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PlayStation (Games) Portables (Games) Entertainment Games

Strangest Japanese Videogame Genres Discussed 82

Posted by simoniker from the rhinoceros-beetle-raising-looks-cool dept.
Thanks to GameSpy for their column discussing a number of videogame genres that are popular in Japan, but not in the West. Picks include the more obvious such as dating sims ("Players look through the eyes of a young man and try to woo a variety of girls by making the proper dialogue choices"), pet raising sims ("where you raise and, uh, feed an everyday hamster... or a rhinoceros beetle"), and even voyeurism-based titles such as Primal Image, where "...poorly constructed 3D women with frightening facial features played brief animated sequences while you took pictures before the time limit ran out." Have Japanese-only genres such as dating got the capacity to take off in the States?
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Strangest Japanese Videogame Genres Discussed More

Strangest Japanese Videogame Genres Discussed

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  • I'm almost surprised that dating sims haven't caught on yet... perhaps all they need is better Americanization before they become appealing (ie, make it so the girls don't get insanely embarrassed every 2 seconds by your social faux pas). But then again, perhaps North American children don't have the attention span for something like this...

    • Re: GameSpy sucks. *sigh* (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Draigon ( 172034 ) on Sunday November 16, 2003 @12:15PM (#7487784) Homepage
      I'm willing to bet dating sims will take off in America sooner than later. Despite what GameSpy authors would have you believe, they aren't all lame games.

      On a somewhat unrelated note, can someone who knows how to write good articles go work for GameSpy for us? Quote from article: "I didn't like this game, and you won't either. So, there, I'm done." Wow, thanks chief. Honestly between crap like that and their previous 3 or 4 "Top 25 ..." articles linked here on Slashdot, I'm tempted to never click a GameSpy link again. Am I the only one?

      • Re: GameSpy sucks. *sigh* (Score:5, Insightful)

        by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 16, 2003 @12:28PM (#7487858)
        I'm willing to bet dating sims will take off in America sooner than later.

        Perhaps - but, as your parent suggests, they'll need to be Americanised first.

        The problem is that these games are written by Japanese, in Japanese, for Japanese. Let's be frank - most Americans would be hard pressed to point to Tokyo on a map of Japan. How are they going to react to a game which relies on them knowing about, oh, Japanese Valentine conventions, to pick an example which crops up in a lot of dating sims? You can get some way by providing notes - explain what all the foods are, what the national holidays are, and so on. But that will only help for those Americans who want to learn about Japan.

        So you Americanise your games. You set them in small-town America; you replace the clothes with American school uniforms, the chopsticks with knives and forks, the shrines with churches or whatever. You don't even bother to translate the tens of thousands of words of text, because it's easier and cheaper to write your own script from scratch. And you end up with a game that fans of the genre will hate, because it isn't Japanese, but American gamers will also hate, because it doesn't have guns and state-of-the-art 3D.
        • How are they going to react to a game which relies on them knowing about, oh, Japanese Valentine conventions, to pick an example which crops up in a lot of dating sims?
          How are you going to write a dating sim for Americans as such conventions don't exist? Seriously, such sims serve mostly as edutainment.
        • By parents.

          After seeing one too many episodes of girls getting stalked by "creepy" guys on Dateline, CSI, Law and Order, etc... a dating sim, which teaches kids how to virtually bag girls would go over as well as Doom ]|[ will be to a resident of Columbine.
    • It would be hard to predict wether something like dating sims would ever catch on in the U.S.

      So many things that a few years ago seemed like something only those wacky Japanese would be into (Tamagotchi, Kareoke, Shonen Jump, 60 hour work weeks) quickly have become part of American culture. I was surprised when the concept of "Idol Stars" and game shows revolving around torturing people quickly became part of American television.

    • DOAX is a dating sim. Granted, you never get any play but you do get see women frolic in the sand.

