Is this Japan's comeback year?

It seems like this year is Japan's year. Sony and Nintendo are dominating. We are seeing the return of classic franchises like Zelda, Persona, Resident Evil, and Yakuza. We've seen smaller IP's do really well like Nier, Nioh, and Gravity Rush. The Switch is tearing it up. Mario Kart is back, Splatoon is coming out, and we're getting the biggest Mario in years (pun intended). They're also making more Fire Emblem games which is awesome, and two Metroid games were announced. I'm also personally looking forward to Y's 8, Danganronpa 3, Ni No Kuni 2 and Xenoblade Chronicles 2. And then there's Pokemon.

It could be a matter of recollection, but I really can't remember a more recent time where Japan was as relevant as it used to be. Do you agree, SW? Or is more validation needed?

Yeah, seems like Nintendo is dominating. Its hard to imagine one company can do so much in one year.

Oh yeah. And with games like Super Mario Odyssey, Xenoblade Chronicles 2 and Ni no Kuni II coming out, it's only going to get better.

And Dragon Quest XI, although that probably won't be seen in the west until 2018-2019. Ugh. The other games will keep me happy though. Really looking forward to Odyssey and Ni No Kuni II the most.

Yeah, japan is back. I'd like to throw Tales of Berseria into this thread as well: It's fantastic.

There's definitely been a resurgence of quality in Japanese games but I still want to see Tecmo, Sega, Capcom and Namco make Big Comebacks. Would really love to see another Ninja Gaiden, Strider, Shinobi and Soul Caliber release with the quality those games used to be known for.

Nah, its the one year per generation where Japan actually finishes the games they've been working on for a decade.

Pretty much, lol.

Japan gaming didn't get the memo that they where dying.

Ninty dominating? No, only Sony is dominating.

Nintendo alone has made this a fantastic year. I've never seen a first year launch with so many AAA level titles. Zelda, Mario, xenoblade, fire emblem. God damn!

But Nintendo is leading console seller. I dont even think Sony is making a game this year. They be lazy it seems.

@mems_1224: I don't remember Japan having a dominant year like this last gen.

Yes

Gravity Rush 2? Horizon: Zero Dawn? Gran Turismo Sport? At least don't lie so blatantly

Having the highest selling console and highest selling game and highest rated game is not domination. Okay.

@charizard1605: O snaps, i forgot they had one coming. I thought it was zero for the rest of the year. Knack II also.

The best selling games of the year according to the NPD are Wildlands and For Honor. The only Japanese games in the top 10 are Zelda, MK8D and RE7. So despite how high Japanese games are scoring they still aren't even competing with average at best Western games in sales unless its published by Nintendo.

Sure, but the highest rated games of this year are all Japanese, and even the formerly 'niche' Japanese games like Nioh, Nier, and Persona, have sold in excess of a million copies worldwide.

Japan never left, we had quality Japanese games last gen, and the best Japanese games last gen, I probably like more than what would be the best stuff Japan has made this year. Street Fighter 4, Blazblue was a new fighting game ip from the people who made Guilty Gear, Platinum Games came into their own, Capcom was still making good games, etc.

It's just an unusual year where some of the prime Japanese games have had qualities that appeal to shit heel gaming "critics". Otherwise this year's status as one of the best years in a long ass time, feels mad suspect.

@charizard1605: do you know where the world wide sales are for botw atm?

Sure Switch is selling well...because we're still in the launch period, it's nothing special.

And 1 game selling well is not enough to claim a company is dominating anything.

Nintendo is doing well but compared to Sony they're hardly "dominating"

But let me know when Switch overtakes PS4 in sales though.

Japan is doing very well this year.

They were 4.3 million as of March 31 2017. This is Switch and Wii U versions combined.

aight ty

Rated by who? A bunch of human beings that do not pay for my gaming hobby? Why should their assessment of entertainment mean anything to me?

I never said you should? I am replying in context of the thread and the topic of its discussion, brother.

If you look at it on a nation-by-nation basis, Japan is ahead of the pack on the NPD top 10, as the only nation with 3 games in the top 10.

If it's sales, then yeah. Besides that it's only Nintendo for me.

