i also think a lot of people don't realize how small the average japanese studio is. most of them have less than 300 active development staff, and that's often split between anywhere from 3-7 projects in development at any given time. so its not uncommon 4 any given project 2 have less than 50 developers working on it at any given time. even the largest publishers like square enix, sega, konami, capcom, and even nintendo are tiny when compared 2 their western equivalents like EA, ubisoft, take two, activision, and xbox. it's such a big difference that it's kind of insane i never see it brought up in conversations regarding the japanese games industry.
That's a very good point as well. It was something never really considered since over here having a company sized at 200+ is already considered big enough to be in the government's good books and its more the inverse where I didn't know that globally studios from outside of Japan were that much bigger if anything so thank you for bringing that up. I feel like a large part of that is also due to the fact that many Japanese game companies do under utilise their overseas studios as well where if we take out the big exceptions like Nintendo who do have a fairly big presence globally many Japanese companies don't really make good use of them. Like with Koei while I was working there their China branches settled mostly art, the western ones were purely marketing and Singapore was mostly localisation and live ops and it does feel like had they actually done more development overseas as well perhaps we might've seeen them growing a lot more too.
There's also just a general crushingly low salary for even something as technically challenging and mentally difficult as doing game dev work. As someone that applied for various high-skill jobs in Japan for a time, I found it astonishing just how low the salaries were compared to Europe (let alone the US, lol).
@@aw2031zap It certainly is yea... which is why I still find that while it is above average the issue is also that the average itself is far too low too. The overtime pay does do a fair amount of lifting tho and since people don't usually count that in their actual pay even when it's paid out upfront it's hard to get a good sense of the actual takehome pay which is something better than expected though I still rlly wish it were higher
@@4reg4 You do know that in Japan, it's common practice to bribe your landlord even before giving bond, and the infidelity rate is some of the highest in the world due to couples barely seeing eachother to begin with, leading to almost all men and women cheating.
Your comment on how your culture has absolute respect for the boss/senior members is quite similar to how things operate in NA. People that think outside the box, have ideas that can push sales, drive profits, etc. are overridden by mindless folks that prioritize the all mighty "yes, sir!". Your worth is essentially based how well you can make the boss/senior person feel good. (obviously not all companies/management are like this. But a lot are)
@@Amarantha It does feel like that is really inescapable in any country huh... there's always the impression here that things are kinda better there so it sucks to hear that is a case still there too The reason why I brought that up as a point even then was because it does feel like it's taken to a little bit of an extreme here where there are different forms of the language used when addressing one's boss and when talking about one's boss to someone else too. Like there are at times completely different words that exist to say something simple like "look here" which feels like it reinforces and creates that rift to focus on how they are supposed to be of a higher position as well.Tbh at times it feels like speaking a different language altogether with look here (mi-te) becoming (goran ni natte) and stuff like that.
As a foreigner working in the gaming industry in Japan, I appreciate that you made such a detailed video! Most of us don't talk about it in the public because our community is too small and the risk of damaging our reputation by saying something that upsets the company is too high. In recent years, the biggest gap I felt was when overseas companies started getting hate for still having crunch time. Here in Japan, everyone knows that a big game release without significant crunch time won't happen 😅 So we just...kinda deal with it and only compain among each other hah
Ooooh, a fellow worked in the Japan industry! Hello hello! Yea it does feel like with the way the industry is with people talking about such things in public especially on social media it makes it very difficult to talk about such things. Tbh even while making all of these videos there's a part of me that's always worried I'll eventually get called into the boss" office and forced to make an ultimatum... That said it does feel like a lot of this is something that really needs to be talked about and that really needs to be changed if we want to see the industry improve and Japan to stay competitive in the future which is why at risk of all that I wanna at least leave something for hopefully some to watch as well so they get to understand it better
Didn't expect the industry to just be patent troll breeding ground 😅 and it seems like studios should have something like an indie games Friday to see all the weird subgenres the west makes
@@Zyolluax Yea I feel like they need more avenues to let people communicate with each other outside of just on their job scope so that more info can get shared around when it comes to what exists out in the market though simultaneously it does feel like we need them to even have more ways to play these games too. Also yea many of the big companies do patent troll at times and it breeds a weird arms race of sorts where companies that don't want too still need to file jus to create breathing space for themselves
Thank you so much for this video! You're probably the first person I've seen go so far into detail about this subject. Probably due to your familiarity with the topic. I was randomly recommended this video from my CZcams home page. I've had a small morbid fascination with Japanese work culture for a long time so this was extremely interesting!
It being a morbid fascination makes me feel worried about the work culture I'm in lol 😅 Jokes aside I'm glad you enjoyed the video. Cool to see that CZcams actually recommended the video around at all this time. But yea, it doesn't help that the Japanese game industry tends to be full of companies who are very strict about what their staff can do on social media (hence why I'm doing it quietly on my own) which might be why you don't see as many people talking about this from within too.
Wow I’m shocked to learn that the Japanese game industry is in such a bad state especially since nearly all my favourite games come out of Japan. Fantastic video
I'm glad you enjoyed the video! Yea indeed there are many issues with the industry as it is today. The industry has certainly produced a lot of good stuff and definetly has the potential to and many companies still are producing great games. Though it does feel like especially for the bigger companies there has been some level of bloat and regression setting in but if they try to correct course I feel like it can all still be turned around
The whole lack of exposure to foreign games really is a unfortunate issue. I do think Nintendo Direct's Indies section can somewhat bridge a gap, to get devs to consider translating things to Japanese. It doesn't help that in the western indie devs mind, Japan just isn't a market at all. I've been following indie devs for years (and work on stuff myself) and if I ever see any dev talk about localization, besides the usual French, Spanish, German, they will happily jump on Chinese, Korean and maybe Russian, but Japanese is almost always left out. Sucks even more because I watch JP streamers frequently, and seeing them not be able to play a game they think looks interesting, cause it's only localized to western languages + chinese feels like a wasted opportunity
@@DragonplayerDev Yea, there are also a bunch of indie game events here as well but it feels like they never get out of Japan much except for the one big one and even then the events aren't rlly big either which is kinda sad... Especially for those here who have more contact with the rest of the world like streamers have it rough it feels like bcause info just simply doesn't get out
@@overworkedsalarymanHonestly it really is good content. As an indie developer myself, I can see there's a lot to learn from your videos. Thank you so much!
@@eldelnacho Ah, an even more based dev than I then. I hope that it's been going well so far then. Really am glad to hear there's something totake away from the video tho and thank you for watching if anything
I knew about the pattents, from things like Crazy Taxi pattenting an arrow to signal where to go in the game, but didn't know it was that extended and deep. What can be done? I would like to see politicians at work against this, but if ero works are still being censored, I don't believe they will move for this either. Instead, the only way to fight is on heavy protesting. Quiet quiting is a form of it, the most simple I would say. Here's my stupid idea, for this maybe an economic self-destruction may be the best way of protesting. Get a group of developers that understand the goal and are able to compromise their future to be economic martyrs, then go to the patent list and sort by company value, and start making a game that takes every overstepping patent word by word. Aim to get a total fine that is higher than any of the demanding companies value, be a 10% of the PIB of Japan, shoot for the stars, show to the world that this is madness and law must be revoked. The only problem is that, knowing about previous cases like with Tatsuki on Kemono Friends, I expect everyone talking about it for a week, and then the world keeps spining like anything has happened, while everyone involved stays in jail for who-knows-how-long in this case. The interesting part is that the west youth is also troubled on finding motivation at work due to how everything is getting expensive every year while payrolls are cold as ice, among other reasons. This seems to be a ramification of the capitalistic mind of "get all the money", instead of "do a good work" or "be satisfied with life", so there seems to no be any other easy solution than taking a plane to work at another country with "less advanced society".
@@TheELASESINADOR The pantenting issues here certainly runs pretty deep and some companies are pretty quick to slam the hammer down on others which does hurt experimentation quite a lot. idk how likely the government would intervene even in that situatiln you suggested though, mostly just because they react to only situations they perceive are bad enough to make them lose face but perhaps that might work tho idk who would wanna take that fall
Hearing you talk about this really reminds me of something a historian remarked about japanese history and culture. The idea is roughly that Japan has a switch with two states. "Stagnation and rapid innovation." The default state is stagnation but occasionally when enough pressure mounts the switch will be flipped and you will see innovation and progress at a blistering pace until systemic innertia reasserts itself and then the switch will flip back. And it feels like we are reaching the point where the switch is about to flip again.
@@virado255 That's interesting. It does feel like because of certain parts of the culture it makes the period of stagnation more common here perhaps especially with how highly social norms and behaving in linn get reinforced which leads to a period of long status quo when things are well but when push comes to shove that gets thrown outta the way kinda like what is slowly happening now... That said, I hope the switch flips in a way that hlps make life better from everyone here while alsopushing the indusry forward. What you brought up rlly does sound quitn interesting tho
@@overworkedsalaryman Heres hoping. Also theres one thing I've heard people talk about in japanese companies. That being the "loud american" who is employed with the idea that in addition to whatever their job is they have the role of bucking the social norms and telling the boss his idea is stupid/wrong. Have you seen anything like that?
@@virado255 yea, i kinda mentioned that a lil at the very vry end of the video and being someone who born and raised overseas I kinda partially fill that role as well in my team (tho in my case I have to push them to let me do it instead) but yea, playing the foreigner card is rlly effective of a way to ensure things move smoothly as you can kinda get a way with being blunt and forcing change more If anything I wish I could do it more too lol since in my case it's a lot more of a balancing act
You earned a sub with this one, great vid! Btw your communication is fantastic, i hope you realize how good your english actually is whenever you disparage yourself about a miniscule mistake
I"m glad you enjoyed the video 🙏 A lot like when I bump my hand on the mike, those kinda mistakes happen quite a a fair bit because English difficult so mostlyI just get rid of them but sometimes they end up a lil funny or lightening the mood at the time so I leave them in too XD
I'm glad you enjoyed the video and that the things I was thinking about were interesting to listen to as well 🙏 If anything, thank you for watching this time too!
