According to Yoko Taro, the creator of the NieR series, Japanese developers have struggled to keep pace with their Western counterparts during the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 era. The reason for this, he believes, is that Japanese developers are not adept at incorporating technology from overseas for various reasons. In a detailed interview with IGN, Yoko Taro discussed game development with Hyung-Tae Kim, the creative director of Stellar Blade.
One of the challenges that Japanese developers face in implementing Western rendering systems is their lack of exposure to them due to being accustomed to creating their own engines. This is evident as many educational institutions do not teach these skills to new developers. Yoko Taro believes that Japanese developers struggle to adapt technology from overseas while developers from China and South Korea are quicker to utilize engines like Unreal for games with Japanese aesthetics.
However, some Japanese developers have faced difficulties with their proprietary engines. For example, Square Enix had used its Luminous Engine only for two games before abandoning it. On the other hand, CAPCOM has developed the RE Engine, which powers a variety of games including multiple entries in the 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.
In conclusion, Yoko Taro’s statement highlights the fact that Japanese developers have struggled in keeping up with Western counterparts due to their reliance on proprietary engines and lack of exposure to foreign rendering systems. However, there are some notable exceptions where Japanese developers have excelled in utilizing technology from overseas such as CAPCOM’s RE Engine. As Unreal Engine 5 sets a new standard for visual quality it remains to be seen whether Japanese developers will embrace this new technology or continue down their current path of relying on proprietary engines.