re: Japanese vs American Game Design

Western rpg’s are based on dungeons and dragons. The characters are customizable, worlds are open, and your decisions matter. They’re all about putting you in the role of the protagonist so you decide the course of the story and how you want to play it.

Japanese RPG’s are based on anime manga, so your characters are fully formed and stylized, the worlds are more or less linear, and the stories drive the action. You’re just along for the ride experiencing the world through the character’s eyes. Japan also doesn’t have the same sort of SJW and feminist politics involved in its game designs, so their culture doesn’t shame sexualizing female game characters like American game critics do here. Heck, Japanese pop culture is extremely sexualized despite their population being comparatively a-sexual.