I've got to say I appreciate a lot this two videos you've made, finding insider info about Japan's game industry's work culture is uncommon as it's hardly ever talked about. I am planning on going to Tokyo, studying at a language school for a year, then trying to apply for a job in the game industry or something related to my skills (those vtuber 3D concerts look fun to make). My idea was to adapt to the culture there as much as possible, but hearing that going against it a bit might even be expected of a foerigner makes me reconsider that idea. Anyways, the more I hear about Japan's working conditions does make me more scared of it but it's not much worse than my country's, including salaries, so I'm still keen on giving it a shot at least for some years.
I'd say either way it'd be a good experience trying to work overseas especially in Japan since aside from work there's plenty to see and do as well. Plus the industry is slowly getting better and things really aren't as bad as they were in the past (minus some of the big companies) so go for it! Either way whether or not they expect foreigners to go against the mold, some companies don't expect you to do it all the time anyways and some may not even mind you not doing that so it really depends on the workplace. I'd recommend trying to ask that a little during the interview process. The standard interview question of "where do you see me contributing to your company if you do hire me" or "what kind of role do you expect me to work in while here" kinda deal 👍
Thank you for sharing, jumped back to part 1 before part 2. Nice to get some insight :) Also, shout out to Rimworld, nice to see other ppl who have enjoyed it :D
I'm glad you enjoyed the video! Though apologies on how long their combined lengths are... But yea, Rimworld is a great game and I'd say I would put the dev Tynan Sylvester's book on game design as important reading for those who want to get into game design. It's a pretty interesting read as well. Also being able to set up funni ice sheet cannibal colonies is ceertainly a truly an experience I can't think any other game can give
@@overworkedsalaryman Don't apologize on the length of the videos, it takes time to get into detail on things and it's nice getting insight into the industry. I did not realize he wrote a book. Interesting. Rimworld gets into things in fun ways, and if you havent seen it Rimworld comics does a good job of highlighting some of them.
@@kakkipeter3724 I have not seen a comic yet shall go give it a look see like you said. Though yea the book used to be advertised on Ludeon's website quite a few years back. Have not checked it recently but the book itself should still be available at least
Appreciate your insight on the current state of affairs regarding game development within Japan. It's an unfortunate position they're in right now factoring in how current and social events are playing a part like the Visa/Mastercard debacle and the DEI-related issues that companies (whether within the US or otherwise) like Capcom are currently kowtowing to. As if that's not enough pressure applied, Korean and Chinese mobile games are essentially raking in revenue and profit over the Japanese counterparts that tend to rely on brand IP and recognition. I'm really curious on your next video that'll touch on this topic, and what your honest thoughts are with the way the JP game development industry is heading if things are going to continue the way they are, especially how a lot of companies these days abstain from being too creative and taking risks.
I'm glad you found the video interesting. Indeed Korea and China have been coming up a lot more in the game industry in certain parts as of the recent years and it does make it feel even more like Japanese companies being unwilling to take the risk is hurting its position in coming up with interesting new games. The third part will likely be awhile in the making kinda like with the 1st to 2nd part but either way, I hope that you find it interesting when it does come out!
lol mans chronic documentary length video creation illness rears it's head once again That aside, otsukare xd nice work on the video, have to find some time to watch the whole thing, and as always, love listening to your commentary, hope your day goes well :)
@@magnumic2419 The ailment comes and goes when I stop being able to control it and drone for too long it seems lol That said I'm glad you enjoyed the stuff so far and otsukare m7
With the introduction of Hololive popularizing the concept of Idols even further in the west and being sustainable, trust me, Namco is thinking some really dumb things by thinking the only marketable thing in the west is media adjacent to Hokuto no Ken and not idolmaster.... like, as long as the game is faithfully translated with no self absorbed changes, I would absolutely LOVE to play an idolmaster game, as would others who want something sweeter and comfier than what the AAA industry puts out. Gakuen Idolmaster seems to look quite charming and high quality in it's own right, especially since Shinosawa Hiro seems to look like a very inspirational character on one hand and a very comedically, charmingly weird character with no sense of being an idol on the other. Oh and seeing where the U149s come from, source material wise, would make me very very happy. But besides my desires, I do wonder when the old heads are gonna take the hint that the gears of war stuff has been seeing some pushback as of late. I'm seeing lots of people want more colorful, stimulating games than the AAA games that people buy but never beat, let alone start playing. I do wonder if the old heads do try sitting down and playing those kinds of games that UbiSoft or Activision put out. As for the DEI stuff people were briefly talking about, try looking into the Sweet Baby controversies' to see why people really don't like these things. Lots of discriminatory and psychological manipulation involved (as expressed in their GDC talk) just to make shallow social issue changes or removals to games and give the DEI company a rich buck for them for barely doing anything as a result. Lots of people relate that kind of behavior to business extortion. Those are one of the things fans of japanese games really want their favorites to stay away from.
@@LoliconSamalik Truth be told the fact that they never took the step to try with the OG imas still boggles mn to this day since I'd say (nostalgia may have made me bias but) thosn were really enjoyable and what makes Gakuen idolmaster so good imo is that it harkens back to that era of unexpectedly good 3d models for their period coupled with havy character focus in the plot and gameplay that stands well on its own even outside of a gacha game setting. There's always the possibility that it's something license for the seiyuus related from back in the day but that in a way also links back to a problem with the olds in a company. Also with gaukmas so far it has surprised me how well written the characters are with how much of a gap there is between the person you first meet and the real them you get to know over time. It feels a lot mor3 like a vry short visual novel in a way and i'd love to see it expanded more With the second point you mentioned I wonder if that is something that if these companies were given access to industry grade anayltics tools they being more willing to accept the reality of it all since then they'd have data to suggest they might be wrong though my gut feel is some would reman unmoved 🤔 I'll go look more into the DEI stuff. When I first heard of it it sounded vry innocent enough but it does sound like it gets a lot of bad press
@overworkedsalaryman The DEI subject will make you enemies, split your audience, and potentially silo your channel as a social commentary channel. So be extremely careful when approaching that subject. I largely agree with OP but I dare not voice my (honestly fairly mild) criticisms of DEI at my work place or I'd be fired/disciplined immediately. It creates a suffocating environment
@@overworkedsalaryman the fact that you say Gakuen Idolmaster is like a visual novel makes it all the more painful to me as someone who can't quite play, as Blue Archive being a Visual Novel really helped with me getting so passionate about it without all of the level gated roadblocks that I kept seeing in games like Nikke. And Qoo app's terrible instant translation service isn't really helping... But with all of that said, surely they could launch the game internationally without VA and get things sorted out from behind the scenes in new updates adding it back in, at least as a compromise. Namco owns everything else, including the music, no? So they still have the fundamentals to work with something.
@@overworkedsalaryman DEI is a huge issue in western politics today, in education and elections - it's one of the more inflammatory topics when it comes to left vs right, and used as a hammer to prove "who is bad". while it's probably not as bad in the gaming industry, many people who discuss those things aren't trying to be constructive, they are just out to 'get people' for having the wrong political view.
Eh idk seniority being respected so much looks like a double edged sword. On one hand it feels that job security can be earmed. On the other hand it also looks like a good breeding ground for nested incompetence.
@@ChiefWombatCuddler Indeed it is and indeed it has. Have seen this happen in some of my older workplaces as well where someone who has no experience in a field is given the responsibilty of managing it and things start to fall apart because of this. It's great for the individual but for the group overall it can be harmful in excess
Great information from you. As a game dev in America (on the animation side of things) I wish I knew more about if/how foreigners get to be/are a part of making Japanese games, and whether it would make sense to try to work over there or not.
@@MrBoponpa I'm glad the video was interesting for you 🙏 I'd say it really is company dependant now since there are some like the one I'm in now that do aggressively hire foreigner staff and are willing to put them in 課長 level leadership positions, something many companies in the past refused to do whicg gave Japan a bad rep too. That said, I'd say if you do make the jump it's better to go for a bigger company first and see if the culture fits with you and jump to a smaller development focused company after if it does not as it's much easier and faster to get a decent/good work visa from a big company whereas smaller ones may not be willing to put in the effort for you but once you're here unless you're on a top tier specialist visa you can freely change company. My experience is that big or small, there are both companies that do and do not have as active positions and the reason why it's hard for me to give a definitive answer is becausing we're living in an era where more companies are slowly waking up to the reality that they need foreign staff too so your best bet is to use employer review sites to check on the companies you'd be interested in going to first and/or going to a recruitment agent in Japan and getting their help as many of those have insiders in the companies to help gather such info
@@MrBoponpa Geekly and Visionary are fairly good with getting into the game industry as they have many contacts, but idk how much they'd be able to help with the whole getting people in from overseas part but it might be worth a shot. Bizreach and workport both work though they are more general and can be kinda hit or miss too. JobsinJapan and ragent are a favorite among people trying to get into Japan but the openings for the game industry specifically tend to be more restrictive if I recall.
@@overworkedsalaryman Great, I'll have to check those out. I assume that anyone who wants to join a Japanese game company will need to be fluent in Japanese? Or are there companies that have more English-centric divisions?
@@MrBoponpa Preferably able to speak and prefereably fluent unless you're in a Chinese or Western company based in Japan like Tencent, Ubisoft etc. I think Square Enix does have English divisions but even with those it helps to know it or they might very well just post you overseas for the bigger companies.
In a way that is part of it since the thing they didn't want was his face to be easily accessible on the internet because of their policies which were so strict that there was a period in the past where they tried to completely restrict the amount of official images of some of the talent under them on the internet. This meant to the extent that they would not post the pictures of some of their talents even on their own website. While this isn't as strict anymore, those policies are still somewhat used to control the level of appearance of some of their talents online which the extractability/moddability of it is a part of that.
I'm a first timer on this channel since this happens to be on my recommendations. First of all, why is your channel low in subs? Cause this is some seriously good and insightful stuff. Typing this near the end of the vid; almost finished watching. A lot things you've said actually clicks and confirms certain stuff that I only have a smidge about JP Game dev and understand how they dev as how it is. (ie, game tech and design patenting). Like, on the surface I can agree and understand they do it for protective reasons, but I never crossed in my mind that this thing can actually stifle innovation for new games and even local indie games in the large scope. Second of all, are you actually native Japanese? Cause your accent is way more closer to a Singaporean. Heck, if you were to tell me you are an expat living in Japanese or you had a half South East Asian parent, I wouldn't have been surprised. On that note tho, you are quite eloquent and really know how to orate. You could be a top ranking salesman or politician, if you catch my drift, haha. But yeah, not a dull moment when you speak. One again, CZcams has unearthed for me a great gem of channel. I hope more would witness this bright glimmer.
