#japanese video games

[girlmadegrave]

Silent Hill 2 (2001)

[53v3nfrn5]

Fatal Frame III: The Tormented Japanese Promo ‘致命的なフレームIII:苦しめられた’

[imperfect-com]

[nowimnothing-inc]

LSD: Dream Emulator (1998): The Dream Journal (Also known by its actual name; Lovely Sweet Dream)

Vivid written and drawn representations of various nightmares and dreams were used to partially inspire producer Osamu Sato to create LSD: Dream Emulator. These dreams and nightmares were encountered throughout the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s by a Japanese writer named Hiroko Nishikawa and became the material written into the journal.

Creator: Osamu Sato

Developer: Asmik Ace

Console: Playstation One (PS1)

[uwudonoodle]

I learned that Patricia Summersett (English voice actor for Princess Zelda) is a singer. Her real voice is a bit lower and more mature than Zelda's, so it doesn't necessarily sound like the character singing, but she's a beautiful alto.

Her music is often relaxed and minimalistic (sometimes just piano and voice), but I really dig the melody and lyrics. You could choose to read this particular song as a subtle reference to Zelda, and/or her experience voicing her?

You'll remind me it's for playing

Not rushing to the end

You are coming for me courage

I've been waiting for a hundred years

Falling into symphony

Dreamt about a man

Something that he told me

Is coming for us boldly

In this video game symphony

Roustabout Japan

Spinning in a vision

We are somehow in control of it

A video game symphony

Roustabout Japan

Oh, I'm falling

I'm falling and it feels like...

[journeytothewestresearch]

Yuebei Xing Video Game Character

I was looking for something regarding Yuebei xing (月孛星, “Moon Comet Star”), daughter of the Monkey King from Chinese vernacular fiction, when I came upon a video game character based on her.

“Sun Yuebei” (孫月孛) appears in the Japanese video game Touhou Monjusen ~ Bubbling Imaginary Treasures (東方門殊銭 ～ Bubbling Imaginary Treasures, 2021). She looks like a young, pink-haired human girl wearing red, femine clothing with a bright green bow and light, red armor. And like her old man, she wears the golden headband and tiger skin and wields the iron staff, along with her trademark magic skull.

Here is an example of the game play. Sun Yuebei appears around min. 3:34 as an opponent of the player character.

FLASHING LIGHT WARNING!!! (I'm 100% positive that the developers hate people with epilepsy...)

[minimalist-language-learning]

Visual Novels

When it comes to visual novels in Japanese, years ago I played ダンガンロンパ 1 + 2 and I'm currently playing 逆転裁判. I also tried Steins;Gate, although I didn't come very far because of the level of difficulty. I'll try it again with a bigger vocabulary.

I would like to try more VNs but I'm overwhelmed by the great amount. Plus, by scrolling through the Steam shop many VNs seem to be NSFW or Boys Love and stuff like that (I'm absolutely not the target audience, to be honest XD).

This makes it hard for me to find something that could be interesting to me. I usually like detective or mystery stories but slice of life is ok, too. Interesting characters and a good story are very important to me.

If you can recommend some japanese visual novels please let me know!

[redsamuraiii]

Japanese Toys that Changed the Game | Nintendo, Godzilla, Transformers, ...

Did you know that Transformers is based on the Japanese toy line, Micro Change and Diaclone? Hasbro bought the Micro Change and Diaclone toys, and partnered with the toy company, Takara. Marvel Comics was later then hired by Hasbro to come out with a story.

So characters like Megatron initially had a different name. And the toys were already sold long before Transformers animated series played on TV in the 80s. 

It’s similar to Saban’s Power Rangers that is based on Tokusatsu Super Sentai. And Nintendo used to be a toy company before it changed to a game company. 

It’s an interesting video about the history of toys and games in Japan. How it began in post-war Japan where vehicle toys were made of tin in the 50s, then figurines made of vinyl in the 60s, die cast metal robots in the 70s, plastic mecha in the 80s like Gundam and Transformers, then silicon for games in the 90s.

Cool huh?

[dropintomanga]

Thinking About the “Othering” of Japanese Media

For those who keep up with Japanese video games, you may have heard comments from a prominent Japanese video game producer about how a certain term labeling a video game genre felt discriminatory in his own eyes. A recent Polygon article about that term made me think about how the Western media has “othered” Japanese pop culture media for as long as I remembered.

The producer I’m talking about is Final Fantasy XIV and XVI producer, Naoki Yoshida (known as Yoshi-P to his fans). Back in February 2023 in an interview, Yoshi-P said that the term “JRPG” (short for “Japanese RPG”) was considered discriminatory to him and his peers in the Japanese video game industry. Polygon took a look at how Japanese RPGs and JRPGs became a thing in the late ‘90s (starting with Final Fantasy VII’s North American release in 1997) and how media outlets in the West never seemed to take them too seriously. Even worse, the outlets shoved Japanese developers into a sub-category they never asked to be a part of once Japanese RPG popularity started to wane in the mid-2000s’.

