World War II, Square Enix and Japan

Now, I won’t revive the “do we need another WWII game” complaint again.  If COD World at War has done anything, it is illustrate that people are willing to return to that genre given the right motivation.  Rather, my question concerns the theater of operation that this game centers around. Order of War appears to be a European theater of conflict strategy game.  When I first heard that Square Enix was involved in publishing a WWII game I was intrigued by the potential of playing the Japanese Army during the course of the war as depicted by the Japanese themselves.  Now that I’ve found out that the game’s direction doesn’t seem to have been influenced at all by Square Enix and that no part of it takes place in the Pacific theater, the game has lost a lot of the appeal it might have had in my mind.

Do you think that if Square Enix was to publish a WWII strategy game, some part of it should represent Japan’s contribution to the war?  Does a well regarded Japanese company publishing a game about WWII that doesn’t portray the Japanese during the conflict seem dodgy to anyone else?  Sure, they have a right to publish anything they believe in, and I have nothing against the game, itself.  I guess I am just disappointed with the difference between what I’d hoped for and what we’ll actually receive.

Order of War trailer: http://www.gametrailers.com/player/48101.html

The Wargaming.net overview: http://www.wargaming.net/game_7.php

look, there is a big reason why Japan would never want to make a game about what they did in WW2.  I got two words for you  Nanking Massacre.  If you don't know what it is click on the link and find out.  You also need to know that in Japan they don't teach what happend during WW2 outside of what happend in Europe and that they were defeated. 

This is more of Square Enix expanding their publishing portfolio.  Wargames is a London based team so I see nothing wrong with them making a WW2 game about the war in Europe.   With Six days in fallujah coming out maybe someone will have the guts to tell the story of Nanking one day.

Yeah, I can picture the back of the box now...

• Make difficult moral choices in Nanking!
• Play awesome minigames as a scientist in Unit 731!
• The most realistic POW torture simulator to date!
• Pick and choose the most beautiful comfort women in all of Asia!
• Steal shit!

"Yeah, I can picture the back of the box now...

• Make difficult moral choices in Nanking!
• Play awesome minigames as a scientist in Unit 731!
• The most realistic POW torture simulator to date!
• Pick and choose the most beautiful comfort women in all of Asia!
• Steal shit!

Company of Heroes can kiss my ass."

"look, there is a big reason why Japan would never want to make a game about what they did in WW2.  I got two words for you  Nanking Massacre.  If you don't know what it is click on the link and find out.  You also need to know that in Japan they don't teach what happend during WW2 outside of what happend in Europe and that they were defeated.  This is more of Square Enix expanding their publishing portfolio.  Wargames is a London based team so I see nothing wrong with them making a WW2 game about the war in Europe.   With Six days in fallujah coming out maybe someone will have the guts to tell the story of Nanking one day."

Imperial Japan did pretty bad stuff to their occupied countries during WW2 days.  I don't think they will make a game based on it anytime soon.

I think you some of you may be missing the point I was trying to make, and admittedly, I may not have been as clear as I should have been when describing my hopes for a Japanese published WWII game.  I wouldn’t expect a game focused on Japanese war crimes during the war any more than I would anticipate any American game designer to create a game involving Viet Nam’s My Lai Massacre or the horrifying actions that took place at Abu Ghraib.  In fact, any game developer would have to be extremely careful and have stones the size of Buicks to take on that minefield of a task.  Even the mention of such a game mechanic would stir controversy not because it might be an admission of  American misdeeds during wartime, but because it would seem to minimize the suffering of the victims and lessen the injustice of the events.  However, I do believe it would be possible to tell some type of story of the Second World War from the Japanese view that perhaps spoke to other aspects of their mindset during the conflict.  A couple of years ago a companion film to Clint Eastwood’s WWII drama “Flags of Our Fathers” was made called “Letters from Iwo Jima” which detailed the battle from the Japanese viewpoint.  The film was produced and directed by Eastwood, Spielberg and other western film studios, but was based on Japanese eyewitness accounts of the battle as detailed through their correspondence and the facts of the battlefield.  While this example may seem to negate my insistence that the Japanese could create a WWII game set in the Pacific, I think it serves as proof that it is possible to tell a story of Japanese soldiers without having to directly address their war crimes.  Not every Japanese soldier was a war criminal just as not every German soldier was a member of the Hitler’s SS. Japanese troop movements through Malaya and into Singapore against British forces is one example of a scenario which could be explored.  Japanese advances into Burma and expeditions against Australia are others, not to mention countering American island hopping through the open Pacific.  I’m not calling for Square Enix to apologize for atrocities committed by Japanese forces during the war; I’m only saying it would be interesting if they made a game about WWII Pacific Theater.  I doubt it would address every aspect of Japanese occupation during the war, but I do think their attempt at any WWII game would be an intriguing exploration of how the Japanese view their place in history since that time.  The forth coming Konami/Atomic game “Six Days in Fallujah” will certainly create controversy, and how well the Japanese publisher deals with that subject matter should illustrate an ability to address sensitive topics.  I only ask that Japanese game developers turn their gaze inward and create something about their involvement during the Second World War.  Good or bad, I think I’d like to see what they’d come up with.

I always wondered why the Japanese have their heads shoved up westerners asses? I don't get it. If they want to make a game on WW2 based on the horror, and not glorify it or try to change the events for their own propaganda then they're free to do so.

OK, forget WW2 how about a game from China which shows the Korean war from their point of view? I can see stuff like this happening a lot in the near future, especially with the rise of Asian based powers, away from a western based viewpoint of the world.

The near future is going to be mighty interesting with some world powers rising and others declining.

There actually have been games in Japan that depict WWII from the Japanese perspective. In fact there is one fight sim game that shows a "what-if?" scenario in which the Japanese won the Battle of Midway.