Poll of the Day > Which country's games do you prefer: USA or Japan?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Nintendo's far and away my favorite gaming company, so Japan was the obvious choice for me. Lots of people are starting to prefer American-made games, though, so I'm curious how this poll will turn out.
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Japan because of Smash Bros.
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Tails 64 posted...

Lots of people are starting to prefer American-made games, though

Starting to? What's it like in 1995?
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Probably USA, the only Japanese games I play are Mario Kart, Pokemon and Smash, and while I love them I just play a lot more American games

Madden, Battlefront II, 2K, Skyrim, Arkham series etc.
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Japan, easily

Nintendo, Capcom, namco, from soft, platinum, and many more.

It seems as if USA has more indie devs that I enjoy, though
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It's really hard to pick. I'd say Japan has a stronger AAA scene but American indies are superior.
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Too hard to say, especially in recent years. However, these days I put the most time into Western/American titles by far, especially considering that I've been playing an American-made Pokemon game (and, if you include *all* western titles, I also kill time in lines, etc, with BlindLogic's Reversi on my phone which is a pretty okay free (and ad-free) version of Reversi/Othello)
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Japan cause of Sega though that puts me in a bind cause of their sports games.
What about European games? Ubisoft i am sure has made some favorites of many people.
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I certainly like Japanese games, but most of my favorites come from Western developers. Especially nowadays, it feels like other then Nintendo and (occasionally) Sega my catalog for new games is exclusively Western.
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I'm an anime fan.
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since my favorite games are Pokemon games, and my favorite genre is JRPG.. yeah.

Still, i think people in the US come out with much more interesting games, while Japan does a few formulaic games very well. You're never going to see something like Planescape: Torment, Fallout or The Desolate Hope come out of Japan.
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Recently it's been USA, though the best times I've had playing video games was with those from Japan.
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Not even close.

Japan by a mile.

japan
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The reigning champion is still the Soviet Union, well after the Soviet Union has stopped existing.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/7c/Tetris-VeryFirstVersion.png

What about European games? Quite a few of my recent favorites came from there.
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Overall I definitely prefer western games

The narrative for Japanese games always has sort of a lost in translation vibe to me, at least ever since the majority of their games adopted voice acting over text.
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I can count the amount of non Japanese games on my library on my fingers. Aside from the indies, western games are usually gigantic but also very boring most of the time. I prefer the smaller and fun AA stuff that comes from there.

The best video games lately are the smaller indie games, not the big blockbuster games. Still, you have American games like Undertale, and Japanese games like Doki Doki Literature Club, so I guess it's hard to...

...huh? Doki Doki Literature Club is an American game? Hmm... guess the US wins then.
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Japan makes better games but western games have more relatable stories.
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Japan, I'm a total weeb so if it doesn't look like anime no buy.

Okay I'm kind of joking but not entirely. Western games just tend to focus on realism I guess, and I don't like that, Japanese games tend to be more fantastical.

My favorite series are like Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts, Zelda, Fire Emblem, Pokemon, etc...
Only western games I play are like Assassin's Creed (which I've lost a lot of interest in), The South Park games (which are short but great), and Skyrim but that only became interesting because VR pickings are slim and it's one of the only fulfilling games.
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Japan I guess. Devil May Cry, Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts are some of my favourite game series. Although I will say most R* games and The Batman Arkham series are some of my favourites too and they are done by British(and partly USA with R*) developers. Also the Witcher 3 is great too and that's done by a polish studio so eh.
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Growing up I suppose I tended to prefer Japan, they were pretty much on fire during the 80s and 90s. Nowadays I think I lean more USA. Overall, though, that's a tough choice.

Used to be Japan, but for the last 5-10 years it's been USA. Both still had/have good stuff though.
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I would say 90% of the American games I play come from indie developers. The AAA Western scene is absolute garbage and has been for a long time now.
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Pus_N_Pecans posted...

I would say 90% of the American games I play come from indie developers. The AAA Western scene is absolute garbage and has been for a long time now.

This is fair.

