Browsing by Subject "digitaalinen peli"

This thesis focuses on the localization of Japanese rhythm games in the United States and Europe. While the Western Guitar Hero and Rock Band rhythm game series enjoyed huge popularity among people around 2005–2010, the few Japanese rhythm games that were localized in the West during this period were, in general, not able to break through to mass appeal. This study’s aim is to shed light on the reasons why only few Japanese rhythm games have managed to get popular in the West. Concentrating on music used in these rhythm games localized from Japan, the study analyzes seven rhythm games’ localization strategy in regards to their decisions to either change the songs used in a game or to keep the original soundtrack unchanged. The study divides the used localization strategies into three categories: 1) fully localized, 2) partially localized, 3) not localized. The successfulness of the used localization strategy is then evaluated in relation to whether the rhythm game has received sequel localizations in the West. The second part of the study consists of analyses of three surveys aimed at the following three demographics: 1) Japanese Taiko no Tatsujin players, 2) Finnish digital game players, 3) Finnish anime/manga fans. The objectives of the three surveys were to get an understanding of people’s reasons to play rhythm games and what kind of music respondents wanted to be used in rhythm games. The study finds that the most successful localizations of Japanese rhythm games used lesser amount of localization for the rhythm game’s song list. The results from the two Finnish surveys also support this view. The three surveys also indicate that the music used in a rhythm game plays a key factor with original music composed specifically for the game gathering strong support across all three surveys. The thesis concludes with arguing that while the used music might not be the sole reason that decides the fate of a localized rhythm game, its importance should not be disregarded.