After reading the article, I actually thought about manga and its perception when I first started reading comics. When I first discovered what manga was back in 1995, I learned about Ghost in the Shell from an issue of Wizard Magazine (a North American-based magazine highly dedicated to Western comics). The first thing that came to mind when I read what Wizard wrote was that it had a cybersex scene and very adult in nature. My mind was somewhat blown since I was in 7th grade at the time. Now that I think about it, almost 30 years later, I wonder if Wizard was trying to say that Japanese creators were super-perverted compared to Western creators. I still remember a non-fan a friend of mine met at Otakon one year who asked “Isn’t anime sexual?” when inquiring bout anime.

With regards to manga, for most of its history in the overall comics world, it has been othered in the U.S. due to how successful it’s been in reaching out to “non-traditional” comics-reading audiences. Statements like “Oh, it’s just a fad!” and “Manga doesn’t have dedicated buyers (i.e. adults with disposable income) like Western comics does!” were thrown to discredit manga’s popularity. Christopher Butcher (of Mangasplaining/TCAF fame) talked about this in a 2015 article on his website, which still holds some truth today. Even though manga sales have peaked around the pre-vaccine COVID time period, they are steady today. New York Comic-Con in 2022 had a substantial anime/manga presence compared to years past. Anime and manga can’t be ignored any longer.

Yet I know that some things haven’t changed in industry recognition. I will use the Eisner Awards as an example. For those who don’t know, it’s a prestigious awards ceremony that happens around San Diego Comic-Con every year and honors the best in comics. However, their recognition of manga is spotty. There has been recent criticism towards the Eisner committee for recognizing only the “hot” manga creators (i.e. the ones with best-selling manga titles on book charts). The best example I can give is Junji Ito. A lot of his works are nominated despite there being better works worthy of recognition out there. There has been some criticism in the manga circle I’m in about how Eisner judges/representatives don’t seem to take the time to explore the greater breadth of what manga has to offer in its new golden age.

Of course, when awards ceremonies like the Academy Awards don’t really seem to care much about praising Japanese pop culture media, what hope is there, right?

Which brings me to a point that the Polygon article elaborates on the West’s insistence on particular views of Japan.

“It’s clear that the mainstream only courts a specific idea of Japan as being acceptable — often reinterpretations of feudal Japan, largely spanning from the 1500s to late 1800s, when the samurai were still part of Japanese society.“  

I do notice that Japan is supposed to be this “quirky” and “weird” place with wild imagination. If somehow a Japanese title has themes common in Western media/culture, but lacks the exotic style Westerners prefer, it’s sometimes heavily ignored in the mainstream eye. I don’t know. What do you guys think?

Polygon does mention that we’re living in some really good times with regards to Japanese video games being popular again. Many fans, including myself, know that too well. I enjoyed gaming again due to the variety of Japanese-developed titles that came out since 2016 (the start of the Japanese video game industry revival). I see parallels in manga and anime reception too. All of Japanese pop culture media is celebrated overseas. Fans that consume all things Japanese are living through amazing times.

That doesn’t mean that it’s going to last forever. I do know at some point, Western media will find new ways to scrutinize Japanese media and our time in the spotlight will fade again. Some degree of othering will always happen due to human nature and I know that we can use that term for positive purposes. Manga is about how “others” that are different from the norm can become celebrated by the world. Reading this post about manga reminds me that comics of any kind can cover any topic imaginable and definitely be made for “other” people to read. 

[rose-and-thorn-fanfics]

Just found the a computer emulator for playing my fav childhood video game (Wizard of Oz Beyond The Yellow Brick Road)! I lost the actual DSI cartridge, but this emulator is so fun and it’s extremely easy to download! I loved this game growing up because it was an escape from the harsh reality. Some of my fondest memories are of playing that game under my covers at night! 🤣😅

The art is so cute. For anyone interested in playing, here is the link you’ll need to the emulator for computer and the downloadable game.

Im not super tech savvy but was able to figure out how to download and use it!

[troythecatfish]

Here’s some links for context:

[girlmadegrave]

Fatal Frame V: Maiden of Black Water (2014)

[fitsofgloom]

Mōkin-Rui No Yō Ni,

Yoru No Dorobō No Yō Ni!

[imperfect-com]

they see me rollin' they hatin'

[yukibluth]

That moment when you have an arrow for a head and your mom is a giraffe

Here’s some fanart I made based on a Japanese PS1 game called Segare Ijiri. I recommend playing it if you ever get the chance!