Square Enix President: Japanese Developers Shouldn't Try to Imitate Western Games - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 18 April 2022 / 2,712 Views
The president of Square Enix Yosuke Matsuda in an interview with Yahoo! Japan says it is important Square Enix games sell well worldwide, however, it would be the wrong decision for its games to attempt to imitate western games.
"Nowadays, the games market is globalized," said Matsuda via a translation by VideoGamesChronicle. "The domestic market used to be big, but now it is behind China and the US. If you are not recognised globally, you are not in business.
"But interestingly, if Japanese developers try to imitate Western games, they cannot make good ones. The designs of the monsters, and the visual and audio effects, are all still somewhat Japanese. And players around the world know that this is what makes Japanese games good."
He added, "Overseas markets are important, but it is not enough to only develop for them."
Square Enix alongside its Japanese studios also owns Crystal Dynamics and Eidos Montreal, which were acquired in 2009.
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel dedicated to gaming Let's Plays and tutorials. You can contact the author at wdangelo@vgchartz.com or on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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I agree in general. But, there doesn't need to be a clear delineation between Japanese and Western games. Nobody should be thinking about whether or not their game is Japanese enough, or Western enough.
They should be thinking about whether their game is good enough, and whether people are likely to want to buy it. That's it.
I don't think that is a problem, japanese games show a lot of western influences. DragonQuest is inspired by Ultima and Wizardry. The From Software games clearly show western fantasy (maybe with the exception of Sekiro). Resident Evil and Silent Hill are games set in the USA with western characters. I don't think japanese devs willfully ignore the west.
Exactly, he is just advising about stop using what made them good as Japanese devs just to fully copy western games.
I agree with what he says. Taking inspiration from things that work and learning from what doesn't is one thing, but trying to imitate somebody else's style or way of creating anything rarely results in anything great.
Too bad they didn’t figure that out when the 7th Gen started.
I see no problem with JP devs copying western games, as long the games are good doesn't matter who originally created the style/genre
and then there's From Software
They invented the genre and are a Japanese company. So I would say Souls games are authentically Japanese and not Western. Due to the difficulty of games like these it was more likely it would do well with Japanese then Western audiences until it got a cult status. It even took over a year to release Demon Souls in the West.
Dark souls is pretty much described as Gothic horror fantasy. Every character has a medieval European name. Also the series is nowhere as popular in Japan as it is in the Western markets. Thematically there's not much difference between a DS and an Elder Scrolls game. Morrowind even had the esoteric quest cues and ball breaking difficulty.
If you aren't good at it, don't do it.
Capcom managed it with Resident Evil when they took a lot of inspiration from Romero (Resi 0-Code V) and Hooper (Resi 4-8), and it's worked out for them rather well.
Maybe you're just shit at actually knowing what works vs what doesn't SE, like Babylons Fall for example.
Both sides of the world take inspiration and ideas from one another and some work and some don't, but to 100% not take any ideas and just stay exactly the same time and time again isn't great either (just look at China trying to literally make everything about itself and no one else).
Don't forget ppl, this is the same president that likes NFT's...
I think he's right. Whenever I think of JP developers trying to chase western trends I can't help but remember Quantum Theory. My gosh that was a terrible game.
Totally agree with him, you need to improve, but can never forget who you truly are.
maybe he's secretly saying "Marvel and Forspoken at Square Enix suck, too Western"
Those aren't western GAMES. In fact, the vast majority would agree that Resident Evil as a series took a nosedive when Capcom started their obsession with trying to ape after western development.
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