As to the race question, Japanese developers develop for Japan, so the characters are japanese. Since Japanese people aren’t darkly colored, the character designs aren’t either. The large eyes are taken from anime, so rather than indicating a specific race, they are just a stylish way of depicting eyes. So even if the characters look “white” they really aren’t. Unless it’s a game like Professor Layton, where clearly Luke and Layton are “white” or to be specific English.

I think Tales of Hearts adequately shows this, the main female lead in anime style looks “white” as you say, but in her realistic rendition she looks japanese. So I think majority of the time, the developers develop for the country in which they work, it’s just what sells. People are better able to bond with someone who resembles them. That is why most games used to feature only male leads; it used to be a predominately male hobby and so the leads were made to be like the target audience. That is also why most japanese games were americanized to great extents prior to the japanese cultural influx in the form of anime and manga.

It would be nice to have the choice of your gender, I know this feeling very well, as well as your race, but reality isn’t always are nice as we want it to be. Video games are becoming more diverse, but they still have a long way to go.

As to the race question, Japanese developers develop for Japan, so the characters are japanese. Since Japanese people aren’t darkly colored, the character designs aren’t either. The large eyes are taken from anime, so rather than indicating a specific race, they are just a stylish way of depicting eyes. So even if the characters look “white” they really aren’t. Unless it’s a game like Professor Layton, where clearly Luke and Layton are “white” or to be specific English.

I think Tales of Hearts adequately shows this, the main female lead in anime style looks “white” as you say, but in her realistic rendition she looks japanese. So I think majority of the time, the developers develop for the country in which they work, it’s just what sells. People are better able to bond with someone who resembles them. That is why most games used to feature only male leads; it used to be a predominately male hobby and so the leads were made to be like the target audience. That is also why most japanese games were americanized to great extents prior to the japanese cultural influx in the form of anime and manga.

It would be nice to have the choice of your gender, I know this feeling very well, as well as your race, but reality isn’t always are nice as we want it to be. Video games are becoming more diverse, but they still have a long way to go.

As to the race question, Japanese developers develop for Japan, so the characters are japanese. Since Japanese people aren’t darkly colored, the character designs aren’t either. The large eyes are taken from anime, so rather than indicating a specific race, they are just a stylish way of depicting eyes. So even if the characters look “white” they really aren’t. Unless it’s a game like Professor Layton, where clearly Luke and Layton are “white” or to be specific English.

I think Tales of Hearts adequately shows this, the main female lead in anime style looks “white” as you say, but in her realistic rendition she looks japanese. So I think majority of the time, the developers develop for the country in which they work, it’s just what sells. People are better able to bond with someone who resembles them. That is why most games used to feature only male leads; it used to be a predominately male hobby and so the leads were made to be like the target audience. That is also why most japanese games were americanized to great extents prior to the japanese cultural influx in the form of anime and manga.

It would be nice to have the choice of your gender, I know this feeling very well, as well as your race, but reality isn’t always are nice as we want it to be. Video games are becoming more diverse, but they still have a long way to go.

@SomeDoodGurl, I can’t remember where, but I read an article somewhere arguing that a lot of characters in anime, manga and video games perceived as white aren’t necessarily white. Character designs are stylized in such a way that in Japan, they’re thought to be Japanese, whereas people from different countries/cultures see them as a different ethnicity or race. I didn’t agree with the whole thing, but it is interesting to think about them not as drawn to look like a particular race, but instead as a blank stylization upon which any race can be applied. Take for example the Gyakuten Saiban series. In Japan, the main character’s name is Naruhodou Ryuuichi, clearly a Japanese dude with a weird name. In NA, his name is Phoenix Wright, an American. Is there anything really white or Japanese about his physical appearance? It depends on who is looking at him.

Also, there are many examples of anime that take place in Japan wherein a Caucasian person does show up, and they are drawn differently (usually with different eyes and a bigger nose), or a Chinese person shows up (their eyes are usually smaller and slantier). But some would argue that the Japanese characters of the anime look “white.” I don’t know, something to think about.

@SomeDoodGurl, I can’t remember where, but I read an article somewhere arguing that a lot of characters in anime, manga and video games perceived as white aren’t necessarily white. Character designs are stylized in such a way that in Japan, they’re thought to be Japanese, whereas people from different countries/cultures see them as a different ethnicity or race. I didn’t agree with the whole thing, but it is interesting to think about them not as drawn to look like a particular race, but instead as a blank stylization upon which any race can be applied. Take for example the Gyakuten Saiban series. In Japan, the main character’s name is Naruhodou Ryuuichi, clearly a Japanese dude with a weird name. In NA, his name is Phoenix Wright, an American. Is there anything really white or Japanese about his physical appearance? It depends on who is looking at him.

Also, there are many examples of anime that take place in Japan wherein a Caucasian person does show up, and they are drawn differently (usually with different eyes and a bigger nose), or a Chinese person shows up (their eyes are usually smaller and slantier). But some would argue that the Japanese characters of the anime look “white.” I don’t know, something to think about.

@SomeDoodGurl, I can’t remember where, but I read an article somewhere arguing that a lot of characters in anime, manga and video games perceived as white aren’t necessarily white. Character designs are stylized in such a way that in Japan, they’re thought to be Japanese, whereas people from different countries/cultures see them as a different ethnicity or race. I didn’t agree with the whole thing, but it is interesting to think about them not as drawn to look like a particular race, but instead as a blank stylization upon which any race can be applied. Take for example the Gyakuten Saiban series. In Japan, the main character’s name is Naruhodou Ryuuichi, clearly a Japanese dude with a weird name. In NA, his name is Phoenix Wright, an American. Is there anything really white or Japanese about his physical appearance? It depends on who is looking at him.

Also, there are many examples of anime that take place in Japan wherein a Caucasian person does show up, and they are drawn differently (usually with different eyes and a bigger nose), or a Chinese person shows up (their eyes are usually smaller and slantier). But some would argue that the Japanese characters of the anime look “white.” I don’t know, something to think about.

99 Knights, Magna Carta, and all the Kingdom Under Fire games wave hello to remind you of how badly the Korean RPGs that came over here have done gameplay.

99 Knights, Magna Carta, and all the Kingdom Under Fire games wave hello to remind you of how badly the Korean RPGs that came over here have done gameplay.

99 Knights, Magna Carta, and all the Kingdom Under Fire games wave hello to remind you of how badly the Korean RPGs that came over here have done gameplay.