Pretty much, and I'd argue that some of the best Japanese games this gen aren't even the ones that came out this year.

I'd still take Bayo 2, Bloodborne, MGSV, SFV, GGXRD, TW101, SM3DW, etc. over most of this years best Japanese games so far. That's not to say that there haven't been some damn strong releases this year too, but it seems people are just looking at how long a list is more than anything else.

So sure, there's a long list of Japanese games finally releasing this year, some good, some great, but it's not like Japan has been dormant on quality titles this gen at all.

**** yes. Its so packed that even great games like Tales of Berseria are barely mentioned .

No doubt that there was some good games, but overall, Japan is doing a lot better now. Platinum is a great developer, but they have also had a string of mediocre games and a major cancellation. Bayonetta 2 was only brought on due to Nintendo looking for a third party exclusive. Overall, the Wii U was pitiful. The 3DS, although now is getting great games, largely had a bad launch and staggered for a few years (with some good games in between). The Switch is changing all of that. We are seeing more content than ever before. We are also seeing Nintendo catering to their core base, which they learned still exists. The PS4 has brought more opportunity for smaller niche titles to succeed. IP's like Nioh, Persona, Yakuza, have a chance to exist with a great audience than ever before. We have also seen more well known franchises make a comeback like Resident Evil, Dragon Quest, and even a new Monster Hunter for consoles. The success of these consoles will lead to greater development for Japanese games, maybe even closer to what we used to see back in the day. It's not an issue of seeing Japanese games at all, but rather the market is better than it has been in years.

Great games coming out from Japan, but I think they've going to see the Japanese gaming market going in the footsteps of Konami over the coming years. Going full ******.

@knight-k: lol Nintendo switch and 3ds

Pokemon go nes classic say otherwise

I'm just not seeing it. Seems like business as usual to me. Good Japanese games never left or became a rarity. This just happens to be the year in which many Japanese games that have been in development for a long time finally dropped.

Tekken 7 was already out in arcades two years ago and Namco was having issues getting the home version out. BotW was obviously postponed for the Switch release. Nioh has been in this weird development flux since gen 6 and just finally made it.

This is just one of those odd years where a few things happened to line up right. Kinda like how FFXV and TLG finally dropped last year. Circumstance.

It's not like suddenly Japan hit a surge in development and bounced back, but instead a few companies are starting to bare fruit in the same calendar year lol.

Which really gets back to what I'm saying. It's not that the quality suddenly got better. It's not like Japanese development took off from what it's already been. It's just a few releases lining up in such a way that makes for a nice list.

Definitely, no argument here, though I'm not sure what that has to do with what I was saying.

I agree the Wii U was lame. Not sure I follow on the 3DS bit. Completely disagreed on the underlined.

I believe the Switch will be much better than the WiiU, sure. It has to be lol. But right now? What content? The biggest games on the Switch are WiiU ports. The biggest release around the corner is a sequel to a very successful new IP that got its start on the WiiU. Nintendo exclusively catered to their core fan base with the WiiU. You seem to be referring to the WiiU like it's the Wii.

As I said, I fully believe the Switch will go on to be much better than the WiiU, but at the moment? It's just not there yet. Right now it's basically a WiiU that you can take on the go. When it really comes down to it, the Switch is a WiiU 2.0, currently with less games, but with far superior messaging/marketing and far more potential.

Just curious, did you own a WiiU? I can see you're happy about the Switch, though I get the feeling you would have been just as happy with the WiiU lol. Like you say "their core base, which they learned still exists", but I get the feeling you've just been away from Nintendo stuff for a while and it's you who are realizing that they still exist. Because honestly, not much has changed.

But again, what changed here? It's not like we didn't have the Souls games which started relatively niche, Persona and other niche jrpgs, or Yakuza before. Sony consoles have always played host to tons of Japanese games ranging from the biggest hits down to the relatively niche. This has been Sonys thing from the start, and it never went away.

Again, these franchises never went away lol.

Let's be real here though, Japanese game development took a major hit in gen 7, and though they've never fully bounced back, they weren't hit quite as hard as many people make it out to be.

