Are Eastern games a turn off for you?

[ro9ue]

I don't know why, but for some reason I just can't get into any Japanese/Eastern games. The art style seems really, really excessive. All the girls look like they're 14. And generally all of the music is accompanied by this weird singing. For example, I have a lot of friends REALLY into FF14. All I did was watch the trailer and was like... nope. Not feeling it.

Crazy thing is that Final Fantasy was my jam back when I was younger. Played a ton of 7, 8,9 and Tactics. But now that the graphics are getting better and better, it just seems like their art styles are getting more and more... I dunno the word.... baroque? Ornate? Elaborate? It's like really hard to explain.

Combat seems like it's excessively animated and like choreographed dancing. It doesn't feel visceral, it just is made to look extra flashy.

Then there's this really odd childlike "tee-hee" of all the women. Who are in the context of these games, adults. And the "beast" races are usually like little bunny things.

WTF is this shit?

[ComputerNerd]

Personally I am enjoying the Exceed series of Bullet Hell games, which have instrumental music in contrary to what you describe there, though the spoken audio and anime imagery is very much the same.
I have absolutely no idea what the story is from playing the games, only just noticing there is actually one on that website.

[zephid]

I like some of them, mainly the RPGs.

[Thrif]

Why do you say Eastern games when you mean FF and FF-clones?

I'm in the same situation as you, only having played older games, but that's because I don't play a lot of single-player games anymore at all. FF, Chrono Trigger, Grandia etc...

I have always had this theory that older games were really good because it was a medium that were open to interpretation, and when video game designers got more and better tools, you really learnt how bad they were instead. StarCraft is a favourite example of this for me, 1 had a really solid story and characters, 2 was retarded in comparison, but I'm thinking that it's all due to the limited engines making for better stories. Final Fantasy-series is the same thing, the older games just had music and talk bubbles and very basic combat moves, but the new flashy games... well... it's just a theory though.

[Deleted]

I just blew $240 on a visual novel kickstarter.

[ro9ue]

Why do you say Eastern games when you mean FF and FF-clones?

That's fair. I do like some grittier stuff like Metal Gear Solid and Castlevania (Konami). But most stuff I see come from eastern devs is like all anime and such.

I'm in the same situation as you, only having played older games, but that's because I don't play a lot of single-player games anymore at all. FF, Chrono Trigger, Grandia etc...

I have always had this theory that older games were really good because it was a medium that were a lot open to interpretation, and when video game designers got a lot more and better tools, you really learnt how bad they were instead. StarCraft is a favourite example of this for me, 1 had a really solid story and characters, 2 was retarded in comparison, but I'm thinking that it's all due to the limited engines making for better stories. Final Fantasy-series is the same thing, the older games just had music and talk bubbles and very basic combat moves, but the new flashy games... well... it's just a theory though.

I agree 100%. I believe this as well. It's sort of like when you see Cloud in FF7 as like 20 pixels, your brain is allowed to fill in the gaps with whatever you want, effectively allowing you to project more personal tastes. Then you see Cloud in FF Advent Children and it's like.... no. Fuck no.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

The only eastern games I have ever gotten into were the Final Fantasies, and that was a long time ago (before they went crazy with XIII and XIV's anime looking characters).

Technically Pokemon is eastern (it's made by the Japanese) but that's a completely different subject matter in of itself.

IDK; as you put it OP, the art style is usually excessive, the singing music is headachey and all of the girls (strangely) are 14.

That isn't to say I don't like eastern entertainment; I love Fate and Death Note, and to an extent Gundam, but their games? Not so much

[Aeoden]

Combat seems like it's excessively animated and like choreographed dancing. It doesn't feel visceral, it just is made to look extra flashy.

I feel like the combat is slower...or...I don't know how to describe it. It never feels like you punch into something like with WoW engine. It misses something and I just can't find what it is. I've tried several eastern mmo and it happened all the time. Except for Phantasy Star Online 2 and FF.

About the "bunny" thing, I think it's just different culture. We are used to a certain model, and when you play an eastern game, you lose those models.

Not saying those games are not good, not at all. Just not my taste. May change eventually, who knows?

[oplawlz]

They do tend to be more and more of a turn off for me. Anime has become more closely tied to video game culture in recent years, and while I do enjoy watching it from time to time I find "weabs" to be kinda creepy. As a result games which rely heavily on cringy anime mostly naked 10yo girls with cat ears or super effeminate males just make me sigh and turn away.

Add to this the fact that they tend to be extremely grindy and there just isn't anything to attract me to eastern style games anymore.

[Remilia]

Depends on what you're going for. Saying Eastern is a very very blanket and it's like saying all games from the west are like CoD.

I just got this and started playing it. It's a bit fucked up.

[FobManX]

I like the RPGs, especially Final Fantasy, but admittedly as I've gotten older I have preferred Western RPGs(but thats mainly because of better/more mature stories where your decisions make an impact like in Mass Effect or the open world style of Elder Scrolls).

[Sj]

Depends on the game, really. "Anime-style" art never bothered me (though I actually hate Toriyama's character designs from Dragon Ball and Chrono Trigger), so that's never been a deal-breaker for me. The stories from Eastern games, especially RPGs, have always been better than their Western counterparts in my opinion. That's not to say there haven't been some amazing standouts in Western games, but a majority of the stories I've enjoyed the most have come from Eastern games.

That being said, I've enjoyed Western MMOs much more than Eastern. Final Fantasy XIV is really the only Eastern MMO I've played for an extended period of time that I've enjoyed immensely.

Single-player RPGs from the last 5-10 years, though, have been sorely lacking.

[Jester Joe]

Well, I'm currently playing Disgaea 5, so...
I'll let you be the judge of how eastern this is :P

[Jimusmc]

Japanese RPG's are the best RPG's always playing the older NES/SNES/PS1 games.

[Radaney]

I can't play "anime style games" but I love some eastern games. FF6, Chrono Trigger, All of Nintendo. I see games like Tales of Zestiria and I'm like NOPENOPENOPENOPE.

I like anime though, weirdly.

[Jester Joe]

I can't play "anime style games" but I love some eastern games. FF6, Chrono Trigger, All of Nintendo. I see games like Tales of Zestiria and I'm like NOPENOPENOPENOPE.

You make me sad

Tales games are my favorite.

[TheCount]

I don't judge a game based on where its made, I judge the game.
FF14 is typically described as being an Eastern MMO. Its art style is usually called "anime" which I find is very wrong but hey
I love FF14 its my go to MMO these days.
I also play SWTOR which seems pretty western style. The story is pretty awesome and I generally just play it for that

So it just depends on the content of the game for me

[Pull My Finger]

I wouldn't say eastern - I love Mario, Zelda or Dark Souls - but anything that stinks of Anime drives me crazy. The whole aesthetic really drives me nuts. I wouldn't even touch GW2 with a ten foot pole because its art style and overall aesthetics have this certain japanoid anime slant.

[PaladinBash]

Eastern RPGs are hit and miss. Some are great, most are shit. Don't like any other games from there.

[Airlick]

Try Valkyria Chronicles.