Japanese high school (3). Despite all the “wackyness” we see in JRPG’s that makes it to the States, its more often the case that anime is a mirror of Japanese society and its values, especially material made for the Japanese audience. (4)(5)
The problem arises when its time for that game to move beyond Japan’s shores. Both literally and figuratively, Japanese games get lost in translation. Can you say “All your base are belong to us?”. Even fantasy JRPG’s make reference to everyday Japanese life and annual festivals that every native knows by heart. Besides the butchered translation or lost culture references, there are the issues connected with localization production such as censorship and voice acting. One recent JRPG, ArTonelico II, suffered a game killing bug because one of the final bosses’ attacks was edited to the point where if this attack happens, you cannot finish the game.
Speaking of JRPG’s, when was the last time you heard a decent JRPG English dub? In Japan, being a seiyu (voice actor) is more serious business, with schools and training specifically for it. The GWJ crew praised how Batman:Arkham Asylum used the voice cast from Batman:The Animated Series. In Japanese anime, thats more the norm than the exception.It would be like having the entire Batman:Animated Series cast available to do every Batman game.
SUNSET ON A GAMER’S MECCA?
Besides every Japanese game being critiqued as a game, it also has to survive the scrutiny of how its translation is handled for and by the Western market. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve played some truly terrible Japanese games that were terrible as games. I take notice on how JRPG “has become a pejorative” for GWJ, because Japan, in many ways, can be seen as a gamers’ mecca.
On the development side, Elysium brought up in one podcast that he would like game developers to take more chances for original game ideas. Japanese game developers are consistently able to do so. Developers have revenue streams outside of making games, so their bottom line is not tied up with the success of a single release. Although the appetite for games by Japanese society is larger as a whole, the overall size of the gaming market in Japan is still smaller than the US and is much more crowded, so developers need to stand out with unique story lines or game mechanics. We Western gamers gain from this in releases such as Okami, Shadow of the Colossus, Parappa the Rappa, and Katamari, just to name a few.
On the consumer side, any gamer simply needs to visit the “electronic city” shopping areas of Japan like Akihabara in Tokyo to experience gaming geek nirvana. Gaming arcades that are 2-5 stories in size, with a cornucopia of cabinets from the classics to the latest releases, all costing around 100yen ($1-1.50) to play. Gaming sections in department stores that would put an entire Gamestop to shame. Hobby shops with restored old systems and well cataloged older game game libraries.
What is truly disturbing is expanding on what Certis meant by “game houses are going where the money is”. Japan is suffering from zero population growth, has a shrinking population base and a larger percentage of that population are senior citizens.. Besides the more important problems this causes, from a game industry standpoint,put simply this means the native market is going to become even smaller.
I can totally respect it when someone admits that Japanese games are not one’s cup of tea. Its also normal behavior for humans to dismiss or even make fun of a culture that one is unable or unwilling to understand.(6) However, taking the broader social picture into account, a dark possibility is the anime and gaming market in Japan collapsing entirely. Meaning that we gaijin won’t have any JRPG’s to make fun of at all. This, to me, is unlikely. A more realistic scenario are game companies forced to merge (e.g.Square/Enix/Taito, Namco/Bandai) and expand more into the foreign market. Smaller anime/game studios that do not have the same international reach will be forced to make tough decisions on how to continue.The Japanese gaming and anime industries both have to contend on how much they want to keep the art form as uniquely Japanese as possible versus the economic need to survive at the risk of diluting and homogenizing the product.
In my studies and travels as a Japanophile, I have come upon many good and not so good aspects of Japanese culture. But as a gamer, its important to understand that within that culture, there is passion for games that runs as a deep as any GWJ podcast presenter or forum member’s own love of gaming.
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SIDENOTES
(1) Not to a confuse a developer (software maker) with a publisher (game publisher and marketer). There are companies like EA that do both. However, Western game developers hardly branch out beyond gaming itself. It would be like BioWare making a Balder’s Gate show for the Cartoon Network.
(2) Another nice thing about this is that the artistic integrity of an anime intellectual property often stays intact. Plot points and specific elements may change, but its harder for the overall vision of an idea to change if the same people or company is working on it. Whether or not the IP makes a good game is a different story.
(3) Most students do attend but upper high school (10-12) is not mandatory in Japan. However, these schools are ranked based on how well their students did on placement tests for universities, so there is competition to get into a “better” one. Also, upper high school is not free. Add to this the rigid rules, the constant exams, the uniforms, and the societal pressure to conform. If I was a student there I probably would have wanted to paint my hair blue and go drive a giant robot.
(4) Its interesting for Rabbit to say during the PAX podcast that “geek culture won” because , in Japan, anime culture is part of the mainstream. Anime artists and voice actors are household names. Anime game themed merchandising is everywhere, not only in toys, but costumes and household items as well. What really took the cake for me in my visit to Japan was the presence of anime themed merchandise in gambling establishments and love hotels.
(5) Speaking of lost in translation, Dragon Quest/Dragon Warrior that was derided in the podcast is actually a hugely successful and beloved game franchise, 2nd only in success to the Final Fantasy series. It never achieved the same popularity here in the States. Still, its important to note that the Dragon Quest I game is arguably the first console RPG and its music was one of the first gaming soundtracks taken seriously enough to warrant a full orchestral recording. So dismissing its importance as a game franchise would be like dismissing “The Godfather” as a movie franchise. And speaking of the “blobs” , the Slimes are so iconic in Japanese culture that there are even children’s comics about it.
(6) Having traveled a bunch, the “stupid American” stereotype is something I’ve had to deal with as well.
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