Mega Man Designer Explains Japan's Waning Video Game Influence

eldavojohn writes "As one of the creators of Mega Man, Keiji Inafune remembers the days when Japan redefined video games. He believes those days are long gone as he reveals much in his criticisms of Japan's ailing game economy. Inafune says Japan is five years behind — still making games for older consoles with 'no diversity, no originality.' When asked why, he responds, 'A lot of designers, if they find a genre that works for them, they stick with it. A lot of designers just stick to a set formula. That doesn't work any more. You can't just tweak the graphics, work just on image quality. You can't compete on that. The business side is not keeping up with investment. You need to be prepared to invest 4 billion yen or more on a game, and then spend 2 billion yen more to promote it. But Japanese companies can't do that. So we're losing out to the West in terms of investment in games. It's a vicious cycle, a deflationary spiral. Because you don't invest, you can't sell games, and because you don't sell games, you can't invest.' He compares making games for Japan and the US to Sushi and basketball — two popular things but each done in distinctly different ways by the two nations."

Comments

Don't focus on exclusives...

[Darkness404]

I really hope this doesn't end up with a lot more Japan-exclusive games while the west gets crap games like what happened in the 16-bit era. I don't -want- more "westernized" games. I -like- games that are different such as Katamari. I can appreciate multiple cultures, I don't -want- games dealing with "western" themes as opposed to Japanese themes. I want good, solid games. I don't want localization, I want translation, yes, but subtitles are fine. I'd rather have the Japanese voice actors and subtitles than crappy US voice actors.

There have been some brilliant games either not brought to the west or brought to the west later that would have been excellent back "in the day". For example, a lot of the Final Fantasy games were not released for the NES/SNES in the US and the entire Fire Emblem series was neglected until fairly recently.

I don't want westernized games.

Re:Don't focus on exclusives...

[penguinchris]

BS - it's the "westernization" of games (and movies and so on) that is at least partially to blame for making people not interested. When they watch an Asian movie with a terrible English dub, that's all they think about - turns it into a joke. Same thing with games if they do a ham-fisted "westernization" - even just a bad dub, again, can ruin it completely.

There are games that are essentially just translated from the original Japanese, and they're plenty popular. The parent's example of the Katamari series is an excellent one (if you've played any of them, you'll know they're chock-full of Japanese cultural stuff, most of which makes no sense to anyone else, but the games are still fun), and there's the Dead or Alive series (they leave in the Japanese dialog as an option, presumably because they realize the English dialog is so terrible), Fatal Frame series (again lots of cultural stuff) and more...

Re:not just japan

[Darkness404]

In reality, I can really only think of a handful of "good" American studios, Bungie, Valve, Blizzard and BioWare. On the other hand, I can think of a lot of good Japanese studios which consistently make quality games, Namco, Square-Enix, Nintendo, Sony, etc.

Graphics over gameplay

[object404]

"You can't just tweak the graphics, work just on image quality."

In general, that is what has been plaguing the entire gaming industry since the late 90s: graphics over gameplay. That being said, the rise of casual games these past few years has been a welcome change over shiny 3D graphics with dull repetitive gameplay formulae.

Re:Five years behind?

[macshit]

Seriously.

If anything, the vast budgets of U.S. game makers are what's killing creativity and innovation in game design -- it's way too expensive for them to take much risk these days, and pretty much everything coming out of the U.S. these days is the same old tired formulas with better anti-aliasing and more accurate physics...

If Japan's economy is ailing, then that might kill off some developers (which is bad), but on the other hand, it might also mean that the focus shifts to lower-priced and lower-budget games. Even if such small-budget games tend to often be formulaic as well, the simple fact that they're much faster to develop and involve much less risk means there's actually a lot more room for experimentation. If you actually look at the selection of games available in Japan, I'd say this is true: despite a few "whales" like FFXIII, there's a vast range of quirky and interesting games for the DS, wii, etc. -- and these are what actually get the most shelf space, and seem to account for the majority of traffic in the store (well, judging by "where people are standing looking at games," anyway), even if the big monitor at the front of the store (paid for by Sony of course) is showing off the latest whale-of-the-month.

If you only read one sentence of the article,

[gman003]

read this one:

"I want to find ideas that are global."

I've been saying this for a while now. Videogame culture is not defined by national boundaries. I have more in common with a Japanese gamer than I do with the sport-freak American down the street. Videogame culture is about 40% American/Other Western Countries, 40% Japanese/Other Asian Countries, and about 20% original.

