Discussion: The Contrast of Japanese and Non-Japanese Games

[DraxisSilencer1000]

Sorry, my limited vocabulary and bad English does not know how to properly name this thread. Please bear with me in this.

I played my fair share of Japanese eroges, nukiges and the like. Me scrounging every nook and cranny of Google searches is what lead to my first experiences of playing a VN, an eroge at that too. Most of the time I've played are the untranslated JP raws, I get off when I see good animations. I like how the Japanese handle their eroges, its either a 1 girl eroge, a harem, an NTR, or with some other tags included. They always managed to do this right, IMO. When a harem game is a harem, it really is... there are no hidden NTR routes, there are no girls "playing" with each other without the MC, polyamory is not harem. Including of course are not including any gay, lesbian, futa to a game that caters to boys or men demographic. Yaoi or yuri or futa or NTR are directed to those that like them, not doing any kind of strange mixing so to say. Of course one thing that I really dislike on JP eroges are censorships and if they're not animated.

Now lets go to the non-Japanese eroges, porn games, whatever the terms we use her in F95. One thing I've noticed in so many of games posted here are that devs tend to add so many unpleasant tags to otherwise vanilla games. You know? I just want something that is straightforward, a 1 girl game or a harem without twisting the meanings of NTR, lesbian and some other tags just so they could add it? I look at some renders of games here and there, how amazing they look and I just frown at the tags... like I can't believe it. I've always thought that this games blossomed in such a grander scale outside Japan from many years ago is because of how loved, amazing and catering they are. A harem game is a harem game, a yaoi or a lesbian or a futa game is just that. Now I see some potential harem game in here and then I just see the NTR tag, or I start to lesbian, gay or futa tags. I start to research the thread if said matter is avoidable, skippable or some other thing. Just so I could avoid anything I don't like, if not I just go away right then and there. What I love the most from the devs outside of Japan are the animations, and of course if they are uncensored. Story too, if that's the focus.

I've always thought that there would be many of this type of game here. Games that cater to a specific demographic alone, of those that like harem, of those that like NTR, lesbian, gay or futa or some other tags. Not like this where every dev just shoves tags that people like but also including tags that people don't like. How come there are so few of this things being made outside of Japan. The hope of getting away from what you are used to from playing JP VN's and then... you stumble on to this?! I've always thought that this mindset is what drive the very first non-JP eroge, porn games to create their games.

Sorry for my broken English here. I have my thoughts and ideas but I just can't express them properly through. Just why is this the case? I don't get it. This despair of mine primarily comes from when I look at some good game then immediately dismissing them when I see some tags that I don't like. This is mostly own opinion, I hope that I'm not the only one on this matter. I look forward to seeing other people's thoughts here.

 

[Meaning Less]

More tags means more possible players finding your game when looking for tags they like, look at all the popular games and you will usually see a wall of tags.

The number of people that run away from specific tags is probably smaller than the number of people that just look for tags they enjoy, thats probably why devs care more about the second case. Not everyone is triggered by specific kinks like yourself or expect a game solely focused on a specific tag, to me the more options the merrier.

 

[Carpe Stultus]

If people would only understand that tags get often applied wrong, mostly because uploaders and mods don't play all the games they upload and people report the lack of certain tags which is often enough wrong. They also get applied if its just one little scene which does not mean that the whole game contains this content.

 

[DraxisSilencer1000]

More tags means more possible players finding your game when looking for tags they like, look at all the popular games and you will usually see a wall of tags.

The number of people that run away from specific tags is probably smaller than the number of people that just look for tags they enjoy, thats probably why devs care more about the second case. Not everyone is triggered by specific kinks like yourself or expect a game solely focused on a specific tag, to me the more options the merrier.

I agree with you, the only thing that really sucks is if they're not making it to be avoidable, skippable, optional or what ever it is. I know that its extra work on making the game like that as such, but it would be really nice if most non-JP games are like that...

 

[woody554]

I think one explanation might be that japanese VNs are 'professional', made by a company where people work office jobs and so on. it's a corporate environment with a corporate culture, even if it's a small company. where as us here are mostly amateurs, fans and even if there's a team it's not really like working an actual job. you don't go soloing in that corporate environment, it's not your job. your job is to churn out passable copies of old stories as fast and with as little resources as possible. like having roughly 5 cgis for a 10h highschool crush story.

so when in a japanese company someone pitches a story there's an established structure for it dating back at least 40 years. they're not exploring the format, they're not trying to break any molds. they're making the same old stories in the same way they've been made for decades. so it has a known story, cliche art, cliche characters and the kink setup takes no chances. and it comes out JUST FINE. they know their audience and they stick to it.

with our western games there's often no such thing as not taking chances. every game we make is trying to break molds even though we have no idea what the molds are. every game is trying to stretch the format. nobody is satisfied with a straightforward story in recycled highschool and datesimming those same 4 girls for hours to get that ONE cgi with open pussy covered in mosaic.

and the thing is, in most cases we're wrong and they're right. and I don't mean we shouldn't make more renders or try the 'original stories' that always fail, but that their stress tested product is always solid and complete. it might not be great art and maybe it always have the same exact girls, but it ALWAYS works in the restricted context it's meant to work. never put a hat on a hat. one is enough.

so should we start doing what they do? god no. the world doesn't need one more copy of those self-similar japanese VNs. but maybe we should learn something from the professionalism. maybe aim more to make a complete product with a much lower bar. maybe picking your kink and sticking to it, whatever it is. not trying to cram every game into one same game and breaking the mold on all of them. it never works, you're not a genius, accept your limitations. restrict your scope, hard.

 

[Meaning Less]

I agree with you, the only thing that really sucks is if they're not making it to be avoidable, skippable, optional or what ever it is. I know that its extra work on making the game like that as such, but it would be really nice if most non-JP games are like that...

Well that's one thing I don't remember seeing in japanese games (content warning and ability to skip scenes), they not only make you consume the content in its entirety but usually to unlock all endings you are required to play all routes and watch all possible kinks available.

I also disagree with the main premise as the most diverse games I've played were in fact japanese, they aren't afraid of turning a completely innocent story into something dreadful midway through.

 

[DraxisSilencer1000]

Well that's one thing I don't remember seeing in japanese games (content warning and ability to skip scenes), they not only make you consume the content in its entirety but usually to unlock all endings you are required to play all routes and watch all possible kinks available.

I also disagree with the main premise as the most diverse games I've played were in fact japanese, they aren't afraid of turning a completely innocent story into something dreadful midway through.

Yes you are right in regards to that, I want to include that in my initial post but eh... those kind of games, especially JP eroges are easy to spot and that's why I often just stay away from it. Not including the point you mentioned from my post.

Its easy to dodge those as they are only a few if we compare on how many the rest of them are sticking to one fetish/preference/whatever.