“If you’ve worked on a Chinese game, you’ll know production scale is on a whole other level” Japanese devs discuss growing quality of Chinese games
- Thread starter Thick Thighs Save Lives
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R6Rider
Gold Member
Enough said.
March Climber
Member
Kind of. I'll explain my issue below.
Astrobot is a derivative of Mario, and you will see people complain about that on this forum. Same with Ghost of Tsushima being a derivative of an Ubisoft game and there have been complaint posts about that here too. This is where I reiterate this point:
It's an optics issue, and part of this is because the difference with the games you have mentioned and the Chinese ones is in the approach.
Other developers will take a concept and put their own unique spin on it in some way. Chinese games feel like they will take an already finished drawing and start making edits, additions, and changes to it. And then afterwards they finally start writing a story and more ideas around this. That's why it appears that their stories and concepts feel less interesting from an optics standpoint. I have played Genshin and it took an extremely long time for the story to grab me, because in the first 50+ hours of that game it felt like they were just writing just to write, with basic anime tropes, personality types, and concepts, without a clear enough vision. The Genshin-likes are not helping their case either, which are a derivative of a derivative, essentially like taking a nice drink and watering it down over and over until there's just a hint of flavor. Wuthering Waves, while a fun game, feels blatant.
This same issue goes for when I played Tarisland, you know, that game that suddenly popped up once World of Warcraft was no longer supported in China. Look at this trailer:
Listen to the nonsense narration. Look at the armors, the way the game looks, etc. This is the type of mess that I'm talking about. Even if Tarisland is a new and somewhat different experience, the optics here in this trailer look really bad and blatant, and I could see it easily turn off an audience outside of China.
And again to make this fair, there are times where you can see this happen in regions outside of China. There was a Warhammer MMO that copied WoW's look and some of it's mechanics, and it's long dead now because of that, because why would anyone other than a small subgroup of Warhammer fans want to play a very derivative WoW clone with slightly different graphical features and less content. No really, look up gameplay of this game and you'll see why most people looked at it and said 'nah I'm good' or 'This is just WoW, I'll play WoW instead'.
I need you to understand I'm not saying all of this because I randomly picked up Genshin and said 'oh, it's like Zelda!'. No, I was there man. By there, I mean the 2000s and 2010s when every MMO known to man was trying to claw it's way to the #3 spot after World of Warcraft and Lineage 2.
While you guys were playing Gears of War, Halo, Uncharted, Lost Odyssey, and all of the greats from that gen, I was busy playing all of those MMOs back then. Some of them good, some of them very, very blatant copies of more popular titles. It was a mess, and publishers like Perfect World would constantly throw games out there until one or two of them stuck. There were a trail of dead MMOs by the end of the 2010s that I remember playing and I was not surprised when they died. So I remember quite a few Chinese MMOs back then that just took Korean and/or American games and even their UI at times, but put a Chinese lore-spin on it.
Just as a final note, I'm not saying Chinese games are bad. I'm also not saying they can't come up with their own concepts, lore, and stories. I just need to feel that difference better. I need to feel it more.
I'm just saying, it's bad optics.
Pasta la Vista
Member
Now they just need to grow up from their anime and "edgelord" phase cause that's all I see coming from that direction. Still ain't buying that shit though cause fuck the CCP.
FreeY$L
Member
Can you read? My post was in the past tense, i didn't conflate the two time periods at all. Japan's output is still nowhere near the quality of the 6th/7th generation, they're beyond washed. Capcom is doing nothing but remakes, and Chinese developers will usurp both regions.
rubik's dude
Member
Unironically, Showa is the game I'm looking forward to the most this year:
It looks bonkers in a No More Heroes/Deadly Premonition kinda fashion. I initially mistook it for a Japanese developed game, but nope, it was developed in China.
It looks bonkers in a No More Heroes/Deadly Premonition kinda fashion. I initially mistook it for a Japanese developed game, but nope, it was developed in China.
awwr999999
Member
The best hedge against Chinese interests gaining video game supremacy is mainstream platforms where games can be made faster with smaller teams.
Removing the need for massive teams gives the advantage back to Japan and the USA.
If making games require teams in the several hundreds China and India will take over eventually.
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A lot of AAA games are outsourced to Chinese studios, with a core Western/Japanese staff providing the creativity. But given that the vast majority of games today are uncreative, it's not an exaggeration to say that these games are actually made in China. For example, in other areas of goods, Western countries just put on brand names, but still made in China.
genesisblock
Member
As long as AAA games are a thing. Developers will need hundreds of developers to keep up. We haven't seen this mythical solution where a dozen devs can build a game on the scale of GTA4 despite our supposed advancements.
Guerilla Munch
Member
Chinese super gaming console when?
Hawk The Slayer
Member
It's good to see Chinese companies upping their game recently. Although interest wise I prefer what the Japanese comes up with way more especially with Resident Evil and Final Fantasy and that's not including some of the other things too like Granblue Fantasy Relink, Xenosaga, etc. But recently it's the Korea games that's growing the most in interest. I was already alright with some Korean games like Black Desert, Blade and Soul, Tera etc but now they got Stellar Blade and the amazing upcoming Tides of Annihination early next year.
Mibu no ookami
Demoted Member® Pro™
Japan is not churning out AAA games. I'd love to see this list of AAA games they're churning out and hope that list isn't filled with Resident Evil remakes re-using assets with limited improvements to engines.
Most of Japan's AAA games are extremely limited technically: Monster Hunter Wilds, Final Fantasy 16 and Rebirth, Konami is farming out their AAA development because they don't have that capacity anymore, Koei Tecmo is more AA if anything... So very interested to hear what these AAA games are.
awwr999999
Member
4k games are unsustainable, period. Game prices barely keep up with inflation while game dev costs and times continue to grow.
ChorizoPicozo
Member
That market is yuge. with chyna and India alone, is like 10% of the world population.
awwr999999
Member
China's got draconian laws and won't become a major market until that changes.
ChorizoPicozo
Member
I mean, they are a major market in themselves (like the Indian one). They make things for their own audience, and that's more than enough. I think this is the biggest factor in why they've been able to afford such big productions.
Felessan
Member
A/AA don't compete directly with AAA, they help carve out niche, but mass market prefer production quality.
It already is, though. Many of chinese games, especially those mentioned AAA gacha games, sustained by local market in the first place.
genesisblock
Member
Yes, I pointed that out that demand will ensure continuation. But once the trend goes by way of Ubisoft, than yes it will fall.
Shadowplay1979
Member
Thats because chinese and korean companies are actually taking risks. I work in the japanese game industry...on the schedule for 90 percent of the companies out there.......ports, slight remakes, ports and more ports...and mobile. With the PS4 mini coming soon, its only gonna get worse.
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