Why Are FPS Games So Unpopular In Japan?

[Kinsie]

3 minutes ago, Rykz said:

I wonder that gun logic maybe kinda weird to Japanese audience (because if my memory serves right, Japan doesn't allow firearms for civilians).
Imagine you can take out someone's life with pointing out a "L" shaped black stick.

This and all the other weird "Japan is too ignorant to know anything about guns" stuff in this thread is a.) bizarrely racist and b.) completely evaporated the moment you look into their Airsoft/Survival Games scene.

[Herr Dethnout]

18 hours ago, Redneckerz said:

A lot of PSX games are first person, like Hellnight, Shadow Tower, King's Field. The thing is that they aren't necesarrily shooters, but more like walkers.

 

So the Japanese definitely do some shooters. Want more material @DSC? Here is a very hefty list:

 

Complete list of Japanese first-person shooters

Yup, the First Person Dungeon Crawlers are a pretty popular genre in japan, one of the big ones being Wizardry (A franchise created in the west but most of his fanbase is on Japan, at the point that the rights of the franchise belongs to a Japanese company nowdays). In fact, the whole J-RPG genre actually is based on the CRPG games like Ultima (who inspired the creation of Dragon Quest).

Speaking of FPS, I'm really surprised that games like HeXen or Heretic didn't got popular in Japan, I mean, is has everything to be a big win (Dark Fantasy setting, dungeon crawling, PC RPG, etc...)

[Rykzeon]

41 minutes ago, Kinsie said:

This and all the other weird "Japan is too ignorant to know anything about guns" stuff in this thread is a.) bizarrely racist and b.) completely evaporated the moment you look into their Airsoft/Survival Games scene.

Honestly, I just wondering because I also used to be have 0% idea what is gun and how it actually works because I never seen an actual gun IRL.

[Kinsie]

1 minute ago, Rykz said:

Honestly, I just wondering because I also used to be have 0% idea what is gun and how it actually works because I never seen an actual gun IRL.

You don't need to know the intricate mechanical details of how a gun works to understand a First Person Shooter. Your posts ITT are very "what are these... thunder-sticks you speak of?" about a civilization that's been using firearms since at least the 1540s.

[BaileyTW]

In here again before this thread gets locked because someone busts out the calipers to try to figure this one out.

[evil9999]

13 hours ago, DSC said:

Its just something I find odd... I have no idea why it is. I see japanese people do all sorts of crazy shit in games of nearly every single other genre, but FPSes are pretty much untouched. JCP was nice, but honestly, I sometimes wonder what kind of insanity they would manage to pull out were Doom and shooters in general just a little more well-known among them.

 

I've seen some japanese and korean people playing games like TF2 or CS:S more often, but the actual answer may be a mystery forever.

[Herr Dethnout]

I forgot, The Light Gun Shooter (AKA Rail Shooter) was also popular in japan. Time Crisis, Virtua Cop, The House of the Dead, Gunblade NY, etc.

[7Mahonin]

1 hour ago, Rykz said:

(because if my memory serves right, Japan doesn't allow firearms for civilians).

Handguns are prohibited but under extremely strict gun laws and tight regulations, citizens of Japan can own approved shotguns and rifles. 

[Herr Dethnout]

Just now, 7Mahonin said:

Handguns are prohibited but under extremely strict gun laws and tight regulations, citizens of Japan can own approved shotguns and rifles. 

Yup. IIRC one of the requirements of having a gun is to have testimony from your neightbours about you responsability or something like that. lol

[TheMagicMushroomMan]

1 hour ago, Kinsie said:

This and all the other weird "Japan is too ignorant to know anything about guns" stuff in this thread is a.) bizarrely racist and b.) completely evaporated the moment you look into their Airsoft/Survival Games scene.

