Wish he could have said this a few years back and that gives big Japanese companies incentive to follow suit because a legendary game developer was the one saying it and adds a lot of credibility. To this day, it still depresses me that globohomo managed to subvert Squarenix and Capcom and personally, I'm not a fan of seeing Chinese and Korean gacha slops dominating the market.
Im not happy with it either. Even the good non gatcha Chinese and Korean games copied from others (Stella Blade copied from Nier Automata and Beyonetta for example) and they don't match the creativity that Japan had in its hey days. Many many video game genres were invented by Japanese. . Its sad to see Japan falling.
It was a sad sight to see bunch of anti-woke tubers praising Stellar Blade to high heaven, I understand their reaction but everything surrounding it was cringey including the game trying so hard to copycat Nier automata and 2B, only to turn out, the story was nothing to write home about and everything about it was average.
While I can acknowledge nowadays Korea and China can make games, even great ones, they can't replace the dominance and influence of Japanese culture. All the more reason why I still hold grudge over Neil Drunkmann and Anita Sarkeesian. Ever since those became mainstream, the whole game industry took a fucking nosedive, even now their filthy stain remains tainting the whole western industry and Sony forever having decimated their reputation and will never probably recover even if they try to.
There's Westerners, and then there's "Westerners on the political compass." And I'm really sick of being lumped in with them and their awful taste.
Also, this is me talking as a Smash Bros fan with a chip on my shoulder against Sakurai's blatant biases, but I really don't want the next Smash to be flooded with more JRPG protagonists and Fighting Game characters. This sounds like the kind of gospel that people are going to use to justify the cutting of characters like Ridley and K. Rool who got in because of their western fanbases.
I understand what you mean, but Im going to be completely honest its not just the woke that shouldnt be involved in Japanese things, i dont really like the puritanical conservative westerners involved in Japanese things either.
Sakurai doesn't actually ignore westerners and he does talk to western fans and hears their opinions , so i think its obvious he means the political westerners that are trying to change or censor Japanese things on a fundemental level, should be ignored. Adding K.rool and Ridley isn't changing Japanese things on a fundemental level so its fine.
I dunno. I just think back to the original Dead Rising, which was a very western appealing Japanese game. But it was great! There used to be genuine attempts at communication, at being appealing rather than constricting.
Looking at what we used to have in the 90s and early 2000s, I'd take it over what we have now in a heartbeat. Warts and all.
I am grateful for what seems to be a global awakening for the need of nationalist spirit. I just hope it's enough to grow and save our countries before they become entirely coated in jeet shit.
even some games that didn't go explicitly woke lost a lot of their spirit... remember when RE:5 came out, and there was the big controversy around it being set in Africa?
Pretty sure it was intentional, but that actually masked the fact that it and Resident Evil Girraffe Blower didn't really feel like Resident Evil games. Hell, one of the reasons 7 did so well was because it actually felt like a resident evil game. there was a legitimate sense of foreboding and tension in that game. No saying it was perfect, but it was a resident evil game in spirit more than 6 or 8 was...
I think the fact that they are Japanese that gives it a certain appeal.
They seem to come to a game with a different set of rules and values. And having that minor clash of "Oh, I didn't even think of that" can be interesting. You get to experience someone else's cultural take on what the game provides. Even if it wasn't necessarily by design, they just look at things in a different way.
You can also say the same for some games like Wizardry that were popular in Japan.
Wish he could have said this a few years back and that gives big Japanese companies incentive to follow suit because a legendary game developer was the one saying it and adds a lot of credibility. To this day, it still depresses me that globohomo managed to subvert Squarenix and Capcom and personally, I'm not a fan of seeing Chinese and Korean gacha slops dominating the market.
Im not happy with it either. Even the good non gatcha Chinese and Korean games copied from others (Stella Blade copied from Nier Automata and Beyonetta for example) and they don't match the creativity that Japan had in its hey days. Many many video game genres were invented by Japanese. . Its sad to see Japan falling.
It was a sad sight to see bunch of anti-woke tubers praising Stellar Blade to high heaven, I understand their reaction but everything surrounding it was cringey including the game trying so hard to copycat Nier automata and 2B, only to turn out, the story was nothing to write home about and everything about it was average.
While I can acknowledge nowadays Korea and China can make games, even great ones, they can't replace the dominance and influence of Japanese culture. All the more reason why I still hold grudge over Neil Drunkmann and Anita Sarkeesian. Ever since those became mainstream, the whole game industry took a fucking nosedive, even now their filthy stain remains tainting the whole western industry and Sony forever having decimated their reputation and will never probably recover even if they try to.
There's Westerners, and then there's "Westerners on the political compass." And I'm really sick of being lumped in with them and their awful taste.
Also, this is me talking as a Smash Bros fan with a chip on my shoulder against Sakurai's blatant biases, but I really don't want the next Smash to be flooded with more JRPG protagonists and Fighting Game characters. This sounds like the kind of gospel that people are going to use to justify the cutting of characters like Ridley and K. Rool who got in because of their western fanbases.
I understand what you mean, but Im going to be completely honest its not just the woke that shouldnt be involved in Japanese things, i dont really like the puritanical conservative westerners involved in Japanese things either.
Sakurai doesn't actually ignore westerners and he does talk to western fans and hears their opinions , so i think its obvious he means the political westerners that are trying to change or censor Japanese things on a fundemental level, should be ignored. Adding K.rool and Ridley isn't changing Japanese things on a fundemental level so its fine.
I wish they'd go full Project X Zone in terms of random ass character selection. Segata Sanshiro belongs in Smash.
I dunno. I just think back to the original Dead Rising, which was a very western appealing Japanese game. But it was great! There used to be genuine attempts at communication, at being appealing rather than constricting.
Looking at what we used to have in the 90s and early 2000s, I'd take it over what we have now in a heartbeat. Warts and all.
Copy and pasting someone else's comment here
Western characters = Tights with different color patterns and lame stupid eye masks.
Japanese characters = actually creative & cool.
Western games = Kill! Death! Blood! Gore! Guns!
Japanese games = Kill! Stylish! Not much gore! Swords!
Western game design = lets just copy, paste and reskin this other game and call it something new! Over and over, for 15 years.
Japanese game design = Hey lets try and do something new and creative that's fun and innovative! and actually move gaming forward!
Japanese are king when it comes to games. they need not bend over for DEI or western influences.
I am grateful for what seems to be a global awakening for the need of nationalist spirit. I just hope it's enough to grow and save our countries before they become entirely coated in jeet shit.
even some games that didn't go explicitly woke lost a lot of their spirit... remember when RE:5 came out, and there was the big controversy around it being set in Africa?
Pretty sure it was intentional, but that actually masked the fact that it and Resident Evil Girraffe Blower didn't really feel like Resident Evil games. Hell, one of the reasons 7 did so well was because it actually felt like a resident evil game. there was a legitimate sense of foreboding and tension in that game. No saying it was perfect, but it was a resident evil game in spirit more than 6 or 8 was...
They reversed course recently and complained that there were too many non-blacks in it.
i wouldn't call that a reversal, i'd call it a minor course correction at best.
I think the fact that they are Japanese that gives it a certain appeal.
They seem to come to a game with a different set of rules and values. And having that minor clash of "Oh, I didn't even think of that" can be interesting. You get to experience someone else's cultural take on what the game provides. Even if it wasn't necessarily by design, they just look at things in a different way.
You can also say the same for some games like Wizardry that were popular in Japan.