      I mean, come on, you have to find out what the characters likes and dislikes are to keep them as a teammate. Then you have to go out with them to keep them happy, or try impress them with your vball skills. Then other characters come along and try to woo you away. That's not volleyball, that's dating. My friend's wife is addicted to the game.

  • Some... (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    ...titles will find their niche market in the US. Two titles that Fresh Games released on the PS2 in the US (Mister Mosquito and Mad Maestro) are VERY Japanese, but can also find appeal in the US. The same could be said of a PSX game like Incredible Crisis.

    However, I don't think too many people would be interested in the typical Japanese dating game (hentai or otherwise) in this country (remember, a nice majority of the casual gamers in the US prefer stuff like Madden or Super Trucks Racing over your ave

  • I've played my fair share of dating sims (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Hackie_Chan ( 678203 ) on Sunday November 16, 2003 @11:49AM (#7487627)
    When I was in Asia over a year ago I bought a couple of them... Guess what? Turned out that more than one of them had very adult material in them. However, it was interesting nevertheless to see how they differ from us when it comes to taste in gaming. The biggest hits in '99 such as Unreal Tournament or Quake 3 might just've been as popular as a certain tentacle rape games in Japan (sorry, I just had to cram in "tentacle rape" somewhere in this post...)

    I've only played a couple of English translated dating games, and they were also adult oriented. Kind of sad since I'd like to see these type of weird genres become more popular here for the sake of stirring things up in the market. We're too stuck in the moment where everybody wants bullet time, realistic physics and graphics with heavy guns and big, powerful explotions.

    The Sims is a fresh breath of air, very revolutionary too. But... There's just too little experimentation these days in the market. Which is really sad. Oh well.... Maybe some day we'll see a company spawn a growing market of translated japanese dating sims. For once I'd like to play one without it ending up having sex with the girl in the end (and no tentacles!).
    • If you think they are all about sex, then you've missed some of them. For instance, Love Hina Advance for the Gameboy Advance has a few perverted jokes here and there, but they are mostly light-hearted and you never see a sex scene, let alone between you and the girls. Whether you find one that is perverse or not all depends on how well you shop around.

    • Comment removed (Score:4, Informative)

      by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Sunday November 16, 2003 @12:29PM (#7487861)
      Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • Talking about tentacle games, I thought it was kind of interesting that some of these games actually let you "play" the monster! Take a look at this page [galaxy-of-terror.com] about 3/4 down the page where it talks about the Eden game. Most hentai games feature you trying to save women from monsters or at least being an innocent bystander. But in the Eden game you are playing "the bad guy" and are really required to perform the act. I don't know exactly how much control over what the monster does (e.g., where you put your te

    • Just some info for everyone. ALL Japanese dating sims are porn. Except for 2.

      Tokimeki Memorial and Sentimental Grafitt.

      Tokimeki is actually the most popular one because it is more of a sim high school than a sim dating. Sentimental Grafitti is more like a choose your own adventure, but it is porn free.

      ALL of the other ones are porn. If you know of one that isn't porn that isn't one of the two I named, tell me.
      • Just some info for everyone. ALL Japanese dating sims are porn. Except for 2.

        Somebody's forgetting Sakura Taisen, the hybrid strategy game / datesim wherein your relationship with your teammates helps determine your outcome in battle.

        Sega's looking to bring these over, but not starting from #1, which is aging fast -- part #5 takes place IN America, and is the most likely starting point.

        And let's not forget the combo Datesim / Restaurant Management RPG for the X-Box, the non-adult spinoffs from datesims

  • Daughter Raising Sim ! (Score:3, Funny)

    by DrSkwid ( 118965 ) on Sunday November 16, 2003 @11:54AM (#7487652) Journal
    You may have missed the daughter raising sim Princess Maker 2 [somethingawful.com]

    other disgusting hentai games also reviewed :

    http://www.somethingawful.com/hentai/ [somethingawful.com]

