Does Even David Cage Admit That Adventure Games Are Japan Only?

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David Cage proposed a disturbing idea in his postmortem on adventure game Indigo Prophecy. He said, "In an action game you can explain how to shoot, what weapons are used, who the enemies are, and everyone immediately understands the type of experience it is going to be. With Indigo Prophecy, no one can see right away how the player can enjoy playing with only a story and choices." (from http://gamasutra.com/features/20060620/cage_04.shtml)

Both of Quantic Dream's console releases (Omikron: The Nomad Soul, and Fahrenheit [aka Indigo Prophecy]) were intriguing to me. I finished neither, however, I did play enough to realize that both are interesting and unique additions to the modern adventure game genre.

This kind of statement coming from the creator of two ambitious adventure games can't be taken at face value. He's certainly not referring to the staff at Quantic Dream nor their intended audience when he says "no one can see...how the player can enjoy playing with only a story and choices." After all, there are multiple genres that rely on stories and choices heavily in their game-play. The visual novel community, adventure gamers, and many RPG fans must all see the enjoyment of a story unfolding based on player choices and input.

I think what David meant was that the people who fund current-gen game console releases cannot see this, and perhaps it's because the market for it really is small in comparison to action games. I'm going on my personal impressions and not sales figures, but story-centric games with little in the way of action do not appear to be the bread and butter of many successful game companies in the US. Is Japan any different?

Take a look at the top selling Playstation games in Japan, (according to the May '09 issue of Famitsu) and 8 of them are included in an action genre such as "historical action" or "action-adventure". Perhaps the tops of the charts are reserved for action games regardless of what country you're in.

However a trip through a Japanese PC game store reveals a whole industry devoted to the (albiet largely adult oriented) story-and-choices school of game design. Myriad Japanese anime-based games like "Ai Yori Aoshi", "Lucky Star - Ryouou Gakuen Outousai", and "Meitantei Evangelion" also subscribe to a story-and-choices game-play philosophy. Perhaps it isn't surprising then to see Sony partnering with the French developer Quantic Dream for their upcoming adventure game currently dubbed "Heavy Rain" as a PS3 exclusive.

Check out the above video for some additional thoughts on adventure games from "Heavy Rain" and "Indigo Prophecy" creator David Cage.