They certainly aren't ignorant to guns, but I do notice some weird shenanigans when it comes to firearms in Japanese movies. American shit is no better, where characters have 30 bullets in a .38, but a lot of times the sound effects and such that are used in shootouts in Japanese movies stand out as strange, and I've noticed that in a lot of films the characters misidentify the guns being used. They break rules just like in western cinema, except the rules they break are different and seem to be erroneous as opposed to being there for the "cool factor". Some of this is probably due to translation, but I have noticed it. Not really related to the topic, just a random blurb. In Japanese war films, things are typically as accurate as possible, but some of the yakuza shootouts can get weird. But like I said, it's insane to me that people think the Japanese are averse to using guns in entertainment, because they produce so many yakuza films, crime/action films, war films, etc, and those movies certainly don't hold back when it comes to gun violence. I don't think there is any developed country that is as ignorant to firearms as some people here claim Japan is.

 

In general, I think that (in terms of entertainment) you'll learn a lot more about culture by watching film as opposed to anime and video games. Seeing how people interact, in a more natural demeanor, seeing their emotion, the cities they live in, their homes. I think a lot of westerners really do have this image of Japan that was formed in their head from anime and video games. I wonder how many hardcore anime fans even know who Akira Kurosawa was, and the fact that he featured guns on film all the way back in the black and white era.

[Wavy]

15 hours ago, TheMagicMushroomMan said:

A lot of them perfer games that don't rely so much on reaction time

Dunno how true this specific statement is. Bullet hell shmups like DonDonPachi and Touhou are mega popular there.* Rhythm games too.

^{*I know Touhou is popular because of the cute girls, and DonDonPachi too, but the actual bullet hell scene is still massive there!}

 

9 hours ago, TheMagicMushroomMan said:

I can hardly read any gaming forum without coming across hordes of TooHoo avatars. In fact, I see more and more of them everyday, as to where five years ago I had no idea what a TooHoo was.

Huh. Wonder who that could include. Can't be me obviously.

 

---

 

Oh, and on the topic of shooters, Splatoon 3 (which I know isn't an FPS, but I think is still relevant) sold nearly 4 million copies in Japan, making it the best selling game there of 2022 in a matter of a month. Clearly there is a market for shooter games.

[Herr Dethnout]

2 minutes ago, Wavy said:

Oh, and on the topic of shooters, Splatoon 3 (which I know isn't an FPS, but I think is still relevant) sold nearly 4 million copies in Japan, making it the best selling game there of 2022 in a matter of a month. Clearly there is a market for shooter games.

Well, nobody says that theres not a market for shooters, In fact, Japan is pretty known in the shooter genre, games like Contra, Gungrave, DMC (yeah, is mostly melee combat but it has a plenty of firearms), Mega Man, and a big etc. But the FPS genre, although there exist Japanese-exclusive FPS games, it doesn't seem to get the attention of, for example, the Shumps or Fighthing games, hell, even First Person non shooter games are more popular than FPS in japan afaik.

As a curiousity, let's remember the Official Counter-Strike VN anime lol 
 

 

[TheMagicMushroomMan]

14 minutes ago, Wavy said:

Huh. Wonder who that could include. Can't be me obviously.

Never noo yoo was a TooHoo too tell the trooth.

 

Makes me wonder how many people don't know who(o) Rocky Balboa is. Maybe they think it's a picture from my high-school yearbook.

[Wavy]

5 minutes ago, Herr Dethnout said:

Well, nobody says that theres not a market for shooters, In fact, Japan is pretty known in the shooter genre, games like Contra, Gungrave, DMC (yeah, is mostly melee combat but it has a plenty of firearms), Mega Man, and a big etc. But the FPS genre, although there exist Japanese-exclusive FPS games, it doesn't seem to get the attention of, for example, the Shumps or Fighthing games, hell, even First Person non shooter games are more popular than FPS in japan afaik.

That's kinda my point. When I said shooter, I was talking more specifically about FPS and TPS games like Splatoon.

[Eurisko]

15 hours ago, Rudolph said:

I disagree. There are many subgenres to the first-person shooter genre. 

 

As far as I am concerned, if you play a game from the first-person perspective and shoot guns as part of the gameplay, then it is a first-person shooter.

 

You can shoot guns in Alien: Isolation. Would you consider THAT as an FPS?

[Rudolph]

1 hour ago, Eurisko said:

You can shoot guns in Alien: Isolation. Would you consider THAT as an FPS?

Yes.

