Was talking with a friend here at work, and the conversation drifted onto the topic of how difficult it is to create a game that hits big in all three markets (Japan, Europe and the US). The cultural differences can really make a game resonate well with one market, while another goes “Meh.”
Which reminds me of the first time I played Final Fantasy VII. The only Final Fantasy I’d played previously had been Final Fantasy Legend II for the GameBoy, which I’d enjoyed, but which hadn’t really given me the full force of the FF milieu.
So I’m at an overnight LAN party with a bunch of friends. We’re taking a break from blowing each other up, and I notice that the host has a PSX and FF7. I ask if I can play it for a bit, and he agrees.
So I begin to play. I watch the intro movie, which is very good. The game starts in media res, which I always enjoy. The combat system is kind of simplistic, but that’s okay. Cool stuff happens, the reactor blows up, Cloud gets separated from his companions and meets Aeris. Aeris asks Cloud to escort her home, and she does. So far, so good.
On the way home, they’re attacked by a house. Literally. A house stands up, grows arms and legs, and fights our heroes. And I think to myself, “Uh…I’m fighting a house. That’s really, really weird.”
If you’ve been reading the site long, you’ll know that I’m heavily into coherent experiences – worlds that are simulated, rational and internally consistent. Fighting houses isn’t really included in there anywhere.
And at that moment, I realized that if I wanted to play this game and enjoy it, I was going to have to consciously shelve my preconcieved notions about what an RPG was and was not, and just accept the game for what it was. If I didn’t, then little things like fighting houses were just going to rankle me until I finally gave up on it.
And so I did. And, of course, I ended up being thoroughly rewarded by the game for doing so. And apparently a lot of other people got past the house thing as well (probably much easier than I did).
But I can’t help but wonder…what kind of US cultural vestiges in games don’t go over well in Japan? What would be their equivalent to fighting a house? A study on this subject would doubtless make fascinating reading, and could lead to better games for both sides.
I remember the house, but My reaction to it was very different, maybe becaus eI am mor eof a roleplayng player..
I think you downplay the house encounter.
To begin with the player is in a zone that is Urban, but seems, devastated or abandoned.
Thank you are suddenly attacked by a house And this is interesting because until then most enemies are human-sized, or near enought. A big enemy that ambushes people in abandoned urban zones has the perfect disguise in the house. Most people don´t think they will be attacked by a house.
The initial weirdness is important.
Only after a few turns, of fighting against a normal looking house, does it grows limbs and shows it´s true nature, but even so, there seem to be something wrong with it,for starters, it does not just grow limbs, it actually uses a move called “Suicide drop” where it bangs against the floor and seems to crack it´s outer shell while the legs and the right arm are in the expected place, the second arm is coming out of the “shoulder” where you would expect the right arm, it has a scythe, and there is something that looks like a rocket propeller coming out in a weird angle at the back.
This is a highly technological city, what you found seems to be an abandoned remnant of it´s past, that is not working properly anymore,did it have multiple forms, but now it doesn´t work right?(hence the weird arms,and why it needed the “suicide drop” to transform), could it have flown once(hence the propeller)?
I thought it was an interesting enemy that makes the player want to know more about the setting.