It was never strictly a matter of Japanese development taking a hit, but rather a combination of that mixed with western games and typically PC focused titles eating up a big piece of the console pie. Suddenly we got flooded with FPS games, WRPGs, online mp games, and cinematic western games in a console space that was traditionally dominated by Japanese games.

The market changed in general, Japans struggles to keep up with "HD" development was only a small part of the bigger picture. But honestly, if you've kept up with Sony consoles, Nintendo consoles, and handhelds all along, you'd see that not much has changed at all. We're still in the same spot we've been in since the start of gen 7. Japanese games are doing fine, have been all along, they're just not the all out dominate force that they used to be. And that makes plenty of sense.

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I do believe the market is in a prime spot though, not just for Japanese games, but middle budget and indie budget games in general. People are growing tired of a lot of these AAA no substance games. Japanese games are finally doing well on PC while still retaining their strongest fanbase on consoles.

But I don't expect us to ever go back to the console landscape of gen 6 and prior.

And I don't see this years releases as being anything more than a bunch of games happening to hit their release date around the same window.

novel post/10

@ConanTheStoner: lol damn you and your long post. I have to keep scrolling up and down to answer reach one.

How is it business as usual? The Wii U had barely any games across 4 years. And yes, I owned a Wii U from the beginning. You named Bayonetta 2 like it was some redeeming factor, but it barely didn't do anything for the Wii U. Super Mario 3D World was a lame Mario game, dude. Super Mario Odyssey is a true to form comeback for the series. This game is going to be huge, and a system seller. The launch year for the Switch is already proving to be far more impressive than anything that the Wii U accomplished. And it is a big deal for Japan. Japan has gone mobile. Nintendo found a device that caters to it well. You will see games like Xenoblade Chronicles 2 have a much bigger audience than the franchise ever did. Fire Emblem is also getting big. We're having all of these Fire Emblem games all of a sudden when the Wii U didn't have any and Gamecube had one. And when;s the last time we had a major Dragon Quest game? Metroid? Resident Evil 6 sucked. Maybe you didn't see RE7 as a return to form, but that to me was Capcom listening the fans. As for your comments about niche RPGs... Persona 5 has sold 1.5 copies already. Nioh I believe hit the 1 million mark already. With Yakuza, we got Yakuza 0 and Kiwami this year and the 6th one next year. You also have Japan's expansion to PC gaming which is unlike anything before. And that's business as usual?

I never quite understood why people thought Japan's Gaming division was dying.

Just about every year we get a good decent amount of Japanese made games that people some how forget they were made by Japanese Developers.

Sorry, but here we go again lol.

Cool, how many games does the Switch have?

If your argument is that the Switch will eventually be much better, cool, I'm thinking and hoping for the same. But right now it's like I said. The Switch's biggest games are WiiU ports. Its biggest game around the corner is a sequel to a WiiU born IP. Its biggest game this holiday is another 3D Mario game.

Your thread is about this being Japans big come back year. Nothing on Switch right now shows us that it's any different than usual. We got a Zelda sequel, a Mario Kart port, a Splatoon sequel, and a Mario sequel on the way. Nothing wrong with any of that, but nothing new here either.

1. No, I didn't. I only listed it among a bunch of other good/great Japanese games that we've seen this gen. Had nothing to do with the WiiU or any platform in general.

2. Wait, so we're talking sales here? If so, then your broader argument is automatically defeated. A lot of these Japanese games are far from being sales monsters. If the point of your argument is sales, then no, Japanese games aren't making a come back at all. Roughly the same as always actually.

Now this is slippery territory.

SM3DW is lame according to who, you? Ok.

So I can just say that every Japanese game released this year has also been lame. BAM. End of discussion.

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See, I don't think overly specific personal opinion fits too much into this broader discussion man. Your topic is about Japan bouncing back. Then you're trying to downplay the already weak WiiU to prop up your argument. But SM3DW did well critically and commercially whether you like it or not. So your opinion of it being lame doesn't mean much in your own topic. I can just as easily find plenty of people who will call BotW lame. Doesn't stop it from being a hit now does it?