[Solmyr]

18 hours ago, Kinsie said:

This thread mostly just feels like a collection of weird half-understood stereotypes. Kind of gross, TBH.

I know right, although it's funny that some of the replies states how Japan is more into swords than guns, as if everyone there descends from a Samurai clan, even though historical Samurai were much more into bows, spears and firearms than swords.

 

But why these misunderstood stereotypes are gross? It's not like people are being racist or spiteful to them, just mild ignorance. 

[BGreener]

3 hours ago, Eurisko said:

 

You can shoot guns in Alien: Isolation. Would you consider THAT as an FPS?

Fatal Frame’s combat is all centralized around “shooting” a camera in the first person, and it even grew to have a similar ‘strafe n shoot’ control scheme.

 

I’d still consider it a horror game first and foremost, though, especially with the way the mechanic is implemented: You have to take the shot *right* when the enemy is about to gut you.

 

As a youngin’ who was severely spooked by the Ring at the time, Fatal Frame 2 was seriously spooky. I’m remembering how the first enemy you face was basically Sadako.

 

Spoiler

On that note, the horror in The Ring has not held up for me. Still has a nice mood to it, though.

 

[Rudolph]

1 minute ago, BGrieber said:

I’d still consider it a horror game first and foremost, though, especially with the way the mechanic is implemented: You have to take the shot *right* when the enemy is about to gut you.

Well, like I said, there are always different subgenres to a broad genre: ArmA and Doom play very differently despite being first-person shooters, so why should we not do the same with games like Resident Evil 7/Village and Alien: Isolation? The same goes for third-person shooters: I consider both Resident Evil 4 and Gears of War to be third-person shooters, even if the former is a survival horror and the other a cover-based shooter.

[BGreener]

5 minutes ago, Rudolph said:

ArmA and Doom play very differently despite being first-person shooters, so why should we not do the same with games like Resident Evil 7/Village and Alien: Isolation?

Probably for the same reason I wouldn’t immediately recommend Thief, Deus Ex, or Daggerfall to someone who just finished Quake and is looking for similar games. On that same note, I wouldn’t immediately recommend ArmA to someone who just finished Eternal and is looking for something similar.

[Rudolph]

Just now, BGrieber said:

Probably for the same reason I wouldn’t immediately recommend Thief, Deus Ex, or Daggerfall to someone who just finished Quake and is looking for similar games. On that same note, I wouldn’t immediately recommend ArmA to someone who just finished Eternal and is looking for something similar.

But my point is not about recommending a game to someone else, it is about categorizing a game.

 

Like, another example: both Fallout 1/2 and Final Fantasy are RPGs, yet they play very differently and chances are that a person who likes the formers may not like the latter. Those three games belong to the same broad genre, but to different subgenres. 

[dasho]

34 minutes ago, Rudolph said:

But my point is not about recommending a game to someone else, it is about categorizing a game.

 

Like, another example: both Fallout 1/2 and Final Fantasy are RPGs, yet they play very differently and chances are that a person who likes the formers may not like the latter. Those three games belong to the same broad genre, but to different subgenres. 

 

That's fine, but your categorization is way off of the commonly understood definitions for these genres. By your metric, Final Fantasy VII is a third person shooter because of Barret.

[BGreener]

31 minutes ago, Rudolph said:

But my point is not about recommending a game to someone else, it is about categorizing a game.

“Categorizing” and “recommending” are basically the same thing for me, and I don’t want to focus too much on one particular aspect of the game lest I lose track of what the game as a whole is trying to accomplish. That and a simple “tag” only goes so far, especially games like Deus Ex that are at all times a first-person-shooter, a stealth game, and an RPG.

 

I also find comparing Resident Evil 4 to Gears of War to be favorable considering how much more RE4 emphasizes the third-person-combat compared to the previous entries; so much so that it feels like a TPS first and foremost with the survival horror elements coming in second.

[MemeMind]

My only Japanese friend loves FPS and PCs so make of that what you will. 