Yes, Japanese developers are very behind in game design. You look at, say FFXIII. Big-name game, big-name people. They're about par with America in terms of art, music, maybe a bit behind in programming because they don't pay as well. But their game designers are probably ten years behind. Go to an American game-design site like Gamasutra. They'll talk about interaction looks, gameplay design AS the story. Then go to Japan, where most of their game design is "like this game, but with different numbers and colors." They just do not get game design as a science.

In interests of fairness, however, there is a lot American developers could learn from Japan. First, story. Japanese writers are good at making unique characters. Compare (to use well-known examples) Cloud Strife to Master Chief. Both have unique art designs, but look at the characters. One is an ex-elite soldier recovering from torture/experiment-induced amnesia and a feeling of duty to a dead comrade. The other is a supersoldier who is REALLY good at killing things, and is the last survivor of a battle that, until last week, was never really shown. Now, which sounds like a more interesting story?

Inafune-san, on the extremely slim chance that you read this, I understand what you're saying, and I'm glad that you're coming to us to learn. However, don't give up entirely on Japanese developers. They have much to teach us as well.

Re:If you only read one sentence of the article,

[gmhowell]

What interests? Filmmaking and... young children?

I didn't know Roman Polanski read Slashdot.

Re:Five years behind?

[nomadic]

If anything, the vast budgets of U.S. game makers are what's killing creativity and innovation in game design -- it's way too expensive for them to take much risk these days, and pretty much everything coming out of the U.S. these days is the same old tired formulas with better anti-aliasing and more accurate physics...

I've been a PC gamer since the early 80's, and people have been making that kind of claim for almost that long. I prefer the same kind of games now that I did back then; long, immersive (western) RPGs--and they have gotten better and better as the industry has matured and spent more developing them.

Re:not just japan

[nmb3000]

In reality, I can really only think of a handful of "good" American studios, Bungie, Valve, Blizzard and BioWare. On the other hand, I can think of a lot of good Japanese studios which consistently make quality games, Namco, Square-Enix, Nintendo, Sony, etc.

I'm not a huge gamer, but I can easily add a few to that list: Bethesda, Obsidian, Epic, id, Infinity Ward. Some of these developers have waned a little recently or been acquired by some parent company, but they still produce some good games. Even going by a list on Wikipedia, there are only a few other Japanese companies I recognize (such as Konami and Capcom).

These days, I don't see a reason that Japan would be greatly superior at game development than any other country. Originally they had something of a head start in the industry (many consoles have been developed there), but any more there are many talented and experienced people all over the world. Any country which comes up with something new will initially be on top, but things will inevitably level out sooner or later.

Re:not just japan

[93 Escort Wagon]

"Bethesda, Obsidian, Epic, id, Infinity Ward."

Holy shit are you a fucking piece of garbage. What a fucking embarrassment to real gamers.

It's a school night - shouldn't you be in bed?

Re:not just japan

[black3d]

What is this elitist crap you're peddling? Four out of five of those are fine studios. I understand that you clearly think it's uncool to like anything popular, being a young, elitist idiot. "Real gamers" were playing games before you were born. Your entire appreciation of gaming is based on what OTHER PEOPLE think of your choices. Way to go, independent thinker.

Oh please

[Sycraft-fu]

I get tired of the "Get off my lawn, the past was so much better." No, not the case actually. Games are great these days. You can have graphics AND gameplay and indeed there are games that do. Name the kind of game you like, I can give you a few examples of ones that do it really well. There's more crap out there too, of course, as you get a bigger market you get more of everything. However if you don't think there are any good new games it is only because you are walking around with your hands over your eyes.

In reality, there are a few things at play:

1) We remember the past through rose coloured glasses. This is just a human condition. You remember the good and forget the bad. Psychologists think it is part of our coping mechanism. So you remember some of those games as being a hell of a lot better than they were. Go back and play them some time. Whip out an emulator and try them out. You'll discover many were not nearly as good as you think. Like Final Fantasy 2 (in the US, FF4 in reality). Loved that game as a kid, and it was hard. My friends and I would sit around and play it together to figure things out. Story was really good too... Well, not so much. I've played it now as an adult. The story is pretty cheesy when you get down to it and difficult? Shit I can knock it out no problem. The enemies are so simplistic, easy for me to figure out. I can practically play it with the turbo speed button in the emulator held down all the time. It can't hold a candle story or gameplay wise to the new RPGs.