AAA Japan > indie West > indie Japan (doujin) > AAA West

Typically speaking. There are of course shitty AAA Japanese games and wondeful AAA Western games.

There are FAR more Japanese games I like than American, European or otherwise. Castlevania, early Final Fantasy, Mega Man, Zelda, Mario, Pokemon, Metal Gear, Dark Souls, Tales, Trails, Okami, the list goes on and on.

The list of non-Japanese games I enjoy are far fewer, and mostly in the indie scene.

80s and 90s: Japan
2000s+: USA

It seems like Japan has gotten far more niche, or lost their touch or something.
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Not even close. Japan wins this for me easily. And it's not even like I don't have favorite games made in the United States but, when asked what my favorite game series are, the stuff from Japan pops up first and usually rank higher. Stuff liiiiiiike...

- Super Mario (Favorite series of all time)
- Sonic the Hedgehog (With Sonic 2 being my favorite game of all time)
- Pokmon (Only long running turn-based RPG series I like)
- Kirby
- Super Smash Bros.
- Mega Man Classic and the first four Mega Man X games
- Harvest Moon/Story of Seasons
- The Legend of Zelda
- WWE 2K
- Most fighting games from Capcom and SNK
- Tekken
- Soul Calib- I think you get the point.

And yeah I'm also wondering why Europe was excluded from the list. I still would have picked Japan no doubt but think of the people who really loved Rareware's SNES and N64 era. Won't somebody think of the bear and bird and... whatever Mumbo is!?

Japan by a mile until the early 2000s. Then they were pretty neck and neck. Lately though Japan hasn't really been putting out much. They are letting a lot of their creativity stagnate and turning towards the mobile market pretty hard. Nintendo is pretty much the sole exception and I'm not the biggest nintendo fan.

Before anyone attacks me I play very few games outside of the RPG and Strategy genres.

USA because baseball
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I've always found Japanese games vastly superior. It terms of gameplay, story, art, and music.

There's more American games I like, but I like Japanese games more.

I'm grudgingly voting for Japan, but I suspect it balances out.
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Japan because Square Enix, Soulsborne, and sometimes even Konami
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MirMiros posted...

I've always found Japanese games vastly superior. It terms of gameplay, story, art, and music.

Also the Japanese voice acting is always amazing. It's one of the main reason I enjoy Japanese games and anime so much.
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I probably fall in line with most here. I need both for the variety but probably lean towards JP because that's where a lot more classic franchises come from. Then with all the indies these days I often don't know where titles are coming from exactly.

I guess I should have made the poll Western Games vs. Eastern Games to accommodate for Europe. Oh well.
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MrMelodramatic posted...

USA because baseball

Baseball is huge in Japan.

I wanted to make a post about how Take Nintendo out of the equation and its pretty close, but the more I think of it, that just isnt true thanks to companies like Square & Capcom.

Japan wins, but that isnt to say that America (or Europe for that matter) dont make quality games as well.
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GanglyKhan posted...

MrMelodramatic posted...

USA because baseball

Baseball is huge in Japan.

Sega baseball games are so choice. That Saturn six face controller is so perfect...
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Japan
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GanglyKhan posted...

MrMelodramatic posted...

USA because baseball

Baseball is huge in Japan.

Baseball is huge in America too.
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Maybe if Japan made any good sports games lol
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Out of just those two countries, generally Japan.

US by far. I'll take Mortal Kombat over Street Fighter because I dislike the boring caricatures.

Fallout, Skyrim etc smash JRPGS.
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Tough, because I wouldn't consider games like Resident Evil "Japanese", even though they're made by a Japanese company.

GanglyKhan posted...

MrMelodramatic posted...

USA because baseball

Baseball is huge in Japan.

Japan got baseball from the US during the war.
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zebatov posted...

Tough, because I wouldn't consider games like Resident Evil "Japanese", even though they're made by a Japanese company.

It's subtle sometimes, but it's there. MO Discs, Tofu Survivor, sailor suit school uniforms, and even some background Engrish scattered about.
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