Best Japanese-developed video games in the past 5 years

[cheesesteak]

Me and a buddy had a convo recently about Japanese-developed games. Just a broad convo covering various industry-related things.

But it made me think of asking y'all. What are the best Japanese-developed games that have been released here in the US since 2015? No limit on a list, and dont need to just mention one. List all you can think of!

[Lord Golbez]

Persona 5
Dragon Quest XI
Breath of the Wild

[Wolf Kanno]

Sticking mostly to game's I've played.

Death Stranding
Persona 5
Bloodborne
Dark Souls 3
Neir: Automata
Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night

[Vyk]

This one's hard for me, I had a falling out with Japanese style for some reason. It's like the things they've grown to put emphasis on are the things I don't want them to emphasize in gaming. Fire Emblem: The Three Houses is probably the highest on my list, and I currently have a disgusting amount of love for the Final Fantasy 7 remake
I have mixed feelings on Neir: Autonoma and Persona 5, so I'd feel weird saying I think they're best, despite how much I like them, or at least liked them at the time
Nioh 2 is really good, but also has a one-track mind, though Code Vein was one of my favorite experiences this generation
Bloodborne is definitely up there, but was that less than 5 years ago? I thought it was 2014 (Just verified, it was not 2014, but it was also more than 5 years ago lol March 2015. 5 years and some change, but it's one of my favorite games of the generation)h
The Last Guardian, if only because it's the closest thing I'll get to playing another actual Ico game in ten years or so, but there's no other experience quite like it this generation

So
Final Fantasy 7 Remaster
Fire Emblem: The Three Houses
Bloodborne
Code Vein
The Last Guardian
And if Bloodborne doesn't count then I guess Resident Evil 7 or Dragon Quest Builders

One good thing about my weird tastes is that I'm actually enjoying European western games a lot more this generation

[Karifean]

Ys VIII
Trials of Mana (even the original version having been released in the US *for the first time* only very recently)
Touhou 15: Legacy of Lunatic Kingdom

and if they count

Odin Sphere Leifthrasir
FF XII: The Zodiac Age

for the additions and changes they brought to their original counterparts.

[I Took the Red Pill]

Smash Ultimate
Sekiro
DQXI
Ring Fit Adventure

[cheesesteak]

Thanks for the replies, all! Some nice lists.

Ys VIII
Trials of Mana (even the original version having been released in the US *for the first time* only very recently)
Touhou 15: Legacy of Lunatic Kingdom

and if they count

Odin Sphere Leifthrasir
FF XII: The Zodiac Age

for the additions and changes they brought to their original counterparts.

A shmup/bullethell! I was actually looking for someone to list games that stray away from the more common genres. Also, I didn't even realize Leifthrasir was a thing (PC player here)! I was just thinking of how much I liked Vanillaware the other day lol. And I need to get into the Ys series...just too many games to play

Bloodborne
Code Vein
The Last Guardian
And if Bloodborne doesn't count then I guess Resident Evil 7 or Dragon Quest Builders

One good thing about my weird tastes is that I'm actually enjoying European western games a lot more this generation

I was thinking of getting Code Vein. I'm picky about my Soulslike games, but I definitely like the anime aesthetic.

And yeah, part of the conversation w/ my friend was how Western (Euro or otherwise) studios are making a higher % of games on the market it seems, AAA, indie or otherwise. Even Japanese publishers are jumping in on Western studios. All of Sony's development studios are Western, save Polyphony (but does Gran Turismo even exist anymore?). Square has its Euro teams and the indie games from Square Enix Collective. Bandai Namco is outsourcing some of its games to Western studios, etc.

But yeah, Ubisoft, CD Projekt Red, Crystal Dynamics/Eidos, Bigben, Techland, Dontnod, Team17, THQ Nordic... a lot of good games being developed or published by Euro companies in the past few years! Which leads me to your first point...

This one's hard for me, I had a falling out with Japanese style for some reason. It's like the things they've grown to put emphasis on are the things I don't want them to emphasize in gaming.

Care to elaborate? I've honestly been feeling the same thing recently, at least in regards to my desire to play JP games. The thing I've come to realize is they either have amazing storytelling or just super bland/generic storytelling. And the English VA even reflects that at times, which takes away from the experience for me (even if games have JP VA available, I prefer English VA for video games). Luckily, even if the storytelling is generic, it can still have some of that JP humor/charm mixed in. Regardless, I feel like sometimes its a crapshoot on some JP games if I feel the storytelling/VA'ing will "ruin" the experience for me. Imo, JRPGs are the biggest culprit of this (and VNs, but I sorta expect cheese from VNs). So part of me just wants to play it safe and possibly avoid the genre entirely. So I've been thinking of other genres JP excels at (shmups, action-adventure, horror, etc) and considering just focusing on those.

But what are these things they are emphasizing that you dislike?