Hey there! Glad you enjoyed the video tbh. Makes the time pressure to get this out by the end of the month feel worth it. As for the first part idk either tbh XD Though I don't upload that frequently so that might perhaps be why. That and the videos do tend to vary a lot in nature so that might also be what affects it to. That said hearing that there was some interesting info to gleam from the video is always good since I was really worried whether the content would be up to par this time tbh. As for the second part I was born and raised in Singapore and went to public school there so that might've affected how I sound quite a fair bit even though it's been almost a decade since I was last there. That said, idk what this channel is gonna become in the future but either way, I hope you enjoy the ride o7
It's 23:58, Mr Salaryman. I'm goin' to bed. おやすみなさい！ You know, contrary to popular belief... People in Tokyo- well, at least Nerima-ku, do indeed sleep. I hear it's Yokohama who's the city that never sleeps.
I love this man's collection, heavy with Blue Archive and even some game covers I've never seen as a westerner. Wish these things were available to me (or that I was monetized so I could buy them in the first place) but I suspect I'd develop a problem if they were available.
@@fleetingimmersion I'm glad the weird range of videos is something you enjoy lol. I still find it rlly sad that there's so much that just never got translated and is at risk of becoming lost media simply because people here forget about it and people overseas just don't get to hear about it either Though looking at the background behind me, I feeling likd developing a problem is a very real possibility lol
@@overworkedsalaryman I definitely think some of the stuff we don't get over here could have been my favorite series if I'd known about them. I understand translating games is heavy work (and probably not worth the money if it's H or Ecchi) but hopefully the AI craze will result in an on-screen overlay that I can use to auto-translate any game I can get my hands on pretty soon, and therefore expand which series I can support. It's not like someone is NOT gonna try, right? Then again I'd like to move to Japan myself anyway, so the supply may not be an issue for me if I can manage it, only time will tell.
@@fleetingimmersion It certainly would be nice if there were a tool that could eventually help smoothen out translation so that companies don't have to rely on weird outsource companies located in non-english speaking countries at times to localise english (that does happen btw) Hopefully you do manage to move though, at least with Japanese language not being a barrier it does open a lot of doors
@@overworkedsalaryman I suppose learning the language is one of my priorities, but my immediate one is getting monetized so I don't run out of savings, there's a bit of a time limit on that as I don't know how much longer my parents can stand me. Once that happens then things get busy, what with Visas, credit cards that would work there, taxes etc, but I'll persevere. To be honest, if I did learn Japanese well-enough, it would also get rid of my need for them to localize these games, as well as make it not matter if they localize them badly, so there's a bright side to the whole thing. Sorry, I'm rambling a bit, it's almost 5am, but I'll enjoy setting up there if I can manage it.
@@fleetingimmersion If immediately finding a job is tough, trying to get over through one of the language schools might work too. Seems like mny people come over through those and work part-time with the school helping them in searching for jobs after so that might be worth looking into. That said have a good rest!
Is it that uncommon there? It was pretty revolutionary for its time but now that you mention that come to think of it it does feel like an IP I haven't really heard anyone talk about. Though with how traumatic my first experience with the series was I can imagine that for many modern gamers it might actually turn them away with how much it expects people to read the manual before playing lol
The thing about reading the manual is that it reveals Wizardry's world is actually quite whimsical, it's meant to be a fun joke but that clashes so extremely with its cold hard tabletop RPG brutality wahaha. I've heard that part of why it was so impactful in Japan is because there was NO Japanese translation for the manual and people playing it there had to figure it all out on their own, but obviously I was not there and don't personally know anyone who was.
@@czarkusa2018 Yea it was not translated at the time which was quite a funni since there was this entire cast of mystery people you had to make your own lore up for. Really sad that we've gone past that era of manuals being full of content about the game though, used to love those and would read them on the entire hour plus journey home from the store as a kid. Really good times...
Just because I'm obsessed with Wizardry I also want to mention that the advanced character classes of Samurai and Ninja (which require higher stats/levels to adopt) were included due to the development team being big fans of Kurosawa films. I've always wanted to know how significant those references to Japan in Wizardry were to Japan's fascination with the series, I don't expect its creators had anticipated anyone in Japan even bothering to play their game! I'm not trying to drag ya into a conversation lol I just want to put info out there for anyone that finds themself interested in this topic.
@@czarkusa2018 No worries, it was fun to hear more about the game tbh. When I saw the Samurai and Ninja class I was pretty surprised since I wasn't expecting a game that old to have references to Japan in any way. Part of me was even wondering if it was because of samurai cop or that one ninja golf movie at the time there if anything 🤣
It's probably worth noting that despite you noting about youtubers creating "transformative" works, there's no such protections in Japan. You might've mentioned this before, but doujin works only exist because many companies are willing to look the other way since if they cracked down as some have, that'd be it. Then of course there are degrees of acceptance between being fully okay with the doujin scene and outright stating their IP is off-limits. Uma Musume historically being fine with stuff as long as it's not R18. Some Garupan circles got spoken to prior to this comiket about merch that isnt doujin music or books as an infringement. (Clear files were the sticking point since I guess physical goods are where the money is at for them. Who knows if they'll be more serious about it.) As an aside, I'm still waiting for the day where transformative works gets brought up in the courts. It feels inevitable that the question of which country's laws get followed? The person creating the content, the rights holder(s), or the platform(youtube)?
Yea that's the issue with the whole transformative works thing it does feel like since many cases of these conflicts come up between Western content creators who do have those protections in their home countries and Japanese companies operating mainly in Japan who may be unaware of these as well. It certainly will be interesting to see the case when it does happen though I'm worry for the person who has to take the fall for this to happen as well tbh. Within Japan it's a very weird space since as you pointed out the same protections don't exist but at the same time there are strange grey zones existing all over the place because no one wants to fuck around and find out. Even with doujins it's a rare thing where the only major lawsuit case was prolly by Nintendo and companies usually only step in to tell people to stop if it goes a lil far against some specific rights owner like Uma Musume's being a result of the keibas though I didn't hear about the recent garupan one thank you for bringing that up 🙏 will go read more into that.
Just finished watching the video and will say, I definitely really loved watching this and part 1 to just sanity check myself with how current Japanese games as a consumer perspective really hasn't been the best in current years, and hearing the gamedev side of it. I'm interested for part 3 as well! Personally I can say that I have problems with Japanese anime-styled games, especially in the gacha space (as much as I hate that almost every "good" anime styled games follow the gacha format nowadays.) 1. I wouldn't count Kantai Collection as a gacha but I constantly get so disappointed with the handling of the game. TLDR it feels like they have more attention to irl collabs / marketing than the base browser game currently, this is my focal point. Not to mention they're so bad at teasing people to be interested at in game content as well, due to them putting out silhouttes of some "remodels" to be teased as irl merch in events and only putting out a text based teaser on their official twitter. 2. Their gacha system is just horrendous and outdated, the whole free & paid gem system is just dubious and its one of the reasons I dont even want to try it because you just know you'll never get close to a fraction of end game power due to this pulling system. 3. Not too much interesting / interesting gameplay. When I think of gacha with good in depth gameplay I think of Arknights, GFL2, Hoyo games, Snowbreak, PGR. But Japan..? I can't think of any I can stick for the sake of gameplay. Then again this point is entirely pointless for Blue Archive since the gameplay can be grinded so easily and the loop isn't too inducing, but the story is what keeps me playing so I suppose language barrier with no global / EN version of the game can be what keeps me back as well. Since its not like I play Korean or Chinese versions of the game anyway, its the English ones.
I'm glad the video was interesting for you if anything 🙏 Indeed Japan does feel like when it comes to that specific space of gaming is really lagging behind nowadays and even when it comes to consumer titles it does feel like they are lagging behind the west in some ways as well so I figured it might be interesting to look into all of that perhaps. Kantai collection was quite different in execution since it technically has a gacha but not really in its shipbuilding but I wouldn't call it what we all understand as a gacha either. As to why it feels like they stopped working on it well you have Kadokawa and Tanaka (the producer i think) to thank for not knowing how to execute properly. I still remember the friend system stayed in coming soon for close to 6 years at least Gacha as a system is quite explotative I agree but it does rake in a alot of money and it's precisely because of this that it does feel like so many companies are going into it as many of them fall into camps of either 1. Needing massive growth as a public firm 2. Needing massive cash injections to stop themselves going under. Which is what also led to its popularity as a means to an end. There's a lot going into it and I need to see if I can order my thoughts for the next videoi As for the third point I do agree. I feel like it's in large part because of the fact that this was a genre that was initially designed to be easy to play even in situations where you wouldn't be able to play a full game. I.e a full train in peak hour in Japan and as such there hasn't been too much investment into gameplay in these games. Plus gacha games with heavy gameplay occupy what I'd consider a strange niche since they're basically appealing to people who would want to substitute playing a full on consumer title for a gacha title with gameplay (i.e with Genshin you can't really play it proper on the phone and on the PC it's still not that easy of a game to multi-task so you can't really play another bigger PC title on the side). Though from what I see it does appeal a lot to the more casual gaming crowd i.e the average non-avid gamer person who plays on the go because train rides are boring and that added to the success of these types of games as well though personally I'm not as much a fan of those because it conflicts with my desire to simulaneously play bannerlord and rimworld at the same time for example. Also Blue Archive is Korean even though the names are Japanese so it also fits into the trend of Japan not making many big mobile titles
The hiring differences are insane to me. If somebody asked me to join my team for programming, and I quizzed them and they told me that they don't know what SIMD is, I'd tell them to go back and read a book or two first. That people without programming experience can get hired is just WILD.
@daruthebeast "MY team for PROGRAMMING". Not saying that you aren’t fit for "any" IT project. But certainly not for game dev programming. That's like saying you don't know what a TMU is, and you want to do graphics. If I am supposed to invest weeks to months making a new hire productive, I want the person to have enough interest to RTFM.
