Following our moderately good episode about games set in Britain earlier this year, we assemble a list of the 10 key games set in Japan. Did we get it wrong? Probably. Plus: a mini ‘What We’ve Been Playing’ episode about two recent download games we’ve been digging!
This week’s music is from the Persona 4 soundtrack by Shoji Meguro.
- Absolum
- Warhammer 40,000: Darktide
- Ball x Pit
Candidates
- Persona 4 ✅
- Persona 5 ❌
- Judgment ✅
- Yakuza 0 ❌
- The World Ends with You ✅
- Ghostwire: Tokyo ✅
- Paranormasight: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo❓
- Metropolis Street Racer ❓
- Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun ❓
- Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice ✅
- Promise Mascot Agency ✅
- Attack of the Friday Monsters! A Tokyo Tale ✅
- Emio – The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club ❓
- Hitman (2016), Hokkaido ❌
- Shenmue ✅
- 428: Shibuya Scramble ✅
- Street Fighter II: The World Warrior ❓ ➡️ ✅
- Tokyo Jungle ❌
- Pokémon Red Version and Pokémon Blue Version ❌
Top 10
- Persona 4
- Judgment
- The World Ends with You
- Ghostwire: Tokyo
- Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice
- Promise Mascot Agency
- Attack of the Friday Monsters! A Tokyo Tale
- Shenmue
- 428: Shibuya Scramble
- Street Fighter II: The World Warrior
Awards
Best restaurant or bar in a game
- Café Leblanc, Persona 5
Favorite Japanese location in a game
- Hokkaido, Hitman (2016)
- SegaWorld, Yakuza
Japanese location from a game you’d least like to live in
- Rogetsu Hall, Fatal Frame: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse
- Where the Guardian Ape lives, Sunken Valley Passage, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice
Location you’d most like to see turned into a real life themed cafe
- Chizuruya General Store, Silent Hill ƒ
- The Honeybee Inn, Final Fantasy VII Remake
The Demon-Encrusted Pagodas Award for Most Fanciful Japanese Period Setting
- Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice
- Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess
- Ōkami
Best Hybrid Japanese Setting or Places to have Big Japanese Energy
- World Marshal Inc. Headquarters, Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance
- Resident Evil (1996)
- Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney
- Konpeki Plaza, Cyberpunk 2077
- The Shinra Building, Final Fantasy VII
Game that most accurately captures your experience of Japan
- Majima in a bin, Yakuza Kiwami
- The Exit 8
Black Rain Award for Best Version of Japan made by a Western Studio
- Metropolis Street Racer
- Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun
- Assassin’s Creed Shadows
Best Japanese character
- all the old geezers in Like a Dragon / Infinite Wealth
- Yutaka Yamai, Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth
- Minoru Minorikawa, 428: Shibuya Scramble
- Goro Majima, Yakuza 0
- Daisaku Kuze, Yakuza 0
Worst Japanese character
- Gogandantess, Onimusha 2: Samurai’s Destiny
- Hideyoshi Toyotomi, Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams
- Issun, Ōkami
- Futaba Sakura, Persona 5
Celebrity performance or cameo of note
- Shuhei Yoshida, Promise Mascot Agency
- Ayumi Tanida, Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii
- Yūsaku Matsuda, Onimusha 2: Samurai’s Destiny
Japanese video game character you’d least like to be your significant other
- Lady Butterfly, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice
- Pinky*, Promise Mascot Agency
Japanese video game character you’d most like to be your significant other
- Chitose Fujinomiya, Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth
- Mia Fey, Ace Attorney