Ben-DutkaYeah, we're not going to comment at all. We'll let you guys hash this out amongst yourselves.
A lot of PSXE regulars have often wondered why JRPGs have apparently gone the way of the dodo, and when asked why the sub-genre has taken such a big hit, Square-Enix provided us with a "macro" response of sorts. Square-Enix Executive Producer Akitoshi Kawazu says it's not just about the role-playing category; it's about the growing gap between Japanese and Western games in general. He sort of echoes what Hideo Kojima has said concerning a lack of motivation and passion amongst Japanese designers. Said Kawazu:
"The technology is not on par with Western games, and it also seems like developers are losing their passion to stick with their vision because they are being overwhelmed by costs or market trends. It’s necessary for each individual developer to constantly be up-to-date with the latest computer and game technologies. It is also important for development teams and groups as a whole to support technological advancement. It is impossible for one person to keep up with all the skills necessary for game development on his own. On top of this, developers need to take on a project with the confidence and strength to stick with their vision. Everything I mentioned here applies to me personally, as well, and they are all things I would like to bring to fruition with my next project."
It's interesting to compare these words to the direction of Square-Enix as a company, but like we said earlier…you guys can handle that. For the most part, what he says here isn't necessarily wrong and in many ways, it's even admirable when one admits to a weakness. At the same time, we often wonder about those "visions" of Japanese developers like S-E…sometimes, we're just not sure we understand them.
oh the irony!
sound familiar $E?
Oh gods… here we go again. In general, one thing that motivates people is money. If they know that they are working on a project that will see their pay increase as a result of doing a good job, then they will do a good job (or at least coerce someone else to do a good job while they sit around twiddling their thumbs and looking important). There aren't a whole lot of people who are determined to focus on quality when a poor project can sell just as well.
I want to know where this guy has his head shoved. The tech of Japanese games is not on par with that of Western games… Really? Is that why MGS4 was considered to have the best graphics of any game available for almost two years? Is that why FFXIII is damn near the best looking game available right now? The tech is there for anyone to use, it is just using it.
As far as passion is concerned, if you truly believe in a project, if you truly believe that it can be finished and that it can be fantastic, then you can find the drive to continue, no matter what hardships are thrown in your way. Personal experience has taught me that.
These developers should not let market trends sway their development decisions, as that is a true creativity killer. If you choose to follow suit on what another has done successfully, you are unlikely to be as successful as by the time your project drops, the market has been flooded by clones of varying quality and yours is lost among the herd.
In terms of the vision; if it is clear enough, then it will come to fruition. There will always be someone there yelling that it must be done, that it needs to be for the good of humanity. You have to be strong to succeed.
I think that Square-Enix is still on the right track, or can be nudged back onto it at least. All it will take is a thoroughly Eastern game, preferably with turn-based gameplay to sell like hotcakes and they will realise that they don't need to cater to the West. Their core market will see them stay afloat if they can manage to make Versus XIII and Agito XIII appeal to them. Unfortunately I feel that Versus at least will be aimed more at the Westerners with a feel more akin to Fallout than even FFXIII. Agito still holds promise. One final thing: Apparently there will be a trailer on show at TGS showcasing gameplay from both of these titles, adding up to maybe a minute of footage. It may not be much, but when it's leaked, I'll be checking it out.
Peace.
Persona. Catherine on the way with their first console offering this generation. Most likely will make way for Persona 5. Square Enix maybe losing what drives them but not all developers are.
The folks that make these comments are obviously not following Yoshinori Ono and Katsuhiro Harada on Twitter. Those two guys haven't lost their passion at all.
Maybe they haven't, but even so, the way they're doing things now are wrong.
Twitters stupid man. they just took the status update system from stupid facebook and marketed it as their own.
no i haven't been fallowing on twitter.
That's a simple matter of opinion and one I don't agree with. The two games I play the most out of my library are Super SFIV and Tekken 6 (on both the Ps3 and PsP consoles), so I fail, and miserably so, at seeing how what they're doing is wrong.
Especially since Ono is pushing hard for a new Darkstalkers game, and Harada is now pushing for Soul Calibur 5.
That's also a matter of opinion. I actually prefer twitter to facebook. a lot more interesting people post a lot more interesting things on twitter than facebook.
Well as long has the 360 disc limitations is in the wild I'm sure quality in a few Japanese games will be lacking thus decrease in passion although the excitement remains.
Tragically…..
I don't understand the remark about the technology not being up to par with the West. If there's one good thing I have to say about FFXIII it's that the graphics were fantastic.
I loved FFXII, and that just came out 4 years ago. I don't know what happened in the meantime; they hired some gameplay designers who had their heads up their ***es for one thing. They better get their stuff together because it's looking like XIII is the last free pass they're going to get from the fanboys.