Yea, to this day it still is kinda crazy to me that I see recruitment ads that say NO EXPERIENCE REQUIRED! LEARN ON THE JOB. Granted it's not all companies but the fact that usually the big companies are the one doing it is errrr... yea
@@daruthebeast To be fair it might just be a term that is more prevalant in some countries & industries than other countries so it may not click instantly. Kinda like how gameplay loop is called gameplay cycle in Japan so some people get confused when one is used instead of the other. That said if in AddGaming's case it's in the context of hiring someone to fulfill a very specialised role then I can see be worried that the person doesn't know. But yea like you say there's just so much stuff out there that it's hard to remember everything, especially since programming is a very broad thing
Sorry for being late to comment about this. I found this video has bring up some nice points about what happened in the Japanese video game industry now. Its kind of sad, cause I grew up with most of my favorites from Japan, and now I see this is like a shadow of their former selves. Worst that most of Japan's biggest companies are more influenced by the modern west. So after listening to your talk about branching out to the west, I am curious. Has any Japanese game companies ever worked together to other countries in the east like Taiwan or China? I have heard that the game Visions of Mana is a collaboration between China and Japan, so curious to see is there any other. Also while many think games from Compile Heart are considered kusoge, but to me, they are probably one of the last remaining game companies that actually make games that feels Japan, if you know what I mean. Like almost in the style of the PC98 days. P.S. Regarding Evangalion, from what I know the anime really didn't inspired from Christianity religion, those are more coincidental than anything. Evangalion actually took inspiration from Ultraman, which the creator is a huge otaku of.
No need to apologise on when you comment on the video o7 It's gonna be up for as long as I don't get thermonuclearexplosioned by youtube anyways so whenever you want to is fine! Though yea it's quite sad that the industry does seem to have seen some degredation over time especially for the triple As which all over the world those seem to be hit the most but it does feel like the hiring practices here makes Japan hit that bit more simply because they are at times people with no experience in development position so even if we assume that the modern western influences were taken away somehow it does feel like recovery is something that'd take them awhile. China is a tough place to branch out to though Taiwan generally does pretty well with regards to that. A part of this is because the Chinese government is quite strict with what content can enter the mainland so many foreign games just are unable to enter the market as they get banned from entry (even some wiifit games have been hit as far as I know). Plus, quite a few companies have been also hit by data theft from employees/business pratners there who then used the data to set up their own competitor company and game there outside of the laws and regulations of Japan. As such, some companies are apprehensive about setting up there as a result since while they are kinda forced to respect the patents of their competitors as a company from Japan their competitors in China do not have to care about foreign patents much. With Korea and Taiwan though I do hear a lot more of that collaboration with Korean companies even sometimes taking in Japanese game studios and vice versa too With Compa I feel like their modern games are in a way like that and they usually feel like games that have a lot of potential but something goes wrong with the execution somehere in the middle of the game, kinda like with black rose valkrie and gungunpixies which felt liek games with potential tobe something unique but some parts bog it down. That said, they are a lot better of a company than they used to be and in Japan at least I feel like their reputation as a Kusoge company is more a result of Idea Factory's game lineup being full of kusoges pre-compile heart and some of compile heart's pre-neptune games like the Kaiji one on the DS. This might've given them that reputation as well, though I agree with you that the reputation nowadays at least isn't as fair for them as they have seen improvement over the years. As for eva, I don't know how true what I'm about to say is since all we have left are articles online of interviews that happened back in the day. So don't quote me on this, but I recall in some interviews they mention that they used it with intent though not to be a Christian show or making that the focus of the show but because they thought the symbolism was cool so they researched that and made it a theme. They also mentioned that had they known the show would be seen outside of Japan they wouldn;t have used those themes so it inspiring a part of the shows visuals can be said to be a thing imo but not on a very in-depth level like a core concept of the show, mostly influencing the plot itself and some of the world/enemy designs.
Why many companies shy away from depiction of underwear or fan-service in general, they stop 作り込み including the aspect, as if someone outside policing them or preaching them about 'ethics', while Nihon falcom still doing what they have been doing without caring about outsider noise. This was the main reason why I don't buy anything from Koei tecmo anymore. I still enjoy old atelier games and blue reflection1
And while Japanese are shying away from that aspect, they are letting Chinese filling in that void with many copy and paste gacha games with much lower story telling quality.
For sure, the old atelier games are pretty based, Arland Triology still remains forever in my heart. In a way they kinda are getting policed yea what with mastercard and visa actively cutting support for companies that have content that is considered too unsafe for work and from my own experience, apple and google do sometimes check the data for every new version of the game passed to them and reject certain marketing materials and content they feel would not align with their brand. That and there have been many companies that took the backlash that certain more conservative groups in the west had given them too seriously thinking that's how people there feel about the games. Combining that with them getting advice from western consulting firms on what works bests there all of that combined has kinda led to why there has beeen more levels of family friendliness in Japanese bigger game titles too nowadays
hey, will you be covering on the subject of weird stigma against visual novels by western storefronts? Plenty of visual novels aren't getting a steam release/outright banned while sex with hitler is a real game on steam
That's a topic I never really considered previously since I wasn't too well-read on the topic but I'll look into it and see if I can find out enough to make a video on it. Thank you for the suggestion!
Another great video! I was thinking to my self, do you know if it is normal for japanese companies to accept fresh graduated foreigners as well in their 新卒採用 (I believe this is how it's called) recruit period?
@@samuelleie Foreigner already in Japan or no. If yea then the chance is high but if no then it'd be tough. Only the most large scale of companies like square enix might but even then I'd say to give it a try since you never know, some of them might actually do it
@@overworkedsalaryman Thanks, yeah thats the main way that I want to use to get a job. I probably will try doing it one year in my country (probably in 2026) and then if I need to try it again (and if I have condition) I'm thinking in taking a student visa to study japanese in Japan (just to let you know, I'm already studying) and at the same time try it the recruitment again.
Just like how after ww2 certain generals were put into the new cabinet, the same kinda happened at the end of the Boshin war which ended the shogunate so there very well might be holdouts from that day lol
ye, there some JRPG that I interested to try but have no localization; Heaven Burns Red in this case, just bought some cool figures of them, look up what is the source.... and no localization =/
Funnily enough we were just talking on the discord about how the HBR English Twitter account has been quietly taken and they hired an English staff over at WFS recently so there is a posibility it might eventually come now. But yea it sucks that there are so many JRPGs that never get translated. Feels like there is just so much media out there here that just exists in 2nd hand stores that people might not have gotten to try precisely because of the language barrier : /
i watched the whole thing and i understood that if i ever get the opportunity to work in japan that: * I could land a job because i have a "good attitude" BUT... there is a lot of cultural things and details i will probably disagree with or have general problems with. * I would become frustrated because i would not be able to express my ideas without needing to pass 10 layers * I would be fired or frowned upon because i like to challenge ideas to see how we can improve it. So that means that i like to have a discussion on why/how things are made. * No one would understand me because even if i know english it is probably more expected that i learn japanese. * Work culture in Japan is very strict so the rules we have here in The Netherlands barely apply there. I guess my dreams of working for Bandai or Capcom are officially dead now that i come to realize that working in Japan could be fun for a couple of months but will be a drag further down the line. Thanks for the insightful video it made me reflect on what i can appreciate from where i currently work (programmer in a bank) and actually consider to start going indie instead of looking for a job in the gaming industry to get experience. Of course you talk specifically about Japanese work culture but the end goal would be working at the place where all your passion comes from and in my case it's mostly Japan.
I'd say if you as a person from overseas come and work in Japan you do have the advantage of not needing to worry as much about expressing ideas since you'd have this very big unique trait called being able to play the foreigner card which basically allows you to be blunt and push ideas without having to worry as much about the manners and bureaucracy that locals would have to. That and people won't force you to follow the practices and ideals of the local society as much too so you don't have to worry as much about the first few points that you mentioned. In fact many companies hire people from overseas precisely for this desire to break the existing mold of restraint that has become so prevalent in Japan that makes all of this a problem so in a way, wanting to push your own ideas and get challenged on them is something you'd definitely be able to do precisely because of your unique position in the country. Though that said, Japanese being a required language and the culture being fairly strict in terms of things like work hours, having no sick leaves etc can be quite a culture shock for sure. Though if you ever do decide to work in the game industry in Japan I'd say Capcom is fine but Bandai is only really fine if you want to go into the merchandising side or if you're going in at a directorial level. Being an entry-level development side programmer there is gonna be helll since they don't really develop most of their own titles anymore so you'd enough up in a really rough spot unless you end up in the tales or tekken team or something
@@overworkedsalaryman im google translating my cv to apply to capcom right now! XD. thank you for the information. this means that japan is trying to adapt knowing that part of the problem is the culture i gues. maybe a video idea for in the future :D.
Congrats on being 1st 🙌 Glad you enjoy the videos and thank you for watching if anything There's a lot of difference at times between the videos but I hope you enjoy them nonetheless!
i also think a lot of people don't realize how small the average japanese studio is. most of them have less than 300 active development staff, and that's often split between anywhere from 3-7 projects in development at any given time. so its not uncommon 4 any given project 2 have less than 50 developers working on it at any given time. even the largest publishers like square enix, sega, konami, capcom, and even nintendo are tiny when compared 2 their western equivalents like EA, ubisoft, take two, activision, and xbox. it's such a big difference that it's kind of insane i never see it brought up in conversations regarding the japanese games industry.
That's a very good point as well. It was something never really considered since over here having a company sized at 200+ is already considered big enough to be in the government's good books and its more the inverse where I didn't know that globally studios from outside of Japan were that much bigger if anything so thank you for bringing that up.
I feel like a large part of that is also due to the fact that many Japanese game companies do under utilise their overseas studios as well where if we take out the big exceptions like Nintendo who do have a fairly big presence globally many Japanese companies don't really make good use of them. Like with Koei while I was working there their China branches settled mostly art, the western ones were purely marketing and Singapore was mostly localisation and live ops and it does feel like had they actually done more development overseas as well perhaps we might've seeen them growing a lot more too.
That's a really good point that you brought up and thank you for doing so lemme just pin it as well so others can see this
There's also just a general crushingly low salary for even something as technically challenging and mentally difficult as doing game dev work. As someone that applied for various high-skill jobs in Japan for a time, I found it astonishing just how low the salaries were compared to Europe (let alone the US, lol).
@@aw2031zap It certainly is yea... which is why I still find that while it is above average the issue is also that the average itself is far too low too. The overtime pay does do a fair amount of lifting tho and since people don't usually count that in their actual pay even when it's paid out upfront it's hard to get a good sense of the actual takehome pay which is something better than expected though I still rlly wish it were higher
nah but they can afford to live in their country while you can make big numbers on paper and still be a serf to landlord and your polyamorous wife
@@4reg4 You do know that in Japan, it's common practice to bribe your landlord even before giving bond, and the infidelity rate is some of the highest in the world due to couples barely seeing eachother to begin with, leading to almost all men and women cheating.
