Western or Eastern Games? Which Appeal MORE to You, and Why?

[Lord Azrael]

Can't believe how many people there are still trying to annoyingly argue against the premise of the thread. Enough with the copout answers.

Like, I definitely play more eastern games, but that doesn't mean I don't play any western games, or that I think all western games are the same.

As to why I play more eastern games, I would say it's because I often prefer the aesthetics and music (tends to be more melodic as opposed to atmospheric), and the types of gameplay I like are more common in eastern games.

 

[Aranjah]

It used to be Eastern but the more Eastern games go full waifu the more I've had to ignore them over the years.

 

[Deleted member 2620]

gun to my head I'd choose Japanese assuming we aren't limiting this to modern games or anything dumb like that

but it really is wild and good to see how the clear divisions have broken down over the years

 

[MrMephistoX]

I like both but Western would be over the top if BioWare we're still capable of making good games like ME1 and 2.

 

[DontHateTheBacon]

I like both because shit like this is fucking dumb.

Click to shrink...

What is dumb? This is a bad take.

If you look at all the games you own... do you own more eastern or western games...? It's not a contest, lol.

 

[Coinspinner]

Looking at my collection, I have more Japanese games than "western". Based on the numbers it appears that I prefer Japanese games. And upon further examination most of the "western" games I own are even indie games that imitate Japanese games of prior generations. Yep, seems fairly safe to conclude that I prefer Japanese games.

 

[Sotha_Sil]

About 90% Western.

Art direction is a big part of it. Anything resembling anime renders a game unplayable for me.

No surprise that the only Japanese games I like are Shadow of the Colossus, Evil Within 2, Ninja Gaiden, From Soft's catalog from last gen forward, and Metal Gear Solid Ground Zeroes. I will give Yakuza a try soon.

I also value things like branching dialog/quests and first person viewpoints. Those are not strong suits of Japanese games.

 

[Reven Wolf]

Gun to my head I'd have to pick western games.

CRPGs are my favourite genre, and what I love about that genre is not present in many japanese games.

I also feel that I've just enjoyed western games in a wider area of genres compared to eastern games. I've absolutely adored certain eastern games, but I feel like those are usually few or far between in comparison.

 

[PaulloDEC]

I'm much more a fan of Western games, especially these days with the incredibly diverse range of indies available. Additionally, a lot of Japan's strongest genres (JRPGs and fighters for example) aren't really my thing.

Finally, I grew up on PC games (the likes of Wolfenstein 3D, Duke Nukem, Commander Keen, Monkey Island, Zork, etc), so that probably coloured my tastes from an early age too.

 

[AudioEppa]

95% western, 5% Japanese.

Bottom line is this, I'll play more games from Japanese studios once they adopt the style of some American/European studios. In reality, a lot of their stuff is going to continue not appealing to me and that's fine because I got enough to play. But I will always support the 5% from developers who don't have their games displaying everything I can't stand about 95% of them.

 

[sora bora]

I like Southern games.

 

[banshee150]

Eastern games. I love the culture, language, etc. I am not a fan of western anything to be honest.

 

[Wracu]

Eastern. Gameplay and aesthetics.

 

[Deleted member 17388]

I tend to like more Japanese games on average for its aesthetics, melodic music, and strong emphasis on game mechanics.

But there are Western like that too, many indies, those from Devolver, Undertale, Cuphead, Fortnite, etc.
I think it skews hard Eastern for my liking to Nintendo games and their published ones, like Bayo 2 or MUA3.

 

[Gilver]

Japan just thinks swords are cooler than guns (which they are) and since the west cant make a really good melee combat system I have no choice.

 

[Mass Effect]

Thinking about, it has to be Eastern games simply because of Nintendo. I play a LOT of different games of all shapes, sizes and genres between western an eastern games, but Nintendo games are constantly some of my favorite games of all time. Take out Nintendo and it's probably about 50/50, but with them it's probably 60/40. Like I said though, I play all kinds of games. If it appeals to me, I play it; I don't really care where it comes from as long as it's good.