    • I just want to say thank you. Reading through some of the reviews found at that second link I damn near pissed my pants laughing. That is some good stuff ...
    • I do hope that the entire review was done tongue in cheek... cause there's absolutely nothing in the Princess Maker series that should categorize it as a hentai game. There are no porn images, no sex, nothing that would indicate you can screw your daughter. Granted in the end you could get a result in which she marries you, but that would only show that you as a father was a bit possessive. There's also the matter of you being her ward, she being a daughter given to you from heaven... but that's another
    • There's actually quite a story behind Princess Maker 2. You can read all about it here [softegg.com], but here it is in a nutshell: an English translation of the game was being created, but after a series of problems (companies going bankrupt, etc.), the (DOS based) game became too dated to do well commercially, and development of it was stopped.

      The partially translated version (lacking only some of the endings) was being distributed on abandonware sites (such as here [the-underdogs.org]), but has since been pulled at the request of the U

  • Grief... talk about missing the point. (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Haeleth ( 414428 ) on Sunday November 16, 2003 @12:09PM (#7487746) Journal
    Pity Gamespy chose to take cheap shots at "those wacky Japanese" instead of actually taking an in-depth look at an interesting genre.

    I quote: let there be no mistake that Japanese gamers are a sad, lonesome bunch. Taking advantage of their sheer desperation, the Japanese game market is full of dating simulations.

    You might as well say, "let there be no mistake that American moviegoers are a sad, lonesome bunch. Taking full advantage of their sheer desperation, Hollywood regularly releases romantic comedies, and some adult movies even contain pornography!"

    Or maybe we should try assuming that American gamers are sad and pathetic because they feel a need to play games involving guns and, in some cases (Postal anyone?) mindless killing sprees? I reckon they're compensating, if you know what I mean?

    Well, actually no I don't reckon that. I reckon that people playing violent games can be directly compared with people watching violent movies, and likewise that people playing romantic games can be directly compared with people watching romantic movies.
    • Also, Japanese have a completely different sensibility about what is macho or effiminate. You'll see yakuza wearing pink socks or carrying Hello Kitty bags. Japanese girls and young women are more tech oriented than their American and European counterparts and teenage boys and young men will play games that an American 16 year old boy wouldn't touch.

  • Karma whore? Me? (Score:5, Informative)

    by Haeleth ( 414428 ) on Sunday November 16, 2003 @12:16PM (#7487785) Journal
    My other post here says why I think Gamespy's assessment of dating sims is [censored], so here are some links for anyone who wants to find out about them from people who don't think they're only for the terminally weird:

    The ren'ai games [yahoo.com] mailing list.

    You already read Megatokyo [megatokyo.com], right? Check the forums: the "dating sims" forum [megatokyo.com] there includes plenty of information, as well as a FAQ [linuxpowered.com] which covers the subject in some depth.

  • Hey, it looks like the hamster on that hamster sim is actually Hamtaro [hamtaro.com], the little cartoon rodent that annoys adults everywhere. Feh, why do I recognize such stuff? -jh

  • Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Sunday November 16, 2003 @12:23PM (#7487824)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • Dating Sims (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Thedalek ( 473015 ) on Sunday November 16, 2003 @12:44PM (#7487955)
    Hang about: How are dating sims any different from sims who date, like in The Sims: Hot Date?

    And besides, many Japanese games which made it in the States contained dating sim elements, such as in Thousand Arms, Final Fantasy VII & VIII, and even the always successful Harvest Moon series.

    Why don't they focus on the truly unusual games, like Boon-Ga Boon-Ga! (violate the buttocks of your least favorite people, like politicians), or the Densha de Go series (you can drive a train. You know, trains? The only vehicle with no steering?). They should at least have given a nod to the truly Japanese and truly odd games which did make it over here, like Stretch Panic.

    "Shoddy Journalism" barely scratches the surface on this article.
    • Microsoft released "Train Simulator" a year or two ago. It's detailed enough, I heard, that Union Pacific thought it could lead to people stealing or hijacking trains.
      • Remember who you're talking about. The firm that wants licence fees for all the logos of the companies they've absorbed... over the past 100 years (why is there no YRO story?). The firm that decided 'Hurl' was a good colour for locomotives in 1939 and apparently bought enough paint to keep it to the present day.

