I'm not sure how much of this is due to a cultural divide - the naming definitely is - and how much of it is just Kojima being an occasionally terrible writer, but in the end it's still weird and distracting. For instances of the latter, we point to "can love bloom on the battlefield?", the very concept of Rose, the whole node/nerd debacle, the President feeling Raiden up, Otacon's step-mom banging confession, and everything involved with that soda drinking monkey. Kojima, however, he doesn't know where to draw the line between "adorably cheesy" and "just plain stupid".
Blaustein admitted that the names ended up working, but not for the same reasons that they would in Japanese - "Decoy Octopus" sounds absurd, but that lends itself to the game's lovable goofiness.
For example, one of my favorite lines from Jeremy Blaustein, the game's translator, talks about how the names for the villains would sound totally ridiculous to a native English speaker. But the way he translates some of this influence into his games is completely hit or miss. Hideo Kojima has been in love with American cinema, something which has been obvious since his days working on Snatcher and the original Metal Gear. However, these all tip on one side of the scale though - they're almost too Western, I think. And the same applies with Lost Planet, despite the main character being modeled after a Korean star. Dead Rising is very similar in that regard, although I can't imagine a Western developer using anything like that game's timed structure or save system.
#NO MORE HEROES SHINOBU BUTT MOVIE#
There are some incongruities, notably the awful voice acting and the cheesy dialogue from RE4, but these don't stand out all that much, considering that the zombie movie genre is already loaded with irony. Look at Resident Evil - at first glance, there's really nothing that seems notably Japanese about it, since so much of it is based off Western horror movies in the first place.
#NO MORE HEROES SHINOBU BUTT SERIES#
But there are some examples which have strong Western influences which have gone over well in both territories, so let's take a look at a few series which accomplish this.Ĭapcom has excelled this generation because it's one of the few Japanese developers that really understands Western tastes. Sometimes this works in favor, sometimes it.doesn't. They might be able to look at the games we like and try to emulate them, but ultimately, they might not understand why we like the games we do.Īs has been said many times before, looking at bits of other cultures is something like looking at American culture through a distorted mirror. Still, it'd be a mistake to say that the Japanese should make games primarily for a Western audience. It's no secret that Japanese console development is floundering, with their own market shrinking while the Western market is expanding. It's made me think of why I dig No More Heroes as a whole so much, despite so many of their flaws, and I think it's because they create a bridge across the Western/Eastern cultural divide in an entirely unique way. I agree with the general criticism that it feels unfinished, especially with the lack of swords and the oh-so-brief playable segments with Shinobu and Henry (moreso Henry), but overall I think it's a better game than the first one. I'm approaching the end of No More Heroes 2, with a save right before the final ranked battle, with most of my stats maxed.
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