And yes, before anyone says it, I know not all Nintendo games come from Japan, but the ones that are my most favorites are pretty much all Japanese outside of a few.

 

[Vandaas]

I honestly don't care lol
I care about the quality of the game, not when the developers are from.

Click to shrink...

How is this not answering your question the main question of the thread title? A games' type or genre is not bound to the region it's from. For example FPS games can come from both regions. So they your question would be "which one would appeal more to you?". And like I said; it depends on the game itself. Some shooters are better than others. And once again, that is not bound to the region it's been developed.

Funny how you then do not quote the post that's literally the first one below your OP(unless you did between page 2 and 4, then yes, I missed that). I've taken the liberty to add that one here. Could've added a few posts down from the first page as well that says that 2 people with somewhat the same answer as mine are good answers according to him....

So I'm the one embarrassing myself? Okay then, rofl. Maybe the spelling error I noticed as soon as I saw the quoted message of myself. The only thing I can give you is that it might've been better for me to add I don't care where the GAMES are from, instead of only devs/studios.

 

[Schlep]

I'll side with Western, but I actively play and appreciate both. I feel like when Western games hit, they hit hard for me personally. Without going into a list-a-thon, I'll say that the biggest Western franchises are nearer and dearer to my heart than the biggest Eastern franchises. On top of that, indie development is almost entirely a Western phenomena currently and those games take up the bulk of my time.

It's not that I dislike Eastern games, as I play quite a few and like them quite a bit. Once you get past Nintendo, though, the quality becomes far less consistent than Western games.

 

[PlanetSmasher]

I generally prefer Japanese-made games, but there are plenty of examples of super-well-made Western games that I really enjoy.

 

[dunkzilla]

Both.

 

[crazillo]

Both but I will say western simply because more genres that I love for me are tied to being 'western' games. That being said, I'm not surprised by this poll, ERA is probably the world's biggest JRPG community. And I loved them, too.

 

[MysticGon]

I remember when making DmC the folks at Ninja Theory wanted there to be more fleshed out transition animations between actions but Capcom wanted things to be snappier. I think they met somewhere in the middle but at least with action games that kinda highlights a difference in philosophy.

 

[klee123]

I remember when making DmC the folks at Ninja Theory wanted there to be more fleshed out transition animations between actions but Capcom wanted things to be snappier. I think they met somewhere in the middle but at least with action games that kinda highlights a difference in philosophy.

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That there is one aspect of Western game design philosophy in the AAA space that I do not care about.

Playing RDR2 was absolute torture for me due to how sluggish the controls felt. All for the sake of realistic animation.

 

[SenseiX]

Imo Eastern games are more gamey so I prefer those.

 

[Magic Mushroom]

Eastern. My all-time top 10:
Bloodborne
Majora's Mask
Resident Evil 4
Ninja Gaiden Black
Super Metroid
Yoshi's Island
Super Mario Galaxy
Dead Space 2
Sekiro Shadows Die Twice
Super Mario World

It's hard to say why exactly. They seem more mechanics driven, less prone to taking control away from you and putting narrative first.

There are loads of western games I love this gen though, like Doom, Hitman, Cuphead, The Witness and Prey.

 

[Deleted member 135]

I'm not interested in Japanese games that aren't Godzilla, Dragon Ball, Ace Combat, or Nintendo.

 

[BadWeddingSpeech]

I honestly don't care lol
I care about the quality of the game, not when the developers are from.

Click to shrink...

This. I like both for what they have to offer.

 

[GamerDude]

How is this not answering your question the main question of the thread title? A games' type or genre is not bound to the region it's from. For example FPS games can come from both regions. So they your question would be "which one would appeal more to you?". And like I said; it depends on the game itself. Some shooters are better than others. And once again, that is not bound to the region it's been developed.

