On my recent trip to Japan, there were some interesting things that I stumbled across besides my harrowing mountaintop adventure. Rummaging through the various game stores across Tokyo, I noticed a few things about gaming in Japan at the moment that seems to be spilling over into Taiwan through the local PC market too:
There’s a trend in puzzle games lately, especially for mobile phones and the Nintendo DS/Sony PSP. These tend to be the more pick up and play style, quick save, and not terribly new or sophisticated in gameplay, but rather are playing off popular anime/manga/pop culture IPs such as Ah! My Goddess.
Another sub-trend in the puzzle craze is the addition of card based/collecting in almost every single thing I’ve come across. A good example that has come stateside comes in the form of Final Fantasy Fables; Chocobo Tales, and SNK Card Fighters. Although nothing new (Thanks MTG, Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh, etc. etc.), it seems to be way overplayed lately. CCGs seem to pop up in the most unlikely places, from arcade based games like Sangokushi Taisen to the purely virtual ones.
Life Simulation games seem to also be a big craze, however, each one seems to have it’s little twist. Watashi no Happy Manner Book is one of these (Coming from Taito, which Square Enix gobbled up no less), with other big name companies pumping more and more out. Life simulation adventures have always been popular, with Konami’s Tokimeki Memorial: Girls Side and Boys Side coming to the DS too, specially under the 1st love subtitle.
On a side note, Tokimeki Memorial: Girls Side is the most popular girls dating sim in Asia, I randomly ran across a store that carried nothing but games like these catering towards girl gamers in Akihabara. Other life simulation games include Otonaryoku Kentei, which is sort of a goofy salaryman simulator, and Nodame Cantabile, which is orchestral themed. There also seems to be a huge market for brain training games, although this is prevalent even in the US.
While there seems to be an influx of newer ideas for the the Nintendo DS, even in Japan, the PSP just seems to be getting an influx of rehashes of old IPs, and nothing I’ve seen is terribly interesting. The two currently best selling games for the PSP are Monster Hunter 2 Portable and Gundam Seed: Zaft vs Union 2, both PS2 games fitted for the small screen and enhanced with Wi-Fi capabilities.