        (Can you tell I'm a bitter SP fan?)
    • ** Hang about: How are dating sims any different from sims who date, like in The Sims: Hot Date?**

      play one of them and you'll know. mainly the gameplay is different(you usually have few choices at every screen) and you'll get a reward of seeing the girls naked. another thing is that they usually have a pre-written plots as opposed to sims style of game of pop-life barbies. also they need more concentrating as it sometimes can be quite difficult to find all the possible paths and follow the plot and relati
    • That train sim game sounds messed up. Anyone remember a pc game where you drove a bus across Arizona or something? Straight highway, but you couldn't just tape down a key on the keyboard because the steering was a little off and you had to compensate eventually. I think it was part of a larger collection of stupid games...
      • Penn and Teller's Smoke and Mirrors (which AFAIK was only released for the Genesis, but maybe there's a PC version out there somewhere). Which, as you pointed out, was just a collection of mini-games, although most of them weren't really "games" in any traditional sense of the word (my favorite was the one that made your TV screen hot to the touch; they claimed it didn't damage your TV in any way and I guess they were telling the truth because otherwise Sega probably wouldn't have allowed them to release it
  • I remember years ago (c. 15) playing a game called 'Pick Up Artist' on the C64 or Amiga. Fairly primitive, but fun for about 4 seconds, or slightly longer if you were playing it with some mates. Might have been this one [demon.co.uk]. Was released in the UK at least.

    I can't imagine a game like that becoming really popular, though it might attract some interest as a coin-op or a web based game.

  • Americanized dating sims? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Lord_Dweomer ( 648696 ) on Sunday November 16, 2003 @01:19PM (#7488143) Homepage
    I don't know how good of an idea it would be to have Americanized dating sims....I mean...don't get me wrong, I've played a couple translated Japanese ones and enjoyed them, but I don't think our society is quite yet ready to handle them.

    Also, I'd be interested in a REAL perspective on who actually plays dating sims in Japan, as opposed to some blatantly offensive GameSpy article. Is it a publicly accepted genre? Or do people get mocked for playing them over there as they would inevitably be if they played them over here?

    The last reason I don't think we should Americanize dating sims just yet is that the people who create mainstream entertainment in our culture still have yet to learn how to tell a good story. I mean, take a look at Hollywood for example, every now and then they turn out something decent, but for the most part its crap. Same with video games. And of all the types of games out there, dating sims require some of the BEST storytelling. You simply can't compensate in a dating sim with better graphics.

    • Well, there are a number of different type of dating games. From real datingsims/rpgs to powerpoint slides. The first you typically are a boy who comes in a situation where several girls are not running away anymore. True Love gives you a number of days to find your true love. Each day is divided in three wich you can spend earning money, improving youreselve or dating. ID or Bioware need not worry but it certainly is a fun puzzle game. (Then again, didn't a lot of people complain about Nevewinter Nights be

    • IANJ (I am not Japanese), but what I've learned, consoles are the mainstay of gaming in Japan. If you say you play computer games, people will, variably of course, think that you play hentai games or dating sims, which are for the true _Japanese_ otaku, a really sorry bunch even compared to a standard nolifer in the west.

      PC games we all know and love aren't that popular, that's why the XBox never caught on there, because people associated it with PC gaming thanks to Microsoft being the manufacturer.

      So, a

      • I'd mod you up if I could. IANJ as well, but I live in Japan, and have for the last 8 years. I also work at a tech company and am fluent in Japanese (part-time translator as well). My friends tend to be non-techy guys. As such, I have a pretty good view of "normal" and "otaku" as it relates to Japan (probably different from America). Most of my normal friends own a console and a computer. None of them play games on the computer (that's what the console's for). When it comes to work, most guys that pl
    • Come on, in a discussion of dating sims, why has noone mentioned Leisuresuit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards? Best Dating Game Ever.