@@ArchOfficialwow, you seem to have put a lot of research into to that. Mind sharing your objective sources on that?
@@arbeitslos4247 No, there's not a source for decades of reading papers and conversing with Japanese and looking into how to move there and so on.
Your comment on how your culture has absolute respect for the boss/senior members is quite similar to how things operate in NA. People that think outside the box, have ideas that can push sales, drive profits, etc. are overridden by mindless folks that prioritize the all mighty "yes, sir!". Your worth is essentially based how well you can make the boss/senior person feel good. (obviously not all companies/management are like this. But a lot are)
@@Amarantha It does feel like that is really inescapable in any country huh... there's always the impression here that things are kinda better there so it sucks to hear that is a case still there too
The reason why I brought that up as a point even then was because it does feel like it's taken to a little bit of an extreme here where there are different forms of the language used when addressing one's boss and when talking about one's boss to someone else too. Like there are at times completely different words that exist to say something simple like "look here" which feels like it reinforces and creates that rift to focus on how they are supposed to be of a higher position as well.Tbh at times it feels like speaking a different language altogether with look here (mi-te) becoming (goran ni natte) and stuff like that.
"Me especially I'm a very weak human" That is such a great quote! I'm stealing that to use in casual conversation sometime.
Lmao feel free to use it as you please
As a foreigner working in the gaming industry in Japan, I appreciate that you made such a detailed video! Most of us don't talk about it in the public because our community is too small and the risk of damaging our reputation by saying something that upsets the company is too high.
In recent years, the biggest gap I felt was when overseas companies started getting hate for still having crunch time. Here in Japan, everyone knows that a big game release without significant crunch time won't happen 😅 So we just...kinda deal with it and only compain among each other hah
Ooooh, a fellow worked in the Japan industry! Hello hello!
Yea it does feel like with the way the industry is with people talking about such things in public especially on social media it makes it very difficult to talk about such things.
Tbh even while making all of these videos there's a part of me that's always worried I'll eventually get called into the boss" office and forced to make an ultimatum...
That said it does feel like a lot of this is something that really needs to be talked about and that really needs to be changed if we want to see the industry improve and Japan to stay competitive in the future which is why at risk of all that I wanna at least leave something for hopefully some to watch as well so they get to understand it better
Didn't expect the industry to just be patent troll breeding ground 😅 and it seems like studios should have something like an indie games Friday to see all the weird subgenres the west makes
@@Zyolluax Yea I feel like they need more avenues to let people communicate with each other outside of just on their job scope so that more info can get shared around when it comes to what exists out in the market though simultaneously it does feel like we need them to even have more ways to play these games too.
Also yea many of the big companies do patent troll at times and it breeds a weird arms race of sorts where companies that don't want too still need to file jus to create breathing space for themselves
Thank you so much for this video! You're probably the first person I've seen go so far into detail about this subject. Probably due to your familiarity with the topic. I was randomly recommended this video from my CZcams home page. I've had a small morbid fascination with Japanese work culture for a long time so this was extremely interesting!
It being a morbid fascination makes me feel worried about the work culture I'm in lol 😅
Jokes aside I'm glad you enjoyed the video. Cool to see that CZcams actually recommended the video around at all this time. But yea, it doesn't help that the Japanese game industry tends to be full of companies who are very strict about what their staff can do on social media (hence why I'm doing it quietly on my own) which might be why you don't see as many people talking about this from within too.
Wow I’m shocked to learn that the Japanese game industry is in such a bad state especially since nearly all my favourite games come out of Japan. Fantastic video
I'm glad you enjoyed the video! Yea indeed there are many issues with the industry as it is today.
The industry has certainly produced a lot of good stuff and definetly has the potential to and many companies still are producing great games. Though it does feel like especially for the bigger companies there has been some level of bloat and regression setting in but if they try to correct course I feel like it can all still be turned around
The whole lack of exposure to foreign games really is a unfortunate issue. I do think Nintendo Direct's Indies section can somewhat bridge a gap, to get devs to consider translating things to Japanese. It doesn't help that in the western indie devs mind, Japan just isn't a market at all.
I've been following indie devs for years (and work on stuff myself) and if I ever see any dev talk about localization, besides the usual French, Spanish, German, they will happily jump on Chinese, Korean and maybe Russian, but Japanese is almost always left out. Sucks even more because I watch JP streamers frequently, and seeing them not be able to play a game they think looks interesting, cause it's only localized to western languages + chinese feels like a wasted opportunity
@@DragonplayerDev Yea, there are also a bunch of indie game events here as well but it feels like they never get out of Japan much except for the one big one and even then the events aren't rlly big either which is kinda sad...
Especially for those here who have more contact with the rest of the world like streamers have it rough it feels like bcause info just simply doesn't get out
3 minutes in and he says this wont be long. me checking the video length 1 hour and 40 mintues.... i guess time works different in japan XD.
It seems I've grown so old my brain works like the sloth in zootopia lol 💀
Based, I absolutely love your videos man! Great insight on the japanese game industry! Keep being awesome, you are the best!
@@eldelnacho I'm glad you enjoy the videos if anything and no no, you're the awesomebest. 😎
@@overworkedsalarymanHonestly it really is good content. As an indie developer myself, I can see there's a lot to learn from your videos. Thank you so much!
@@eldelnacho Ah, an even more based dev than I then. I hope that it's been going well so far then. Really am glad to hear there's something totake away from the video tho and thank you for watching if anything
I'm many days late and while i wont be able to watch this all right now I'm sure its another great informative video
@@sentryprime I hope you enjoy it! And no worries you're still on time o7
I knew about the pattents, from things like Crazy Taxi pattenting an arrow to signal where to go in the game, but didn't know it was that extended and deep. What can be done? I would like to see politicians at work against this, but if ero works are still being censored, I don't believe they will move for this either. Instead, the only way to fight is on heavy protesting. Quiet quiting is a form of it, the most simple I would say. Here's my stupid idea, for this maybe an economic self-destruction may be the best way of protesting.
Get a group of developers that understand the goal and are able to compromise their future to be economic martyrs, then go to the patent list and sort by company value, and start making a game that takes every overstepping patent word by word. Aim to get a total fine that is higher than any of the demanding companies value, be a 10% of the PIB of Japan, shoot for the stars, show to the world that this is madness and law must be revoked.
The only problem is that, knowing about previous cases like with Tatsuki on Kemono Friends, I expect everyone talking about it for a week, and then the world keeps spining like anything has happened, while everyone involved stays in jail for who-knows-how-long in this case.
The interesting part is that the west youth is also troubled on finding motivation at work due to how everything is getting expensive every year while payrolls are cold as ice, among other reasons. This seems to be a ramification of the capitalistic mind of "get all the money", instead of "do a good work" or "be satisfied with life", so there seems to no be any other easy solution than taking a plane to work at another country with "less advanced society".
@@TheELASESINADOR The pantenting issues here certainly runs pretty deep and some companies are pretty quick to slam the hammer down on others which does hurt experimentation quite a lot. idk how likely the government would intervene even in that situatiln you suggested though, mostly just because they react to only situations they perceive are bad enough to make them lose face but perhaps that might work tho idk who would wanna take that fall
Hearing you talk about this really reminds me of something a historian remarked about japanese history and culture. The idea is roughly that Japan has a switch with two states. "Stagnation and rapid innovation." The default state is stagnation but occasionally when enough pressure mounts the switch will be flipped and you will see innovation and progress at a blistering pace until systemic innertia reasserts itself and then the switch will flip back.
And it feels like we are reaching the point where the switch is about to flip again.
@@virado255 That's interesting. It does feel like because of certain parts of the culture it makes the period of stagnation more common here perhaps especially with how highly social norms and behaving in linn get reinforced which leads to a period of long status quo when things are well but when push comes to shove that gets thrown outta the way kinda like what is slowly happening now...
That said, I hope the switch flips in a way that hlps make life better from everyone here while alsopushing the indusry forward.
What you brought up rlly does sound quitn interesting tho
@@overworkedsalaryman Heres hoping. Also theres one thing I've heard people talk about in japanese companies. That being the "loud american" who is employed with the idea that in addition to whatever their job is they have the role of bucking the social norms and telling the boss his idea is stupid/wrong. Have you seen anything like that?
@@virado255 yea, i kinda mentioned that a lil at the very vry end of the video and being someone who born and raised overseas I kinda partially fill that role as well in my team (tho in my case I have to push them to let me do it instead) but yea, playing the foreigner card is rlly effective of a way to ensure things move smoothly as you can kinda get a way with being blunt and forcing change more
If anything I wish I could do it more too lol since in my case it's a lot more of a balancing act
Always interesting to hear about game devs, as someone working to make other kinds of software and tools.
I'm glad that you found the video interesting! 🙌 May your team's softwares never end up bloated and may the code never spaget 🙏
You earned a sub with this one, great vid! Btw your communication is fantastic, i hope you realize how good your english actually is whenever you disparage yourself about a miniscule mistake
I"m glad you enjoyed the video 🙏
A lot like when I bump my hand on the mike, those kinda mistakes happen quite a a fair bit because English difficult so mostlyI just get rid of them but sometimes they end up a lil funny or lightening the mood at the time so I leave them in too XD
Thanks a lot for this video, was along one, but I learn some more things about Japan's culture and your way of thinking.
I'm glad you enjoyed the video and that the things I was thinking about were interesting to listen to as well 🙏
If anything, thank you for watching this time too!
I've got to say I appreciate a lot this two videos you've made, finding insider info about Japan's game industry's work culture is uncommon as it's hardly ever talked about. I am planning on going to Tokyo, studying at a language school for a year, then trying to apply for a job in the game industry or something related to my skills (those vtuber 3D concerts look fun to make). My idea was to adapt to the culture there as much as possible, but hearing that going against it a bit might even be expected of a foerigner makes me reconsider that idea.
Anyways, the more I hear about Japan's working conditions does make me more scared of it but it's not much worse than my country's, including salaries, so I'm still keen on giving it a shot at least for some years.
