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[ziran]

the reason i ask is because of pikmin!

i played the japanese version loads, and enjoyed it. my best time was 17 days, i really couldn't see how anyone could do it faster, but hearing about the 9 day finish, i just assumed it was another case of an exceptional gamer [combined with me sucking ;p ).

i've just been playing a friends copy of the us version, and it's so much easier! the days last longer, pikmin mature quicker and less pikmin are needed to pick things up.

so, i decided to download the 9 day version from speed demos and low and behold the whole game is easier! when it said '9 day 50 pikmin', i thought this was a mistake, because you need at least 85 pikmin to complete the japanese version. so the us version isn't a little easier it's loads easier!

i knew the japanese version of smb2 wasn't released in the west because it was thought to be too hard [it was released in allstars], but didn't think it happened that often.

is this common? do japanese gamers prefer harder games than the west?

 

[ManDudeChild]

I was under the impression it was the other way around.

 

[Bebpo]

Yeah, pretty much.

Capcom is the complete 180 though. They believe the US prefers tougher games and release easy/unfinished games in Japan and then tougher fleshed out versions in the West.

But other than Capcom most companies tend to make the harder version the Japanese one. Though Euro usually gets the toughest versions in the end. Also a lot of the hardcore niche Japanese games that don't come to the west (mainly rpgs) are often hard as hell. Games aimed at the hardcore Japanese game crowd are usually pretty damn tough.

 

[dark10x]

This gen, Capcom in particular has often increased the difficulty of US releases...but plenty of other companies have done the same.

I know this was also the case with the Contra games during the 16-bit era. Both Contra III and HC are much hardware in the US. Contra HC actually has a life bar in the Megadrive JP version, but the US version reverts to the one hit and you're dead method. Contra Spirits was also a lot easier than The Alien Wars, in that everything just went down much faster.

But other than Capcom most companies tend to make the harder version the Japanese one.

Which games are you thinking of?

 

[Orin GA]

I know that there RPG's tend to be harder

 

[SonicMegaDrive]

I read an article recently that explained that most Japanese gamers are actually turned off by harder games.

The ones that love the the really hard games(shooters and the like), are a very small percentage. I think the same can be said for western gamers. It's generally the 'hardcore' crowd that plays the difficult games.

 

[Mama Smurf]

What about the whole Crash Bandicoot thing?

I can't remember who, but I remember some Japanese game designer ages ago talking about how Americans want games easier, but Europeans and Japanese gamers want games harder.

Fuck knows where he got his information.

 

[Nerevar]

I think it was the general perception in the 8-bit and 16-bit days that Japanese gamers wanted harder games. It's pretty much universally viewed the other way now (with harder games coming out in the states and easier ones in Japan).

 

[Bob White]

Easy Automatic.

Around these parts saying someone played a game on easy means they're a bum with no gaming skills. Kinda like women.....................yeah.

"Oh? That motherfucker? He's no comp. That fucker played DMC on easy automatic."

 

[GitarooMan]

Like many have said, I've been under the impression that at least as of late, it seems that US gamers want more difficulty than Japanese gamers. For example, Kingdom Hearts has a "hard" difficulty level in the US version. There are other examples of this that I can't remember right now

 

[crunker99]

Japanese versions of games have been made more difficult for a long time. Take the Final Fantasy series, if i am remembering correctly, there was even a version of FFVII (i think it was 7) released in Japan that was made super difficult that never saw release here. Video games are a much much bigger part of Japanese culture than American culture, so it stands to reason since they place more importance on it, they would be more skilled at them as a whole.

 

[JackFrost2012]

Japanese versions of games have been made more difficult for a long time. Take the Final Fantasy series, if i am remembering correctly, there was even a version of FFVII (i think it was 7) released in Japan that was made super difficult that never saw release here.

This was Final Fantasy VII: International, which included the extra hard Weapon enemies added to the U.S. version and were absent from the original Japanese release. The difficulty of the main game itself was unchanged.

Video games are a much much bigger part of Japanese culture than American culture, so it stands to reason since they place more importance on it, they would be more skilled at them as a whole.

Please don't ever actually visit Japan, you would only reap the dissapointment sown by your bitter tears.

 

[NotMSRP]

Rather than make games on misperceptions of a region's desired difficulties, why not just make games with varied difficulty modes that are equal on all region versions? That way you cater to each individual's desired level of difficulty rather than guessing a region's desired level of difficulty as a whole which you cannot correctly gauge and end up making wrong guesses. See DMC3.

 

[drohne]

there's kind of a tradition of action games being made more difficult for their us releases. in a number of nes games, this was done so badly as to ruin the us releases, as in bayou billy. the japanese version of contra: hardcorps gives players a lifebar. gba astro boy is more difficult in its us release as well. capcom's games have been mentioned -- the us releases are consistently more difficult.

this isn't entirely one-sided, though...i can also think of action games whose japanese versions are harder. the us version of ghouls n' ghosts has more frequent checkpoints. i'm blanking on the details, but some of the older toaplan shooters were easier in their us versions.

 

[koam]

SUPRE MARO BROSS 3 IS HADRER IN JAPLAN

 

[Daigoro]

there's kind of a tradition of action games being made more difficult for their us releases. in a number of nes games, this was done so badly as to ruin the us releases, as in bayou billy.

thank you!

im glad to know that someone else feels my pain re: the adventures of Bayou Billy.

i dont remember how far i ever actually got in that game, but it was not far at all. i do remember dying over and over and over again on the second screen though... (i want to buy it again one day, just so i can taste the pain).

that game was fucking broken.

 

[bycha]

Onimusha series had more difficulty than Japan versions. Because there it was released for wider audience, and in the west hardcore gamers played it.

 

[Juice]

My Japanese housemate and I just played through Killer 7 together over the last week here.

And if that pathetically low difficulty level is of any indication, I'm definitely thinking that Capcom is deeply entrenched in this thought.

But hey, I don't care. I don't like dying, and only rarely appreciate a challenge for challenge's sake, so whatever.

 

[dark10x]

Yeah, the Japanese version of K7 was much easier. They beefed it up quite a bit for the US release...

 

[CO_Andy]

Probably not.

If the country's declining game industry is any indication, then it looks like hardcore gamers are going the way of the doe-doe.