  • Gamespy are up themselves (Score:3, Informative)

    by chendo ( 678767 ) on Sunday November 16, 2003 @03:33PM (#7488913)
    Our final genre is the music genre. While you may be thinking "Hey, we get some music games!" you'd be surprised (or not) by how much further is taken in Japan.


    What the hell are saying? Karaoke Revolution was the FIRST game on TIME's game list thingy...

    America is nowhere near ready for most of these games yet, mostly because they just aren't used to anime, which contains lots of whacky things (to the americans, of course).

    I've played my fair share of hgames (hentai games), and I've found some of them to actually contain a decent storyline, even without the H, (Dividead) and some of them have been ported to console without the H (Private Nurse).

    Sometimes the translations are just absolutely hillarious. There's a choice in X-Change 2 that goes something like: You're having sex with your girlfriend in the morning. You have two choices. You either continue having sex, or go to school.

    Seriously, what kind of stupid question is that? I chose go to school, of course. But those decsions are part of getting all of the girls... as most games have multiple girls and you have to try to score with them all. Like, there's a graphic completition percentage, you have to try to get all of the pictures that are in the game, H, or not. Of course, some of the l33ter people can just hex the savegame, but what's the fun in that?

    • What the hell are saying? Karaoke Revolution was the FIRST game on TIME's game list thingy...

      Thank you for proving Gamespy's point- you have no clue how much further the music game genre is taken in Japan.

      You're using Karaoke Revolution's placement on one list as your counterpoint? Time magazine, for that matter. Not exactly what I would call a trusted source for video game reviews, or a good indicator of what's hot in the U.S.
      Keeping with the Karaoke Revolution example, I bet you didn't know that t

      • Maybe it's just me, but I really think that if Konami would actually release a few of those "obscure" Bemani games over here, like Pop'n Music, they'd be pleasantly surprised. Then again, they're content with cramming Castlevania after Castlevania down our collective throat, so...

        • Maybe it's just me, but I really think that if Konami would actually release a few of those "obscure" Bemani games over here, like Pop'n Music, they'd be pleasantly surprised. Then again, they're content with cramming Castlevania after Castlevania down our collective throat, so...

          I've imported a lot of those games, and I really don't think they'd do well here.
          The learning curve on these games is insane- it's even harder than DDR. Because of the learning curve, these games would get shitty reviews. It

          • You won't find more than 10 of each machine I've mentioned above in the entire U.S., while there are easily thousands of DDR machines.

            In Illinois:

            Mitsuwa Marketplace (J-Toys)
            Para Para Paradise 2nd Mix, beatmania CM

            Duckets GameStation
            Para Para Paradise

            Diversions
            Guitar Freaks US, HipHopMania CM2

            Ford City Mall: Tilt
            Pump It Up, drummania

            Aladdin's Castle - Chicago Ridge Mall
            Guitar Freaks, Keyboard mania, drummania 3th Mix

            Gateway Fun Park
            Pump It Up, beatmania CM

            Nickel City
            Dance Maniax 2nd Mix, beatman

      • I bet you didn't know that there are TWELVE versions of Karaoke Revolution scheduled in Japan, with (I'm sure) many more coming?

        Wrong. I assumed that there will be many versions coming, as there are many different DDR mixes containing different songs. What gave you the idea that I wasn't informed about Japanese games? And, yes, TIME would not be a very good place for what's hot in the US, but, hey, at least it's got a list.

        As for GameSpy, I wouldn't really call them a trusted source either. I've see

        • Wrong. I assumed that there will be many versions coming, as there are many different DDR mixes containing different songs. What gave you the idea that I wasn't informed about Japanese games?

          So why did you disagree with the statement you quoted?

