Breaking the Language Barrier

Team Ninja on the disparity between Japanese and Western development

Feature by Dan Pearson Contributor

Published on Sept. 26, 2011

GamesIndustry.bizThere were some interesting comments last week from Inafune. He was talking about his experiences at Capcom and saying that collaborations between Japanese developers or publishers and Western counterparts often leads to conflict and each party blaming the other for any mistakes. Is that an assessment you'd agree with?

Peter Garza

Yeah. You're gonna get cultural disconnect - that's going to happen. If we're going to be collaborating more, we need to think about that upfront. It's very important that both parties are aware that there will be culture shock. There will be culture shock on both sides, you've got to be ready for that. You need to be able to see ahead of time where things might happen and act early to make sure they don't snowball and get completely out of hand.

When you're dealing with companies, and not just people over a beer, that can easily devolve into politics and that nasty infighting. Japanese companies are structured differently and personal relationships within the company are very different than a Western company, it's just a matter of different cultures.

Hopefully when a collaboration goes well people will be able to understand those differences and work with those different structures and find the good that's there as well. Focus on making it work rather than saying, "we don't do it that way, you need to do it our way." If both sides come to the table like that then there's obviously going to be difficulties.

GamesIndustry.bizOne of the areas which has been perceived as a bit of a negative cultural difference, particularly in Team Ninja's Dead or Alive, but also in Ninja Gaiden, is the portrayal of women. There's been some perceived misogyny there. I think that's a bit hypocritical, given that objectification of women in games is just as prevalent in the West, but it is perhaps more pronounced in Japanese titles. Is that a fair judgement, do you think?

Peter Garza

I think that's a cultural issue. Specifically with some of the creators. There's an idea of playful beauty, and not to defend misogyny at all, but I think that's where they're coming from. That's their perception of creating a beautiful woman. They're not trying to belittle them, they're trying to show this ideal woman.

We're trying to deal with beauty, and violence for Ninja Gaiden, in a more mature way. Less of that 13 year-old sneaking nudie books under the bed away from his parents.

That being said, I think attitudes are changing somewhat. In the latest Ninja Gaiden 3 trailer there's a female character that is fully clothed and doesn't have enormous breasts. We're trying to deal with beauty, and violence for Ninja Gaiden, in a more mature way. Less of that 13 year-old sneaking nudie books under the bed away from his parents. More of an adult's perspective. We make mature games for adults.

We're all grown ups, so trying to come from that. We're trying to grow up a bit. A little bit. [laughs]

GamesIndustry.bizI think that's an important distinction. For many years, mature games were anything but. It was that schoolyard sniggering titillation, whereas now we often have very mature subjects being dealt with in grown up and sensitive ways.

Peter Garza

Yeah, one of the things a few years back that hit me as a really mature game was Braid. Braid to me is a mature game because it's pitched to you at a mature level. My children can play Braid, but they wouldn't get it. That is a completely different kind of rating than you get on the packaging.

That's a kind of maturity which you definitely see coming from the West. It's something I really hope to see coming from Japanese developers as well, because the gaming population is not just 13 year old boys. The evolution of maturity and the attitude towards it is definitely changing in the West. Personally I'm trying to work on that in Japan as well.

GamesIndustry.bizObviously Itagaki-san was a huge personality and influence behind the team. How has his departure affected the way that you work?

Peter Garza

Well I have to preface that by saying that I was never part of the team whilst Itagaki-san was there, so I've only seen the after effects. I've talked to people, and there are several people who did work with him, in talking with them he's very respected. He knows games, what makes a good game, the risk and reward. The right challenge to bring it to that level where, if you fail, you want to try it just that one more time. As a game creator he's very well respected.

Obviously with the games that he made, that shows in the results. The people who are at Team Ninja were raised in that culture. Last year in E3 I was in an interview with the current Team Ninja leader, Mr Hayashi. He got a similar question.

He phrase it like this: If you cut down the grass, the soil remains, so you're still going to get the same kind of grass growing back. Even with Itagaki-san's departure, the foundation that he laid is still there - his attitude towards action in games, the quality of animation and combat, the feel of combat, the controller input, all of that is there.

I think now it's their time to shine. To say, okay, we've got that base but now I'm going to put my own spin on it.

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