Ghost of Tsushima [PS, PC]
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Inuhanyou
Veteran
For them its also the case of many devs not wanting to get overly political with their historical backround in the region and such. (Especially a place like tsushima which has been hotly debated as it is a proxy location for japanese and korean and even chinese proxy propaganda wars as contested territories in modern era)
Its easier to simply make use of their countless fantastical or character stories based on the time periods than focus them around real historical events outside of universally common things like nobunagas expansion and such. It is also true that many believe video games anime and such to be a form of real escapism from japans real life issues. The further away the better. Hence all the focus on the teenage years as well. You can market to children and also get tons of people nostalgic about the times where you were a bit more carefree about life.
Most feudal Japan games from Japan are not using anime aesthetics tho. It's just that most of those games the Western market don't give a crap about.
Can you list me examples. Everything I've ever seen from japaneses culture always had some over-the-top cartooniness excess.
Not that Kurosawa-like samurai fights don't have their own sort of romantisation and exageration, but the end result is definetly more subtle.
You got old games like Tenchu and Bushido Blade. Then the big ones like Onimusha and Way of the Samurai in the PS2 era.
A more grounded strategy game Nobunaga's Ambition. Recent games would be Ni-Oh (which is loosely based on Kurosawa's unused script) and Sekiro.
There's also the Yakuza spin offs, Kenzan and Ishin, but those were never localized.
But they are definitely not anime.
Inuhanyou
Veteran
Um. Might wanna go back and play some of those..Tenchu and bushido blade are def super anime inspired lol. So are nioh and sekiro. There are degrees ofc. They are not intending to be sengoku basara. But in opposite direction they are far from seven samurai as well.
No one is going to look at those games and say they are anime games. Unless you're talking Rurouni Kenshin games then that's literal anime.
Inuhanyou
Veteran
What is your definition of "anime game"?
Both bushido blade and tenchus characters and setting are literally anime derived illustrations, as in literally drawn by artists who do manga and anime
My definition of anime game is game strongly resembling the anime aesthetics. I'm thinking games like Psychic Force. Megaman Legends,Tales franchise, etc.
There's a difference between real historical setting with a fantasy spin on it and just straight up calling it anime.
You're not going to find many games based on feudal Japan setting with your typical anime looks is my point.
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That was never in question.
It was. At least for me. The point is that every japaneese game has some elements of anime/manga aesthetic (except maybe for Gran Tourismo series)..
Also I played to death Sekiro and every Onimusha game, including Dawn of Dreams and they are heavily stylised with anime/manga (Owl anyone?, every other boss in Sekiro and Onimusha as well as female characters dress code).
GoT is inspired by Kurosawa movies and fairly realistic. Thats the part of japaneese culture I care about the most.
Also I played to death Sekiro and every Onimusha game, including Dawn of Dreams and they are heavily stylised with anime/manga (Owl anyone?, every other boss in Sekiro and Onimusha as well as female characters dress code).
GoT is inspired by Kurosawa movies and fairly realistic. Thats the part of japaneese culture I care about the most.
I believe you are thinking specifically of the most cartoony and exagerated anime, but there definetly is a breed of more realistic Manga/anime that still has a firm foot in Manga. Look up Vagabound. Its I samurai manga with a beautiful art style. It's not bad, but everything coming out of japan is somewhere between that and hello kitty.
It's even weirder given I see japanese culture to be extremelly eclectic. Some of my favorite prog-rock and Jazz records are Japanese! Yet, when it comes to visual arts in pop-culture, they can't seem to break away from some of the visual tropes and stylistic clutches of Manga in some way or another. I'd say even Kojima games can't help themselves. They sure take inspiration from american action flicks like Escape from NYC, but as soon as you blink there is some androgenous super-human mind reader tentacle monster school-girl ninja or whaterver just around the corner. Even death stranding, which is the epitome of blowing Hollywood's wad, is 80% anime. Not much in the artstyle, but certainly in the conception of characters and envirnoment. But I'd say even the body motions of characters often feel more "asian" than american despite the game's setting...
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Would you say that every non-grounded Western games are also anime?
You're mixing up anything stylized with "anime".
No, I'm thinking of specific aesthetical choices that are very common. It's hard to describe without going through the games and pointing out the details.
Western devs also have their own set of tropes too, but I feel they have a more diverse pool of common aesthetical languages that they draw from them the different breeds of manga.
No, it wasn't. No one was questioning the "groundedness" or realism of Ghost. However you have someone claiming most of Japanese games based on feudal Japan are aesthetically anime inspired which is just factually wrong.
We are not arguing the realistic approach of GoT, I agree. I just stated that I prefer it to typical Japanese devs manga/ anime stylised games, including feudal Japan based. I played some of them, checked the others. Bosses coming from inside of other bosses, growing limbs, shooting lasers and butterflies, medieval chicks in colourful dresses or miniskirt armours and folks with 10-feet katanas. Demon's and magical creatures and overall peculiar aesthetics.
Here are some of the feudal Japan games you listed:
https://www.google.com/search?q=ni-...biw=1280&bih=800&dpr=1.5#imgrc=Hoqo04E7exNNcM
https://gamerweb.pl/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/OnimushaWarlods-11.jpg
https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/Jay...4/Sekiro_Great_Shinobi___Owl_guide_header.jpg
https://static.miraheze.org/https:/...f5a9909eda092a6b26134582368/c/c5/Soki_880.jpg
https://www.google.com/search?q=bus...ECBUQAQ&biw=1280&bih=800#imgrc=bd0zBTm5wIOm4M
https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net...81518_o.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20191008112632