          Our final genre is the music genre. While you may be thinking "Hey, we get some music games!" you'd be surprised (or not) by how much further is taken in Japan.
          • *shrug*, was rather early in the morning. Probably quoted the wrong thing. Sorry if I made you write up a long comment in reply to mine.

            The article seemed to be dissing Japanese games in general anyway.
  • Dating Sims? You have GOT to be kidding me.

    If you're that compelled to interact with females in a digital enviroment, play an MMORPG where at least they can communicate back.
    • "If you're that compelled to interact with females in a digital enviroment, play an MMORPG where at least they can communicate back."

      And have the same likelihood of being a real female as in a sim.
  • I believe games like this have the potential of taking off in North America. Just look at the closest thing we have to it... the sims. The sims involves aspects of dating and romance and it has become an extremely popular title.

    The real market for these games, I believe, is women. Games such as the sims were you design a house and decorate it while having your characters involed in romance seems to appeal to girls, who are social creatures. Men seem to prefer more action-oriented games such 3d shooters or
    • I don't think The Sims, is much of a dating sim. Sure, there are some aspects; but, heck, the Final Fantasy series has plenty of dating sim aspects in it, and I wouldn't call those dating sims.
      If anything, The Sims is virtual barbie dolls. You get to decorate their house, dress them up, and have them do all the things a "normal" person does. I tend to think that this is one of the reasons it does so well with female gamers. Its a better version of barbie.
      Along similar lines, this is why FPS games do

  • Different personalities... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by MMaestro ( 585010 ) on Sunday November 16, 2003 @11:32PM (#7491180)
    Simply put, Americans don't like [too] much sex/wimp talk in their action games/movies. Examples being :

    Saving Private Ryan : When people talked about that movie, they talked about the Omaha Beach scene. No, they didn't talk about how they went through the dog tags or how the sniping scene ended with the German sniper getting shot through his scope.
    Titanic : What guy went to see the love story? Guys went to see the boat sink. Girls went to see Leonardo DiCaprio.
    The Two/Twin Towers : The huge battle for Helm's Deep. Nuff said.

    That said, how many Japanese games do you see trying to replicate a Doom/Serious Sam-style of gameplay? We get slow action paced/FMV action scenes in the Final Fantasy series, we get small simple battles in Zelda which end up being a bore, and hack-and-slash FPS/3rd-person shooters like Kingdom Hearts.

  • I had submitted a story some time ago (mirrored in my journal) [slashdot.org] about a rather strange stand-up game in Japan called "BOONG-GA BOONG-GA". The idea is to "spank" an animated character on-screen. This "spanking" is done with controller shaped like a hand with the index finger outstreched.
  • Sorry to burst anyone's bubble, but there is not an anal poking game in Japan called "Boonga Boonga". A Korean company developed it, and apparently showed it at the Tokyo Game Show in April, but I have yet to see it in a single arcade (including the ones in Akihabara), nor have my coworkers (who, believe me, are quite the gamer types). My guess is that the Korean company pitched it at the game show but couldn't find any buyers.

    Speaking of odd games, however, is the stand-up-comic-duo game Nice Tsukkomi [metro-japan.com].
  • Besides which, as incredibly stupid as "Inu no Sampo" looks (most Japanese are embarrassed to even try it), it's actually a somewhat fun, somewhat difficult, and somewhat tiring game.

    Speaking of Japanese games, does America have the surfing or skateboarding games where you stand on a surf/skateboard shaped controller and kick/slide/balance to do tricks? (Been over here too long to know what's gotten back home)
    • Can't say about surf/skateboards, but I know I've seen at least one snowboard one that's like that.
    • Speaking of Japanese games, does America have the surfing or skateboarding games where you stand on a surf/skateboard shaped controller and kick/slide/balance to do tricks? (Been over here too long to know what's gotten back home)

      Yup, seen them in just about every arcade I've been in, in the past few years. Along with skiing, even saw a fighting game where you had to punch and kick to get the character to do so; it sucked horribly, didn't register a good straight jab, and certainly not as fast as I thre

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