Ever since the first video game consoles have came out, the Eastern & Western markets have been fighting for dominance in the game industry. Be it via their systems or their video games in general. Over the years they both have developed their own styles and characteristics. Each of them becomes quite unique to their genre and is loved by many different players worldwide. We‘re going to look at the differences between Eastern vs Western games, what they have in common, and how much their cultures have influenced the genre.
Eastern & Western Games – The Difference
First and foremost we need to understand where those two types of games come from. Eastern games hail from Asia (mostly Japan) while Western games come from Europe & America. While the geographical difference is one of the biggest between the two, there are many more things that tell the games apart. They get heavily influenced by their own cultures and ethics. Those heavily shaped their preferences in story, visuals, and gameplay alike so let’s start with their core values., shall we?
The Dream Of Unlimited Power
The dream of unlimited power is one of the most common themes in Western Games. You’ll see an underdog rise through the ranks to become the champion or you’ll play the anti-hero walking on a thin line between good and evil. After all, it’s very satisfying to watch a powerless protagonist grow into a mighty warrior. Especially if you’re playing them yourself. Sometimes you even start as an already overpowered fighter. Nevertheless most of the time you’ll lose all your gear & even power in one way or another. This forces you to start over so you need to rebuild your equipment and skills from scratch. The reason behind that is so that the players won’t get bored and still have a feeling of growth.
This ‘power fantasy’ is a way of escaping from your everyday life. You are no longer a normal human being. You are an all-mighty hero, taking on Gods and other powerful enemies with ease as you progress through the story. Western games are dominated with action sequences, explosions, and epic scenes… Showing off the character’s skills and prowess over their rivals.
The Lone-Wolf Hero
Most of the time you fight your battles alone. Sometimes you get to build up some relationships throughout your journey but they rarely last long or have a sexual background. Being powerful and different from everyone else is a very popular goal people try to reach in the Western World. Thanks to the help of video games, they can finally live out that lifelong dream. You are now the chosen one and the faster you get stronger, the better it feels.
Even NPCs that fight on your side are very often depicted as weak in comparison to the protagonist. While companions are a nice addition to a game, most of the time they come across as nuisances. Their lack of skills or other annoying aspects often slow the player down or even hinder him during fights. Though on the other hand, nobody would want an AI to carry you through a level, right?
The most prominent characters fitting the description of a powerful protagonist are ‘Master Chief’ from the ‘Halo’ series, ‘Kratos’ from ‘God of War’ or ‘Gerald of Riva’ from ‘The Witcher’. All of them are powerhouses with their own unique skills, techniques, and epic stories that leave players longing for more.
After our dive into the Western world, let’s take a look at their counterpart where things look a bit different.
The Battle Against The Odds
In Eastern games, the heros are often rather weak and powerless at the beginning. Someone that easily gets beaten by the games antagonist. A nobody that has to find his place in the world. With time, the hero learns to overcome their weakness by training hard. They defeat one enemy after another before suddenly emerging victoriously even though it seemed impossible at the beginning. The protagonist turned the table through hard work and dedication. Proofing that everyone can make it as long as they put the time and effort into it.
At first this sounds a bit familiar to the Western games but the core reasons are very different. In Eastern games, you don’t get stronger for the sake of power. You get stronger to protect the people you love and those who are close to you. This is what sets the gameplay and its story apart from the lone-wolf approach of the Western games.
The Power of Friendship
The importance of groups and their relationship to the protagonist is fundamentally different in the Eastern world. In Asian games, the hero often finds friends along the way. They help him through any hardships, support him in battle, and sometimes you can even build up platonic relationships. This more often than not changes the whole purpose of the game. Suddenly you don’t fight for yourself but you fight to protect the people you love and those closest to you. The power of friendship is a very common trope in Eastern media and that also rubbed off onto their games. Very popular games that fall under that category are ‘Persona’, ‘Near: Automata’ or ‘Final Fantasy’.
Another huge difference between Eastern vs Western games is the grind aspect of many games. This comes from the hard work ethic that you can often find in most of the Asian countries. People believe that through hard work, you can achieve anything and this is the reason why a lot of Eastern Games come across as ‘grindy’. You often have to put hours and hours into a game to gain experience, skills, or equipment to become stronger which can become rather tedious but in the end, the time really pays off.
Differences in Game Design
Western Games focus more on Open World & RTS (Real-time strategy) battle systems where the reflexes of the player are tested and how well they can interact with their surroundings. Sneaking up on your opponents, killing them quickly with good combos, or setting up traps are rather common practices in those fast-paced games.
Eastern Games on the other hand are more linear and often have a more strategic approach to their games where you need to plan out your party or equipment according to the enemy that you’re going to face. Turn-based fighting systems where you need to arrange a whole group can get complicated rather quickly which makes the battles more brain than brawn and brute forcing a fight through button meshing or blindly charging into a battle often gets punished quickly.
As we mentioned earlier, games that take time, discipline, and dedication to achieve their goals are seen as accomplishments in the East. So games that are more focused on reaction and hand-eye coordination skills are rather unpopular in Asian countries. Shooters for example that are in high demand on the Western market due to their fast-paced moment-to-moment gameplay are very unpopular in the Eastern Gaming community.
Stylized VS Photorealistic
Another big difference between the two types of games is their graphics. Western games are often very realistic due to the AAA studios trying to push the limits of each system in an attempt to make their games feel more and more life-like. Eastern games on the other hand are often very stylized, colorful, and unique. They love to twist reality or to make them look rather abstract and with their love for anime, manga, and webcomic characters, this isn’t really a surprise for anyone.
Overlaps & Similarities – Best of Both World
Of course, there are a lot of exceptions nowadays where cultures merge more and more with each other… and so do games. Both Western & Eastern studios are doing their research and taking the things that work best from each other creations. ‘The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild’ is one of the most prominent ones where Nintendo took inspiration from the Western open world games like ‘The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim’ while still keeping a unique stylized look and their ‘The Legend of Zelda’ feeling.
On the other hand, more and more games get stylized or even implement relationship-building elements into their storylines like ‘Dragon Age’ or ‘Mass Effect’. ‘Stardew Valley’ also took huge inspiration from Nintendo’s ‘Harvest Moon’ series and with the influence of Western elements in the farming simulator it turned out to be one of the most bought games of all time. Either way, while there are quite a few differences when we look at Eastern vs Western games, the more similarities we can find in them and those are only going to grow in the upcoming years.
Needless to say, that there are no good or bad games if you’re going to judge them by their origins only. Like tastes in food, the taste in games can vary from person to person. There are tons of games out there, each more different and unique than the other. Just because you didn’t like one of them, doesn’t mean that all of them are going to be the same. Remember to always stay open-minded and try out different types of games and genres to figure out what’s best for you.
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