The Japanese games industry hasn’t been at its height for some time now, and while developers may be looking for ways to remedy this, the production lead of Dynasty Warriors, Kenichi Ogasawara says that the solution does not lie in copying the West.
Speaking to Gamasutra, Ogasawara said that attempting to replicate the success of western game development has not worked out for Japan.
“We’ve looked at the way Western developers make and present their games, in terms of the cut scenes, the graphics and all of that, and we’ve tried to take that approach in development,” he said.
“Unfortunately, we weren’t able to get the result that we wanted.”
Rather, Ogasawara believes that Japanese developers should focus on what Japan can bring to the games market, iterating and enhancing what they have to offer instead of replicating the designs of a different culture.
“I think as a Japanese developer, we have to think about how we can actually improve the original game system, rather than copy what other people are doing,” he said.
“There are a lot of elements of our culture that we still haven’t shown to the world; a lot of things are still kept at home. These are things that we can actually show in a proper way, that the global market can understand.”
Ogasawara admitted that it is difficult for Japanese game developers to not be influenced by Hollywood, but he said the strength of Japanese game development lies in Japan.
“For us, I think the best way to stand out in the competitive market is to use our culture to our advantage.”
What do you think of Ogasawara’s ideas? Should Japan look to other cultures for inspiration? What do you think they need to do to lead the games industry like they once did? Let us know!
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