What are you playing?

[isiolia]

I think trying to make it a Japanese vs Western development thing is bound to fail, as there are all kinds of projects on both sides.

Personally, I'd say that you're seeing more Japanese games get US/EU releases more due to the home console market there tanking. Even handhelds don't have the install bases that their predecessors did, but the PS4 has well over 90% of its potential customers overseas.
Developers that want to make something bigger than a mobile game probably want to target more than just Japan.

[PartridgeSenpai]

And to think you're just getting started on the franchise PartridgeSenpai.

Not quite about the game, but it made me very curious. "G-Cup" sizes sounded absolutely mental to me, and for a good reason: That's a CRAZY size in American sizes. It turns out that different countries have different bra size standards! Who knew!? (A Japanese G is about an American DD, for those who were curious ).

---

I also do have to agree that Western development has gotten a bit stale in the past few years, so it is nice to see more Japanese stuff that's genuinely trying to shake things up a little (even if it doesn't always work *cough* Star Fox Zero *cough* ). It seemed eventually that everyone was trying to be either:

A. A puzzle platforming indie-darling

B. Mass Effect/Fallout

C. Call of Duty/Battlefield

Honorable Mention: Minecraft/Survival Games

[Xeogred]

Of course, Yakuza has you talking about bra sizes...

I like how most of the female designs in those games seem accurate for Japan and they generally seem very petite.

[Markies]

I started Grand Theft Auto on the Playstation 1 this afternoon!

Considering how much I absolutely adored and played the hell out of the trilogy on the PS2 and even played the PSP ports and the fact that my friend loved this game on the PC, I kind of feel like I have to play through the original.

It is going to take some getting used to for the controls and for the camera. The constant zooming of the camera was a bit much and it took me a couple of tries to beat the very first mission.

But, I liked seeing the origins of the series and how it eventually progressed. Driving around while listening to Head Radio was so nostalgic and beautiful for me.

[noiseredux]

playing Halo Wars 2. The default keyboard bindings are quite baffling. But it's a pretty great game otherwise.

[fastbilly1]

It is going to take some getting used to for the controls and for the camera. The constant zooming of the camera was a bit much and it took me a couple of tries to beat the very first mission.

GTA2 fixed all my issues with GTA1, and added in an excellent multiplayer on PC. Try out GTA London after you finish GTA1. It was a very interesting way to take the series.

[PartridgeSenpai]

I couldn't help myself to wait until the weekend, so I started up Yakuza 2 this morning, and I'm really digging what I'm seeing so far. It's kind of a Pokemon 2nd gen meets Banjo-Tooie approach as far as a sequel goes. The UI and menues are designed much better, with even a complete in-game collections list on everything you have and haven't done, from foods you've tried to sidequests you're working on. On the Pokemon front, along with a whole new city (region) to explore in Osaka, you have the whole original game's city (region) as well! I'm very glad they took this approach. I'm so freaking tired of the Fallout or D&D CRPG-style of doing things where they either never let you go back to previous games' locations, or they just say "yeah well it all burned down so that's why it's different now." Then, just like Banjo-Tooie, you keep a large amount of the moves you learned in the first game, even if your health bar has been scaled down a bit.

And this one even has hard mode available from the start, which is nice. It's like I'm hopping into the late-ish game of Yakuza 1's baddies with a healthbar from the very start of the game, which is very silly (and terrifying )

[Xeogred]

Yeah Yakuza 1 looks a little rough, but 2 looks amazing for a PS2 game and it looks like they worked out all the kinks. I can't wait to play those two, the story sounds quite dark and awesome for them. 3 was kind of lighthearted and it's like Kazuma is kind of retired now, he had a minor role in 4, though 6 looks like it might be all about him.

5 is the one I've heard iffy things about. I've played 3-4, and I will probably do 0 next, then Remake, 2 PS2, and get back to 5-6. I jumped in at a weird point so I may as well keep the randomness going.

Dude I think I've heard my friend confirm that Kamurocho is in all of them. I think that's actually pretty awesome and done really well for such a series.

[Markies]

I started Tetris Plus on the Playstation 1 this afternoon.

I ran into 2 duds with my Playstation 1 games, so I decided to go with a much more simpler affair. And in that regard, how can Tetris be bad?

I don't think there is much meat to the game, but I always enjoy a good game of Tetris. The Puzzle Mode seems to be the bulk of the game, so I will get started on that next time. But, for now, it was just fun to play a simple game of Classic Tetris.

[PartridgeSenpai]

Yeah Yakuza 1 looks a little rough, but 2 looks amazing for a PS2 game and it looks like they worked out all the kinks. I can't wait to play those two, the story sounds quite dark and awesome for them. 3 was kind of lighthearted and it's like Kazuma is kind of retired now, he had a minor role in 4, though 6 looks like it might be all about him.

5 is the one I've heard iffy things about. I've played 3-4, and I will probably do 0 next, then Remake, 2 PS2, and get back to 5-6. I jumped in at a weird point so I may as well keep the randomness going.

Dude I think I've heard my friend confirm that Kamurocho is in all of them. I think that's actually pretty awesome and done really well for such a series.

As far as the gameplay of 2 goes, the fighting is definitely a lot smoother. The fighting in one is kinda jilted and slow by comparison, but you can pull off combos and dodge a lot quicker in 2. I'm interested to see if 3 does have a more lighthearted tone. I was expecting really heavy stuff the whole way through, and 1 and 2 seem to have that in spades, or at least 2 is keeping up the fairly serious tone so far.

Given that I made it a point to start at the beginning, I'm just gonna keep on truckin' until I get sick of it, and there's very little sign of that happening so far. I'll probably stick to the order that they came out though (so I'll do Zero before or after Six). I'll fit in the side-games whenever. I don't have either feudal Japan one, but I do have Dead Souls, so that should be a silly romp (I've read it's much more gun-based than normal Yakuza).

I only own 1-3 so far though. There's a Gamestahp near school that apparently has 4 though, so I gotta take the bus down to it one of these days and check it out. I've never been to that part of town before, though, so it'll take some time. Then I'm probably gonna buy the Japanese version of 5 so I can have a physical version. They're only like 20 bucks on eBay, so I ain't too fussed.

I took a peek at the Yakuza 1 achievements today, and I saw that beating all of the Colosseum fights is a gold-level one. Well I didn't have much any trouble getting all the way to teh Magnum Force GP, but HOLY SHIT is that one hard. For perspective, each tournament is 3 fights, and the SECOND fight is the last boss of the whole game, and the last fight is just totally impossible unless you're stupidly good at countering and dodging (which I am not)