I'd say either way it'd be a good experience trying to work overseas especially in Japan since aside from work there's plenty to see and do as well. Plus the industry is slowly getting better and things really aren't as bad as they were in the past (minus some of the big companies) so go for it!
Either way whether or not they expect foreigners to go against the mold, some companies don't expect you to do it all the time anyways and some may not even mind you not doing that so it really depends on the workplace. I'd recommend trying to ask that a little during the interview process. The standard interview question of "where do you see me contributing to your company if you do hire me" or "what kind of role do you expect me to work in while here" kinda deal 👍
Thank you for sharing, jumped back to part 1 before part 2. Nice to get some insight :) Also, shout out to Rimworld, nice to see other ppl who have enjoyed it :D
I'm glad you enjoyed the video! Though apologies on how long their combined lengths are... But yea, Rimworld is a great game and I'd say I would put the dev Tynan Sylvester's book on game design as important reading for those who want to get into game design. It's a pretty interesting read as well.
Also being able to set up funni ice sheet cannibal colonies is ceertainly a truly an experience I can't think any other game can give
@@overworkedsalaryman Don't apologize on the length of the videos, it takes time to get into detail on things and it's nice getting insight into the industry.
I did not realize he wrote a book. Interesting. Rimworld gets into things in fun ways, and if you havent seen it Rimworld comics does a good job of highlighting some of them.
@@kakkipeter3724 I have not seen a comic yet shall go give it a look see like you said. Though yea the book used to be advertised on Ludeon's website quite a few years back. Have not checked it recently but the book itself should still be available at least
Appreciate your insight on the current state of affairs regarding game development within Japan. It's an unfortunate position they're in right now factoring in how current and social events are playing a part like the Visa/Mastercard debacle and the DEI-related issues that companies (whether within the US or otherwise) like Capcom are currently kowtowing to.
As if that's not enough pressure applied, Korean and Chinese mobile games are essentially raking in revenue and profit over the Japanese counterparts that tend to rely on brand IP and recognition. I'm really curious on your next video that'll touch on this topic, and what your honest thoughts are with the way the JP game development industry is heading if things are going to continue the way they are, especially how a lot of companies these days abstain from being too creative and taking risks.
I'm glad you found the video interesting. Indeed Korea and China have been coming up a lot more in the game industry in certain parts as of the recent years and it does make it feel even more like Japanese companies being unwilling to take the risk is hurting its position in coming up with interesting new games. The third part will likely be awhile in the making kinda like with the 1st to 2nd part but either way, I hope that you find it interesting when it does come out!
lol mans chronic documentary length video creation illness rears it's head once again
That aside, otsukare xd
nice work on the video, have to find some time to watch the whole thing,
and as always, love listening to your commentary,
hope your day goes well :)
@@magnumic2419 The ailment comes and goes when I stop being able to control it and drone for too long it seems lol
That said I'm glad you enjoyed the stuff so far and otsukare m7
With the introduction of Hololive popularizing the concept of Idols even further in the west and being sustainable, trust me, Namco is thinking some really dumb things by thinking the only marketable thing in the west is media adjacent to Hokuto no Ken and not idolmaster.... like, as long as the game is faithfully translated with no self absorbed changes, I would absolutely LOVE to play an idolmaster game, as would others who want something sweeter and comfier than what the AAA industry puts out. Gakuen Idolmaster seems to look quite charming and high quality in it's own right, especially since Shinosawa Hiro seems to look like a very inspirational character on one hand and a very comedically, charmingly weird character with no sense of being an idol on the other. Oh and seeing where the U149s come from, source material wise, would make me very very happy.
But besides my desires, I do wonder when the old heads are gonna take the hint that the gears of war stuff has been seeing some pushback as of late. I'm seeing lots of people want more colorful, stimulating games than the AAA games that people buy but never beat, let alone start playing. I do wonder if the old heads do try sitting down and playing those kinds of games that UbiSoft or Activision put out.
As for the DEI stuff people were briefly talking about, try looking into the Sweet Baby controversies' to see why people really don't like these things. Lots of discriminatory and psychological manipulation involved (as expressed in their GDC talk) just to make shallow social issue changes or removals to games and give the DEI company a rich buck for them for barely doing anything as a result. Lots of people relate that kind of behavior to business extortion. Those are one of the things fans of japanese games really want their favorites to stay away from.
@@LoliconSamalik Truth be told the fact that they never took the step to try with the OG imas still boggles mn to this day since I'd say (nostalgia may have made me bias but) thosn were really enjoyable and what makes Gakuen idolmaster so good imo is that it harkens back to that era of unexpectedly good 3d models for their period coupled with havy character focus in the plot and gameplay that stands well on its own even outside of a gacha game setting. There's always the possibility that it's something license for the seiyuus related from back in the day but that in a way also links back to a problem with the olds in a company. Also with gaukmas so far it has surprised me how well written the characters are with how much of a gap there is between the person you first meet and the real them you get to know over time. It feels a lot mor3 like a vry short visual novel in a way and i'd love to see it expanded more
With the second point you mentioned I wonder if that is something that if these companies were given access to industry grade anayltics tools they being more willing to accept the reality of it all since then they'd have data to suggest they might be wrong though my gut feel is some would reman unmoved 🤔
I'll go look more into the DEI stuff. When I first heard of it it sounded vry innocent enough but it does sound like it gets a lot of bad press
@overworkedsalaryman The DEI subject will make you enemies, split your audience, and potentially silo your channel as a social commentary channel. So be extremely careful when approaching that subject. I largely agree with OP but I dare not voice my (honestly fairly mild) criticisms of DEI at my work place or I'd be fired/disciplined immediately. It creates a suffocating environment
@@Dionaea_floridensis Got it. I'll make sure to read a lot more before forming an opinion on it then thank you for the heads up 🙇
@@overworkedsalaryman the fact that you say Gakuen Idolmaster is like a visual novel makes it all the more painful to me as someone who can't quite play, as Blue Archive being a Visual Novel really helped with me getting so passionate about it without all of the level gated roadblocks that I kept seeing in games like Nikke. And Qoo app's terrible instant translation service isn't really helping...
But with all of that said, surely they could launch the game internationally without VA and get things sorted out from behind the scenes in new updates adding it back in, at least as a compromise. Namco owns everything else, including the music, no? So they still have the fundamentals to work with something.
@@overworkedsalaryman DEI is a huge issue in western politics today, in education and elections - it's one of the more inflammatory topics when it comes to left vs right, and used as a hammer to prove "who is bad". while it's probably not as bad in the gaming industry, many people who discuss those things aren't trying to be constructive, they are just out to 'get people' for having the wrong political view.
Eh idk seniority being respected so much looks like a double edged sword. On one hand it feels that job security can be earmed. On the other hand it also looks like a good breeding ground for nested incompetence.
@@ChiefWombatCuddler Indeed it is and indeed it has. Have seen this happen in some of my older workplaces as well where someone who has no experience in a field is given the responsibilty of managing it and things start to fall apart because of this.
It's great for the individual but for the group overall it can be harmful in excess
Great information from you. As a game dev in America (on the animation side of things) I wish I knew more about if/how foreigners get to be/are a part of making Japanese games, and whether it would make sense to try to work over there or not.
@@MrBoponpa I'm glad the video was interesting for you 🙏
I'd say it really is company dependant now since there are some like the one I'm in now that do aggressively hire foreigner staff and are willing to put them in 課長 level leadership positions, something many companies in the past refused to do whicg gave Japan a bad rep too. That said, I'd say if you do make the jump it's better to go for a bigger company first and see if the culture fits with you and jump to a smaller development focused company after if it does not as it's much easier and faster to get a decent/good work visa from a big company whereas smaller ones may not be willing to put in the effort for you but once you're here unless you're on a top tier specialist visa you can freely change company.
My experience is that big or small, there are both companies that do and do not have as active positions and the reason why it's hard for me to give a definitive answer is becausing we're living in an era where more companies are slowly waking up to the reality that they need foreign staff too so your best bet is to use employer review sites to check on the companies you'd be interested in going to first and/or going to a recruitment agent in Japan and getting their help as many of those have insiders in the companies to help gather such info
@@overworkedsalaryman Thank you! Are there any recruitment agencies or agents that you'd recommend specifically?
@@MrBoponpa Geekly and Visionary are fairly good with getting into the game industry as they have many contacts, but idk how much they'd be able to help with the whole getting people in from overseas part but it might be worth a shot. Bizreach and workport both work though they are more general and can be kinda hit or miss too.
JobsinJapan and ragent are a favorite among people trying to get into Japan but the openings for the game industry specifically tend to be more restrictive if I recall.
@@overworkedsalaryman Great, I'll have to check those out. I assume that anyone who wants to join a Japanese game company will need to be fluent in Japanese? Or are there companies that have more English-centric divisions?
@@MrBoponpa Preferably able to speak and prefereably fluent unless you're in a Chinese or Western company based in Japan like Tencent, Ubisoft etc.
I think Square Enix does have English divisions but even with those it helps to know it or they might very well just post you overseas for the bigger companies.
I thought the thing with (Lost) Judgment was that Johnny's didn't want Kimura's appearance to be extractable/moddable on PC's
In a way that is part of it since the thing they didn't want was his face to be easily accessible on the internet because of their policies which were so strict that there was a period in the past where they tried to completely restrict the amount of official images of some of the talent under them on the internet. This meant to the extent that they would not post the pictures of some of their talents even on their own website.
While this isn't as strict anymore, those policies are still somewhat used to control the level of appearance of some of their talents online which the extractability/moddability of it is a part of that.
I'm a first timer on this channel since this happens to be on my recommendations.
First of all, why is your channel low in subs? Cause this is some seriously good and insightful stuff. Typing this near the end of the vid; almost finished watching. A lot things you've said actually clicks and confirms certain stuff that I only have a smidge about JP Game dev and understand how they dev as how it is. (ie, game tech and design patenting). Like, on the surface I can agree and understand they do it for protective reasons, but I never crossed in my mind that this thing can actually stifle innovation for new games and even local indie games in the large scope.
Second of all, are you actually native Japanese? Cause your accent is way more closer to a Singaporean. Heck, if you were to tell me you are an expat living in Japanese or you had a half South East Asian parent, I wouldn't have been surprised.
On that note tho, you are quite eloquent and really know how to orate. You could be a top ranking salesman or politician, if you catch my drift, haha. But yeah, not a dull moment when you speak.