MGS and FF are two exceptions. I think if you observe Japanese games as a whole, the tech is not up to par. Check out games like Cross Edge, Trinity Universe, etc. to see what I mean for PS3 examples.
Aside from that, I believe a big point of that comment was in regards to Japanese games being on handhelds as opposed to current consoles.
8 hours per week for exp enough said.
Excuses, Excuses, Excuses Squeenix. You guys are done. Everyone can feel it in the air & smell it. So can you. That's why every couple of weeks, someone from your crumbling kingdom says something we all know already. Now stop talking out of your butts & go make sure versus 13 is dope.
The guys who are doing the yakuza series have not lost their passion!
Square Enix work only on the Playstation 3 and u will know what great wonders u can come up with.
Don't be like CyberConnect2 who sold themselves to microsoft and ruined Naruto Shippuden Ultimate ninja storm 2 by making it multiplatform.
In the first one i was able to move naruto throughout the whole village.now they've made it like a corridor to corridor movement it sucks.
I seriously hate Microsoft!I want their company to die.
did they really? or is that just the beta footage? CC is a third party by the way it's actually bandai-namco that brought it to XBOX without reason.
They don't show beta footage.See the rpg stuff on youtube it sucks.It's nothing like the 1st one.
I forgot to mention, Squeenix killed themselves when they started off this generation in bed with Microsoft. I guess M$' passion for money & dumb downed gameplay rubbed off on them
Jrpgs are funner then western RPGs, it feels better to play, i can honestly say i do not own a single western rpg, they are all the same junk. so your telling me that square the company i love is losing their passion. let's get together fly there go to the company and cheer them on, fire them up let them see we appreciate what they do!
I'm in! You payin'? ;p
Agreed.
i wish i could pay! that would rock!i hope someone does something like this tho.
I don't think "losing passion" is the right phrase or description. More like "losing their way".
Passion is there. Desire is there. Maybe it's an issue with budget or lack of education. Maybe this is where the passion has died, in advancing skills and technology. Possibly Western developers are more willing to take risks than our friends in the East.
Quality gameplay execution and game interface advancements have dried up in Japan. Don't get me wrong, we still get some great gems out of the East but a majority of titles just can't compare to Western game quality. There are too many games from Japan that have convoluted control schemes that they just can't seem to get right. Horrid camera controls and poor button mapping configurations/customizations.
Japanese developers need more people like Ryan Payton working with them to help stream line the user interface for a better experience.
As for the JRPGs… can we just get a quality mature JRPG that doesn't look like it belongs on the GameCube or PSP?
Omg. I'm guilty of leaving a post before reading the article… I'm fired.
Since when has Western Gaming had better graphics than Japanese games? They said Western technology is better… how is that? Despite it's epic fail, Final Fantasy XIII (on the PS3) looked freakin' astounding in the graphics department (except for things like their hands…where did they go wrong with that?) Western games look 'googd' mainly because of how easy it is to take a patch of texture and then just put all the textures next to each other and it looks good from a distance. Get close up and you can notice a terrible flatness in quality and with some of the crappier titles, you can see where each individual patch of texture is laid. Kind of like the tiles you lay down in RPG Maker… now I want to break out the old RPG maker again xD
FFXIII looked great, but not Uncharted 2 great. FFXIII FMV sequences were amazing, but that's all they were; FMV sequences.
I don't believe a majority of Japanese developers have figured out how to create high-res textures, at least on more than just the character models. I've always appreciated textures from more Western developers than Eastern.
Last edited by Nynja on 8/30/2010 12:06:08 PM
uncharted 2 is not a rpg. if we look at it all game genres have different levels of graphics.
@Sogi_Otsa;
I was responding to Chaos' comment;
"Since when has Western Gaming had better graphics than Japanese games?"
Being an RPG or not has nothing to do with the high level of graphical detail Uncharted 2 offered.
Unreal Engine 3 offers techniques that will swap out low-res textures for high-res when the object is within certain range of the users' character, greatly reducing the low quality texture Chaos is talking about. This similar technique has found it's way into other developer's game engines as well. Just look at RDR as another example.
Name 1 Japanese developed game that uses this technology.
RPG, FPS, RTS, etc have very little to do with technical advances between Western and Eastern developers.
Here's a thought square-enix partner up with ea/activision for a finalfantasy/callofduty crossover or at least work with the developers of modernwarfare the online game feels like an rpg with its perks weapons and challenges and i'd love to run around having gunblade fights aka final fantasy 8 now that would be worth 6o or 80 bucks out the wallet for me any one else agree?
hell i'd even pay for a a monthly subscription
I'm just glad my favorite JRPG companies still have the passion like NIS, Gust, and Idea Factory.