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Japan is set in the future

Stephen 'Bajo' O'Donnell ABC Technology and Games 8 Oct 2013
bajo japan

Weeaboo desu ka?


Hex and I and some of the Good Game team had the pleasure of visiting Tokyo Game Show this year, as well as some unusual tourist spots. We spent most of our time in Tokyo, soaking up the concrete jungle and in my case - spending all my money on G1 Transformers and vintage shrink-wrapped consoles.

I love you Metroplex! NO REGRETS

What a place! Every street is Blade Runner. Shops and alleys are full of neon screens and repeating jingles. And along with the sci-fi trains (that each have their own unique theme song so you know it's yours) Tokyo really is a city from the near future.

It's a place full of common-sense engineering. From the bottle caps that twist off but then sit on the lip of the bottle so you don't lose the lid, to the stylish, yet functional architecture of the buildings and houses. It's a city designed to move people fast and use every scrap of space available to them.

AND THE TOILETS. They're pretty much robots that thank you for your services.
The germaphobe in me was in sterilized, anti-bacterial heaven! Not only was there no rubbish anywhere, but the sick wear masks to avoid spreading infection. It's an insanely polite and common sense thing to do [which unfortunately doesn't actually work at all - Ed].

And for a city that's so busy, I'd say more people have bumped into me in Sydney today walking to the coffee shop, than in the entire week of my time in Japan.


But it's the influence of games that's really fascinating. We spoke to the editor of Famitsu, Japan's most popular gaming magazine. He talked about how the success of the Famicom was so big in Japan, that gaming just became a part of life for its people. And now those people have grown and they still fill their lives with games. Long commutes mean portable gaming is HUGE - and considered more mainstream than your XBox and PS3 communities.

He also spoke about the troubles for developers. Japanese games do well in Japan but not great overseas. This is changing, but local designers face unique challenges when trying to create a game that can make money around the world.

Tokyo Game Show

We've played plenty of Japanese games over the years - but I had no idea how different they could be until the Tokyo Game Show. I'm no expert on Japanese history, but you can see that many titles are influenced by it, and their love of manga and the style that comes with it.

As we have a history of guns and war influencing our gritty gory shooters, they have a mythology of famous heroes and swordplay influencing theirs. It's fascinating seeing how their games really are more about style than getting a high leaderboard score for the best quick-time knife to the neck.

Even when you see blood in their games, it has style. It's not just a splat on the wall, it's an elegant paintwash. Just look at Street Fighter 4 and its calligraphy-inspired art style.

But from the gamers and journalists we spoke to, I got the impression things are changing a little and Japanese gamers are starting to enjoy western games more. And it's mostly because of western production values (especially with the WiiU struggling to deliver content).

We even saw a ROCKSTAR booth at TGS! ROCKSTAR never go to game shows like E3!

One of the more popular portable games I played was "puzzles and dragons" which was advertised about every third ad on TV.

It felt like a mix of Puzzle Quest and Bejeweled plus dragons and even though I had no idea what was going on - the mechanics were instantly fun. At one stage this game was adding one million players a month (it's up to 16 million downloads now in Japan).

Digital Card games are also very common, and I gathered this was due to their popularity before video games.

The other striking thing about TGS was the "romance" and "love simulator" games.

Strange romantic and voyeuristic experiences ranging from tablet apps with headsets that measure if you love someone you're staring at, to games where you have to photograph your sister in poses to make her a famous model. Granted much of the translation as lost on me - but I found it very weird.

And TGS is certainly the last bastion of the booth babe. Hundreds of Japanese ladies in tiny clothes plastered with warm, yet deeply-cold smiles. It reminded me how glad I am that western conventions have (mostly) moved on from these, quite-frankly embarrassing, displays (it took us a long time though).

Souls and Deep Down (PS4, XBox One)

The two games I was most excited to spend some time with were Deep Down and Dark Souls II.

Deep Down wasn't what I was expecting. It was a very simple dungeon crawler, with awkward mechanics and to be honest it felt like a more advanced Infinity Blade than a next gen hack and slash. Hearing it's a free to play game makes a little more sense now. But I'm holding judgment until I see more.

Souls however, was still souls. After a quick invade and murder of a fellow journo, I sat down with one of the developers, and we talked about some of the changes to multiplayer they have made. Specifically, the death states. There is more encouragement to be human now and you can tell they're working hard to make being alive more appealing. In Demons souls and Dark Souls - gamers would often stay in a dead state because you couldn't get invaded. And with limited humanity to restore you to human, PLUS having to go back to a bonfire to do it - it was just the less stressful way to play. But now - invasions can happen in any state. You can also restore to human at any time if you have the inventory item to do so. And if you die when you're undead, you start to lose MORE health each time. Along with that - the longer you play as an undead, the more your appearance degenerates. Details were a little sketchy so some of this might be half accurate - but that's the gist of what I got from the chat, and it all sounds good to promote interesting gameplay and multiplayer interaction. All good, clever changes in my opinion.

But what a fascinating place! My highlights were learning more about Japanese gamers themselves, the internet speeds (highly recommend renting a 4G hotspot device if you ever visit - instead of SIM cards) and the cat cafe (where you are able to cuddle a variety of friendly cats and pay by the hour).

And the robot restaurant.

I have no words to describe the robot restaurant. I guess if you imagine you were IN an episode of power rangers fighting dancing funky robots and dinosaurs to a rocking soundtrack... that's half way there.
But most of all, I will miss the toilets.

Good Game's Japan Special airs tonight, with a follow up special on GGSP for younger gamers soon after.

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