I have long been a fan of video games coming from the Land of the Rising Sun, Japan. Ever since I played the the original Final Fantasy, when it first came out well over 20 years ago, on my NES, I have been hooked on the crazy, quirky, and most of all fun games made by these crazy, quirky and most of all fun people. My favorite game genre is the RPG, and nobody, but nobody, can make great RPGs like the game companies in Japan can. The Japanese excelled at most every other genre, too.
But times change, as they must, although I certainly do not have to like it. Fewer and fewer Japanese games are making it across to America; for just one example, look at Project Rainfall, a well-meaning failure. The boon of Japanese games that came out for the PS and PS2, for which I shall be forever grateful, has slowed down to a trickle. There are many reasons for this, some of which have been discussed on 1UP, and I won't get into them here. I'll say it has to do with money and Japan still being a closed-off nation, and leave it at that.
I am not saying that the quality of Japanese video games has gone down, far from it from what I can tell. It's the quantity. American tastes have also changed, favoring home grown games, which have pushed back the amount of Japanese games coming here. But I'll be perfectly honest here:all I see is a vast wasteland of FPSs. Now I like FPSs, don't get the wrong idea. It's just that there is a glut of brown- and grey-colored shooters that all blend into one another. I miss the bright colors of Japanese games. And the polish, which still exists. When is the last time a Japanese game had to be patched? Has there EVER been a need? So many American made games, high profile and expensive, have been put out as if no one actually play tested the damn games. Does anyone do QC anymore?
It may sound like I am knocking American games, well, maybe I am. A little. With the domination of Western games and the seeming fall of Japanese games in America, it is the end of an era for me, and I may not be alone in this. And if I come off as bitter and sad, well, then that's because I am.
As for RPGs, I still vastly prefer JRPGs. Despite what detractors may say, to me JRPGs are fun, imaginitive and exciting experiences. Games like Dragon Age, Fallout, Mass Effect and Elder Scrolls just flat out bore me. Like American FPSs, they all seem like the same damn games. Have I played these games? Truthfully, no, so you could say that I am talking out of my ass, and you probably would have a valid point. Still, from what I have seen and heard of these games through the magic of the interwebs, I have zero interest in ever playing these games. They just don't look FUN to me. Except Bioshock, which seems like a FPS/RPG hybrid. THAT game I would like to play one day.
A lot of you younng uns' were not around before the Great Video Game Crash and the NES coming to the rescue, creating a Japanese video game dominance that has existed until a few years ago. There was great American innovation then; there had to be when you were making games for the Atari 2600. Where is that frontier spirit now? It seems that Japan has paved the way and America has simply followed along behind, until Japan was no longer needed. Now Call of Duty tops the charts, and the world is poorer for it.
I did mean for this blog to be a diatribe against Western video games (ok,perhaps a little.) I am saddened at the thought that there will be many less Japanese games coming here. Oh, we'll have our Mario and Final Fantasy games and the occasional wonderfully Japanese game that by some miracle came here, but that will be it. The sun is setting, and in the gathering darkness I wish I could see a bright light as the colors fade to grey and brown.
I'll miss the sun shining on my face. I'll miss it a lot.
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