Why even bother making a game about Feudal Japan?

I'm very deep into the 1970s Lone Wolf and Cub manga. The material was so miraculously researched. Such rich historical information. As a European living in America, I wouldn't dare make a video game about Feudal Japan. White people will never go that deep. Martin Scorsese's movie was interesting, but it was only three hours long, not thirty, with as many stories and places as in Ghost of Tsushima or Assassin's Creed Shadows. I guess the fact that a European or American-made game will never be truly authentic is one reason I can't remember ever wishing for such a game from them, even ignoring the ridiculous leftism. It's not as personal for them because it's not their culture.

Not a big fan of this argument because, sooner or later, you eventually get to the root of it all and that is the belief that people of a given culture are somehow genetically predisposed to being more expert about their culture than people not of that culture. This is nonsense in my opinion.

You could make the argument I guess that people of a given culture might be better experts because they immersed in that culture and closer to it, and I get that; but at the same time, you have to factor in a certain bias likely occurs, as we have seen with Japanese history related to WWII (still waiting for acknowledgement and apologies for the atrocities they said they didn't commit...).

Akira Kurosawa, someone no doubt well-versed in Japanese history many might claim, took a lot of inspiration from writer Shakespeare and director John Ford, for example.

The whole reason the world is in love with Japanese culture is because Japanese are in love with it, and they wrapped it up in a neat package and exported it well. This is entertaining as hell but it doesn't necessarily make them the best experts on the material.

The Japanese themselves, like many cultures across the world with their own culture, have mythologized their history for entertainment, propaganda, and export. They're no better at their own history than anyone else is at it.

Bigot!

😋😉

It's just the romance of the time period, with Samurai and Ronin and Shinobi and the myth of the katana blade being folded such and such times.

It's just like the European Knights and Chivalric Code and such - and just as ahistorical. The European Knights were actually psychopaths their Lords had to constantly find new wars to fight, otherwise they'd get bored and pillage the nearest village. The Samurai were much of the same; Bushido was a later invention. The mythologized Katana was also actually born out of necessity; Japanese steel was very poor quality, and needed all that preparation just to be usable. Europeans had much better quality steel and didn't need all that faff. I could go on.

It's just a nice basis for a bit of entertaining fiction, as was originally intended, that's all.

Give me a break... It's called world history for a reason. I like different takes on culture and alternative realities. It's a nod to that culture and a compliment whether it's completely accurate or not, as long as it's not blatantly trying to make the culture or history look bad, and especially for political reasons. Neither of the games is question meet that criteria.

I don't see anyone getting upset when Japan or other countries make games based on Western culture and philosophy. It's a double standard people make up to pretend to be mad about something that is in actuality imitation which is known as the greatest form of flattery.

@warm_gun: Ghost of Tsushima was quite good and so was Shogun 2 total war.

I have lived in east Asia my entire life. This idea of east asian being too mystical and deep to understand is just a stereotype.

I'm not talking about romance, mysticism and derp, I'm talking about details. Foreigners aren't gonna research adequately and don't have the bed of knowledge on which to place that information. It's way harder for a foreigner. He'll get lazy and won't bother the Japanese Japan expert enough.

And I answered your original question. People make things for certain settings because they find it interesting. And for many creative people, the fact they know less about something actually makes them even more motivated to explore it.

To say AAA devs are lazy are far from the truth. Most of the time, it's not so much that they get details wrong, but that they took liberties for the sake of smooth development or player experience considerations. They actually put a lot of effort into making things authentic - which is not the same as "accurate."

Feudal Japan is boring. Gimme Ninjas all day!

Everyone is a foreigner when it comes to history. Even the locals are going to guess and romanticise and adapt things in ways that make sense to them.

Also, why bring up Assassins Creed Shadows? Isn't the game about modern-day rebels exploring flawed simulations of historical places littered with sci-fi and fantasy elements? It isn't aiming for authenticity, and any inaccuraces are explained by the plot itself.

Forza Horizon 6 will be set in Feudal Japan and will change everything.

@warm_gun: they can just hire a local historian to advice and verify.

It's not like the programmers and artists of Japan knows the details of any given historical period.

And in fact, ghost of Tsushima is an excellent example of this having already happened.

Some of the most wild and over the top takes of feudal Japan come from Japan itself. For example, the mystique of the ninja being high flying masked people in trees wasn't a thing that was invented in the west.

For lecturing other people, you are truly short sighted.

Ok. I'd love more games set in feudal Japan, cause it's cool. Japanese people themselves make a shitload of non accurate depictions of feudal Japan. Games don't need to be accurate or authentic at all for me to enjoy them. There is books if being taught history is what I'm after. In a game I'm more interested in slicing someone in half with a katana.