[Rudolph]

59 minutes ago, BGrieber said:

“Categorizing” and “recommending” are basically the same thing for me, and I don’t want to focus too much on one particular aspect of the game lest I lose track of what the game as a whole is trying to accomplish. That and a simple “tag” only goes so far, especially games like Deus Ex that are at all times a first-person-shooter, a stealth game, and an RPG.

I guess so, but given the thread at hand and how vague DSC was in regard to their definition, I feel it is relevant to treat Japanese first-person games that revolve heavily around shooting (like Resident Evil 7 and Village) as first-person shooters in this situation.

[BGreener]

12 minutes ago, Rudolph said:

I guess so, but given the thread at hand and how vague DSC was in regard to their definition, I feel it is relevant to treat Japanese first-person games that revolve heavily around shooting (like Resident Evil 7 and Village) as first-person shooters in this situation.

Well, if that’s the case, I’d rather ask him.

 

Hey yo @DSC: Were you looking for Japanese FPS that are more similar to Doom and Quake, or just JP games with “FPS elements” in general? Also, somewhat related, but have you seen the Doom 64 JP commercial? It kicks ass.

[Rudolph]

That commercial?

 

 

[DSC]

20 minutes ago, BGrieber said:

Well, if that’s the case, I’d rather ask him.

 

Hey yo @DSC: Were you looking for Japanese FPS that are more similar to Doom and Quake, or just JP games with “FPS elements” in general? Also, somewhat related, but have you seen the Doom 64 JP commercial? It kicks ass.

Truth be told, I was thinking more of the action oriented kind of shooters. Things in the realms of Doom, Quake, COD, that sort of stuff, along with maybe some of the more competitive focused ones too such as CSGO or R6S.

[Kinsie]

To actually contribute, what it actually comes down to, as far as I can tell, is a couple of major factors and at least one minor one.

 

The first major factor: PC gaming - the home ground of the genre - traditionally hasn't been very popular there for a host of very complicated reasons involving the transition from proprietary standards like the PC-98 to Windows 95 that I don't know enough to speak authoratively on, but basically for the last few decades the PC was primarily the place for indie "doujin" games, sexually explicit material that wasn't allowed on consoles, and the occasional western PC game imported by hardcore enthusiasts (Longtime Tekken producer Katsuhiro Harada has talked in the past about his love of western and FPS games, particularly Battlefield 2 and Everquest, on his Youtube channel). This has been changing in recent years on account of players and indies embracing Steam and modern game engines being a lot more multiplatform-friendly (and with international development documentation and support!). One big success story at the moment is Apex Legends.

 

The second major factor: Violence. There was a massive crackdown on violence in media following the Kobe Child Murders, and videogames, much like in other countries with similar situations, copped a lot of that. Suda 51 has talked a lot about how this effected the games he was working on at the time in the past. To this day, Resident Evil/Biohazard games tend to release two versions in Japan - a general release censored version that removes all dismemberment (making That One Scene in Village a bit weird...) and an uncensored version with the equivalent of an Adults Only rating. You can imagine how this would make marketing a lot of popular FPSes in Japan a bit tricky, although the modern Doom games have uncensored, fully localized releases in Japan.

 

Which brings me to the minor factor: Marketing and localization. Not something a lot of FPS devs in the 90s cared about much, and even afterwards it's been a bit bumpy sometimes (Square-Enix's crappy localization of the original Modern Warfare 2 sparked a lot of anger from players.)

 

Another point that I'm unsure of the veracity of is motion sickness. I've heard many developers both in and out of Japan - including prominent figures like Hideo Kojima - talk about the increased propensity for motion sickness that can be triggered by fast 3D game cameras. Hence the MGS games initially being mostly top-down cameras for the first couple of games. This doesn't necessarily explain the popularity of Apex and other fast-paced games, though - maybe it's a generational thing?

 

In conclusion, 3D Alien Busters.

[Rudolph]

51 minutes ago, DSC said:

Truth be told, I was thinking more of the action oriented kind of shooters. Things in the realms of Doom, Quake, COD, that sort of stuff, along with maybe some of the more competitive focused ones too such as CSGO or R6S.

So what is your take on games like Resident Evil 7/Village or Fatal Frame? Do you consider them first-person shooters in the broadest sense?