Japan is a developed country and several games are played for entertainment, and to get rid of lethargy. In this well-planned and analytical article, you get to know about the most popular games in Japan and why people love them so much. Games are very interesting to play. It is vibrant and satisfying when you play games for fun.
10. Kingdom hearts.
This is a video game commonly played in Japan. Kingdom Hearts was first published by Square Enix and it has gained ground in the country. The series games commence with Kingdom Hearts. It is an action role-playing game.
It has several platforms where it can be played. Some comprise PlayStation one to four, Mobile phones, Xbox one, Gameboy advanced and many others.
A 14-year-old boy labeled Sora is separated from Riku and Kairi who are his friends when their home Destiny Islands is consumed in darkness.
Sora procured a weapon called the Keyblade which allows him to fight the Heartless, creatures that originate from the Realm of Darkness, before ending up in another world. This is a quick breakdown of the game’s storyline. The game has a very good and interesting storyline that makes most Japanese love playing it.
9. Monster Hunter.
The game was first released in 2004 for PlayStation 2 until it became available on other gaming platforms. It is one of the popular games in Japan that people love to play. The game is fantasy-themed and it has a lot of action and role-playing features.
The game is highly realistic and delightful to play. The game is a Japanese media franchise and it is highly recognized by the masses for its easy gameplay feature and many other things.
The player of the game takes the position of a Hunter, slaughtering or imprisoning large monsters across various terrains as portions of quests given to them by citizens, with some quests which involve the gathering of items, which may result in the risk of facing various monsters.
As part of its basic gameplay hitch, players use loot attained from slaying monsters, gathering resources, and so on to create preferable weapons, armor, and other items that allow them to face more powerful monsters.
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8. Dragon quest.
Initially, the game was published as Dragon Warrior. Later on, the name was changed to Dragon quest. It was created by Yuji Horii. It is a franchise of Japanese role-playing video games.
It is published by Square Enix. Other works like novels, anime, and Manga have been published under this franchise. The game can be played on many platforms like PlayStation two, three and four, Xbox One, and mobile phones among others.
The game is full of action and it makes it satisfying. Traditional elements persist throughout the series and its spinoff games: turn-based combat; recurring monsters, including the Slime, which became the series’ mascot; a text-based menu system; and random encounters in most of the main series.
The basic premise of most Dragon Quest games is to play a hero who is out to protect the land from jeopardy at the hands of a dominant evil enemy, with the hero usually supported by a group of party members.
7. Final fantasy.
The game Final Fantasy is a video game and it is part of the most popular games in Japan that people enjoy playing. It was created by Hironobu Sakaguchi.
It is a Japanese anthology science fantasy media franchise. It is all about science and fantasy roleplaying games. The most interesting thing about the game is that it can be played on several platforms like Android and iOS, Playstation one to four, Xbox one and 360, and Microsoft Windows among others.
Final Fantasy installments are normally stand-alone stories or role-playing games, each with distinct settings, plans, and main characters, but the suffrage is linked by several recurring elements, including game mechanics and recurring character names.
Each plot revolves around a group of heroes who are battling a mammoth evil but also scrutinizes the characters’ innermost hard work and relationships.
6. Baba Niki.
This is a very old type of game played in Japan. Baba Niki is one of the most popular games in Japan that is widely known by most of the citizens of the country. It can be played by anyone. What matters is knowing how to play it. A very popular card game in Japan is Baba Nuki, also known as Old maid. It has very similar gameplay to the way it is played all over the world.
However, it is played differently in Japanese, instead of removing one of the Queens, one Joker is added to the deck, and the player left with it at the end is the loser. The simple nature of this game, and the strategy of allotting your cards to other players as they make their nominations of which card to pull, make it fun for kids and adults.
5. Daruma Otoshi.
This is a very common game amongst the Japanese and it is similar to Jenga or Pick-Up Sticks, the goal of Daruma Otoshi, like those other common Japanese games, is to remove pieces while leaving others intact. The game consists of a bunch of five colored pieces, with an inflicting head on top.
The purpose of the game is to take a wooden hammer and subtract pieces starting from below.
The game is quite technical and requires consistency. Players remove the hammer (which is used to attach the pieces in place as they are stacked), place it to match the table, and swipe sideways.
A turn is classified as successful when the bottom piece flies off while the others remain stacked. A turn is unsuccessful when the stack plunges over and the head hits the table. The game is a pastime and lively one. Kids can form groups to play among themselves.
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4. Kendama.
Kendama is a Japanese swirl in a cup and ball game. It is a traditional game that sets the Japanese version apart in that the “cup” piece is double-sided.
On the other side is another cup with a long handle, making a hammer shape. A ball is attached by a string, and the purpose of the game is to capture the ball in the cup. The cups are generally in different sizes, one an ozara, also known as a big cup, and the other a smaller cup, called a kozara.
The ken, or handle piece, has two different ends: one of the ends is where the ball is, which has a hole in it, and can be stored when not in use.
The other end has another cup, the chuzara. Kids can invent several games based on which cup they aim for and how they hold the ken. Because it’s rarely more sophisticated than other editions of this toy, it presents a lot of additional challenges and opportunities to try complicated maneuvers.
3. Pokémon.
This is a very popular video game in Japan. It is one of the most popular games in Japan and it is celebrated by the majority of the people who play it. The game is one of the most amazing games in Japan and most people derive fun from playing it.
Pokémon is the world’s largest media franchise, which has recorded numerous successes from movies, anime series, and merchandise.
It has another spin-off game, Pokémon Go. It crosses over a billion mobile downloads all over the world. As of November 2017, more than 300 million Pokémon games had been sold worldwide on handheld and home consoles, across 76 titles, including spin-offs. Even the spin-offs make more mammoth sales all over the world.
2. Janken.
Janken is also one of the most popular games in Japan and most people enjoy using it. It is quite common for other games played around the work by little kids. Janken is the Japanese version of Rock, Paper, Scissors.
Initially, the game is a very popular way of solving minor disputes. In comparison to the global version, the same hand signals are used. The only difference between them is the use of words. Rock is known as Guu, Scissors is known as Choki, and Paper is known as Paa.
However, there are variants in the way the game starts. The first common way is starting with two players chanting “Saisho was guu,” which translates to “First comes rock,” while moving their fists up and down in rhythm.
Second, instead of Rock, paper, scissors, shoot, it translates to the Japanese utterance “Jan-ken pon!” and on “pon,” and the players reveal their preference. If there is a draw, both players chant in pronunciation, “Ai-ko desho!” and try again at the mention of “sho.”
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1. Sudoku.
The game Sudoku dates back to the 19th century. It is a twist on classic magic square problems and how to solve them. Nevertheless, it didn’t originate in Japan but became very prominent in the country in 1984 when it was publicized in a Japanese magazine.
The name “Sudoku” is trademarked in Japan. The English meaning of the game is Number place. The game is quite feasible and very interesting.
Normally, in newspapers and puzzle books all over the world, players attempt to fill a 9×9 grid with numbers from 1 to 9, with varying degrees of difficulty. Most people find the game very difficult but it is delightful.
Conclusion.
The most popular games in Japan are very interesting and they range from childhood games to video games. The games are played for entertainment and to combat boredom.