This is a concern of mine both as a gamer and as a reviewer. It's nothing new that, despite being 2019, there are still japanese games that insist on keeping a sexist, homophobic and/or transphobic approach to stories or characters. I made a thread earlier this year - My Little Visual Novel Can't Be This Homophobic (Or How Queerness Continues To Be the Butt of the Joke in Japan - in which I try to show how a particular game, one released recently in Japan and localized for the West, is very sexist and homophobic, and how companies that are localizing and translating these games have the opportunity to make changes for the better. These changes, controversial as they are, aren't really the subject for this specific thread.
What I want to say is that there are several people in the West that not only don't see any issue in these sexist, homophobic and transphobic approaches in games, but also use the excuse "because Japan" to vouch for these views and criticize any people that point that out. Even if there are games in Japan that have all these issues and the japanese don't bring those issues up, these games are being released in other parts of the world where these issues wouldn't be glossed over.
Should we play japanese games with "japanese" sensitivities, as the japanese do (not saying that these issues are accepted in the country, but that it's not a particular issue for the specific audience), or can we bring up how these games have serious issues that should be discussed, even if we're not primarily their target audience? As someone that reads reviews for these games, should the reviewer cater to the western audience that wants exactly what the japanese are getting (i.e. without any changes, not bringing up these issues because they're "not an issue" in Japan), or should the reviewer analyze the game just as it should be, for a western point of view?
Disclaimer: I'm not saying that we should be dismissing these issues. I've brought up several of them here, in my reviews and with my friends, but I always find people that come at me with the arguments that I brought up in this thread, saying that as a japanese product made by japanese for the japanese, these issues shouldn't be discussed.
What I want to say is that there are several people in the West that not only don't see any issue in these sexist, homophobic and transphobic approaches in games, but also use the excuse "because Japan" to vouch for these views and criticize any people that point that out. Even if there are games in Japan that have all these issues and the japanese don't bring those issues up, these games are being released in other parts of the world where these issues wouldn't be glossed over.
Should we play japanese games with "japanese" sensitivities, as the japanese do (not saying that these issues are accepted in the country, but that it's not a particular issue for the specific audience), or can we bring up how these games have serious issues that should be discussed, even if we're not primarily their target audience? As someone that reads reviews for these games, should the reviewer cater to the western audience that wants exactly what the japanese are getting (i.e. without any changes, not bringing up these issues because they're "not an issue" in Japan), or should the reviewer analyze the game just as it should be, for a western point of view?
Disclaimer: I'm not saying that we should be dismissing these issues. I've brought up several of them here, in my reviews and with my friends, but I always find people that come at me with the arguments that I brought up in this thread, saying that as a japanese product made by japanese for the japanese, these issues shouldn't be discussed.
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