Funny how you then do not quote the post that's literally the first one below your OP(unless you did between page 2 and 4, then yes, I missed that). I've taken the liberty to add that one here. Could've added a few posts down from the first page as well that says that 2 people with somewhat the same answer as mine are good answers according to him....

So I'm the one embarrassing myself? Okay then, rofl. Maybe the spelling error I noticed as soon as I saw the quoted message of myself. The only thing I can give you is that it might've been better for me to add I don't care where the GAMES are from, instead of only devs/studios.

Click to shrink...

Your initial post was snarky and contributed nothing. And the premise of the thread is to simply comment on whether Eastern or Western games seem to appeal more to you based on your games library. A snarky response about how one doesn't choose games based on region is nonsense. No one ever suggested that you would only buy games from one region. It's just a question of which region has MORE games that have clicked MORE for you. If the answer is you truly don't have any kind of preference and have a totally even split, then politely say so and don't vote (even though I find it hard to believe).

Those other posts that you referenced are similarly bad takes. Several other posters in this thread have eloquently pointed out that posts like yours bizarrely miss the point of the entire thread.

 

[SweetBellic]

I tend to play more western games, but Hideo Kojima and Hideo Miyazaki are two of my favorite developers and have both contributed to my top 10 list. I would hate to have to live without one or the other as I love Japanese action games as much as I love Western open world/RPG style games.

 

[Eros]

Both. I'm 11/10 hype for both FF7R and Cyberpunk 2077

 

[Bigwombat]

When I was a kid definitely eastern games but as I got older I transitioned to western being by and large my favs.

Not surprising in the 80s and early 90s the east dominated: Konami, Capcom, square. I missed the ps2/game cube era but when ps3 came out I loved bioware,insomniac, naughty dog. Never got into the souls games. Kinda dropped ff. Besides Nintendo standards (Zelda, Mario, metroid) on the ps I have way more western games. I guess I like the more grounded experience and story telling but Re2 is one of my top games of this year.

 

[GlitchyDegree]

Eastern. I just prefer the gameplay, aesthetics & character designs from places like japan more.

 

[tiesto]

It is probably more of a question about what genres you prefer.

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It's this way for me, the genres I grew up with were 2D platforming, fighting, shmups. My first RPG was Dragon Quest, and the game that got me into RPGs was Phantasy Star. I got my first PC in '95 and by then my tastes were already defined thanks to the consoles and arcades. So of course it would be Japanese games and the western indies inspired by them. Even more so considering the direction of western AAA games over the last 2 generations. I'm not into strictly-multiplayer games, or GAAS, or lootbox mechanics, or open world checklist gaming, and honestly the last western AAA I bothered with that I can say I enjoyed was DOOM 2016.

That said, music is pretty important to me and I feel Japanese games (and western indies) nowadays have much more memorable soundtracks on the whole. Like after the C64 and Amiga eras, western music just went the generic hollywood route.

And as of years this gen, both 2017 and 2018 were my favorites - 2017 gave me Nier Automata, Breath of the Wild, Persona 5... while 2018 gave me DQ11 and Octopath Traveler.

 

[Syril]

I prefer Choice C, western games that are love letters to eastern games.

 

[Phellps]

Historically, it's been mostly Western games. It's not a conscious decision, mind you, but it is what it is. Although quite a few of my most played games are made by Japanese devs, like the entire Pokemon franchise or Breath of the Wild.

 

[Zacmortar]

In terms of horror? Definitely Eastern, with extra regards to Indonesian and Japanese horror

For RPGs, generally Western as those have a much higher chance of gay, though my favorite RPG is still Bloodborne, so

 

[cardboardboxer]

Eastern and it isn't close.

For me it's Nintendo > the rest of the industry. But even besides that my list of top five developers would include also Capcom, Konami and SquareEnix.

I would miss Valve, VR, Doom, and a pile of indies but honestly I could 100% get by on eastern games alone. Especially if you can call Tetris eastern.

 

[Digital Savior]

I like good video games. I don't care where they're from. My favorite type of games are shooters and I don't see too many of those coming from Japan, so I voted western.

