Final Project Synopsis: Week 9

As everyone is beginning to corner down what they want to do for their final project, I've decided to do my final on what speaks to me the most; import games. Specifically my question of focus will be "What is the relationship between games & culture?" or even "How does culture influence games?".

The game I will be focusing on for my question is a Japanese import DS game called "Tokimeki Memorial Girl's Side 2nd Season". It is under an asian import exclusive genre called Otome. This genre is the most abundant in Japan, though there are some Korean games with Otome gameplay aspects as well. The goal of these games are to develop a relationship with one of the several chasable male characters. To do this you must perform certain actions, and choose specific response dialogues to raise your affection with your preferred character.

Having been playing exclusively import games in the last few years it isn't hard to put together why I prefer them over the games I could easily acquire in the United States. I was mainly lured in by the unique genres, and overall special stylization of the games, beyond just esthetic. To me the asian import games were more willing to take risks with obscure concept game designs, which is such a breath of fresh air compared to the many cookie-cutter games we have in the USA. The games were meant for a drastically opposite target audience, even more so a different culture all together. Which means a different set of cultural social norms & stereotypes to follow, which in turn largely influences the games we make and thus play. How this idea can be connected and applied to Tokimeki Memorial Girl's Side 2nd Season is what I will be exploring.

Now here's a short preview for the game Tokimeki Memorial Girl's Side 2nd Season.