As for Odyssey, sure I think it will be better too. Still, that's just getting ahead of ourselves. It could very well be the worst 3d game Mario ever. We don't know. It's not out.

Even if it does end up being much better, it doesn't take away from 3D Worlds success. And if we're gonna get weird about goal posts like that, hey, WiiU had the best Mario Kart ever as well as the 2nd best Smash game ever.

See, this isn't a good argument lol.

Sure, the Switch, as a piece of hardware, is outdoing one of Nintendos worst marketed consoles ever. I'm not disagreeing with that.

But show me the software. You're arguing that Japanese games are bouncing back big time THIS YEAR. Then you've gone into this sub-argument about Switch vs WiiU. Ok, where are the games that prove your larger point? Currently I'm seeing Nintendos typical cycle. Refreshes on their big IPs and the occasional new IP. Business as usual.

It's a poor argument. Of course Zelda was coming. Of course Mario was coming. Of course Splatoon was getting a sequel. And hey, Mario Kart got ported. This is what I'm saying man. All these obvious things just happened to drop in the same calendar year, it doesn't spell a resurgence for Japan.

Last major DQ? 2012 right? Did you think DQ was actually going away? I'm not even sure what you mean by this.

Metroid? Yeah, Nintendo goes on and off through slumps with this series. What does Metroid have to do with 2017 though?

RE7? You're acting like the franchise was gone or something, they still make plenty of RE games.

In all honesty dude, I'm not even sure why you're listing sales for these other games. What is your point? I'm not the one who's pretending Japan was in a slump to begin with lol. Yes, Japanese games can do well, I'm not arguing that man.

Yup, as I pointed out, that's probably the biggest new thing happening with Japanese games. And it's great. Still, has it caused resurgence of Japanese games in 2017? No.

So far the only Japanese game that I know of that owes its existence to success on Steam is KoF14. That game wouldn't have happened if it weren't for SNK's Steam ports. And yes, I'd love to see more of that. Hopefully Sega/Platinum dumping games on Steam will lead to funding for more Sega/Platinum games. Would be great!

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FEEL FREE TO SKIP ALL OF THE ABOVE.

Because it seems we're getting far away from the point here. What is it specifically that makes 2017 Japans come back year? Because again, I'm not seeing a change in the industry or market. Just a bunch of devs who are happening to get their games out the door this year.

I dont recall claiming sales do.

@ConanTheStoner: lol I'm typing this on an iPad. You said Dragon Quest came out in 2012. That was Japan only. The last major Dragon Quest iteration was back in 2004. We've also been given spin offs like Dragon Quest Heroes and Dragon Quest Builders recently to Build excitement, And the Switch is killing it dude. Not sure what else there is to say about that. The Wii U didn't have its own Zelda game. Sure they ported Botw, but before that you had Windwaker HD and Twilight Princess HD. Both Wii U and 3DS got hit really hard by tablets and smartphones. Mobile gaming is huge in Japan, I was there last summer, tons of people of all ages playing on their phones. The Switch does mobile gaming right while also giving people substantive gameplay. The Wii U failed to be a compelling gaming experience, The PS4 has managed to do well despite the market change, This renewed interest has also lead to Square bringing Final Fantasy 7 remake, and Capcom bringing Resident Evil 2 remake. We're even seeing Shenmue III come to light. And what about Kingdom Hearts 3? Last major game came out when I was in high school. This is just usual business to you? I don't think skipping generations is usual business. I think there was seriously a time where we wouldn't know what to expect from Japan. Now even Konami has said they have renewed interest in developing new iterations to existing IP's. While my thread is simply about everyone's opinion, I think it's clear that this isn't usual business.... and I typed all of this in a tiny dialogue box #gamespotfixyourshit

DQ 9 has come to this country, DQ X didn't because it's the mmo version, but for the most part DQ being one of Square's biggest franchises was always going to find its way here. In fact it's rare for Square to make anything that isn't a FF game, a DQ game, or a Kingdom Hearts game when it comes to their offerings from their Japanese studios. What are you even on?

