Nier Automata’s director believes that Japanese game developers have had difficulty implementing “Western systems” because it has been difficult for them to move away from Japanese-made game engines.
In a new interview with IGN, Nier Automata director Yoko Taro and Stellar Blade director Hyung-Tae Kim are asked why “very few” Japanese developers make games that look as good as Stellar Blade. That’s a completely subjective opinion, but Taro nevertheless reflects on Japan’s history of success with games, anime and manga over the past decades.
“After being exported to the West and other Asian countries, games, manga and anime have evolved in their own way in each region. When it comes to games, it has proven difficult for Japanese companies to implement Western systems,” says Taro. “Japan has a long history of companies developing their own engines, and it was difficult to move away from that. We were very late in integrating rendering tools and middleware from the West,” the director continues.
“Even to this day, many schools don’t teach this to new developers. I think the Japanese are not good at adapting technology from abroad. Chinese and South Korean games were much more likely to use engines like Unreal for games with a Japanese aesthetics,” concludes Taro.
Japan’s English proficiency may be related to the difficulty of adopting English-made game engines. A 2023 survey by Swiss international education company EF Education First found that Japanese English proficiency continues to decline among non-English speaking countries (thanks, Nippon). Japan now ranks only 87th out of 113 non-English speaking countries, while South Korea ranks 49th.
Stellar Blade director Kim, meanwhile, says that while Taro believes this to be true, “it has to be said that Japanese games will have a huge presence in 2024.” Kim believes that “Japanese content is right back at the top,” and thinks things are looking “very positive” for the Japanese-made games coming out this year. However, Kim doesn’t mention which Japanese games he’s referring to.
“China also has a lot of momentum. They have a lot of hits, especially when it comes to mobile games. I think their momentum is so big that they might have more hits on their hands than anywhere else right now for mobile games,” Kim adds. “South Korean developers tend to follow trends. When something new is popular, everyone tends to move in that direction.
“I get the impression that most developers here have started leaning more towards mobile MMO games lately, but I think it’s important to release games for other platforms as well. We also have mobile games here at Shift Up made, but I’m glad we can release Stellar Blade exclusively for PS5. I hope this can encourage more South Korean studios to develop for other platforms,” said Kim.
In recent weeks it has been revealed that Stellar Blade studio Shift Up’s next game will be released on multiple platforms, so it won’t stick to Stellar Blade’s console exclusivity mentality. Elsewhere in the interview, Yoko Taro said that Stellar Blade is “much better” than his game, although his politeness undoubtedly plays a role in that statement.
Now that it’s going gold, Stellar Blade developer says “a lot of people felt like we were crazy” for trying to make a full-fledged action RPG in the mobile-dominated Korean market.
