Thread closed, Tempeh ended it.

Platinum and Nintendo are holding the line.

It's only really about money though where the question is relevant.

Kamiya.

Gonzo wrote:

The nips can't cut it no mo'

Was tempted to write that myself.

I think the only Jap game I've played this year was Evil Within. What Jap big hitters have actually come out this year?

It is something of a shame. Katamari was published by Namco, Gregory Horror Show by Capcom, ICOlossus by Sony, Silent Hill 2 by Konami; boundary-pushing games put out by big publishers, a creativity not remotely matched by today's self-important western indie scene (for which read: 2D platformer, and what genre could be safer than that?).

What does big hitter even mean for japanese games? Their industry is smaller and more specialised, I don't think I'd even count TEW as a AAA release (probably wouldn't count Isolation either) instead they're settling into this great AA niche that satisfies very specific markets with releases that are funded better than your average indie.

As for what big hitters...

Bayonetta 2
Smash Bros.
Dark Souls 2
Mario Kart 8
MGS: Ground Zeroes
Hyrule Warriors
Guilty Gear Xrd
FFXIII: Lightning Returns
Pokemon Ruby/Sapphire

fullspectrum wrote:

Kamiya.

The nips can't cut it no mo'

Was tempted to write that myself.

Why? It's racist.

More as a "lets get the inevitable out of the way" kinda thing.

If it's inevitable that when there's a thread about Japan we're going to have casual racism that really pisses me off, then that's a shame and makes me question my presence here.

I unno.  When did I start defending Hizno?  Lan' sakes, holiday times.

Skerret wrote:

It's a very self-aware tongue-in-cheek nod-and-a-wink sort of thing, from someone who on exposed form is not racist.  But you know that already so I guess it don't matter none.

Yeah I've been here long enough to know that. When some of your family are Japanese it does irritate though, just to hear it.

Fuck it let's listen to a sweet rap.

That's kinda what they entire point of the first part of my post was. Big is relative. There's never gonna be a Japanese game that's going to be big in the sense of Destiny or Halo or whatever, and thank fuck for that I reckon. 

Mario Kart 8 and Bayonetta 2 do what they do better than any Western equivalent, not that Mario Kart actually has one. As niche as the WiiU is there's still nothing on either the PS4 or Xbox One that screams "I HAVE to get one of those" or "I need to upgrade my PC to enjoy parity content" in fact plenty of folk think the PS4's USP next year will be Bloodborne - a Japanese game. 

The thread opened with the very fact that Japan is not the dominant software force in gaming anymore, the money is in the West and will probably remain here. There are no Japanese "big hitters" in the context you seem to have defined, but I'd consider those games 'big hitters from Japan' for various reasons;

Bayonetta - premiere action game
Smash Bros - nintendo's in house IP casual/pro bridging brawler 
Dark Souls 2 - dark fantasy action game that's still ideas above its Western peers
MK8 - it's Mario Kart
Ground Zeroes - iffy inclusion, but it's a proof of concept that works better than a lot of Western AAA messes
Hyrule Warriors - genuine curio, probably not worthy of inclusion tbh.
Guilty Gear Xrd - no one does beat 'em ups like Japan, plus the visual tech is incredible.
FFXIII:LR  - it's FF, which will always have unique appeal
Pokemon Ruby/Sapphire - games that have mainstream appeal that Western devs would kill for, as a series it can probably float Nintendo for decades to come

The majority of what the West does well is FPS, TPS, Open World, Driving stuff. There's a lot of homogeneity here, and it exists in the East too, but we don't see it because only the more pertinent games escape Japan's cultural event horizon. Thankfully we've got smaller devs eking out great games too - in effect the most interesting games in the West are probably the equivalent to the stuff that makes it to our shores from Japan. But this year especially has been incredibly uninspiring for me from a Western AAA perspective.

That said, it's all perspective.

Verecocha wrote:

As for what big hitters... Bayonetta 2 Smash Bros. Dark Souls 2 Mario Kart 8 MGS: Ground Zeroes Hyrule Warriors Guilty Gear Xrd FFXIII: Lightning Returns Pokemon Ruby/Sapphire

Yeah but are any of those that big? FF games surely aren't as popular anymore, Nintendo titles are almost niche now considering hardware sales. MGS is the only multi platform game on that list that is reasonably popular. I don't mean any of this in a derogatory fashion towards the games themselves more the uptake and want of them. I love Ninty games but they don't really appeal much to me anymore. Never been an FF fan and the rest aren't really my thing. Actually now I come to think of it I can't really think of anything that's ever been huge from Japan aside from MGS, GT, Resi, Ninty stuff and FF. So really I don't know what I'm actually trying to say....

Dark Souls 2 and Smash Bros are massive mate what you on about? Not to mention Mario Kart and Pokemon!

Curtis wrote:

But Japanese developers still make the best games, so...

This. Not as many great games overall, but still the best.

They still make the games I want to play.

Dunno about "best"

Bollockoff wrote:

Even though Elder Scrolls is shit tier fantasy.

Woah now.

That's an entirely pointless metric though innit.

Anything you apply to the question to try and objectively answer it is effectively moot. 4 of the Western games on that list are just third-person-shoot-the-mans games, the three Japanese games are all older IPs but they're all solidly inventive in a mechanical aspect, whereas the Western half is just streamlining the same stuff into a grittier more Hollywood package - that said I have a lot of time for TLoU and GTA - Polish is a high on my list of factors that appeal, SM3DW probably being one of the most polished things released in recent memory, but the list kinda proves what I was jibbering about last page, death of the Japanese AAA.

The fact is, Japan no longer has dominance, but it doesn't stop them putting out sterling work.