1. Who cares if it's selling? The games are the only thing anyone should give a shit about. The indie stuff I can play somewhere else.
2. You mean like the Switch not having its own Zelda. Breath of the Wild is a WiiU game ported to the switch. Not the other way around.

What does this even mean? What is "doing mobile gaming right", and substantive gameplay?

Link Between Worlds (the switch's killer app is a Zelda) is a good game. Rhythm Thief is a good game. Mario Kart 7 (the Switch's other big nintendo title is a Mario Kart port) was a good game, Smash 4 was on the handheld, 3D land was on the handheld, Azura Strike Gunvolt was on the platform, the fire emblem games have been on the platform. So if it's a matter of games with a meatier set of mechanics n gameplay, beyond mobile game simplicity, yep, the 3DS library is hardly taking a back seat to present day Switch right now. And I say this as someone who thinks the 3DS sucks.

None of those games are out, they could all be gutter trash. FF7's remake has to fundamentally change battle systems, has to be released in parts (because the stuff FF7 would be a huge under taking to do in 3D), Shenmue has no depth as a video game, Capcom's games are looking low budget as **** so, don't know why Resident Evil 2 Remake is some sign of Japan's comeback when it was annouced awhile ago, and we haven't seen shit.

We're not even getting KH3 or FF7 Remake for awhile, so exactly how is that sign of Japan's comeback? Because it seems like Square is still taking forever, Square still isn't taking enough risks on new interesting ips like they at least did when they made The World Ends With You. I am Setsuna was shamelessly derivative by comparison.

Capcom had some misfires last gen: But Dead Rising was a brand spanking new ip, and it was awesome and pushed next gen tech, it was specifically a game the Xbox n PS2 could never do. Capcom today? Street Fighter released unfinished, Resident Evil is looking at other horror games for inspiration instead of pushing the market itself like it did with RE1 n 2, and RE4.

How is it not?

It's still not as good as the old days and Japan's indie scene is still struggling. A lot of the great upcoming Japanese games are not new IPs. Japan has yet to create something like Minecraft that is a new IP and has made a significant mark on the video game industry.

Ummm... Japanese console market grows for the first time in three years

Sooo, the only Dragon Quest releases that count are numbered DQ games on Sony consoles. Got it.

When the point must be narrowed this much, then it's not much of a point, right?

Again, your argument is that Japanese games are making a some huge come back this year. You shouldn't have to add in so many crutches if that's actually true though.

A lot more needs to be said to support your overall point actually. The Switch having far more potential isn't immediately translating into "2017 Japan is back!" now is it?

The games bro, the games. Again, we're seeing the typical Nintendo IP refresh, something that's been happening since the NES, not some paradigm shift. This isn't Japan bouncing back, this is Nintendo going through its typical cycle.

How is this an argument against the WiiU and for the Switch? The game is on both platforms. And if you really want to argue which platform it was intended for (shouldn't matter) it's the WiiU.

Bro, what does ANY OF THIS have to do with 2017 being Japans comeback year? We've really lost the plot here.

And lmao @ spinning Square Enix incompetence and mismanagement into a positive. KH3 should have been out last gen, just like FFXV. You're saying that Japan is bouncing back because Square Enix can't get their games out the door on time? Come on bro.

When FFVII remake slips into the 2020's are we going to credit them there too? Plz bro.

You're right, it's not. Again, modern Square Enix sucks. I think a lot of us figured it was just SE slipping in gen 7, but they still haven't recovered when it comes to internal development.

If it's clear and simple you still haven't managed to communicate it.

I've already made my argument, that a lot of games long in development just happened to drop around the same time, with specific examples, and you've yet to refute that.

If you just want to argue that Japanese games might have a brighter future ahead, sure maybe. I certainly hope so. But 2017 and Japanese games specifically? Nah, not seeing it. Same old same old.

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Fight me irl.

Or in SFV.

Kingdom Hearts 3 had to get a trailer that ended with "now in development", like they had to explain to people that their bullshit ass company is just now getting to developing anything. Which is basically fucking implied when a studio bothers releasing a trailer to begin with, smh.

EXACTLY lol.

Plz be excited tho.

Ha, relevant.

@ConanTheStoner: LMAO