2) You remember the good games better because you spent more time on them. You probably bought mostly games you liked, and if you got one you didn't, you didn't play it much. As such you don't remember all the pure shit out there. Consider that there were almost 900 NES games released in the US. You really think they were all good? Did you ever play the Barbie Sports game? How about Bible Games (a religious 3-pack game)? There are bunches of crap games out there, you just didn't play them much if at all so they didn't leave an impression. The good ones you played a lot.

3) General curmudgeon/hardass syndrome. For some reason, people get all tough guy about the past. "Oh games back then had shit graphics but they were REAL GAMES. We didn't NEED graphics, they were so good!" It is silly, so don't do it.

4) When videogames were brand new, it was easier to be "innovative" because nothing had been done. In reality most weren't, they were just doing things in games that had been done in other mediums, but it was still a "game first." Well when something matures, it is harder to do something truly unique that has never been done at all before.

So seriously, don't be a stick in the mud, open your eyes, and discover that there are many, many good games being made these days.

Now if you'll excuse me, I want to go play Dragon Age, which is a really good game.

Re:Oh please

[Quiet_Desperation]

I get tired of newbie gamers who have not noticed that game quality in many genres is going down or stagnating.

Well, I agree with the OP, and I've been playing since the Magnavox Odyssey in 1975. :-) The only person I ever met who tops me is a guy who played some of the original experiments done on oscilloscopes.

I'm sure most older gamers have noticed how almost EVERY fucking game is a first person shooter. Most gamers probably remember an age where the FPS was one of the genre's and not THE DOMINANT genre of gaming like it is today.

Or some of us older gamers actually *look* are reality and disagree with that assessment. A lot of the big name games are FPS, but behind the big names there's metric shit-tons of other stuff. There's an equal number of third person games. My goodness, man, there's more game types out there than ever before what with downloadable content now. Go play Limbo- awesome little game. Check out the Indie game scene.

How many first person shooters have we had since doom? You'd think after all these years FPS games would be played out...

I'm sorry that a genre you don't like is popular, but that doesn't make it bad. I pick out an FPS to play about once a year, and yet my gaming slate is more than full.

but now they are even turning RPG's into FPS games (oblivion --> Fallout 3), Gears of war --> Mass effect 2.

The Elder Scrolls series were a revelation in RPGs for me. Play on a big HDTV with head phones and you will achieve major immersion.

And GOW and ME are third person. GOW is not an RPG, and ME is an action RPG.

If you hadn't noticed this trend of homogenization of games then you clearly are incapable of seeing what has happened. It only sounds to you like it's "Get off my lawn" but look at final fantasy 12 and 13, the battle systems in those games can't hold a candle to the battle systems of earlier games.

Your opinion is not fact. I thought the FF13 system was piles of fun. I liked the gambit system in FF12 as well- that one actually harkened back to several games in the early days where you would "program" your game characters to follow scripts. Dragon age had that, too. It's a fun thing.

I've watched final fantasy series be butchered by movie/story types who don't like the loot/equipment/battle and stat management aspect of oldschool RPG's, compare a game like FF1/FF6/FF7 to FFX and beyond.

I just played FF1 on the Wii. You call that stat management?

So play some western RPGs. There's endless hours of looting and stat spreadsheet management to be had these days. You just aren't looking or something. Steam alone has lots of isometric, stat heavy RPGs to play. Try Sacred 2 on the XBox. Not perfect, but I'm finding some fun there. Major stat management, piles of loot, open world, etc.

Re:Indie scene is pretty neat...

[Cidolfas]

A few more for your list:

Minecraft isn't American, but is really good and so popular these days that the guy behind it has flown to talk to Valve and had to shut down his registration and payment system (which also means it's free to play right now!).

Dwarf Fortress, of course.

Lugaru HD is another classic indie title, and I think the non-HD version got open sourced as part of the Humble Indie Bundle deal. The game is a bit sparse at times, but for me the gameplay was top-notch.

Darwinia will make you more attached to little green pixel men than should be right.

These are some of the well-known ones. Really there are too many to list, but I HIGHLY recommend buying fresh, innovative indie games. They don't have the polish of AAA big-budget titles, but they make up for it in interesting gameplay mechanics and sometimes genuinely good storytelling that wipes the floor with the "everything you do must be epic to the extreme!" plots that the AAA titles have. I've gotten more hours of fun from VVVVV (look for it on steam for $5) than I got from playing Gears of War 2 which cost 10x that much.

