During the Xbox 360 and PS3 era, there was a trend of Japanese game developers trying to make games to appeal to western audiences. Capcom was a big proponent of this with the likes of Lost Planet 2, which felt like a way to get Americans to like Monster Hunter by adding guns and robots to it, or the edgy Devil May Cry reboot DmC: Devil May Cry. However, over the last few years we've seen Japanese games abandon this trend to massive success, with the likes of Persona, Yakuza, Monster Hunter, and Nier blowing up over the last decade and only getting more popular since.
Recently, former PlayStation boss Shuhei Yoshida named Nier: Automata the game that "revived" the Japanese games industry, citing that Nier director Yoko Taro "made it without thinking about whether or not it would sell overseas." Yoko Taro has responded to the praise while revealing a fun detail about why Nier: Automata is the way it is.