One again, CZcams has unearthed for me a great gem of channel. I hope more would witness this bright glimmer.
Hey there! Glad you enjoyed the video tbh. Makes the time pressure to get this out by the end of the month feel worth it.
As for the first part idk either tbh XD
Though I don't upload that frequently so that might perhaps be why. That and the videos do tend to vary a lot in nature so that might also be what affects it to. That said hearing that there was some interesting info to gleam from the video is always good since I was really worried whether the content would be up to par this time tbh.
As for the second part I was born and raised in Singapore and went to public school there so that might've affected how I sound quite a fair bit even though it's been almost a decade since I was last there.
That said, idk what this channel is gonna become in the future but either way, I hope you enjoy the ride o7
@@overworkedsalaryman Keep on doing what you do, man. I'll be on this ride.
It's 23:58, Mr Salaryman. I'm goin' to bed. おやすみなさい！
You know, contrary to popular belief... People in Tokyo- well, at least Nerima-ku, do indeed sleep. I hear it's Yokohama who's the city that never sleeps.
@@stephenbanyar1874 Yea them and Kinshcho's meiwaku bikers it seems. That said have a good rest! おやすみなさい🙇
I love this man's collection, heavy with Blue Archive and even some game covers I've never seen as a westerner. Wish these things were available to me (or that I was monetized so I could buy them in the first place) but I suspect I'd develop a problem if they were available.
@@fleetingimmersion I'm glad the weird range of videos is something you enjoy lol. I still find it rlly sad that there's so much that just never got translated and is at risk of becoming lost media simply because people here forget about it and people overseas just don't get to hear about it either
Though looking at the background behind me, I feeling likd developing a problem is a very real possibility lol
@@overworkedsalaryman I definitely think some of the stuff we don't get over here could have been my favorite series if I'd known about them. I understand translating games is heavy work (and probably not worth the money if it's H or Ecchi) but hopefully the AI craze will result in an on-screen overlay that I can use to auto-translate any game I can get my hands on pretty soon, and therefore expand which series I can support. It's not like someone is NOT gonna try, right?
Then again I'd like to move to Japan myself anyway, so the supply may not be an issue for me if I can manage it, only time will tell.
@@fleetingimmersion It certainly would be nice if there were a tool that could eventually help smoothen out translation so that companies don't have to rely on weird outsource companies located in non-english speaking countries at times to localise english (that does happen btw)
Hopefully you do manage to move though, at least with Japanese language not being a barrier it does open a lot of doors
@@overworkedsalaryman I suppose learning the language is one of my priorities, but my immediate one is getting monetized so I don't run out of savings, there's a bit of a time limit on that as I don't know how much longer my parents can stand me.
Once that happens then things get busy, what with Visas, credit cards that would work there, taxes etc, but I'll persevere. To be honest, if I did learn Japanese well-enough, it would also get rid of my need for them to localize these games, as well as make it not matter if they localize them badly, so there's a bright side to the whole thing. Sorry, I'm rambling a bit, it's almost 5am, but I'll enjoy setting up there if I can manage it.
@@fleetingimmersion If immediately finding a job is tough, trying to get over through one of the language schools might work too. Seems like mny people come over through those and work part-time with the school helping them in searching for jobs after so that might be worth looking into.
That said have a good rest!
1:24:50 Westerners have NO IDEA about Wizardry's existance, let alone its influence on Japan's RPG scene.
Is it that uncommon there? It was pretty revolutionary for its time but now that you mention that come to think of it it does feel like an IP I haven't really heard anyone talk about. Though with how traumatic my first experience with the series was I can imagine that for many modern gamers it might actually turn them away with how much it expects people to read the manual before playing lol
The thing about reading the manual is that it reveals Wizardry's world is actually quite whimsical, it's meant to be a fun joke but that clashes so extremely with its cold hard tabletop RPG brutality wahaha.
I've heard that part of why it was so impactful in Japan is because there was NO Japanese translation for the manual and people playing it there had to figure it all out on their own, but obviously I was not there and don't personally know anyone who was.
@@czarkusa2018 Yea it was not translated at the time which was quite a funni since there was this entire cast of mystery people you had to make your own lore up for.
Really sad that we've gone past that era of manuals being full of content about the game though, used to love those and would read them on the entire hour plus journey home from the store as a kid. Really good times...
Just because I'm obsessed with Wizardry I also want to mention that the advanced character classes of Samurai and Ninja (which require higher stats/levels to adopt) were included due to the development team being big fans of Kurosawa films. I've always wanted to know how significant those references to Japan in Wizardry were to Japan's fascination with the series, I don't expect its creators had anticipated anyone in Japan even bothering to play their game!
I'm not trying to drag ya into a conversation lol I just want to put info out there for anyone that finds themself interested in this topic.
@@czarkusa2018 No worries, it was fun to hear more about the game tbh. When I saw the Samurai and Ninja class I was pretty surprised since I wasn't expecting a game that old to have references to Japan in any way. Part of me was even wondering if it was because of samurai cop or that one ninja golf movie at the time there if anything 🤣
It's probably worth noting that despite you noting about youtubers creating "transformative" works, there's no such protections in Japan. You might've mentioned this before, but doujin works only exist because many companies are willing to look the other way since if they cracked down as some have, that'd be it. Then of course there are degrees of acceptance between being fully okay with the doujin scene and outright stating their IP is off-limits. Uma Musume historically being fine with stuff as long as it's not R18. Some Garupan circles got spoken to prior to this comiket about merch that isnt doujin music or books as an infringement. (Clear files were the sticking point since I guess physical goods are where the money is at for them. Who knows if they'll be more serious about it.)
As an aside, I'm still waiting for the day where transformative works gets brought up in the courts. It feels inevitable that the question of which country's laws get followed? The person creating the content, the rights holder(s), or the platform(youtube)?
Yea that's the issue with the whole transformative works thing it does feel like since many cases of these conflicts come up between Western content creators who do have those protections in their home countries and Japanese companies operating mainly in Japan who may be unaware of these as well. It certainly will be interesting to see the case when it does happen though I'm worry for the person who has to take the fall for this to happen as well tbh.
Within Japan it's a very weird space since as you pointed out the same protections don't exist but at the same time there are strange grey zones existing all over the place because no one wants to fuck around and find out. Even with doujins it's a rare thing where the only major lawsuit case was prolly by Nintendo and companies usually only step in to tell people to stop if it goes a lil far against some specific rights owner like Uma Musume's being a result of the keibas though I didn't hear about the recent garupan one thank you for bringing that up 🙏 will go read more into that.
Just finished watching the video and will say, I definitely really loved watching this and part 1 to just sanity check myself with how current Japanese games as a consumer perspective really hasn't been the best in current years, and hearing the gamedev side of it.
I'm interested for part 3 as well! Personally I can say that I have problems with Japanese anime-styled games, especially in the gacha space (as much as I hate that almost every "good" anime styled games follow the gacha format nowadays.)
1. I wouldn't count Kantai Collection as a gacha but I constantly get so disappointed with the handling of the game. TLDR it feels like they have more attention to irl collabs / marketing than the base browser game currently, this is my focal point. Not to mention they're so bad at teasing people to be interested at in game content as well, due to them putting out silhouttes of some "remodels" to be teased as irl merch in events and only putting out a text based teaser on their official twitter.
2. Their gacha system is just horrendous and outdated, the whole free & paid gem system is just dubious and its one of the reasons I dont even want to try it because you just know you'll never get close to a fraction of end game power due to this pulling system.
3. Not too much interesting / interesting gameplay. When I think of gacha with good in depth gameplay I think of Arknights, GFL2, Hoyo games, Snowbreak, PGR. But Japan..? I can't think of any I can stick for the sake of gameplay.
Then again this point is entirely pointless for Blue Archive since the gameplay can be grinded so easily and the loop isn't too inducing, but the story is what keeps me playing so I suppose language barrier with no global / EN version of the game can be what keeps me back as well. Since its not like I play Korean or Chinese versions of the game anyway, its the English ones.
I'm glad the video was interesting for you if anything 🙏
Indeed Japan does feel like when it comes to that specific space of gaming is really lagging behind nowadays and even when it comes to consumer titles it does feel like they are lagging behind the west in some ways as well so I figured it might be interesting to look into all of that perhaps.
Kantai collection was quite different in execution since it technically has a gacha but not really in its shipbuilding but I wouldn't call it what we all understand as a gacha either. As to why it feels like they stopped working on it well you have Kadokawa and Tanaka (the producer i think) to thank for not knowing how to execute properly. I still remember the friend system stayed in coming soon for close to 6 years at least
Gacha as a system is quite explotative I agree but it does rake in a alot of money and it's precisely because of this that it does feel like so many companies are going into it as many of them fall into camps of either 1. Needing massive growth as a public firm 2. Needing massive cash injections to stop themselves going under. Which is what also led to its popularity as a means to an end. There's a lot going into it and I need to see if I can order my thoughts for the next videoi
As for the third point I do agree. I feel like it's in large part because of the fact that this was a genre that was initially designed to be easy to play even in situations where you wouldn't be able to play a full game. I.e a full train in peak hour in Japan and as such there hasn't been too much investment into gameplay in these games. Plus gacha games with heavy gameplay occupy what I'd consider a strange niche since they're basically appealing to people who would want to substitute playing a full on consumer title for a gacha title with gameplay (i.e with Genshin you can't really play it proper on the phone and on the PC it's still not that easy of a game to multi-task so you can't really play another bigger PC title on the side). Though from what I see it does appeal a lot to the more casual gaming crowd i.e the average non-avid gamer person who plays on the go because train rides are boring and that added to the success of these types of games as well though personally I'm not as much a fan of those because it conflicts with my desire to simulaneously play bannerlord and rimworld at the same time for example.
Also Blue Archive is Korean even though the names are Japanese so it also fits into the trend of Japan not making many big mobile titles
The hiring differences are insane to me.
If somebody asked me to join my team for programming, and I quizzed them and they told me that they don't know what SIMD is, I'd tell them to go back and read a book or two first.
That people without programming experience can get hired is just WILD.
No idea what SIMD, doesn't mean I don't know how to navigate IT projects. There is just too much stuff.
@daruthebeast "MY team for PROGRAMMING". Not saying that you aren’t fit for "any" IT project.