Seriously, support your indie developers. The more people who buy their games, the more they get to make. Here is a good place to start looking.

With the US and Japanese Gaming Powers combined!

[Lord_of_the_nerf]

A dating sim set during the landing at Omaha?

Call of Super Awkward Duty Fight 3: Gun Date

Re:Five years behind?

[Eponymous Coward]

Apple's app store has changed what I consider budget games. I bought Angry Birds for a couple of dollars and I've spent an order of magnitude more time playing it than I have Modnation Racers that I bought on the PS3 for $60.

Other than Modnation Racers, I haven't bought a game that cost more than $10 in about a year (and I wish I hadn't bought MNR, it isn't very good).

The nail that sticks out gets hammered down

[fabs8611]

I've been living in Japan for almost five years now and I can say that this same situation applies to a great number of companies and organizations here. Here city office are still almost completely paper based, employees are expected to work longer hours instead of working more productively, there are only a handful of computer in the teaching lounges of high schools, organizations will hire half a dozen people for what can be done with a single computer and some custom build software, workers are frowned upon if they try to innovate or rock the boat in any way, and stubbornness and diligence are two of the most important traits workers can have. Japan is one of the most xenophobic countries in the world ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnic_issues_in_Japan#Comment_by_U.N._special_rapporteur_on_racism_and_xenophobia ), and this doesn't just apply to their attitudes towards foreign people, it applies to business practices too. Japan isn't going to fall behind the rest of the world in technology, they already have. http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nb20100430d1.html There is a famous ancient proverb here that couldn't be more true in Japanese society today: "The nail that sticks out gets hammered down" And get hammered down it does.

Re:not just japan

[bigstrat2003]

Well, I didn't make the list, but I agree with it. And in my opinion, Bungie is on the list because Halo is a great game. I wouldn't put them in the same category as Blizzard or Bioware, because they do fail occasionally (I hated ODST), and lose points for essentially making iterations on one game for the last 10 years... but it's still a really great game. And I say this as someone who was, and is, still a predominantly PC gamer.

Re:Tired of anime style RPG games...

[jandrese]

Japan, seriously, how many times do we need the protagonist to be a 13 year old boy with no fashion sense and spiky hair? Also, would it kill you to have the story make some goddamn sense for once?

Seriously, when I find out that the main character is the dream of a ghost and the answer all along was that we needed to combine all of the feelings of love throughout the world to break the time loop or something I just want to kick the writer in the nuts.

That's why I tend to prefer western RPGs, even if they do spend way too much time stealing ideas wholesale from Tolkien, again. I'd love to see more studios go the Mass Effect or even Alpha Protocol route just to freshen up the genre.

Every game is a FPS?

[Sycraft-fu]

Tells me all you do is whine, not look. Let's go have a look see at the most recently released titles, and what they are. We'll stick with the PC, since that's what I use:

Civilization 5, Sep 21, 2010: Turn based strategy
Patrician IV, Sep 17, 2010: Real time strategy
Amnesia: The Dark Descent, Sep 8, 2010: Horror
Mass Effect 2: Lair of the Shadow Broker, Sep 7, 2010: RPG (expansion)
Aion: Assault on Balaurea, Sep 7, 2010: MMORPG
R.U.S.E., Sep 7, 2010: Real time strategy
Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse Episode 5: The City That Dares Not Sleep, Aug 30, 2010: Adventure
Black Mirror II, Aug 30, 2010: Adventure
Ship Simulator Extremes, Aug 27, 2010: Simulation
Might & Magic Heroes Kingdoms, Aug 27, 2010: Turn based strategy
Worms Reloaded, Aug 26, 2010: Strategy
Elemental: War of Magic, Aug 24, 2010: Turn based strategy
Mafia II, Aug 24, 2010: Action/Adventure
Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days, Aug 17, 2010: Third person shooter

This is just some of the larger releases in the last couple months (a lot of games come out around this time of year). There are more minor/indy releases. Notice something about that list?

I'm not saying there are plenty of FPS games because guess what? FPSes are fun. Bad Company 2 is one I like myself, as well as Team Fortress 2. However if you think that's all there is the only thing that says is you walk around ignorant of the gaming world. There are TONS of games of every kind out there, many of them quite good. Just open your eyes and look.