[Vyk]

It might be an attention deficit issue, but I feel like "slow burn" games are mostly on the Japanese side of things. I used to hate how formulaic they were, and then I hated how tone deaf they were. Like PS1 and PS2 a ton of JRPGs are all the same thing. And there was a ton. I got burned out trying to find the diamonds in the rough. Then companies like Capcom and Konami just decided that horror was dead. They no longer wanted to make good quality RPGs, Metroidvanias, platformers, beat'em'ups. Things that I actually liked about Japanese developers at the time that didn't require a 3-10 hour investment just to see if you even like it or not (which is what JRPGs were requiring at the time)

I like my games to have a decent hook. And I also have come to appreciate smart pacing

Japanese studios have been going through a renaissance lately and I've loved it. Fighting games came back, survival horror came back, set-piece action games came back, I just can't think of as many to say "omg my favorite games ever" for this list, but I've bought tons, enjoyed tons, and quite a few I bought just to show the studios I appreciate what they're doing. Valkyria Chronicles 4 comes to mind. It's extremely tropey, and makes me eye-roll quite a bit, but they tried. You can tell they lost some of their magic, but they didn't let that stop them from trying to give fans what they wanted, they are just too reliant on tropes and archetypes. So I never finished Valkyria Chronicles 4, but I'm happy I bought it, and I hope they make another. I have lots of games on my shelf like that

But speaking of tropes and archetypes. A lot of companies rely on them to do the work of storytelling and character development for them. So you see the same thing over and over. And I have nothing against using a trope or archetype as a baseline, but I can't stand if they don't build off of it. And in that same vein I've also found that Japan has a hard time with subtlety and real legitimate drama. They tend to be pretty on-the-nose, or over-the-top and use mostly what I consider to be melodrama rather than actual drama

I think that's why things like Persona are so well regarded. Real palpable and relatable drama. Where things like Trails of Cold Steel have a bunch of tropes and archetypes, and it takes more than 10 hours to burn in before they actually expand, and it's got some "oops, I fell face first in your lap" and stuff in the beginning, which turned me off from completing the 10 hour probation at the beginning and I fell out of it. Which happens with a lot of Japanese games for me

A little rambly, but hopefully that gives you the insight you want. And I have nothing against those games, they're just not for me. I need to be invested pretty early in a game. If you can tolerate the slow-burn beginning and feel like your time is being valued then I am jealous. I have sparce free time and need things a little more snappy, otherwise I feel like I wasted a couple hours walking around towns or fighting monsters when I could have been actually seeing story and saving lives in other games

[WarZidane]

Some that haven't been mentioned yet:

Trails of Cold Steel 3 (or any Trails game that fits these requirements, really)
Resident Evil 2 remake
Yakuza 0 (or any Yakuza that fits these requirements)
Sekiro
Xenoblade Chronicles X and 2
Tales of Berseria
Monster Hunter World
FFXIV expansions

[cheesesteak]

A little rambly, but hopefully that gives you the insight you want.

No, a lot of that was very valuable and well-said, thanks. I also share a lot of feelings similar to yours. You were just much more eloquent than I was or would have been lol. But you hit it right on the nose w/ the types of drama, tropes, etc that don't really hook me like they used to, especially w/ JRPGs. I think sometimes the added layer of campy VA kills it for me too.

I dunno. W/ FF7R and Trials of Mana both coming out recently, and me having mixed feelings w/ their storytelling and ENG VA'ing, it made me start thinking harder about how I feel about narrative in Japanese games. Trying to be much more self-analytical on as to why I fell out of love w/ the more generic/campy stuff and am now itching for games w/ more sensible ENG VA and sophisticated storytelling like Sekiro, MGS5, Nier Automata, etc (of course, the occasional campy scenes or dialog mixed in is fine).

Maybe I never loved the generic/campy stuff in the first place, but just ignored it til now? I thought to myself "how come just X years ago (shoot, last year even), I was perfectly fine w/ campy or bland/generic stuff like Hyperdimension Neptunia or God Eater 3 or Tales of Zestiria/Berseria, but not sure I would be now?" Maybe something in ME has changed and I'm just looking for a different story or narrative experience now...

Tho, tbh, I think I'd still be fine w/ Hyperdimension Neptunia games (I really wanna get the 2D platformer RPG), b/c that's what I expect out of them. But the upcoming Tales of Arise? That's one I may not really decide on about enjoying the story experience until I sink some hours into it. Which would then potentially be a "waste" of $60. Which is why I'm trying to really figure out my mental formula or psychoanalysis ahead of time, so my money is spent properly. Or I could just wait for review videos and decide after that... But that's no fun!

It is funny you mention Trails of Cold Steel. I have yet to play that series, still working on Trails in the Sky. But I watched some videos of it and the ENG VA seems generic yet acceptable, but it still has some great humor that I appreciated from Cold Sky. So I'm down for it.

[Del Murder]

Persona 5
Dragon Quest XI
Breath of the Wild

Good list. Also Mario Odyssey.

[Jiro]

Nier Automata and Breath of the Wild are two that really stand out to me as games that worked on a level that I didn't think would grab me. Breath of the Wild was functionally my first Zelda game, too, so I have a lot of appreciation for the way that the devs made it accessible to someone who hasn't fully absorbed the legacy details.

[Starlife]

Neir Automata
Neir Automata
Neir Automata
Neir Automata
Neir Automata

[sharkythesharkdogg]

Yakuza 0
Tekken 7 (at console release. Now it suffers a bit.)
Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness (this also suffered from no budget thanks to FF15, but is still better imo.)

[Karifean]

13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim definitely has to be on here now.