Its honestly incredible how Japan is able to depict western fantasy with such detail and passion. They can craft games that wouldn't be out of place among the many Tolkien/DnD inspired media despite being made by people across the other side of the ocean. Can the west ever do a Japanese or non-western inspired vidya that doesn't come across as a caricature or pale imitation? Even a game like E33 doesn't feel authentic enough.
>>729200727>Its honestly incredible how Japan is able to depict western fantasy>posts one studio
>>729200727Well just using the EDF series as an example, Western devs seemingly don't understand sincerity can be useful. Especially when the material is B-movie tier schlock that would otherwise be incredibly difficult to take seriously at all. Hence why Insect Armageddon and Iron Rain are some of the worst games, with 1 being made by Westerners to appeal to Westerners and the other made by Japs who think that's what appeals to Westerners. In both cases, they were both shittier than the mainline series.
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>>729200727It would be out of place because it's actually good.
>>729200727swordspears (iklwa) are real and pretty cool
>>729200727>obligatory elbow whale fin is this a thing? ive never fucking seen that in my life
>>729200727
>>729202271Are the ones on the left supposed to look good?
>>729202271even when intentionally looking goofy right still looks better than left
>>729202271>just slap gigantic pauldrons on everythingWoW really did a number on western fantasy art
>>729202656The high fantasy Western art is a good example of what the West used to offer. What Japan does was built on that. If you actually look up good artists that know what they're doing, even on modern "Art station", you'll get some really good stuff. It's just unfortunate that a lot of Western companies don't take what they're doing seriously. They still treat it like it's for kids. That's the reason why manga and many Japanese games are such passion projects compared to the West. They take it seriously. They take the talent they hire seriously too. A lot of the West has nepotistic tendencies for no talent losers that are just hired because they know someone. I could go on.
>>7292026565head black man wizard is so goofy looking it whips around into being kind of cool.
>>729200727They are unaffected by western design philosophy. Their source material are the historical relics and literature. All of the off things you see in the western example are developments mostly from focus testing and marketing department influence. Full visible face, for example, is something western design has been enamoured with for decades. They are told covered face is harder for the audience to relate to, even at the detriment of the overall aesthetic. Like the pilots in Top Gun constantly having their air supply flopped uselessly to the side so their whole faces are visible despite how ridiculous that is.
>>729202656>tfw like pauldroncore>but not in goddamn fucking everythingMost of the IPs using it don't even use it well anymore. I want my power metal, everything set at 11, rule of cool heroic fantasy. Usually it's just used in a way that makes everything look like toys.
>>729200727Just because miazaki is a European web dosent mean all of Japan is
>>729200727Japan sucks at making games though, they lost the plot somewhere around 2020-2022 and haven't recovered. I think it's mostly due to their situation as a country, lots of /pol/ reasons and their corporate culture autism. They're living in a hostile environment that doesn't allow creative people to thrive or get a chance unless they're indie. Big title games fucking suck, even shit like elden ring saw people getting bored of it faster than with other games because fromsoft is the same. They're relying on old formulas that work because they can't risk a flop nowadays. It's also why Capcom became the Resident Evil and Street Fighter 6 shilling company. They don't even give a fuck about monster hunter anymore.
>>729202656i specially hate those cartoony large monster jaws
>>729202656soulsoulless
Japs are much closer culturally to a fantastical medieval world. Their world was a pre-industrial kingdom ruled by an aristocracy of sword-wielding knights not but 170 years ago, where everyone genuinely believed in yokai. Westerners realized Santa wasn't real like 500 years ago, so we struggle a lot more at telling sincere fantasy stories
>>729203068They are though. Every Jap is obsessed with isekai anime, which invariably has a medieval European setting. Of course, guys like Miyazaki or Miura are a lot more detail-oriented and will actually autistically research real-life armor, while most Japs are content with generic D&D stuff, but still
