Hey,
this question would be mostly oriented for gamers, but I think it could be interesting discussion for other people.
I wrote critical analysis about “How GoT works with the portrayal of the samurai and depiction of Japanese culture” and I obviously came with a conclusion in my paper. What I’m interested in is how you feel about its portrayal? Have in mind that this game was developed by western studio and as often happens the image of other culture is sometimes depicted with orientalist tendencies, or at least is simplified and stereotyped.
When the game was announced, it came with a lot of negative feedbacks from consumers, even from journalists. The funny thing is, those “angry consumers” were mostly from western world arguing that the game is not culture appropriate.
So how do you feel about it?
And how do you in general feel about depiction of Japanese culture in video games?
https://www.reddit.com/r/japan/comments/16rreud/how_does_ghost_of_tsushima_work_with_japanese/
11 comments
if I remember the Japanese are just happy that there is a good samurai game
those angry consumers are just retarded Twitter and game journalist propaganda
the majority of the consumer just rate it GoTY
The Nagasaki prefecture tourist association has a big feature on it in their promotional material. They loved it.
Sold well over a million copies here, excellent for an import game.
It’s a well-done game done by a studio that did its research. They even consulted with a Sony Interactive Entertainment – Japan Studio in the game’s early development. Sucker Punch even flew a crew to Japan for guided tours by historians.
I find that people who scream “cultural appropriation” don’t know what they’re talking about, and they (usually) aren’t even connected to the culture they are defending.
My fiancé (Japanese) just started playing this game last week and he loves it so far. I’ve been watching him play and he keeps telling me how much research must have been done for this game because it’s really detailed and the movement of the protagonist are super well done (I remember him mentioning the way the character puts away his katana is very accurate etc.). No mention of cultural appropriation from him at all, he’s just very impressed and enjoying the game 🙂
The comments from ex Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio lead Toshihiro Nagoshi were basically “Sucker Punch nailed it”.
https://kotaku.com/yakuza-director-praises-ghost-of-tsushima-says-japan-s-1844541108
I recall two things that stood out to me from Japanese gamer Twitter around the time it was released.
1. The characters talk a lot. I felt this too. For a game wishing to emulate Japanese cinema and storytelling they leant heavily on characters saying everything on their mind at all times.
2. The characters are unattractive. There were a few articles about this too. Players were remarking at how Jin Sakai and Yuna weren’t attractive by video game character standards. Bit rough considering they’re modelled on real people lol. But some players actually felt this made gave the game some added realism and authenticity and that it was something Japanese developers wouldn’t have the courage to do.
Oh wow, I’ve actually given a lecture about the localization of Ghosts of Tsushima and how impressive it is.
So here’s the thing: It’s a great, culturally relatively respectful game. The characters are interesting, the gameplay is fun. **All** of my Japanese friends who have played it love it.
**But try playing it in English and in Japanese. It is almost** ***TWO COMPLETELY DIFFERENT GAMES*****, in terms of the dialoge.**
In short, to turn a 10-page essay into a single sentence: **The localization team for GoT in Japanese did one of the best localization jobs I’ve EVER SEEN in media, either in J->E or E->J.** Not translation mind you, but LOCALIZATION.
Why? Because the English dialogue is suitably “Cool”, “Asian Flavored”, with lots of “inscrutable wise man aphorisms” (yeah a teensy bit Orientalism here and there, nothing eggregious though) and basically “Westerners making up cool shit that they think samurai would say, but culturaly they would never talk in that manner or say those things”, but to translate that original cool English dialogue directly into Japanese would have made it a **laughable memed dogshit game** (like “Is this how foreigners really think samurai talked in Japan???” levels of cringe Twitter/TikTok videos).
So what did the Japanese localization team do? Line by line, they totally deconstructed ALL the dialogue of the game, and then rebuilt it from the ground up, from scrath: The localized lines (especially for the more “poetic” dialogue) has **nothing** to do with the counterpart English lines. Instead, they basically rewrote all the dialogue to be things that Japanese people may have actually said, and talk the way Japanese people actually talked, in historic samurai movies, TV shows, and so on. They didn’t painstakingly translate the English version’s “Cool samurai dialogue” into Japanese; they threw it in the trash and started over from scratch, and in doing so made excellent writing and dialogue, the kind that you could totally expect to find in Japanese jidaigeki dramas and movies.
