On the one hand, yeah definitely export your own cultural weirdness. Part of the joy of having so many other cultures in the world is getting little peeks into them via art.
On the other hand, some of my favorite games of all time have come from Japanese developers fetishizing American culture and trying to pretend it’s normal. Deadly Premonition, Metal Wolf Chaos, all the works of Hideo Kojima. I think there’s something to be said for the strange fusions that can occur when an outsider makes art in the style of a different culture.
The Souls games wouldn’t have happened without this either. I think both are good, but the fusion makes something special. You get all the best parts from both cultures. It’s the same for food or whatever else. Combining the best parts that different groups bring in creates something that no individual group could have done alone.
On the one hand, yeah definitely export your own cultural weirdness. Part of the joy of having so many other cultures in the world is getting little peeks into them via art.
On the other hand, some of my favorite games of all time have come from Japanese developers fetishizing American culture and trying to pretend it’s normal. Deadly Premonition, Metal Wolf Chaos, all the works of Hideo Kojima. I think there’s something to be said for the strange fusions that can occur when an outsider makes art in the style of a different culture.
The Souls games wouldn’t have happened without this either. I think both are good, but the fusion makes something special. You get all the best parts from both cultures. It’s the same for food or whatever else. Combining the best parts that different groups bring in creates something that no individual group could have done alone.
Devil May Cry comes to mind, as well. If I’m not mistaken that game was entirely developed with Western audiences as the target demographic.