Topic: The Chit-Chat Thread

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So after watching highlights from the earlier Comic-Con on YouTube, I somehow stumbled on Angry Joe's reaction to Summer Game Fest 2022. Much like Comic-Con, I didn't really see anything that catches my eye that much. Calisto Protocol looked cool, and the Soul Hackers 2 segment didn't really offer much details, but that's about it.

One thing that I did think about though by the time I got through the whole thing was how many times Angry Joe (and his chat) called any JRPG "a weeb game," especially when it came to the Soul Hackers 2 segment. I have my problems with the Soul Hackers 2 development, but I wouldn't necessarily just dismiss it as a dumb "weeb game." It kinda just goes to show how the anime artstyle is still perceived in the west, till this day, as this niched, perverse thing that panders to, at best, a minority cult following, or at worst, horny basement dwellers who worships furries. I mean, I'm Chinese, and anime is popular here in Singapore, so I don't know what that says about me, or whether if a South-East Asian like me liking Japanese animation makes me a "weeb," so-called.

But then again, that's always been my issue with Angry Joe. He has this shallow and dismissive attitude where he just judges games and shows that don't pander to his interest with a very superficial level of criticism. You can clearly see from the video the level of distinction between his excitement for action-oriented "metalhead games" like Metal HellSinger and his boredom for "weeb games" like Soul Hackers 2 and Neon White. He's clearly haven't read the Lord of the Rings books, but Alex has, so he's dismissing Alex's criticisms about the Rings of Power trailer like he's not interested in his point of view because it contradicts with his worldview.

But no, it's not just Joe I was thinking about at the end of the video. It got me thinking about why people get so upset online when someone dislikes a game or a movie you like. Part of it has to do with insecurity, sure, but I think on a deeper level, it also has to do with loneliness, how you feel left out when all the kids like one thing, but you're some weirdo who's the only person at school liking another thing. I remember back in secondary school (or "middle school" in American terms), I was probably the only kid who liked Digimon during the Pokémon craze. It really didn't help that our local kids channel had this event where they would host a marathon of episodes from both the Pokémon and Digimon anime for an entire day or two just to see which one would receive more viewership; it's a no-brainer who won.

So it's this gatekeeping attitude we have online, right? Just keeping to ourselves the games and movies we like, and dismissing those we don't. It kinda breeds this isolationist attitude that leads to dwindling sales of games we like because they're not popular enough. After my conversation with @Ralizah the other day, I do think that Atlus is trying their best to still cater to the SMT crowd, but I've heard that SMT sales just aren't doing as well as Persona games, so I don't know how that will affect the future of the SMT titles. Because one side of the crowd isn't willing to give this niched, weird weeb thing a try because it looks like a, and I quote, "generic JRPG," sales go down and they don't do as well as say, Cuphead, The Last of Us, Dark Souls or any of those big name American games. Between Cuphead and a Japanese shoot'em up game like Touhou with similar gameplay, which do you think would have bigger sales for example? JRPGs have their audience, but I just get the feeling that they're not nearly on the level of modern American AAA games, even those developed by non-American countries that aren't Japan like Russia or Germany. There's still a divide between the west and the east.

I have a strong feeling that if The Last of Us had an anime paintjob but retained the same story entirely, it wouldn't have done as well as it did. I liked a lot of Japanese animation not because it had an "anime style," but because they told a good story that's just as good, if not better than many American shows and animation. If you had a JRPG that has as good a story as The Last of Us, heck yeah I would still play it, anime style or not.

By the way, I know that the term, "weeb" has grown to become a more affectionate label nowadays that even anime fans label themselves with, but its origin clearly came from a derogatory stance, criticizing non-Japanese for obsessing over Japanese products, which is in itself a misuse of the term, "weeaboo" anyway since true weeaboos are far more cringeworthy than normal anime fans. You've still got people online like on Reddit calling out how "anime style is plastered everywhere" and how they're annoyed by it, so clearly, the artstyle still provoked the ire of a number of people for some reason.

Just for the record, I could understand not being interested in a certain kind of games like platform games or racing games. I myself have never been a huge Mario or Sonic fan, so if the shoe's on the other foot in a parallel universe where Mario isn't popular, my lack of contribution towards its sales would've caused the franchise to dwindle too. But I think when it comes to JRPGs, it's an entirely different conversation about more than just not liking a style of gameplay. Unless it incorporates American style (Resident Evil, or Biohazard in Japan) or American icons (Kingdom Hearts), I got a feeling that even the most popular Final Fantasy would struggle against American titles, especially with the additional problem of people's vocal dislike of turn-based combat.

I don't know, just my two cents. Sorry for the lengthy ramble. lol I just feel like, with all this hype of popular games recently, and me just not being able to connect with what the vast majority of people are excited about, it feels kinda lonely just discussing JRPGs that are barely half a decade old like SMT Strange Journey: Redux or whatever upcoming JRPGs that aren't as talked about in the biosphere of mass media. I don't know, maybe it's just me.