Japan Games Turning Westernese?

There has been a peculiar trend that has seemed to be caught in the wind in the gaming industry these days -- outside both Sony and Microsoft testing the waters with their own version of motion gaming. But the one thing that I've noticed being apparent is that alot of Japanese games are getting rebooted. Not just rebooted, however, but also being developed by Western developers.

Case in point, almost half a year ago, Metal Gear Solid creator/co-writer/director/mastermind Hideo Kojima announced the re-imagining of one of Konami's most cherished franchises Castlevania with the newest title, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, being developed from the ground up from Spain developer MercurySteam. Kojima will be on board as the game's executive director, although it is quite questionable how much involvement other than producer that Kojima will have. And from what is said, the game has little to little relevance to past games in the franchise timeline, and features a whole brand new story with a different cast of characters.

Just recently, in the eve of this year's Tokyo Game Show, Capcom announced that one of their own franchises is getting a reboot with a more western feel -- this being Devil May Cry (or the awkwardly abbreviated 'DmC'), being developed by European game developer Ninja Theory responsible for the PlayStation 3 exclusive Heavenly Sword and the upcoming multi-platform title Enslaved: Journey to the West being released in the next week. This reboot shows main character Dante getting a more gritty (some would say more emo) design, seen in the screenshot below.

Not only are some of Japan's franchises are getting a serious make-over, but it also appears that many Japanese games have tried to switch up their game to appease to gamers overseas. Final Fantasy XIII director Motomu Toriyama stated in interviews that many of the gameplay design decisions were derived with the Western audience in mind. Many games like Tecmo's Quantum Theory and Platinum Games' Vanquish mirror the look and feel of Epic Games' own Gears of War franchise. Gone now the anime-ish antics of stylistically exaggerated characters and worlds, and in are the more realistic, gritty brown environments.

So what could this change in gears mean to Japanese-developed games, and the gamers that play them? Personally, this can be both a great potential and a great threat. How so? Rebooting a popular franchise, with a different spin and a different development team - complete with their own styles of storytelling and gameplay design - can allow new audiences to experience the franchise in a new way. This could draw in gamers who may have neglected such franchises in the past due to personal preference or whatnot. However, this new venture could be at the cost to the already established fanbase, who have grown to the accustomed to the franchises they love. This is not exempting that no change is necessary if a franchise expects to further their success with future titles. However, sometimes big deviations from a formula that worked can prove to be problematic in the long run.

As far as I'm concerned, Japanese games, with any faults that one might see in their presentation or gameplay, are probably best to be handled by Japanese developers. If you think avid nerds complaining that Dante looks too much like a emo than he did in Devil May Cry 2, could you imagine the outrage if a big established Western franchise were suddenly handed to a Japanese developer like Halo? Mass Effect? Or even Call of Duty? I could imagine a lot.