During the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 era, Japanese developers struggled to keep up with their Western counterparts, according to Yoko Taro, the creator of the NieR series. According to him, Japanese developers are not adept at incorporating technology from overseas for various reasons. In an interview with IGN, Yoko Taro discussed game development with Hyung-Tae Kim, the creative director of Stellar Blade.
Yoko Taro highlighted the challenges that Japanese developers face when implementing Western rendering systems. He pointed out that they are accustomed to creating their own engines and this hinders their ability to adapt technology from overseas. On the other hand, developers from China and South Korea are quicker to utilize engines like Unreal for games with Japanese aesthetics.
While some Japanese developers have faced difficulties with their proprietary engines like Square Enix with the Luminous Engine which was only used for two games before being abandoned, others have excelled like CAPCOM with RE Engine which powers multiple entries in Resident Evil series, Monster Hunter Rise Devil May Cry 5 Street Fighter 6 and Dragon’s Dogma 2. With Unreal Engine 5 now setting a new standard for visual quality, it will be interesting to see if Japanese developers will embrace it for their future games or if they will continue to rely on proprietary engines to maintain high-quality standards.