I went through the game twice, in English and Japanese; the English dialogue was a bit “cringey” at times but not offensive… but the Japanese dialogue was so spot on the genre for a Japanese audience, that it felt like I was playing a jidaigeki drama game.
I don’t know the story behind the Japanese localization team for that game, but whatever they were paid, it wasn’t enough. If they didn’t take all that effort and passion to basically rewite almost all the dialogue from scratch, then all those folks in Japan who love GoT… well, they’d still kinda love it, but there would have been a LOT more “WTF???” Twitter video memes making fun of the corny “LOL Gaijin game designers think samurai talk like this” dialogue.
Instead, it’s a masterpiece.
I think it did a pretty good job at depicting Japan, even though the game is filled with anachronisms and some rather Western values. It does feel like Japan, which is already a massive success for a studio not based there. I don’t think the Japanese are pissed, but rather pleased their culture is made accessible to foreigners. The game is not perfect imho, because of the character and story mainly. But apart from that, it’s a good depiction of Japan.
Obviously the game was amazing and beautiful but as a student of history the depiction of Samurai culture was stereotypical. Obviously the armor and swords being used were anachronistic. The katana as we know it today was actually shortened and refined because it would break when attempting to to penetrate Mongol armor.
The portrayal of Samurai as noble, selfless, honorable to the point of tactical passivity was utter nonsense as always when it comes to western romanticism of a brutal feudal culture. The Samurai engaged in intrigue, back stabbing, plotting, revenge, familicide, and what we would call war crimes today just like any other culture. Samurai of course could be ninjas.
The Samurai of Jin’s time would have been particularly brutal. They were literally paid by the head of killed enemy warriors. One successful tactic the samurai employed during the Mongol wars was to sneak onboard Mongol ships at night and massacre them in their sleep. That was why the Mongols had to anchor farther out to sea contributing to their losses when the kamikaze hit. Not exactly open honorable combat eh? The reason Samurai tended to call out their opponents in battle was because they wanted to be recognized so they would get paid for their kill.
The Mongols/Chinese/Koreans who were unfortunate enough to be left behind when the fleet or what was left of it sailed home were executed or enslaved. Brutal times and brutal men. Nobody is going castigate Jin killing barbarians any way possible.
I saw online that nationalist-type Japanese people were like “people who dislike this game must be racist toward Japanese people” while more liberal people were like “oh I hope that foreigners who find out what samurais were really like don’t get too disappointed ha ha, but this game is very flattering.”
It’s always so jarring when Japanese people say that the main character was plain looking but his looks grew on them as they played more, ha ha, I thought that the guy was very handsome, though maybe not ikemen ha ha.
I personally think the game people did an amazing job getting the aesthetic right. I have no idea if it was completely historically accurate or whatever though ha ha! I watched the game in Japanese dub first and and man that was amazing! The swords being properly called tachi and not katana was nice ha ha. Also, translating ghost into 冥人 / kuroudo instead of the usual 幽霊?? Genius!! Obviously a made up word, but it sounds so cool ha ha ha! In English terms it’s like someone made up a Shakespeare-y sounding word to add to the aesthetic for a 1600s drama, and boy did it work!!
Then I watched the English dub and I cringed a little unfortunately ha ha.
EDIT: For an example of nationalists’ reaction his guy claims the “Asian Americans” complaining about the game are actually Japan-hating Koreans / Korean Americans http://blog.livedoor.jp/toshiboking/archives/41287934.html
EDIT2: See the comments of this YouTube video for people talking about how plain-looking Jinn is but how he looks more and more handsome as you keep playing ha ha https://youtu.be/ZOOd_BSZ_BM Also I learned today that samurai / bushi 武士 can also be read mononofu もののふ ha ha
EDIT3: Watching the Japanese dub again makes me realize that the English dub was cringy to me because it kept saying samurai, katana, and honor ha ha. But in the Japanese dub they usually say bushi, mononofu, tachi, and homare, which sound more authentic. If the game was made by a Japanese company, though, I would guess that the historically aware Japanese people would criticize it more as nationalist nonsense portraying samurai culture that way though.
The only thing that struck me as obviously inaccurate about the game is the depiction of the invasion force. Most of the soldiers involved in the invasion were Chinese and Korean, and used the weapons and armor of their respective homelands.
That’s not really a big deal though, IMO, it’s not a documentary. They clearly did their homework.
Just as I plan on tewatching the game on YouTube since I don’t have a PS4 or 5 and it isn’t on PC