But certainly not for game dev programming.
That's like saying you don't know what a TMU is, and you want to do graphics.
If I am supposed to invest weeks to months making a new hire productive, I want the person to have enough interest to RTFM.
Yea, to this day it still is kinda crazy to me that I see recruitment ads that say NO EXPERIENCE REQUIRED! LEARN ON THE JOB. Granted it's not all companies but the fact that usually the big companies are the one doing it is errrr... yea
@@daruthebeast To be fair it might just be a term that is more prevalant in some countries & industries than other countries so it may not click instantly. Kinda like how gameplay loop is called gameplay cycle in Japan so some people get confused when one is used instead of the other.
That said if in AddGaming's case it's in the context of hiring someone to fulfill a very specialised role then I can see be worried that the person doesn't know.
But yea like you say there's just so much stuff out there that it's hard to remember everything, especially since programming is a very broad thing
I've coded twelve (indie) games but have no idea what SIMD is either, care to elaborate? 😂
Sorry for being late to comment about this. I found this video has bring up some nice points about what happened in the Japanese video game industry now. Its kind of sad, cause I grew up with most of my favorites from Japan, and now I see this is like a shadow of their former selves. Worst that most of Japan's biggest companies are more influenced by the modern west.
So after listening to your talk about branching out to the west, I am curious. Has any Japanese game companies ever worked together to other countries in the east like Taiwan or China? I have heard that the game Visions of Mana is a collaboration between China and Japan, so curious to see is there any other.
Also while many think games from Compile Heart are considered kusoge, but to me, they are probably one of the last remaining game companies that actually make games that feels Japan, if you know what I mean. Like almost in the style of the PC98 days.
P.S. Regarding Evangalion, from what I know the anime really didn't inspired from Christianity religion, those are more coincidental than anything. Evangalion actually took inspiration from Ultraman, which the creator is a huge otaku of.
No need to apologise on when you comment on the video o7 It's gonna be up for as long as I don't get thermonuclearexplosioned by youtube anyways so whenever you want to is fine! Though yea it's quite sad that the industry does seem to have seen some degredation over time especially for the triple As which all over the world those seem to be hit the most but it does feel like the hiring practices here makes Japan hit that bit more simply because they are at times people with no experience in development position so even if we assume that the modern western influences were taken away somehow it does feel like recovery is something that'd take them awhile.
China is a tough place to branch out to though Taiwan generally does pretty well with regards to that. A part of this is because the Chinese government is quite strict with what content can enter the mainland so many foreign games just are unable to enter the market as they get banned from entry (even some wiifit games have been hit as far as I know). Plus, quite a few companies have been also hit by data theft from employees/business pratners there who then used the data to set up their own competitor company and game there outside of the laws and regulations of Japan. As such, some companies are apprehensive about setting up there as a result since while they are kinda forced to respect the patents of their competitors as a company from Japan their competitors in China do not have to care about foreign patents much. With Korea and Taiwan though I do hear a lot more of that collaboration with Korean companies even sometimes taking in Japanese game studios and vice versa too
With Compa I feel like their modern games are in a way like that and they usually feel like games that have a lot of potential but something goes wrong with the execution somehere in the middle of the game, kinda like with black rose valkrie and gungunpixies which felt liek games with potential tobe something unique but some parts bog it down. That said, they are a lot better of a company than they used to be and in Japan at least I feel like their reputation as a Kusoge company is more a result of Idea Factory's game lineup being full of kusoges pre-compile heart and some of compile heart's pre-neptune games like the Kaiji one on the DS. This might've given them that reputation as well, though I agree with you that the reputation nowadays at least isn't as fair for them as they have seen improvement over the years.
As for eva, I don't know how true what I'm about to say is since all we have left are articles online of interviews that happened back in the day. So don't quote me on this, but I recall in some interviews they mention that they used it with intent though not to be a Christian show or making that the focus of the show but because they thought the symbolism was cool so they researched that and made it a theme. They also mentioned that had they known the show would be seen outside of Japan they wouldn;t have used those themes so it inspiring a part of the shows visuals can be said to be a thing imo but not on a very in-depth level like a core concept of the show, mostly influencing the plot itself and some of the world/enemy designs.
Why many companies shy away from depiction of underwear or fan-service in general, they stop 作り込み including the aspect, as if someone outside policing them or preaching them about 'ethics', while Nihon falcom still doing what they have been doing without caring about outsider noise.
This was the main reason why I don't buy anything from Koei tecmo anymore.
I still enjoy old atelier games and blue reflection1
And while Japanese are shying away from that aspect, they are letting Chinese filling in that void with many copy and paste gacha games with much lower story telling quality.
For sure, the old atelier games are pretty based, Arland Triology still remains forever in my heart.
In a way they kinda are getting policed yea what with mastercard and visa actively cutting support for companies that have content that is considered too unsafe for work and from my own experience, apple and google do sometimes check the data for every new version of the game passed to them and reject certain marketing materials and content they feel would not align with their brand.
That and there have been many companies that took the backlash that certain more conservative groups in the west had given them too seriously thinking that's how people there feel about the games. Combining that with them getting advice from western consulting firms on what works bests there all of that combined has kinda led to why there has beeen more levels of family friendliness in Japanese bigger game titles too nowadays
hey, will you be covering on the subject of weird stigma against visual novels by western storefronts? Plenty of visual novels aren't getting a steam release/outright banned while sex with hitler is a real game on steam
That's a topic I never really considered previously since I wasn't too well-read on the topic but I'll look into it and see if I can find out enough to make a video on it. Thank you for the suggestion!
Another great video! I was thinking to my self, do you know if it is normal for japanese companies to accept fresh graduated foreigners as well in their 新卒採用 (I believe this is how it's called) recruit period?
@@samuelleie Foreigner already in Japan or no. If yea then the chance is high but if no then it'd be tough. Only the most large scale of companies like square enix might but even then I'd say to give it a try since you never know, some of them might actually do it
@@overworkedsalaryman Thanks, yeah thats the main way that I want to use to get a job. I probably will try doing it one year in my country (probably in 2026) and then if I need to try it again (and if I have condition) I'm thinking in taking a student visa to study japanese in Japan (just to let you know, I'm already studying) and at the same time try it the recruitment again.
@@samuelleie日本語を勉強、頑張って！
@@Dionaea_floridensisありがとうございます、頑張ります！
About the business model, sometimes I think the shogunate still exists.
Just like how after ww2 certain generals were put into the new cabinet, the same kinda happened at the end of the Boshin war which ended the shogunate so there very well might be holdouts from that day lol
ye, there some JRPG that I interested to try but have no localization;
Heaven Burns Red in this case, just bought some cool figures of them, look up what is the source.... and no localization =/
Funnily enough we were just talking on the discord about how the HBR English Twitter account has been quietly taken and they hired an English staff over at WFS recently so there is a posibility it might eventually come now. But yea it sucks that there are so many JRPGs that never get translated. Feels like there is just so much media out there here that just exists in 2nd hand stores that people might not have gotten to try precisely because of the language barrier : /
i watched the whole thing and i understood that if i ever get the opportunity to work in japan that:
* I could land a job because i have a "good attitude" BUT... there is a lot of cultural things and details i will probably disagree with or have general problems with.
* I would become frustrated because i would not be able to express my ideas without needing to pass 10 layers
* I would be fired or frowned upon because i like to challenge ideas to see how we can improve it. So that means that i like to have a discussion on why/how things are made.
* No one would understand me because even if i know english it is probably more expected that i learn japanese.
* Work culture in Japan is very strict so the rules we have here in The Netherlands barely apply there.
I guess my dreams of working for Bandai or Capcom are officially dead now that i come to realize that working in Japan could be fun for a couple of months but will be a drag further down the line.
Thanks for the insightful video it made me reflect on what i can appreciate from where i currently work (programmer in a bank) and actually consider to start going indie instead of looking for a job in the gaming industry to get experience. Of course you talk specifically about Japanese work culture but the end goal would be working at the place where all your passion comes from and in my case it's mostly Japan.
I'd say if you as a person from overseas come and work in Japan you do have the advantage of not needing to worry as much about expressing ideas since you'd have this very big unique trait called being able to play the foreigner card which basically allows you to be blunt and push ideas without having to worry as much about the manners and bureaucracy that locals would have to. That and people won't force you to follow the practices and ideals of the local society as much too so you don't have to worry as much about the first few points that you mentioned. In fact many companies hire people from overseas precisely for this desire to break the existing mold of restraint that has become so prevalent in Japan that makes all of this a problem so in a way, wanting to push your own ideas and get challenged on them is something you'd definitely be able to do precisely because of your unique position in the country.
Though that said, Japanese being a required language and the culture being fairly strict in terms of things like work hours, having no sick leaves etc can be quite a culture shock for sure.
Though if you ever do decide to work in the game industry in Japan I'd say Capcom is fine but Bandai is only really fine if you want to go into the merchandising side or if you're going in at a directorial level. Being an entry-level development side programmer there is gonna be helll since they don't really develop most of their own titles anymore so you'd enough up in a really rough spot unless you end up in the tales or tekken team or something
@@overworkedsalaryman im google translating my cv to apply to capcom right now! XD. thank you for the information. this means that japan is trying to adapt knowing that part of the problem is the culture i gues. maybe a video idea for in the future :D.
2nd viewer, never comment on anything. so, lets do it once. Have a Great day Salaryman, Like your videos. Take it EZ :) [1st commentor]
Congrats on being 1st 🙌
Glad you enjoy the videos and thank you for watching if anything
There's a lot of difference at times between the videos but I hope you enjoy them nonetheless!
I want to be a painter
日本語でも動画を作るつもりですか？簡単な日本語でコメントしてごめんなさい😢2年間日本語を勉強しているけど、未だに全然できないと思う
日本語で作るのはちょっとはずいので考えたことがないですが、もしこうして日本語で話ししたけばぜひコメントでそうしてください！それは練習にもなれると思います。
正直にいうと、Dionaeaさんの日本語は既にすごいと思います！（日本語上手とかそういう意味合いではないので安心してください。マジで並み以上と感じます！）
もしアドバイスが欲しいでればぜひいつでも声掛けてください！
英語がペラペラや
(｀・∀・´)ｴｯﾍﾝ!!
i heard Japanese Game Industry is getting woke
I don't know what that entails but most of the industry does as it always has.