 

[hikarutilmitt]

I can and do enjoy both, but I've always leaned more towards Japanese developed games because they always seems to value the gameplay over the atmosphere. When they don't, they still have more engaging gameplay, most of the time.

I barely play any western games other than Destiny or the occasional Sony 1st party title. They usually don't appeal to me.

 

[Samanosuke Akechi]

I've always been more into Japanese games. It's where the majority of games came fro, when I was growing up. Western games back then were usually just sports or wrestling games.

Only in recent years have western games came on in bounds. However I personally feel Japanese games feel more like game, if that's makes sense. Like western games tend to be more grounded and realistic, which is cool but I prefer games With cool stories and characters like mgs, resident evil devil May cry, and others.

Plus they usually make the most memorable boss battles in gaming. Imo.

 

[regenhuber]

I honestly don't care lol
I care about the quality of the game, not when the developers are from.

Click to shrink...

First post nails it.

 

[GamerDude]

First post nails it.

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It really doesn't. At all. Never did anyone say to not play games from one region or to discriminate based on where the game is from. It's just a simple question of where more of your games are from.

 

[DL Clyde]

I think mostly western for me. I did become a Final Fantasy fan when I was younger and I'm still am to an extent. Because of that I thought I preferred Eastern games more, and tried more JRPGs as a result but it turns out that Final Fantasy became the exception. I don't like Anime much so anything that has Anime aesthetics I usually don't bother unless I get some good recommendations (Ni no Kuni, Gravity Rush.) Other Eastern games I would play are the likes of Pokemon, Metal Gear Solid, The Legend of Zelda.

 

[Harlequin]

Western, for sure. There are very few Eastern games that appeal to me. Ueda's output, some of Nintendo's stuff (not a Nintendo fan by a long shot but they make some games I can enjoy), maybe Resident Evil (though I've only ever watched Let's Plays as I generally find horror games to creepy to play by myself),... I think that's it.

 

[Finale Fireworker]

I generally do not think of games this way and often struggle wrap my head around this dichotomy. But I can agree that Western and Eastern games have certain hallmarks and tropes that make them stand out as "very Western" or "very Japanese".

So, acknowledging this, I would say that I enjoy games from each hemisphere equally, but might have an easier time being sold on a Western concept than a Japanese one. For example, games like Monster Hunter do not interest me conceptually and are harder for me to get in to without playing them. But I have an easy time getting in to something like DOOM where the concept feels more familiar. I haven't played either of these games, but if you asked me to choose one right now, I would pick DOOM.

But I love Sekiro just as much as God of War and I love Breath of the Wild just as much as Red Dead Redemption. I don't pick and choose the games I want to play relative to their country of origin. I don't really think of Western or Eastern games as "types" of games the way some others do. I definitely understand that the DNA of something like Mass Effect evolved from Western design philosophies and ideas and this is distinctly different from Final Fantasy, which has its own separate DNA and evolution path. I get how, in this sense, there are differences between Western and Eastern games. But I dunno. It's just not something I think about and I don't think I have a meaningful preference over either. It's hard for me to imagine only playing Japanese games or only playing American games.

But as long as you love what you're playing I guess it doesn't matter.

 

[bytesized]

I'd say eastern games because Nintendo's are my favourite at the moment but if I vote that people would interpret jrpg and anime shit which I hate, I'd much rather play a Skyrim or a Fallout game when it comes to RPGs. So I guess both.

 

[Kyrios]

My most favorite games mostly tend to be Japanese but I play both.

 

[Torpedo Vegas]

I have never once thought about it. I don't care where a game comes from.

 

[Horns]

I am an equal opportunity player so open to either. Have some weird gaming dislikes like anime art style or random battle encounters which many JRPGs used to use. So I went with Western.

 

[Loadout]

Western easily. Not that I don't like Eastern games, some of my all time favorite games are Japanese, but I find it much easier to enjoy Western games. I just love the style of writing and I tend to prefer shooters over any other type of gameplay.