Been playing some Death Stranding and I was thinking about how weird it was that a Japanese man made this game. First, the game is squarely about America. Second, the lead is Norman Reedus who is about as southern country looking as you can get. I put this in perspective with the Metal Gear series which has always had white men in the leading role, although Solid Snake was borne from an Asian woman. Only zone of the enders has protagonists that aren’t obviously white.
Then I started thinking about how one of the biggest Japanese gaming Icons are an Italian plumber and Link, who is blonde haired and blue eyed in many iterations.
Recently Mcdonalds did a japanese ad for Dragon Quest and everyone was white.. You could blame mcdonalds for the casting, but considering Dragon Quest draws heavily on European medieval culture, I’m thinking this might have been a request.
When I really think about it, I rarely, if ever, see Japanese games that feature an obviously Asian lead. Sekiro is about the only one I can think of in recent memory.
Has anyone else noticed this? Anyone think it’s kinda weird?
No comments:
Post a Comment