Video Games Pt. 2

     Video games are one of my ultimate passions in life, so I wanted to circle back to video games and talk about some of my favorite video games that aren't JRPGs. There are a lot of interesting video games that come from Japan that have some super interesting ideas, execution, and stories that stem from some of the differences between Japanese culture and American culture. 

    One of the main examples of a weird Japanese video game would be something like LSD Dream Emulator. The game is a walking simulator on the original Playstation where the main character walks around lots of dream spaces with randomly generated textures, music and soundscapes. There are many layers, and there isn't really an objective to strive for necessarily. The game is kind of a cult classic with many people being aware of its existence, but few people who have actually played it. It is just generally interesting, because it's so bizarre and there are so many events that happen that not many people have seen, so it's fun to explore around.

    Another interesting game that came from Japan would be Katamari Damacy. It's a puzzle game where a character is placed in a scene with a ton of props placed around of different sizes, and you have to make as large of a ball as possible out of all of the objects. With each object placed around the level added to the ball, it makes the ball bigger, allowing bigger objects to be picked up overall. The goal is to reach a certain ball size before the time limit of the level, and it is super fun to play. The idea for the game is really interesting, and the execution of it is pretty surreal and bizarre as well. The art style and music in the game add to the atmosphere to make it a very interesting and complete package.


Words: 316

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Public Transport

Image
     While you are in Japan, you may notice that there are plenty of ways to get around. Many people choose to ride bikes or walk places, some may choose to use a car if that suits them better. However, the main choice for most people is to walk everywhere. The reason for this is the incredible public transport system that is set up in the country. From simple bus systems to the intricate sprawling subway system of Tokyo to the quiet and speedy shinkansen, there are plenty of interesting ways to get around within Japan. I will go over a couple of these in this blog post. The Shinkansen     The first and most interesting form of transport that I will go over is Japan's own shinkansen system. The shinkansen is an incredibly fast bullet train that goes all around Japan's main 3 islands. It can reach a max speed of almost 200 mph and boasts its noise level and safety over similar trains of this speed.  A comparable system to the shinkansen would be the Eurostar. The Eurostar has a
Read more

GUNPLA

Image
     In April of 1979, the first episode of one of Japan's major cultural phenomena aired, that being Mobile Suit Gundam. It had a rocky start , with most people expecting a more combat oriented anime with massive robots. Instead, what they got was a drama centered around said robots, with realistic emotions and such. However, Gundam's ratings began to increase as soon as Bandai, a toy company at the time, bought the rights to the series, providing plastic model kits that were very easy to put together. Due to this ease in use, the plastic model kits helped sell the series as a whole, allowing for even more spin-offs and sequels to come out. The cycled back to more model kits being available to be bought and sold, and GUNPLA (Gundam Plastic Models) became a lucrative business .      I first got into GUNPLA through my friend. He was super into the main series and building the model kits of the robots from it, and consistently sent me updates as he finished kits, despite me not
Read more

Japanese Video Games

Image
 Video games are my true passion, so I have a lot of experience in many different kinds of games that come from many parts of the world. The resurgence of video games after the Video game crash of 1983 was even thanks to the help of a Japanese product, the Nintendo Entertainment System.  The NES was Japan's first foray into the international video game market, and it was a huge success. In Japan, however, the NES was something completely different. It was known as the Family Computer, or Famicom. It had cartridges that were completely differently shaped from the ones on the NES and it had a completely different color scheme and controllers. The NES was made more bulky and had more monotone colors, to fit into the western market more. The name change was also to make sure that it was not confused with the PCs and such that were also in the market around the time. Since then, video games have become a huge and accepted part of society, with many different series' and references
Read more